‘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.