Page 46

Chapter Nineteen

The next morning, Deo surveyed what he had uncovered last night, flanked by Emrys and Rob, who had been very excited to learn over dinner that he had found the entrance at last.

“Well, let’s get cracking, shall we, old chap?” said Emrys.

In some ways, Deo wished that he and Em could keep this to themselves, but the whole household was invested in this discovery now, and he nodded. “We shall.”

With crates and boxes to store things in, paper and cloth to wrap them, as well as brushes, water, and cloths to clean them, if required, Em and the ladies were set up to receive the items they might find once the entrance was clear and the tomb opened. Deo had ensured they had lamps to see by and trowels, scrapers, and brushes for uncovering delicate items. There would be no crude spade work once they gained access to the tomb.

Em had her sketch pad, too, so that she could draw what they found in situ before it was moved.

Smiggens and the groundsmen had done a good job of clearing away the dismantled tree so there was room to work now on the east side of the mound.

The men began by digging out the entrance completely, which took about two hours. The women sieved the earth that the men dug out, looking for anything of interest. They had quite a collection of coins, lots of pottery fragments, and a few beads, pins, and one metal belt tip. But nothing that Deo thought related to the probable contents of the barrow.

They had to dig around some of the severed roots that were still in the soil, and as they dug, it became clear that a few of them had penetrated the wall on this side of the barrow, displacing some of the stones, but the damage was less than Deo had feared it would be.

The entrance—when finally, fully revealed—was set within the dry stone walls on either side and measured about three and a half feet in height and approximately three feet in width. It was entirely blocked by a single flat stone that appeared to have been carved to fit.

“We may be very lucky. Our tomb appears to be not only intact and undisturbed, but hopefully weatherproof, too. If that is true, the level of preservation may be higher than would otherwise be the case,” said Deo with satisfaction. “We may even be lucky enough to find the remains of the deceased.”

The viscountess shuddered. “Really? Wouldn’t even the bone have decomposed by now?”

“It depends on the type of soil. Some seems more favorable for preservation than others. Also, damp and air circulation seem to play a part as well,” Deo said, examining the entrance stone. “Our next challenge, gentlemen, is how to get this stone out of the entryway.”

“It must weigh several tons!” objected the viscount.

“I think we might be better off trying to remove the lintel stone. It’s fairly large in area, about three feet by four I would estimate, but less than a foot thick, and we can get at its edges as it overlaps the plug stone beneath it on all sides that we can see,” said the duke.

“I agree,” Deo said. “I’ll just need to fully uncover the rear side of it. It must be covering a short entry space. We might be able to haul it off with a team of draft horses.”

“I’ll go see my head groom about getting the horses,” said the duke. “You dig out the stone.”

Deo grinned at Emrys and the two of them clambered up on top of the mound that was still covered in soil and began digging out the rest of the lintel.

An hour later, the team of four horses was assembled and harnessed and ready to drag the lintel off the top of the plug stone. They looped rope around the lintel on both exposed edges, and those ropes were harnessed to the team.

Once secondary ropes were used to tie the loops to each other across the top of the lintel in two places to stop the ropes slipping off, and with everyone well clear of the area, the duke’s groom, Hastings, encouraged the team to pull. Initially nothing happened. But persistence eventually caused a shift in the great lintel stone and with a loud scrape and much dust and debris, the stone inched forward on its platform.

Having gained the momentum, the horses moved forward more rapidly. The stone slid forward with a loud scraping noise and toppled to the ground with a thunk in front of the plug stone, edge down. The horses, after a momentary stop, pulled it clear, and with a final plop of dust, it settled flat side down in the dirt, and Hastings brought his team to a halt.

A cheer went up from the company, and Hastings waved and took a bow with a grin in his rusty colored beard.

“Now we will see what’s what!” said Deo with a grin at Em. He headed for the mound, climbing up the earth covered cairn to the gap revealed by the removal of the lintel and peered inside. Stone-lined walls and an earth packed floor met his gaze along with some debris that had fallen in with the removal of the lintel.

He turned as Em joined him and leaned over to look inside. He grabbed her, fearful of her toppling in she was so eager to see what was revealed. It was, he thought, roughly a five-foot drop to the bottom, considerably less than his own height.

“Pass me down a lamp,” he said, easing himself down and over the lip of the stone into the gap, which was about three feet wide and four feet long. He was right about the height; it came up to his chest.

“What can you see?” called the duke as Deo crouched down.

“A stone lined chamber, roughly rectangular in shape with a roof that slopes. There are some dark shapes, but I don’t know what they are yet.” He took the lamp passed down to him by Em and set it on the ground, before reaching up to help her down into the hole with him. With his hands on her waist, he set her on her feet and squeezed. “This is it, Em!”

She nodded, her face alight with anticipation. She picked up the lamp, and he crouched to pass under the stone roof, with her following stooped beside him. The light from the hole and the lamp penetrated the darkness. The chamber was roughly six feet wide and he estimated nine feet long, and once they passed into the chamber, the roof was approximately a foot higher than the entry area, allowing Em to stand upright but he still had to duck his head. The smell of damp earth and stone met his nostrils and a musty smell. He almost didn’t know what to look at first—the dry-stone construction of the tomb or its contents. The draw of the contents won out as Em exclaimed, “Look, Deo, what is that?”

A roughly rectangular depression in the ground in the center of the chamber, partially filled with debris, was illuminated by the lamp.

“Do you think that is the burial?” she asked.