Page 107 of Hope and Happiness in Bluebell Wood
‘Stop worrying, Callum,’ I say. ‘We’re not trespassing here, are we?’
‘I don’t think we’re going to be trespassing anywhere today,’ Jack says, walking back up towards us from the direction of the field.
‘What do you mean?’
‘They ’ave put the barbied-wire up,’ Alouette says, looking appalled.
‘What my wife is trying to say is it seems someone has recently erected barbed-wire fences around the perimeter of the building work,’ Jack explains, looking annoyed. ‘Doesn’t look like we’ll be given the chance to trespass.’
‘Damn,’ I say. ‘We’ll just have to look as best we can and as close as we can around the edge.’
We split up into small teams, with Jemima covering as big an area as she can with the metal detector. There’s much excitement when the detector occasionally beeps, and someone rushes over with a spade to dig where she’s standing.But all we find for our troubles are a couple of tin cans and a rusty old key.
We dig thoroughly around the area where Robin says he found his coins, even though the metal detector doesn’t beep, but we find nothing. And everywhere we dig we have to cover back over and mark, just in case someone comes by and notices what we’ve been up to.
‘We’re going to have to stop soon,’ Callum says, as I dig furiously in a small patch of land in some trees where Jemima has told us the detector had alerted her to something.
I’m down on my hands and knees with a trowel, carefully throwing the soil I’ve dug into the sieve that Robin is vigilantly shaking from side to side to see if he can spot anything.
I turn and look up at Callum, sweat pouring from my brow.
‘We’ve already had an early-morning jogger come past,’ Callum continues, looking around him. ‘It won’t be long until more people start arriving for Sunday-morning walks and jogs. Plus, you look exhausted, Ava. Everyone else has stopped at least once for a rest and a drink.’
‘But we haven’t found anything,’ I groan in anguish. ‘If we don’t find anything else, how can we be sure they’ll stop the building work?’
‘According to Lonan, what we have already is more than enough,’ Callum says. ‘He’s done his research.’
‘No!’ I insist, raising my voice. ‘We must make absolutely sure we stop it. We have to. We can’t let them win, Callum. Evil can’t win against good, it just can’t! Not this time.’ I beat my fist down on the ground for emphasis.
‘Why don’t you go and get a drink from your mum?’ Callum tells a shocked-looking Robin. ‘You must be very thirsty?’
Robin nods. He carefully puts down his sieve, and then ashe passes me he gently pats me on the back. ‘Don’t worry, Ava,’ he says, ‘I won’t let the bad people win. I’ll look after you.’
Then he disappears through the trees towards Linnet, while I stare after him, tears springing into my eyes and slowly rolling down my dirty face.
‘Come on,’ Callum says, gently lifting my arm. ‘Stand up.’
I allow Callum to lift me up. He takes a clean white handkerchief (he would have one!) from his pocket and attempts to wipe my face.
‘What was all that about?’ he asks. ‘Evil can’t win against good? Are you talking about the builders, or is this more to do with another issue?’ He looks with meaning at me.
I shake my head and try to look down at the ground, but Callum catches my chin and gently tilts it up.
‘You scared young Robin just now.’
‘I know; I shouldn’t have said that in front of him.’
‘You can’t win every time, Ava. We all try to do good, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be. We have the gold coins Robin found, hopefully that will be enough.’
‘It’s not enough, though, is it? Why would the birds have gone to all that trouble to leave me those clues if they didn’t want me to find something special buried here, something that would save their habitat?’
‘Maybe their gifts weren’t to do with this?’ Callum suggests. ‘Maybe they meant something else, and you just fitted it to your Roman narrative.’
I shake my head. ‘No, what else could they mean? Look, you lot,’ I call out to the trees around us, ‘I know you want me to find something here. So why not help me to do it?Please!’
Suddenly there’s the sound of flapping wings, and at leasttwenty birds – mostly wood pigeons – rapidly take flight. Then I hear Merlin barking.
‘Where’s Merlin?’ I ask, looking around.
