English Rose for the Sicilian Doc

by Annie Claydon

  Then he left his mobile number with Nina, telling her to call him if she had any concerns. He and Rose walked outside together into the early evening sunshine.

  Everything seemed more vibrant. The sound of the gate as he opened it for her and the metal hinges squealed. The feel of the breeze on his face. The scent of her hair. It was as if he was suddenly at the mercy of even the smallest of sensations.

  ‘That was nice of you. To leave your number.’ She looked up at him, strands of hair straggling untidily in the breeze. Even tired and dishevelled, she looked fabulous.

  ‘She shouldn’t need it. It wasn’t a major attack and he has no symptoms now.’

  ‘Just in case, though.’ Rose smiled at him.

  ‘To reassure her. It’s stressful wondering how you’d cope if you did need medical attention.’ He should say goodbye now, but there was something that had been nagging at him and somehow his tongue overruled his better judgement.

  ‘I want to apologise. I should have said that the tremors would feel stronger in the open air and...’ He shrugged. ‘That must have frightened you.’

  ‘No.’ Rose’s automatic reaction to anything that implied any emotion on her part always seemed to be to deny it. Matteo raised one eyebrow.

  ‘Just a little?’

  ‘All right. It scared the living daylights out of me. I thought I’d get back and find you both buried under a pile of rubble...’ She stared up at him, obviously deciding she’d said enough.

  ‘That’s better. It was brave of you to come back.’

  ‘It seemed like the only thing to do.’ She shrugged, but she was smiling. Breaking through her cool outer shell, finding the woman underneath, never failed to make Matteo’s heart beat a little faster.

  ‘I’d better be going.’ She felt in her bag for her car keys.

  ‘Early night?’ He couldn’t move. Couldn’t break away without some small hope of seeing her again.

  ‘Yes, I’m... I think I’ll go up to the site in the morning. I want to see what’s beyond that last cave.’

  ‘Wasn’t it just a hole?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think so. We’ve mapped those caves and unless we’ve got it really wrong, the last cave is a good thirty metres from the surface.’

  Something stirred, deep inside him. He preferred to think that the curiosity was completely centred around the cave, and had nothing to do with Rose.

  ‘So you’re going to find out.’

  ‘Of course I am. Don’t you want to know?’

  He chuckled. ‘I’ll admit to being curious. Very curious, actually.’

  ‘Well, if you want to drop by over the weekend, give me a call. I still owe you the rest of the tour of the site anyway.’

  It couldn’t hurt. And the nagging thought that she might go into the cave on her own was all the justification he needed. ‘What time are you going up there tomorrow?’

  ‘I’ll be there from about six. It’ll give me some time to have a look around while it’s still cool.’

  ‘Six.’ He pulled his car keys out of his pocket. ‘See you then.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MATTEO GOT TO the site at a quarter past six the following morning, but Rose had beaten him to it. As he parked next to her car, he saw her emerging from the office, clad in heavy boots, a pair of chinos and a hooded top, zipped up against the early morning chill of the mountains. She walked towards him, the spring of excitement in her step, and Matteo felt his chest tighten.

  ‘Thinking of doing some gardening?’ He pointed towards the pair of secateurs in her hand.

  She grinned. ‘Look at this.’ Pulling a newly printed A4 sheet from her back pocket, she unfolded it, laying it out on the bonnet of his car. ‘This is a plan of the area, and I superimposed the survey of the caves.’

  ‘Right.’ Matteo looked at map. The path leading up to the mouth of the cave was on their left, and so... He scanned the slope in front of them. ‘So the cave we were in yesterday would be ahead of us, about halfway up.’

  ‘Yes, that’s what I reckon. I didn’t want to go inside the caves on my own...’ She shrugged as if yesterday hadn’t really happened.

  ‘I’m glad to hear it.’

  ‘But I reckoned that if light’s coming from the outside...’

