Jo acquiesced to her suggestion readily enough. And after a few hours of channelling her energies into the archaeology, Clare had calmed down sufficiently to regret being so short with both her dig team and Jo. Glancing at her watch, she was just about to climb to her feet and call a tea break when her trowel struck something solid in the pit she was excavating. A few small scraps of what looked to the untrained eye like dog biscuit in the plastic seed tray that lay beside her attested to the presence of prehistoric pottery in the top of the pit. So she was hopeful that this one might turn out to be ancient rather than the product of their ‘friend’ from the Crickley car park.

It took a few minutes of careful trowelling before she’d scraped away enough of the crumbling black earth to reveal a metal object about three inches across. On first glance it resembled a small bracelet. She lifted it, carefully placing it into the palm of her hand, and began to gently brush away the loose soil with her fingers. As she did so she could see the giveaway green colouration that told her it was made of some sort of copper alloy. But set into its surface were a series of interlinked spirals and swirls, much like the ones she’d seen on the La Tène sword. But these were inlaid with red and blue enamel.

She was sitting on her heels admiring the exquisite craftsmanship when a shadow fell across her, blocking out the afternoon sunshine.

‘What you got there?’

She looked up to see Crabby leaning over the section edge. She smiled. Despite David’s misgivings, over the last few weeks Crabby had become a regular visitor to the dig site. She’d begun to look forward to his visits. If truth be told, she rather envied his ability to believe in a myriad of possibilities that most of humanity dismissed as nonsense.

She lifted her hand up to show him. ‘It’s a terret ring.’

‘A what?’

‘A piece from a horse harness to you and me. But this one’s Iron Age.’

Crabby’s eyes lit up.

Clare stood up to let him get a better look and Jo came over to join them. ‘Hi, Crabby. Wow, that’s gorgeous.’

As the three of them stood admiring the find, Malcolm suddenly let out a shout. ‘I’ve got another one.’

Clare said, ‘Another terret ring?’

‘No, another baby burial.’

Clare and Jo looked at one another.

Crabby’s gaze flitted between Malcolm and Clare. ‘Another one? You didn’t say you’d found a burial.’

‘We only had the first one confirmed a couple of hours ago, Crabby,’ Clare said defensively.

There was something about his tone that was making her nervous. Why couldn’t Malcolm have waited until the tea break to make his announcement?