Ruth takes a measuring rod and lays it next to the emerging bones.
慖t抯 important to photograph the bones in situ next to a suitable scale,?she says, in lecture mode. 慦e need to take samples from the context ?the surrounding soil ?too. That will help with dating.?
慔ow do you know it isn抰 recent??says someone, a man with a full-face beard. Ruth doesn抰 do much teaching now that she抯 head of department, and the students are starting to look very much alike.
慥ery recent burials are comparatively easy to spot,?says Ruth. 慪ou can tell by the grave cut, for one thing. But it can be hard to differentiate between bones that are fifty years old and those that are a thousand years old. That抯 why we need carbon-14 testing. But, in this case, it抯 an established medieval site so I think we抮e looking at skeletal matter from that era. I could be wrong, of course.?
No one thinks this is likely.
By three o抍lock, the skeleton has been excavated. It抯 not very tall and, from the pelvic bones, Ruth thinks that it is female. She allowed the students to help with the final stages and they are in a state of high excitement as they load the numbered paper bags into a box marked 慉rchaeology Lab? Ruth is in a more sombre mood. She always feels that she should handle the bones as if the dead person抯 relatives are watching her and that抯 no different if they died ten years ago or in the fourteenth century. Besides, her back is aching.
Ruth walks back to the car park with Ted. It抯 been a grey day and is already getting dark. Lights shine in the cathedral close and the church itself looms above them, birds circling the tower and steeple. An omen of something, Cathbad would say.
慉re you OK to take the bones back to UNN??asks Ruth. 慖抳e got to pick up Kate. Her childminder can抰 make it today.?
慛o problem,?says Ted. He抯 carrying the box under his arm. A human being weighs very little in the end.
慠uth!?A figure appears from one of the many secret archways that surround the cloisters. A woman, wearing a grey cloak that flutters dramatically in the uncertain light.
態limey,?says Ted. 慖t抯 the Grey Lady.?
The Grey Lady of Tombland is a famous Norfolk ghost but Ruth has recognised the apparition. It抯 Janet Meadows, a local historian who also works as a cathedral guide.
慔i, Janet.?
慔allo, Ruth. Have you been involved in the excavation??
Ruth nods towards the box in Ted抯 arms. 慗ust finished.?
慏o you think it抯 a plague victim??says Janet.
慖t抯 possible, I suppose,?says Ruth, 慴ut I think we might just have come across a cemetery that used to belong to one of the churches.?
慍an I talk to you??says Janet. 慔ave you got a minute??
慖抳e got to collect Kate from school. Could we get together another day? Have coffee or something??
慜f course,?says Janet. Ted loads the bones into his van and drives off with a cheery toot of the horn. The birds fly squawking into the air and the two women watch him go.
慦hat did you want to talk about??says Ruth.
慣he plague,?says Janet.
Chapter 6
Judy faces Saffron Evans and Brady Wilson across their mother抯 grey and pink sitting room. It抯 a pleasant space, furnished with the kind of decorating flourishes that Judy never quite achieves: multiple cushions, fringed lamps, framed photographs in tasteful clusters. Even the books are arranged by colour, their spines unbroken. Judy抯 living area includes Cathbad抯 driftwood collection, Michael抯 piano and Miranda抯 artwork pinned onto the walls. Their books are dog-eared and arranged by psychic connection. Judy doesn抰 possess any chenille cushions and, if she did, Thing would eat them.
慖抦 so sorry,?Judy says. 慣his must be very hard for you.?She has told the family that this is a courtesy call, to explain the police procedures for investigating an unexpected death. She won抰 mention Nelson抯 suspicions, unless the siblings give her reason to suppose they share them.