Sara's Child (26 page)

“Yes…yes…just thinking about jobs I need to do - sorry, Neirin.”

“Are we going to the library today - June is coming in to read the story and she’s really funny?” His smile lights up his face and give his brown eyes, Cade’s eyes, a warm glow.

“Are you sure, Neirin - I thought June was on holiday?”

“That was last week, mum,” her young son informs her patiently.

“Really…?” Shenna frowns contemplating the disappearance of so much time.
Has it really been two weeks since Ryan Tempest darkened my door?
“No problem, we’ll go for a walk first and then go to the library - we’ll be a bit early for story-time but we can read together for a while.” Her smile is warm and loving; Shenna likes nothing more than spending time with her son. Neirin is so grown up for his age; an unusually serious young man, he just loves to learn.

“Ok,” he readily agrees and concentrates on finishing his cereal and milk.

When they step out of the cottage a short time later, Shenna is glad she told Neirin to put his woolly hat and scarf on.

“It’s not as warm as it looks,” she turns to her son watching him pull on his gloves, “the sun is cold, yet.”

“Hmm,” Neirin murmurs as he takes his mum’s hand, “but it won’t snow again.”

Frowning, Shenna contemplates her son’s firm conviction. “What makes you say that - did Cyril whisper in your ear when you last gave him some peanuts.”

Giving a low giggle, Neirin looks up at his mum and gives a shake of his head. “Squirrels can’t talk, you know that,” he tells her and swings both their hands up and back in the air playfully.

“So, how do you know it won’t snow again this year?”

Shenna finds herself holding her breath waiting for his answer.

“Daddy told me,” Neirin smiles up at his mum. “He said I would be able to play out more now that the snow has disappeared and wouldn’t be back again.”

Oh, heck! I knew it. Just let it go, Shenna - just distract him and get his thoughts channelled elsewhere! If you can’t do that you have no business calling yourself a teacher!

“Well, let’s make the most of this weather and head through here,” and indicated a narrow trail that the inexperienced walker might miss.

The ground was a mulch of thawed out soil and decaying leaves but there were visible fresh animal tracks ahead of them.

“What do you think made those?” she asks Neirin, who promptly crouches down to get a better look.

“I’m not sure,” he tips his head up to look at her, “something bigger than Cyril but not as big as a deer.”

“That’s very good,” she beams a smile of approval and takes his hand when he stands up again. “Can you think of any of your other animal friends that might fit into that category?”

Neirin shakes his head and frowns. “Only the badgers, but they don’t live on this side of the river.”

“Actually, I think you might be right,” she crouches down next to the next lot of clear paw prints. “I think there might be a new badger’s set somewhere around here - new neighbour for the river bank badgers.”

Neirin looks up at his mum wide-eyed. “Can we look for them, mummy - can we see if we can find their home?”

But Shenna shakes her head with a sad smile. “We’ll definitely come back another day and see if we can follow the trail to their home - but if we don’t make our way back soon we’ll miss story time with June.”

His little face looks torn. On the one hand he loves to hear June read stories at the Library - she makes them all laugh and sometimes makes them jump at the scary bits - but this could be a whole new family of badgers that have moved in on their side of the river.

“The badgers will still be here this afternoon,” she tells him when he only stands looking in the direction the little footprints lead. “If you work hard on your sums and your drawing I’ll bring you back for an hour then. Ok?”

His huge smile is all the encouragement Shenna needs as Neirin retakes her hand and almost pulls her back along the track in a hurry now to get to the library.

As they near the cottage they both turn at the sound of raised voices coming from the clearing.

A woman is shouting the odds at a group of younger people carrying various packages from a modest four-by-four to a port-a-cabin. However, when she spies Shenna and Neirin watching, her manner abruptly changes.

Shenna takes Neirin to the car and straps him in to his seat. When she turns the woman from the clearing has made her way over and is almost to the car.

“I’m so sorry if we disturbed you,” the woman holds out a hand to Shenna and gives a smile that doesn’t reach her cold blue eyes, “I’m Felicity, I’m helping to head up this dig and we’re just getting supplies and other essentials transported in.” With a flick of her head towards the dig site, Felicity barely hides a snarl. “We seem to have been landed with a raw crew - they have no idea about archaeology and are probably hoping for an exciting adventure to talk about over a drink back home - but they’ve got another think coming.”

Poor kids! Maybe they are looking for a bit of excitement along the way but where’s the harm in that!

“They sound young, full of beans,” Shenna gives a placatory smile, “but youngsters willing to work for no pay are usually eager to learn, or why would they do it?”

Felicity doesn’t answer, just giving a dismissive grunt instead. “I’ll tell them to keep the noise down,” she snaps and strides away

They get to the Library in plenty of time and read quietly together while they wait for the story corner to set up.

“Hey, good to see you,” Gail grins enthusiastically. Tommy sits by Neirin and they look at books together.

“How’s the home tutoring going,” Shenna asks looking at Tommy then back to Gail. “He certainly looks happier.”

“Oh, he is,” Gail smiles dotingly at her son, “it seems to suit him much better. We still have lots of contact with other children and the schedule we’ve worked out lets us do lots of other activities - like this,” and she waves a hand over to the story corner and the growing number of children gathering there with their parents. “And he loves the rambles in the forest you do with them - I don’t think he even thinks of it as learning, he just has fun and doesn’t realise how much knowledge he’s taking in at the same time.”

“Then I’m doing my job right,” Shenna smiles, pleased to hear that her teaching in the forest is going over well, “children learn far more if they’re having fun while doing it.”

I really do have a great life…thanks to your thoughtfulness, Cade.

