Making her way to the fridge, she extracted a half-full bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and poured herself a glass, then set about preparing her supper – a bagged salad accompanied by the finest oven-ready cannelloni the Waitrose reduced shelf had to offer.

Padding back into the living room, she flipped open her laptop and flicked through her emails. Within a couple of minutes she’d found what she was looking for. She clicked the link and it took her thorough to the property web pages. There it was – her house – or at least that’s what she was intending it should be. It wasn’t anything fancy – a three-bedroom ex-local authority semi. What Stephen would have made of it, heaven only knows. But it had good-sized rooms, a lovely big back garden and best of all it was in her beloved Marlborough Downs.

Despite the traumas she’d undergone while she was digging at Hungerbourne, her time there had reminded her how much she loved the softly undulating hills and wide open skies of the Downs. It was where she’d rediscovered her passion for the past, and where too she’d taken the first steps towards rebuilding her life and embarking on a career in archaeology.

She’d put an offer in on the house a few weeks ago. With the capital she’d scraped together from selling her few remaining assets and her salary from the Hart Unit, she’d worked out that she should just about be able to afford it. She might have to rent a room out but if that’s what it took then so be it.

She looked around her at the familiar walls of her rented flat. It had served her well over the last couple of years. And she’d done her best to make it feel welcoming, but somehow it had never really felt like home. She was ready to move on now. Buying her own place felt like a statement of intent. It would be the first home she’d ever bought and paid for herself. She’d gone straight from her mum’s council house in Chelmsford to university and then to life with Stephen. But this one would be different; she was finally going to have a home of her own. And finally, too, she felt as if she was in charge of her own destiny – shaping her own life, rather than letting others shape it for her.