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He went down on his haunches, his knees creaking in protest, and peered into the gloom. Even with the spotlights and the beam from Declan’s torch it was hard to make out much more than shadows at first. Then the torch moved in a slow arc, and Rhys’s eyes adjusted enough to the light to see a pair of greyish-looking hands clasped in a traditional prayer pose followed by a head and shoulders. ‘My God, we had no idea there was anything like this hidden away. Did you find something in the archives about it?’
Cam shook his head. ‘No. We’ve been cleaning back the soil trying to get the dimensions of the chapel and then yesterday morning we found the stone floor.’ He pointed around them at the stones Rhys hadn’t even registered they were standing on. ‘Late this afternoon, we came across a much larger stone and as Barnie cleaned around it, he found a small gap in one corner and realised there was a void beneath.’ He sat back on his heels and grinned at Rhys. ‘We had no idea what to expect when we decided to lift it.’
Declan cleared his throat and the two of them moved away from the hole so that the site manager and his two workers could place a security cover over it for the night. ‘So what do you think it is?’ Rhys asked as Hope joined them and the three of them headed to where Tasha was waiting beneath the tree.
‘I don’t know yet, but it’s another big clue that this site is a lot more significant than we first suspected. I’ve no idea how the family came to refer to this as the chapel because it’s a hell of a lot bigger than that. It could be as significant as a monastery or even an abbey that’s got forgotten in the upheaval following Henry VIII’s dissolution act.’ He stopped and grabbed Rhys’s arm, his eyes bright behind the lenses of his glasses. ‘This could be the find of my career!’
The excited energy pouring off Cam was infectious and Rhys found his heart was beating faster as he considered what that might mean for the estate. If Cam really had found something special, then it could be the missing piece they’d been waiting for to really put Juniper Meadows on the map.
27
As soon as she was on her own, Tasha whipped out her phone and googled her way to the SJW website. Please be wrong, please be wrong. She clicked on Simon Willoughby’s biography and scowled as his big, grinning face filled her screen. Ignoring the text that described his rags-to-riches story, she scrolled further down to where there were a number of other photos. The first was Simon with that same smug grin shaking hands with the Prince of Wales at some innovation awards event. The picture she was looking for was the one below it, of Simon holding up his award flanked by his wife and son. Her stomach lurched as her worst fears were realised even before she read the caption beneath it.
‘Simon Willoughby with his wife, Frankie, and their son, Scott.’
Tasha had met Frankie a couple of times over the years at corporate parties. A gentle, soft-spoken woman, so unlike her brash, confident husband, Frankie had always looked as though she’d rather be at home with a nice cup of tea than trussed up in some over-elaborate gown that had no doubt cost thousands of pounds. Scott had spent a single summer interning at SJW a couple of years previously. He’d been in a different division from her, but she’d never forget the forlorn figure he’d cut in the staff canteen, nose always buried in a book. Now he’d lost the boyishness of those teenage years, she’d recognised him instantly because he looked even more like his father. Thankfully, he’d barely stopped to look at Tasha when they’d arrived earlier, too distracted by the row between Barnie and Declan to pay much attention to anyone other than Hope.
Tasha shoved her phone in her pocket and began to pace. She needed to get out of there and find out what the hell was going on. Though she’d suspected something was fishy about Simon’s interest in Juniper Meadows, she’d never dreamed for a moment he had such a close connection to the place, nor that he’d actually visited last year. He’d lied to her from day one, but why?
She’d almost taken Rhys up on his offer for them to leave when she’d swiftly concocted the story about a headache, but then had worried their absence would be noted and commented upon. No, best to wait for a quiet moment and slip off. The dig was scheduled to last only for the rest of the week, easy enough for her to keep out of the way until after Cam and his team had departed. Declan would be tied up until then anyway, so there was no reason for her to meet with him again until after the end of the Easter holidays. Trying to keep her nerves in check, Tasha stuck to the helpful shadows cast by the thick branches of the oak and made herself as inconspicuous as possible.
‘How’s the head?’ Rhys asked, giving her a hug as soon as he, Hope and Cam joined her beneath the tree about ten minutes later.
‘Not too bad, but I think I’m going to call it a night soon.’ Tasha hid her face in his shoulder, hating the need to lie to him about yet another thing.
He pulled back to look down at her and she was relieved the sun was rapidly setting off to the west, casting them even deeper into the shadows. ‘Cam and the others want to celebrate with a few beers this evening. I was going to join them, not for a beer as I’ve got to check the animals in a bit, but we can give the whole thing a miss.’