“Hi.” Juliette ushers her sons over to the other children sitting cross-legged on the floor then comes back to sit with Gail and Shenna. “How’s the dig going,” she asks Shenna and raises her eyebrows when Shenna frowns.

“Mostly I hardly know they’re there,” she tells them.

“But…,” Juliette persists.

“Well, Neirin and I were out in the woods when we heard a lot of shouting and couldn’t help but watch to see what all the ruckus was about.” Her frown deepens with remembering. “I got Neirin strapped into his car-seat and had just closed the door when I realised a woman from the dig had come over. She’s a piece of work,” Shenna recalls the lovely looking woman’s face twisting into an ugly sneer. “She made out like she was apologising for the youngsters being so noisy - youngsters she can’t stand…by the way - yet she was the one we had heard doing the yelling.” Shenna looks at the other two women, “I really don’t think I’m going to like having her for a neighbour - let’s hope this dig doesn’t take long.”

“Is her name Felicity Mayfield?” Gail asks her eyes narrowing with curiosity.

“She just introduced herself as Felicity, so I think there’s a good chance it is - why?”

“Well, she’s almost as big as Ryan Tempest in archaeology circles,” Gail informs them, “which begs the question, why is she even here?”

“You seem remarkably well informed,” Juliette laughs at Gail’s gossipy inflection, “why do you think she’s here?”

“Ah, well, rumour has it that she has the hots for Mr Tempest - they have done other digs together but more-so in the last couple of years.” Gail sits back with a self-congratulatory smile.

“Hmm, well that could be a good thing,” Shenna muses then continues when she sees both her friends confused faces. “It’ll keep him out of my hair.”
If not my dreams…but you don’t need to know about that!

The dig site is virtually set to start actual digging. Ryan Tempest has had a smaller port-a-cabin delivered at his own expense to act as a visitors centre. The more he’d thought about the idea the more he thought it was a good one and deserved to be done properly.

“Sadie, Roz,” he calls out to a couple of the students, “have you got the box with the display artefacts in?” When they confirm that they have he asks them to take it into the allotted visitors centre. “Just set them out however you think best - label each piece so that visitors will know what they’re looking at then tell me when you’ve finished.”

The two girls give a smiling nod and a wave then go off to do his bidding.

There are two larger port-a-cabins, both set into the trees at odd angles to fit in without damaging the surroundings. One is used for female sleeping quarters and as a basic lab for cleaning and cataloguing any finds. The second acts as male sleeping quarters and as the main office. Both have basic wash facilities and lighting powered by a generator. They even have separate port-a-loos for males and females next to them.

When Ryan enters the office he finds Felicity going through some of the paperwork checking off site inventory for tools and supplies.

“Anything not arrived?” he asks when the leggy blonde looks up at him with a frown.

“We’re still waiting on some of the tools, but nothing we can’t make a start without,” she tells him then stands and places a hand on his arm, enjoying the feel of his innate strength. “You’ve been gone a long time, any problems on the money end?”

“Not now,” Ryan turns to look at the woman who has been his lover on and off over the last five or six years and actually feels himself cringe away from her touch, “I had to do the dance with our backers, laying out the basic costs and benefits to them as named benefactors.”

Sliding her hand up and down his arm, Felicity moves closer. “Poor you, it can be tedious pandering to the money men but we couldn’t do what we do without them.”

Not wanting to give her any invitation, Ryan moves away from her touch ostensibly to pick up more paperwork. “I’m surprised the visitors centre wasn’t set up while I was away - you’ve had at least a week,” he tells her and watches the temper light her eyes.

“Why on earth you’re indulging that woman’s idea is beyond me,” she throws her hands up in the air, “haven’t we got enough to do without a damned visitors centre?”

Looking at Felicity, Ryan realises why he’s pulled back from her lately. She’s grown ugly over the last couple of years - not in looks, she takes care of herself well even when she gets her hands dirty working on site, but her attitude towards others is bitchy and condescending.

“I happen to think it’s a good idea,” he tells her firmly, leaving no room for argument. “The local population is fairly young and has shown an active interest in the forest prior to our arrival - it’s good practice to get the local community involved.”

“Well, on your head be it,” she tells him and stomps out of the office to start yelling at anyone on hand.

Maybe this should be our last dig…working together isn’t as enjoyable as it once was and the sex just isn’t as appealing.

Ryan had once cared for Felicity, had thought their futures might join at some point, but her growing meanness and unpleasant treatment of the students they worked with and relied on had pushed those thoughts aside.

He’s tried to separate himself from her as gently as possible, not wanting to hurt her feelings, sure that she genuinely cares for him. But it doesn’t seem to be working - he might have to be more direct for her to take him seriously.
Not something to look forward to!

Going over to the visitors centre, Ryan takes a look at what the students have done so far.

“This is great,” he smiles and nods while looking at the neat hand-written cards set at the back of each artefact, “you girls have got a knack for the succinct - just enough info to tell them what’s what without confusing the hell out of them.”

Sadie and Roz both glow with pride. “We thought we’d draw a map of the immediate area showing where each piece was found,” Sadie looks up hopefully at Ryan.

“Good idea, is that why you put the local pieces separate?”

“Yes,” Roz speaks up now that she knows he isn’t going to bite their heads off like Felicity usually does, “we thought we’d gradually build up another map showing what we find from the dig - it could show any living areas we might come across or just the artefacts and what they would have been used for…” Roz tails off as Felicity enters the room.

“That’s thinking some way ahead, but I like your optimism and ideas,” he tells them. “Keep thinking up ways to improve the centre and run anything you come up with by me, ok?”

He hears Felicity give a snort of disgust behind him and turns to guide her out.

“What’s wrong, Felicity, the kids are doing a great job - let’s not squash their enthusiasm,” he tells her not hiding his annoyance.