  ‘...then there might be another way in.’ He finished the sentence for her, caught up suddenly in the thrill of their new discovery.

  She nodded. ‘Exactly. And look up there.’

  Matteo followed the direction of her pointing finger. The hill sloped gently upwards and at the point where it gave way to an outcrop of vertical rock, some thirty feet high, a large scrubby bush was growing over a dark indentation.

  ‘You think that’s it?’

  ‘Well, it’s in approximately the right place.’

  Matteo leaned into his car, picking up the pair of work gloves that he’d dropped onto the front seat this morning. ‘Okay. Let’s go then.’

  They moved carefully, testing the ground as they walked, in case yesterday’s earthquake had opened up any fissures. At closer quarters, Matteo could see that there was a small hole, partially obscured by branches. It took half an hour to cut a path up to it.

  ‘What do you think?’ He bent down, trying to see inside the jagged crater.

  ‘I think we’re going to feel a bit silly if it’s a fox hole. And I don’t much fancy finding out by putting my arm in there.’

  ‘No. Me neither. It doesn’t look like a fox hole, though.’ Most fox holes were in the ground, not a couple of feet up. All the same, Matteo reached for one of the cut branches, guiding it slowly into the hole.

  ‘Can you feel anything?’

  ‘No. Nothing. The hole seems to be angled downwards.’ He pushed the branch a little further and still met no resistance. Then he let go of it, and it disappeared completely. ‘Did you hear that?’

  Rose nodded. ‘It sounded as if that branch just fell onto something on the other side.’

  They looked at each other. Matteo could see the same thrill of discovery in her eyes that he felt. ‘Can we drop a camera down there?’

  ‘Yep. We’ve got a telescopic extension camera. I’ll go and get it.’ She turned, sliding back down the slope and jogging to the site office.

  The unit, which fitted on one end of the flexible extension, incorporated a lightweight camera unit and a light. On the other end was a receiver monitor and a battery pack.

  Rose fitted the components together, choosing three rigid rods with flexible joints and clipping the camera and light securely onto one end. Matteo picked up the tripod she’d brought with her, driving the legs securely into the ground.

  ‘Would you like to give it a go?’

  There was no doubt that this was something of an honour. Matteo nodded in appreciation, balancing one end of the extension pole on the top of the tripod to steady it and lowering the camera into the mouth of the hole.

  ‘Careful. Try not to touch the sides...’ The monitor was giving a clear view of the first couple of inches of soil, together with a few broken roots.

  ‘Okay. Done this before.’ Matteo concentrated on the monitor. His work was on a much smaller scale than this, but it was the same general idea.

  ‘So you have. Sorry.’

  Rose was standing close, craning to see the monitor. Matteo’s hand suddenly shook and he admonished himself, concentrating on the image in front of him and trying to ignore the warm, sweet scent of the woman at his side.

  After only a foot the sides of the hole disappeared, but all they could see was dust hanging in the air. Matteo operated the controls to tip the camera, a little at a time, and realised that larger gestures were needed. This wasn’t surgery.

  The camera autofocussed onto a level floor, which Matteo estima
ted was about two metres lower than the slope they were standing on. He heard Rose catch her breath.

  ‘There is a cave. See if you can see how big it is.’

  When he turned the camera up and to the sides, it looked as if the cave was about three metres high and twenty in diameter. A flash suddenly showed on the screen and he froze.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘I think it may be the light catching on mineral deposits of some kind. Try it again.’

  Matteo moved the camera. Something that looked like quartz crystals, practically on the cave floor, flashed again.

  ‘Can you reach down there?’ Rose’s whisper was almost against his neck, and his hand shook again.

  ‘I’ll try.’ He guided the camera downwards and they waited for the autofocus to clarify the picture on the small monitor. Then he caught his breath, hearing...no, feeling... Rose’s sudden gasp.

  ‘It’s...’ She seemed almost dumbfounded.

