She’d never met the man, but from the bare facts she’d gleaned from Clare, it seemed to Margaret that marrying Stephen had been a mistake of massive proportions. He appeared to have been a man who had entirely disregarded the passions and potential of the woman he’d claimed to love in order to make his own life more comfortable. Such behaviour was quite simply unforgivable; a waste of talent and of a large part of her young friend’s life. She would never say as much to Clare, but Stephen exiting her life was the best thing that could have happened to her. It was only regrettable that it had been in a manner that had caused her so much pain – both emotional and pecuniary.

‘The thing is, Margaret, I’d really value your advice, but I’d rather David didn’t know about our discussion.’

Margaret eyed her warily. ‘Well, that rather depends on what you want to ask me. I can’t make any promises, Clare, but I’m willing to listen.’ Clare hesitated. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake. You know I would never tell David unless it’s something illegal or risks life and limb.’ Clare just looked at her. ‘You’re starting to make me nervous. What on earth is it? I promise I won’t tell him.’

The worry was only too clear to read on her young friend’s face.

‘Alright, I promise I won’t say a word to David. Just tell me what’s happened.’

Clare took in a deep breath. Margaret could see she was nervous. ‘OK. Well, we’ve found a whole series of quite sizable pits on-site that Beth and her team hadn’t spotted before the site was closed down.’

Margaret said, ‘I grant you that’s a little troubling and I’d always assumed that Beth was a better excavator than that, but sadly archaeologists who display more talent in the lecture theatre than in running an excavation are not unheard of.’

Clare looked down at her feet. ‘That’s not the problem, Margaret. I wish it was. We’ve got almost all of Beth’s old dig team working with us and from what I’ve seen so far, they’re a pretty decent bunch of diggers. Even if Beth had missed something I’m not convinced they would, and the only things we’ve found in those pits are a couple of bits of modern rubbish.’

Margaret was starting to understand why her young friend was so anxious. ‘I’m not sure I like where this is heading, Clare. Are you telling me those pits were dug after Beth’s team stopped digging on-site?’

Clare nodded. ‘It gets worse, Margaret.’