Tasha shook her head, wishing he’d stop being so bloody considerate because it was just making her feel so much worse. ‘No, you stay. I’ve got the car with me and it won’t take more than a few minutes to drive back to the lodge. I’ll take a couple of tablets and have an early night and I’ll be as right as rain in the morning.’
‘Okay.’
They walked at the back of the group until they reached the compound. Rhys had a quick word with Declan and he unlocked the gate for them while everyone else headed off to their little campsite at the far end of the enclosed area. ‘Are you sure you’ll be okay to drive?’ he asked her, still looking worried.
‘I’m fine. It’s really not that bad, I just want to catch it before it has the chance to turn into anything.’ In truth her head was pounding, but that was due to her growing anger at Simon. ‘I’ll text you first thing and let you know how I am,’ she added, before Rhys could suggest he drop by and check on her later. The last thing she needed was him walking in when she was in the middle of having a row with Simon, and there was going to be a row because she’d let Simon fob her off for far too long.
Tasha remembered little about the short drive to the campsite car park and even less of her swift march through the woods, her mind busy framing the hundred and one questions she had for Simon. Letting herself into the lodge, she kicked off her shoes and stormed over to the table to grab her personal mobile from where she’d left it plugged in to charge. The call rang, and rang, and for a moment she thought it would click to voicemail, before Simon’s familiar, gruff voice answered. ‘Tasha. It’s not convenient right now. We’ve got guests for dinner.’
‘I don’t care if the bloody King and Queen are there! Why the hell didn’t you tell me Scott was going to be working here?’
‘Hold on.’ She heard him speaking to someone in the background, Frankie, presumably, and then a long silence. ‘I’m back. As for Scott, I had no idea he’d be there. We’re not exactly on speaking terms at the moment.’
‘But you must’ve known there was a possibility of it when I told you the dig was opening up again for the Easter holidays! I know that you know about that because you were here last summer. I can’t believe you’ve been lying to me all this time!’ Even as she said it, she found that she could believe it because look at the way he’d kept the details of the Atkinsons buyout from her.
‘I told you everything you needed to know to do the job I sent you there to do.’ His voice carried that warning edge that usually made her back down, but not this time. This time she was too angry to be intimidated.
‘Bollocks!’ Tasha yelled as she began pacing around the room. She couldn’t keep still, anger and disappointment coursing like electricity through her. ‘You sent me in here to spy on these people! Well, that stops here and now because I won’t work for someone who treats me like a fool.’
‘Watch your bloody tone when you speak to me. You’d be nothing without me, Tasha. Do you really think you’re that special? I only kept you around because you were so eager to please that it made it easy to get you to do whatever I wanted. Who else do you think would put up with your pathetic neediness? Boo hoo, my parents don’t respect me. Guess what, love? They’re not the only ones.’
She’d known Simon Willoughby pulled no punches, but she’d never understood his capacity for cruelty until that moment. She dropped down on the arm of the sofa, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. An apt analogy, given the way she’d let him control her movements all this time. ‘Just tell me what on earth you hoped to gain from it.’
‘They’ve taken what’s most important from me and I won’t rest until I’ve done the same to them. Scott would be at SJW where he belongs if that idiot Ferguson hadn’t convinced him that grubbing around in the dirt was a proper way to make a living. He’s brainwashed that boy until he can’t think for himself and those posh bastards are letting him get away with it!’
She’d heard him lose his temper plenty of times, but this was something different. He sounded out of control, and a little frightening. ‘They’ll never sell.’
When he spoke again, he sounded much like his old confident self and somehow that was even more chilling than his deranged ranting. ‘Everyone has a price, you just need to know the right levers to pull. And the only thing that will give me greater pleasure than getting one over on them is the knowledge that you’re the one who’s made it possible.’
Tasha thought she might throw up, but she put on a brave face. She’d given Simon Willoughby too much power over her for far too long. Never again. ‘Nice try, but I haven’t told you anything you couldn’t find out from reading their website. And in any case, it wouldn’t matter even if I had because there’s no way the Travers family will let this place go. It’s in their heart and soul. Whatever advantage you think you’ve got, it won’t matter once I tell them what you’ve been up to. They’ll be on their guard for whatever dirty tricks you might try and pull, so tough luck, Simon, looks like you lose this time.’
