‘Well, there was no marker, no indication at all that there was anything here,’ Professor Williams says, clearly pleased by her interest. ‘All previous digs have been close to the crannog, or the monastery. This area is very boggy, and often underwater, not really suitable for a grave. Particularly if any grieving relatives would want to visit.’

‘Not someone with much of a family, then,’ says Dylan. He reaches out to pat Thistle, but the dog moves fractionally away from him, pressing against Tilda. He lets his hand drop.

‘That’s one possible explanation,’ the professor agrees. ‘Someone alone, with no one to contribute to the upkeep of a grave in the grounds of the monastery, perhaps. And yet it does seem a singularly odd choice of plot. Almost as if the person being buried was being pointedly kept at a distance from the inhabitants of the crannog. And from the monks and priests.’

‘So what made anyone decide to dig here now?’ Tilda steadies herself through another wave of giddiness.

‘Aah, well, you see, a very rare thing happened this year.’ He chuckles. ‘We had an exceptionally dry summer. There was a severe drought. The shoreline of the lake on this side receded by … oh, thirty yards or more. This phenomenon coincided with a field trip for students from Lancaster University—they were visiting the crannog—and one eagle-eyed young man noticed something unusual about the newly exposed area of land. Exceptionally bright student. He’s leading the dig now. That’s him over there … Lucas Freyn.’ The professor employs his stick as a pointer this time.

Tilda sees a tall, wiry young man, dressed against the cold, talking in an animated manner with his colleagues.

‘If there’s anything more you want to know about the find,’ says the professor, ‘he’s your man. I’m sure he’d be delighted to talk to you.’

As they watch, the group turns away from their precious excavation and begins to move back toward the tent. The professor hails them.

‘Lucas! Molly! There is someone here who would very much like to meet you.’

When Lucas lets his gaze fall on Tilda as he shakes her hand, she has the distinct impression she is being studied rather than stared at, as if she, too, were an unexpected find. Introductions are made, during which Tilda learns that the pair are both working on their doctorates at the university, that Molly is married and has left her two small children at home with her husband in order to be part of the dig, and that Lucas is every bit as passionate about the find as the professor. She does her best to take in everything she is being told, but she is feeling increasingly unwell. She is aware of Professor Williams explaining, somewhat sketchily, her interest in the history of the lake, but his voice is growing distant, and her legs feel in danger of buckling beneath her.