The Rings of Poseidon (4 page)

"Right," he continued, "stuff your whatnots
in behind the boxes and mind the tray of loaves. You'll have to
climb in as best you can on top of the bags, because I can only
squeeze Frank and Alan in the front."

There was some giggling and much laughter as
the four scrambled amongst their belongings. It was so squashed in
the front when Alan and Frank had crowded in that Steve could
barely drive.

"Do you want me to join the others in the
back? asked Alan.

"It's not far and the road's quiet," said
Steve.

"We'll make it okay," added Frank. "I've been
further in trucks more loaded than this."

As the Landrover turned into the lower field,
they were surprised to find that there was already a tent up by the
caravans and by this time two girls in their early twenties had
joined the workers at the excavations.

Alicia strolled over to meet the newcomers,
glad that the grass was, for a change, dry underfoot. She
introduced herself while they were unloading.

"You must be Frank Baxter," she said holding
out her hand.

"Right. And you'll be the boss," answered
Frank, taking the proffered hand in his big, hairy fist. "Is it OK.
with you if I drop my things off in the caravan space you've got
for me, before I make a start on whatever you've got lined up?"

"Of course," said Alicia, "but who on earth
are all these? I recognise Alan Wainwright of course, but ... the
rest?"

"Ah well, " said Steve, emerging from the
driver's seat of the Landrover to unload, "you've got yourself some
more volunteer labour."

"Yep," chimed in Frank, "Four members of the
Orkneys Archaeological Society."

"Really? Every bit of help is welcome." She
glanced across to the digging. "You possibly know the two girls
from Kirkwall, then. They're here on holiday. Well, you'd better
unload your things and unpack your tent or whatever. You can put it
next to the other tent." she turned to Frank. "There's a room for
you and for Alan in the caravan on the right. If you wouldn't mind
giving Steve a hand with the unloading after you've straightened
out your things we can all take a break."

"Sounds fine by me." said Frank amiably, and
added to Steve, "I'll be right with you."

The American was only seconds inside the
caravan, or so it seemed, before he was out again and helping Steve
to unload. Once everything was stored appropriately, they turned
their attention briefly to the four volunteers. With continued
laughter and more giggling, two more tents were put up alongside
the first. Steve surprised the gigglers, and to some extent Frank
as well, by rigging up an extension cable which not only lit up the
area between the two caravans, but also provided a light inside
each tent.

"It will go off when I turn the main lights
off and you won't have any control of it in the tents, but it's
light," he told them.

"It's beginning to look like a gold-rush boom
town, " said Frank, "but where's this drink or whatever they're
going to have when they take a break?"

"I'll get right onto that," said Steve. "You
may as well go over, take a look at the holes in the ground and get
your orders from Alicia."

Alicia felt as if she were in charge of a dig
of some importance, and wouldn't have thanked Steve for his remarks
about 'holes in the ground', had she heard. Her own team was
complete, in addition to which there was a team of three adults who
seemed to know what they were doing, engaged by the university to
do the labouring, the two female volunteers who had been on Hoy
doing some work of their own prior to turning up at the site and
the four who had come over on the ferry with Frank and Alan. There
was a prospect of getting more work done and with the general air
of business she felt less resentful towards the whole
assignment.

"If Gill and Manjy and two of the volunteers
continue to look for an entrance - just continue the trench along
this wall," she jabbed at an aerial photograph, "Andy with Jamie
and Thomas can take two more of the volunteers. If you start by
taking a trench across here," she jabbed again at the aerial photo,
"we can see whether or not this is the outline of a house. The
third team can consist of Frank, Alan and the other two volunteers.
I want to talk first to Frank about the general lie of the land,
but the team can continue the trench inwards and see whether or not
there is a passageway. We'll have one long session until around six
o'clock then stop for food. If we go steadily without rushing we
should get a lot done."

Alicia watched with some pleasure as her gang
trooped across the field to the dig, and settled down to work
according to her directions and according to good archaeological
practice.

"Do you want me to dig for a while?" asked
Steve. "I've unpacked your computer, the power line from the farm
is in place and there's no other work for me in the next hour or
so, before I start to get something ready to eat."

"The vehicles have been serviced, have they?"
Alicia wanted to know.

"Well they've been checked over. They don't
need any servicing. All in order. And the generator," answered
Steve.

"Then by all means lend a hand with the
digging. Join Gill and Manjy, they're a bit light on men in their
team," said Alicia, beckoning to Frank to join her in the
cabin.

"Right."

Alicia eyed Frank cautiously. "You're a
Doctorate Degree student from the University of Houston?" she
asked.

"Sure thing. I've spent the last couple of
years on digs involved with Mayan remains and I'm a specialist on
their obsession with the calendar and the movements of Mars and
Venus. I'm no expert on Bronze Age Britain, I'm only here for the
change and the experience. And to see what sort of interest there
was in the heavens here, because you cover roughly the same period
as the pre-Mayan era. You're in charge of this one and you're
giving the orders," he added, grinning.

Alicia was treating him with some deference
nevertheless, and wondered whether she would show the the same
deference to another woman or another black. She drew her attention
back to the job in hand and showed him the aerial photographs of
the site. Frank agreed with her, though he would have accepted her
word anyway, for he meant it when he said she was giving the
orders. After all, it was to be her report which would pass or fail
her degree. She watched him striding cheerfully across the rough
grass to join Alan Wainwright.

Alicia stayed behind in the 'office' for a
few moments. The computer looked to be hooked up properly, but she
didn't bother turning it on yet: time enough when there was
something to enter. It crossed her mind that either Steve knew
about the subject or his instinct for things mechanical was
considerable. The little box of CDs was on the table alongside the
machine, so she flipped it open and gave a passing glance. The
three programme CDs were back-up copies, for emergency only, but
there were plenty of blanks for the data. "I hope we'll have plenty
of data to put on them!" she thought, and flipped the lid down.