  ‘What?’ Matteo knew what it looked like to him, but Rose would have a more experienced view.

  ‘I think it’s... It looks like a grave. You see those three slabs?’

  Three large stone slabs, fitted together across a space about three feet wide and six feet deep. What looked like crystals were scattered across one end, giving an almost sparkly effect.

  ‘Oh, my...’ Rose’s excitement was almost palpable, and Matteo struggled to keep the camera steady. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. Cave burials are usually very old.’

  She laughed suddenly, an expression of glee and wonder that mirrored his own feelings. ‘I wonder if it’s my grandfather’s sorceress.’ He was teasing, but to his inexperienced eye the burial looked as if it was of someone of importance.

  ‘Nah. We’d be mincemeat by now if it was.’ Her foot slipped suddenly on the rocky screed, and the camera lurched wildly as Matteo put a hand out to steady her.

  ‘Don’t tempt fate...’ He couldn’t help drawing her towards him in a hug.

  She threw her arms around his shoulders, her body sinuous with delight. Matteo could no longer contain himself. He let go of the extension rod and wound his arms around her waist, laughing as he swung her around.

  * * *

  He’d known full well that it wouldn’t be like a film, where they’d scrabble frenetically to open up the hole and crawl into the cave to find untold wonders. It was a careful, painstaking process, but the slow burn of excitement made it all the more thrilling.

  Rose had downloaded the images from the camera and emailed them to her colleagues. Almost before she’d finished making a cup of tea, her phone started to ring, and by ten o’ clock almost twenty people had arrived on site. Matteo watched as Rose and the other archaeologists debated their next move. Her T-shirt was smudged with dirt, the strands of golden hair that had escaped her ponytail almost wild around her head. She shone in the sunlight.

  It was decided that the opening to the cave should be widened to allow access and further investigation. Progress was slow, as photographs and soil samples were taken, and in the midday sun the teams of diggers worked in half-hour shifts, returning to sip cool drinks in the shade and speculate wildly about what might be beneath the slabs.

  ‘We’re going in. In about half an hour.’ Rose found him at the sink in the lab, washing the grime from his hands and face, having been allowed to help dig out a trench in the side of the slope so that the hole could be enlarged downwards as well as to the side.

  ‘Yeah? You’re going to be the first?’ He wanted that for Rose.

  ‘Joint first, with you. Professor Paulozzi suggested it, as it was our find.’

  A swell of excitement caught Matteo’s heart, already battered by the emotion of the day. They’d see the cave together.

  She washed her face and combed her hair in honour of the moment. They were equipped with gloves and hard hats that had lights and cameras fixed to the front so that there was no chance of a single moment going undocumented. Matteo slid carefully down the sloping trench that led to the now gaping hole in the rock, turning to help Rose down.

  Two steps inside was as far as they were allowed to go, both for safety reasons and because the floor of the cave was to be examined over the coming days.

  ‘There’s a random scattering of maybe a dozen small crystals on the slab closest to the entrance—they look as if they’re either quartz or amethyst. Looks as if there are some pieces of pottery there too. Maybe a container for some kind of offertory.’ Rose’s camera had a microphone attached, and she was keeping up a running commentary of everything she saw for the people waiting outside.

  ‘And there’s something on the walls...’ She directed the beam of her torch onto the wall above the slabs, where Matteo saw dark shapes. ‘It looks like red ochre and I can’t see any discernible shape, although it seems to run the length of the slabs to a height of a couple of feet. The floor of the cave is dry, and there’s no bat guano. I can’t see any evidence of other animal incursions.’

  She continued with her observations as Matteo silently looked around. This quiet place, undisturbed for so many years. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed so peaceful.

  His hand brushed against the back of hers, and he felt her finger curl around one of his. They looked around in silence for a moment, and then Rose resumed her commentary.

  ‘It’s beautiful in here...’

