Smiling slightly at the fanciful nature of her thoughts, Lucy turned down the lane to Gunpowder Cottage. Now that she had seen the eighteenth-century map she could visualize much more easily how it had been a part of a bigger manor house set about a courtyard, and how over time parts of that house would have been demolished to leave the core of the cottage that was there today.

The sun beat down through the dancing leaves, dazzling her. Lucy felt hot and a little bit dizzy again. She was going to have to be so careful until she was better, which was infuriating.

She could hear voices from the garden of Gunpowder Cottage and on impulse turned aside from the path down to the barn, thinking she should take the opportunity finally to thank Finn for all the food he had left for her on her first day as well as pass on Verity’s message about the pit that the builders had found beneath the barn conversion.

She paused with her hand on the cottage gate, almost changing her mind when she saw that Finn, who was sitting in a striped deck chair, a beer in his hand, was deep in conversation with a couple of people and looked as though he wouldn’t want to be interrupted. One of his companions was the young man of about nineteen or twenty whom she’d seen before, working on the dig, and the other was Persis. Presumably she had popped down with Lucy’s delivery and dropped in for a drink as well; she looked rather at home curled up on the swing seat.

Geoffrey was chasing shadows and snuffling after scents in the flower beds, but he looked up, saw Lucy and gave a delighted yip, rushing across the garden to stick his nose through the gate. Finn looked across and smiled.

“Hi, Lucy,” he said. “How are you doing?”

“Oh...” Lucy felt hot and bothered, more by the smile than the heat now. “I’m fine, thanks. I just popped by to say thank you for the food you left me last weekend. It was really nice of you.”

“No problem.” Finn had come to join Geoffrey at the gate. “How have you been getting on at the barn?”

“It’s been lovely,” Lucy said. “I haven’t done much, just reading and sitting around. I’ve seen you and Geoffrey working hard, though—” She stopped, thinking that sounded as though she’d been spying on them, but Finn just laughed.

“Yeah,” he said, “there’s a lot to do now we’ve started expanding on the test pits. There’s only Johnny and me working on it full-time, although we do have a few other experts we can call on if needed.” He glanced over his shoulder as the young man who’d been sitting on the terrace, hearing his name, came over to join them. “Johnny,” he said, “this is Lucy Brown, Verity’s niece. She’s staying at the barn. Lucy, Johnny Robsart.”

“Hi, Lucy!” Johnny Robsart stuck out a hand to shake hers formally. He glanced briefly over her shoulder, as though his attention had been distracted by someone else standing there, an odd gesture that had Lucy looking behind her, but when she turned back Johnny was smiling at her and she wondered if she had imagined it.