Page 123 of Hope and Happiness in Bluebell Wood
‘The Roman one we did at school. I thought you’d like to see it.’
‘I would indeed. Shall I get us both a drink and then we can look at it together?’
We settle down at the table with two glasses of orange juice and look through Robin’s school project. I ask him questions as we go along, and I’m impressed that he remembers so much about what he’s learnt.
‘Mum says they’re finding lots of real Roman things on the field,’ Robin says, proudly turning the page of his exercise books. ‘Is that because of us?’
‘Yes, if we hadn’t declared what we’d found then no one would have known about it. It’s very exciting, isn’t it? Have you seen any of the things they’ve found?’
‘Miss Swan says we’re going to have an exhibition at school next year to show us everything.’
‘That’s great.’ I look at the page Robin is showing me. ‘Look, that solider is wearing a hat like you wore at Easter.’
‘It’s a helmet,’ Robin corrects me.
‘Of course it is.’
‘Do you like my eagle,’ he asks, pointing to a picture he’s drawn of a Roman soldier carrying a standard. At the top of the standard is a huge eagle.
‘Yes, it’s very good,’ I reply, still staring at the eagle.
‘It’s called an Aquila,’ Robin says. ‘That’s Latin for eagle. All the Roman legions had them. They stood for power and courage.’
‘Another one . . . ’ I murmur almost to myself.
‘What?’ Robin asks. ‘I mean, pardon. Mum says I should say pardon.’
I smile. ‘I’ve seen quite a lot of eagles recently, that’s all.’
‘Where, on your bird table?’
‘No, eagles are rare in this part of the world. You usually only see them in the north of the country, in places like Scotland.’
‘Where have you seen them, then?’
‘They dug a huge stone one up in the field a few days ago.’
‘Yes, I know; Mum said.’
‘And Jack at the pub said he might change the name of the pub to The Eagle because of it.’
‘I know that, too. Mum said she didn’t like it, and she preferred the duck one.’
‘And the birds left me a little badge today with one on.’ I go to the mantelpiece and collect the brooch, which Robin examines with much interest.
‘And then I found these annuals today on the bookshelf. I thought you might like to read them. Some of those have the nameThe Eagle, too.’
Robin puts down the brooch at once, and picks up one of the annuals.
‘There just seem to be eagles everywhere at the moment. I wonder if I’ll see any more.’
‘You could go to the church,’ Robin says, his nose already deep into one ofThe Beanoannuals.
‘The church – why?’
‘There’s a huge one inside, isn’t there?’
‘Really?’ I ask, wondering where he could mean.