  * * *

  They’d worked until dusk, erecting a cover over the opening so that nothing could get inside to disturb the contents of the cave. Matteo noticed that a couple of the students and one of the archaeologists seemed to be preparing to spend the night here, guarding the cave, and he was pleased that it should be treated with such care and respect.

  ‘Here.’ Rose had pressed a memory stick into his hand as they’d parted, too tired to do anything but smile wearily at each other. ‘I downloaded the video for you.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Matteo held it tight. ‘Will you let me know what you find?’

  ‘Of course. You’re a part of this now.’

  He felt as if he was. He’d warned himself against becoming too involved with Rose, but this was different. It was as if they were joined to this place by an invisible cord, which transcended mere involvement. It was unbreakable, and Matteo had to see it through, wherever it led.

  * * *

  He spent Sunday with his grandfather, showing him the video. There was nothing he could do at the site as the archaeologists would be slowly working their way through the cave, photographing and sampling as they went. But he wanted at least to tell someone, to talk about what they’d seen. When the camera lurched, giving a glimpse of Rose’s smiling face, her eyes bright with excitement, he could almost smell her scent.

  She texted him, giving him updates on progress, but the call he’d been waiting for came on Wednesday. This time there was no question in her voice, no shy preliminaries to the invitation.

  ‘Come this evening. As soon as you can, after work.’

  ‘I’ll be there at six.’

  * * *

  Rose was looking for Matteo’s car, and when she saw it, following the winding road to the site, she walked across to the space set aside for parking. It seemed a little too eager, but it couldn’t be helped. She couldn’t wait to show him what they’d found.

  And she’d missed him. Having him there when they’d found the cave had seemed so right, so much as if it was meant to be, and she had been obliged to remind herself that Matteo had to work, and he couldn’t be in two places at once.

  He was wearing a pair of heavy boots, jeans and a T-shirt, and she handed him one of the hard hats she’d brought with her. ‘Ready for this?’

  Matteo’s gorgeous smile almost made her trip over her feet. ‘What have you got?’

  ‘Well, we’ve taken a look at what was on top of the sl
abs. They’re quartz crystals mostly, probably from other parts of the cave network. And there were some pottery fragments that came from a small dish.’

  ‘Do you have any idea what timescale’s involved?’

  ‘That’s the interesting thing. The pottery was definitely of a late Roman style, probably after the main villa was inhabited. Cave burials are usually a great deal older than that, and it’s very unusual to find one with Roman connections.’

  ‘So you don’t think that it’s someone who lived in the villa?’

  ‘That’s highly unlikely. The time period doesn’t tally, and there’s a group of graves some way from the villa on the other side, which is probably the family burial plot. Our current theory, borne out by other finds in the main cave, is that this was one of a group of people who were actually living in the caves.’

  ‘They lived up in the hills, here?’

  ‘We think they were hiding up here. The dish is the kind of thing that a well-off person would use, it’s been turned and it’s of a high quality. It’s not the kind of thing that someone who permanently lived in a cave would have.’

  ‘Refugees.’ His brow was creased in thought.

  ‘Yes. I think so. Maybe running from some kind of conflict or invasion, there are plenty to choose from in Sicily’s history.’

  ‘And it is definitely a grave?’

  ‘Yes. That’s what I called you up here to see. We’ve opened it.’

  Suddenly Matteo’s stride lengthened, and Rose had to almost run to keep up with him. There was no point in asking whether he was interested in seeing it.

  The mouth to the cave was protected by a more substantial cover now, and Rose unzipped the doorway, putting her hard hat on and switching on the lights inside. She led the way to the grave, kneeling down beside it.

  It was almost as if she was seeing these things for the first time. Matteo silently knelt next to her, looking at the skeleton, which had been laid in a natural dip in the rock lined with clay.

  ‘You see here...’ She leaned closer to him, feeling goosebumps rise on her arm as it touched his. ‘The texture of the clay lining. It’s the imprint of herbs and flowers.’