There were a few jet beads, and some metal strap ends, one – delightfully – shaped like an owl. There were two tiny keys, and several fragments of richly coloured glass, amethyst purple and peacock blue, a few stones used to weigh spindles, a handful of pins, and part of a comb. The comb was quite a complicated thing, constructed from several pieces neatly joined and plugged together. It might have once been white but was now a grubby yellowish grey, with a pattern of faint vertical scratches running along it.

‘Is that ivory?’ Nell asked.

‘Animal bone.’

‘Gross,’ said Maude.

‘Clever, though.’ Nell looked closer. ‘They’ve had to make little bone pegs to hold it all in place. They’ve even decorated it.’ The scratches weren’t random, they were closely bundled together, purposeful.

‘Those are runes,’ said Gina. ‘There’s a translation next to it. And it’s probably the oldest piece in the whole display.’

From the private collection of Dr F. E. Bishop.

Uncovered in Bishops Yard circa 1885

The typewritten label was held in place by yellowing Sellotape.

‘Why would people chuck this stuff out?’ asked Maude.

‘Why do people chuck stuff out now?’ said Gina. ‘Because it’s broken, or they don’t need it anymore; or it’s lost, maybe, swept up by accident when someone was cleaning out the kitchen.’

‘Hidden?’

‘Could be. Though I wouldn’t like to hide anything I treasured in a rubbish bin, would you? Getting it back again would be – messy.’

‘Yuck.’ Maude walked around the cabinet, leaning forward to read the typed labels. ‘Why did they want to go digging around in a rubbish dump?’

‘Good question. I think they thought it might tell them about life in the abbey. They weren’t proper archaeologists, but they were educated, interested.’

‘Dr Bishop,’ said Maude, ‘of Bishops Yard.’

‘Careful,’ said Nell as Maude leant forward onto a cabinet, pressing her fingertips against the glass.

‘Oh, she’s fine, aren’t you?’ said Gina.

Maude smiled briefly in response, shifting her rucksack onto her shoulder. Inside the bag was the box, and inside the box was the shoe. Nell was obscurely disappointed that no one was willing to take it off their hands; she had half expected they might leave it in the care of the museum. She didn’t really want to take it back to the house.

‘I’m hungry,’ said Maude, once they were back outside in the watery sunshine.

‘You’re always hungry,’ said Nell.

‘Doesn’t mean it’s not true.’

‘We could get a snack, I suppose,’ said Nell. She pointed to the street beyond the boundary of the park. ‘There used to be a bakery up there. We could take a look, if you like?’

‘OK.’

‘We could call in at the letting agents too, show them what they’ve got on their hands.’ Trying to make it sound normal, just another errand.