She picked up the aerial photographs again,
but didn't really see them. In fact she was not seeing the
Portacabin or the remains turned up so far either, nor was she
seeing the other scant furnishings of the cabin. Alicia was
thinking of her parents in a Birmingham backstreet and of the
various friends and acquaintances she had made and lost along the
way through school and university. Many of her friends at school
now had dead end jobs or families or no jobs at all. She couldn't
help thinking of the old saying that the further you climb the
further you have to fall - and she had climbed a long way from
those backstreets. Still, in spite of what she had said to
Professor Harrington she felt in charge and confident. When he
called in to see how things were going, he would be impressed.

Alicia shook herself from her day dreams, got
up from the desk, left the cabin and walked after Frank, who was
already watching Jamie and Andy.

"You know," said Jamie in a burst of unusual
chattiness, "I think this is a house, but the roof's collapsed.
Well, the middle of it. And some of these stones show signs of a
fire."

"Do they now?" remarked Frank, staring at the
place indicated by Jamie. "It's only the top one. Perhaps it's a
chimney."

"It's no' a chimney, there's no' enough soot.
They just look a bit burnt is all."

"You're mebbe right," said Frank. "I'd better
get Alicia over here before we disturb anything, but it seems to me
this room may have been destroyed by fire."

"Aye? Well, that's one canny woman."

Alicia had reached the site by this time and
Frank climbed out of the hole to call her.

When she examined the excavation she agreed
with Jamie that there was some evidence of burning.

"They seem to have used whalebone to support
roofs at Scara Brae, but perhaps the builders here used wood to
support the roof," she mused, looking long and hard at the
stones.

"There would have been a chimney," she said,
"but these stones have been exposed to a short period of heat
rather than a long period of smoke."

She straightened up. "There's been some
collapsing of roof stones and there are faint indications that
there was a fire. I think the best thing is to expose the roof
stones and see the extent of damage, and then dig carefully down
and see what's left of what was in the room."

"Seems like you were right Jamie," Frank
remarked when Alicia had gone.

"Aye. Maybe so," responded Jamie.

"Keep at it carefully," said Frank "You've
every reason to be pleased with the day's work, but we don't want
to miss any clue there might be. At least we know that this home
wasn't given up voluntarily," he added.

At the end of the day Alicia told the others
about this piece of evidence and what it appeared to mean for the
history of the village.

"Of course," Alicia told her diggers, "you
can't jump to any conclusions from just one building or one set of
evidence, but it does look as if this was a village of some size
and that life here ended violently. What we don't know yet, of
course, is whether that violence was accidental or deliberate and
whether, if deliberate, an outside agency of some sort was
involved."

"I presume that we're digging at the moment
through sand that has blown in through the centuries." Alan
remarked.

"I'd expect you to come across charred
remains of anything flammable in the roof as the next significant
remains," Frank told him by way of answer, with a quick glance at
Alicia.

"Grub up!" interrupted Steve, and the group
as one person trooped over to where he had been making supper.

There was no shortage of help when it came to
serving , but a distinct lack of volunteers to help him wash
up.

"Do you want to take your own pictures
to-day?" Steve asked Alicia quietly when a rota had been drawn up
for the dish-washing. "or do you want me to take them as
usual?"

"I'll let you do the close ups," said Alicia,
"but I'll come with you when you do and point out what I want
taken. I think from now on we'll take pictures as soon as there's
anything to record."

Steve nodded his agreement.

Much later Gill walked by herself on the
sands, watching the waves break on the beach below the dunes. She
thought about the happiness in her life and about the foolishness
that had led her to think that all happiness was gone for good. She
had been very happy with him, and of course his going had left her
life empty and her alone - but had it justified an overdose? Gill
had only asked herself this question in the last few months and,
when she did, she couldn't escape the fact that it hadn't. Now, in
retrospect, she felt a bit of a fool over what she had tried so
hard to do.

"Penny for your thoughts," said a voice. It
was Steve who had come upon her while she was lost in thought.

"You startled me! I wasn't thinking anything
worthwhile. I was just wondering why I ever thought it was worth
it."

"Whether what was worth it?"

"Whether it was worth trying to kill myself
because my life seemed empty and worthless when he left," answered
Gill, after a pause to think about the question.

"No one's worth that much," remarked Steve.
There was a long silence, broken only by the breaking of waves on
the beach. Finally he asked her, "Didn't you have any happy
memories?"

"Oh yes," said Gill, smiling at her thoughts,
"I had lots. We were happy together and it was the happy memories I
couldn't take."

"Well you should try not having happy
memories to look back on," he said wryly. "When I lay awake in
prison I could only think back on fights on the football terraces.
Fights aren't exactly restful, happy memories."

"No," admitted Gill. "They aren't are they? I
suppose you think I've been a bit of a fool. Most people do." she
added.

"I think I've been a bit of a fool," he said,
without answering her question one way or the other. There was
another silence, then he continued, "Would you go back to him
now?"

Gill thought about this for a moment, then
shook her head. "I don't think there was ever any going back once
he'd left me and I wouldn't want him back now." She paused. "No,"
she added, then said, "And you. Do you want to fight on the
football terraces again.?"

Steve laughed. "No chance," he said.

Again there was a silence broken only by the
sound of the sea on the shingly beach. Gill broke it by asking,
"How did you get involved in the fighting?"

When he didn't answer straight away, Gill
wondered whether he was about to 'clam up' on her.

"Drink and the wrong company, I think," he
said at last.