pride. She did not speak, but she didn’t need to. She couldn’t have said more clearly, This is my kingdom.
‘Joanna,’ he said softly.
When she did not seem to hear him he took hold of her shoulders and turned her towards him.
‘Joanna,’ he said again, giving her a little shake. ‘Where are you?’
She gave him a smile, but there was something dreamy about it.
‘I’m here,’ she assured him.
‘I don’t think so. Sometimes I think the real world isn’t very real to you at all.’
‘You think this is the only real world?’ she asked in surprise. ‘Isn’t the past real? It should be to you of all people. I thought you understood the excitement of passing into another universe where the rules are different.’
‘But not more real than the present,’ he said with a touch of urgency, for the hairs were beginning to stand up on the back of his neck at a kind of strangeness that had come over her.
‘It’s like travelling, exploring wondrous places. It’s the greatest excitement there is.’
‘I think your world is inhabited by some very strange creatures. It’s alarming.’ He searched her face. ‘You’re a little alarming yourself.’
She looked up at him, smiling. The glow of the sun was on her face. Hardly knowing what he did, or why, he drew her hat off, so that the sun touched her hair too, seeming to turn her to gold. The sight of her held him still.
Joanna could not have moved if her life had depended on it. Gustavo was looking at her as he had never done before, as though she had his whole attention, even without his will. His expression was startled, unguarded, almost defenceless, and she knew that, for the second time that day, she had broken through to some inner place that had always been barred to her in the past.
She was flooded with warmth, although whether from the sun or from some other cause she did not know. She only knew that it was beautiful and sweet, and she wanted it to last forever.
‘Joanna-’ he whispered again.
The shrilling sound from her pocket seemed to go through them both, breaking the spell.
‘What’s that?’ he asked tensely.
‘My cellphone,’ she groaned, pulling it out and answering it.
‘Jo? This is Etta.’
‘Who?’ Her mind was blank.
“‘Who?” she says! Henrietta Rannley, your second cousin once removed. I’m calling from England. Now do you remember me?’
‘Of course,’ Joanna said, trying to pull herself together.
Etta was the daughter of Lord Rannley, the earl whose stately home had been the background for the drama twelve years ago. Then a child, she’d been Crystal’s bridesmaid.
For a moment Joanna had to struggle to remember all this, because after the last few minutes Etta seemed as distant as though she were on another planet.
‘I’ve been waiting to hear from you,’ Etta said reproachfully.
‘I’m sorry-about what?’
‘About my wedding, of course. Are you coming or not? You were supposed to let me know.’
‘Oh, heavens! Etta, I’m sorry, I really am-’
‘But you got involved with some old bones so of course they came first.’ She sounded amused. Like all Joanna’s friends and relatives, she had learned to be tolerant.
‘It wasn’t like that-’ Joanna began helplessly.
‘Yes, it was. I know you. Anyway, can you tear yourself away for a couple of days?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll try.’
‘Good. I’ll put you down as a definite.’
Joanna hung up, to find that Gustavo had walked away. It might have been simply courtesy, leaving her alone with her call, but she knew that for him the moment was over, and whatever it might have meant was gone.
Whatever it might have meant.
But something in her rebelled at the thought of going down that path again. She was no lovesick girl, to succumb easily to the sweet, dangerous magic. If she was wise she would escape this place while she could. A few days away would help her get everything in perspective.
‘I think I’d like to go back to the house after all,’ she said, joining him. ‘I need a proper meal.’
‘Of course,’ he said politely. ‘Let me drive you.’
On the way she began talking about indifferent things, and by the time they reached the house she had almost persuaded herself that she’d imagined it.
Over the next few days she wavered about whether to go back to England for the wedding. She told herself that she was needed here, although she knew her expert team could manage without her for a week, as they had done many times before.
Gustavo began spending more and more time at the dig, watching details emerge, as intently as though his salvation depended on it. Which in some ways it did, Joanna realised. It hurt her to see the tension in him, and to know that his dearest hopes were unlikely to be realised. To her this place was rich with history, but it was unlikely to bring him the hard cash he needed.
‘It’s not really like you read in books, is it?’ he said to her one day. ‘You dig up a brooch and it’s worth a fortune.’
‘We aren’t likely to be finding things like that,’ she told him gently. ‘This is tiles and bricks.’
‘Dull stuff.’
‘To outsiders, yes.’
‘No ancient remains? No valuable coins?’
‘I’d find them for you if I could, but mostly it doesn’t work like that.’
‘I guess not. I’m sorry, Joanna. Take no notice of me. You have your job to do, and I’m not making it any easier.’
If she could only put her arms around him, and promise to find something that would make everything all right. The longing to do that swept over her with startling force, showing her the dangerous knife edge on which she was walking.
Abruptly she got up and walked away.
But almost at once there was a blinding flash.
‘Was that lightning?’ Hal asked, realising how sharply the temperature had dropped.
‘I think it was,’ Joanna said, her words almost drowned out by a crash of thunder.
‘We get violent summer storms sometimes,’ Gustavo said. ‘Best get out of here quickly.’
But it was already too late. The next moment the heavens opened and rain poured down in sheets, soaking everyone at once, turning the soft ground into mud. After the heat there was a certain pleasure in simply standing there, pounded by cool rain. Joanna looked up to the sky, raising her arms in almost ecstatic welcome.
People were trying to reach the edge of the dig and make for the refuge of the cars, but they slipped and slid around, clinging on to each other, laughing.
With their hair plastered to their heads nobody looked like themselves any more. Sodden clothes became transparent, revealing that some of the women were naked beneath their shirts. They clutched their arms across their chests while the young men competed to assist them.
‘Are you all right?’ Gustavo called to Joanna.
‘It’s in my eyes; I can’t see. Oh, heavens!’
She reached out and he took hold of her arm, shouting through the din, ‘Hold on to me.’
She clutched wildly and felt his arms go around her just as her foot gave way in the mud. Floundering, she seized him, but her hands slipped on his sodden shirt and she had to grasp hard.
She had the sensation of a hard, muscular body beneath her palms. It belonged to a stranger. The young Gustavo had kissed her with restraint and she’d forced herself to respond in kind, her arms demurely about his neck. She hadn’t dared yield to the impulse to run her hands over him, the way she seemed to be doing now.
It was a startling discovery, almost like touching him for the very first time. This was a man who concealed
