Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,80

in hand here. I shall make suitable excuses and have a footman fetch you before the fish arrives. I dare say we shall cope without you.’

‘Well, if you are sure...’ She stood, intending to slip out quietly, but as soon as she did, every other gentleman around the table immediately stood, too. Then Percy appeared behind her and pulled out her chair, then offered her his arm.

‘They will only be a moment.’ Eleanor waved their unconventional departure away and ushered them all to sit. ‘Tell me, Lord Denby, what kindled your interest in antiquity?’

Lord Pompous was only too pleased to answer, allowing the pair of them to leave without the slightest objection, but as Effie walked through the door on Percy’s pudgy arm, she could feel Max’s eyes boring into her back. She turned and there they were. Dark, intense and swirling with an emotion she could not decipher, but which thrilled her nevertheless.

* * *

‘Could it be part of a quernstone?’ Percy was running the flat of his hand over the fragment of obviously carved, curved sandstone she had pondered since she had dug it up a few days before she had found the pot and just a few scant inches from the hearth. He was in no hurry to leave the library despite the other two gentlemen being obviously ready to move on to the port because, thanks to Max, it was Effie who was holding court.

‘I suppose it could be...’ She stared at the object as he examined it, taking in the worn narrow grooves on the flat side. ‘It certainly has the look of something which could grind grain into flour... If it is, of course, it entirely contradicts Dio’s accounts of the tribal Celts as hunter-gathers.’

‘Indeed it does. Because this would suggest they grew crops rather than gathered. And were savvy enough to be able to make bread.’

‘I believe they reared animals, too—rather than hunted.’ She was enjoying discussing things with Percy, whose knowledge was gloriously extensive and his mind quick enough to keep pace with hers most of the time.

‘As if such a thing could be effectively proved,’ Lord Denby scoffed from his throne in the corner, having made sure he took the largest and grandest chair in the library the second they had entered the room as a mark of protest, no doubt, for Max’s lack of deference earlier.

‘Actually, my lord, I believe I... We...’ her gaze automatically flicked to Max, who nodded his encouragement as if she had not just slipped up and excluded him from the discovery while she had been waxing lyrical all on her own for at least half an hour ‘...we have found evidence of pastoral farming.’

Effie hurried to the stewed bones she had placed in a labelled leather pouch and gently tipped them on the table. ‘We found these by the hearth alongside some shards of pottery, so have to assume they are the remnants of a meal. The last meal they ate at the round house, else why would it have been there? Although that beggars the question as to why they left in such a hurry. An attack, perhaps? Herodian, Dio and Tacitus commented on the bloodthirsty nature of the tribal fighting. If a rival invaded their land, won the battle and then destroyed the houses, then any survivors would have been forced to flee. Unless there were no survivors...’

There were so many possibilities, all racing through her mind as she briskly considered the merits of each.

‘Or perhaps an epidemic ravaged the settlement? If whole villages were abandoned and disappeared as a result of the Black Death in the fourteenth century, it is entirely conceivable similar things happened many times beforehand, too. It is not as if they chronicled their history like the Roman scholars attempted to do. I have found no evidence of the existence of any written language...’

She was being too intelligent. Too peculiar. Her odd mind jumping ahead much too fast because Max was there and she couldn’t seem to stop herself lapsing into her true self around him and Percy also made her feel comfortable. ‘Anyway...’ she smiled at the beaming academic as she focused back on the contents of the table ‘...these here are definitely chicken bones and I believe these