Read Online Gunner Kelly by Anthony Price - Free Book Online Page A

Maiden Castle, near Dorchester … and to see the country of Thomas Hardy.” Another pause. “But in London I was told of your villa, Miss Maxwell-Smith, by … by Professor Handforth-Jones, of the Society for the Advancement of Romano-British Studies.”
    He had not intended producing Professor Handforth-Jones, like a rabbit out of the magician’s hat, so early in his introduction. But Audley had come up behind her as he spoke.
    “Tony Handforth-Jones?” Audley rose to the name.
    Rebecca Maxwell-Smith half-turned, half looked up to the big man. “You’ve heard of him?”
    “I know him. He’s a good friend of mine—and a damn good archaeologist too. But he’s more into military sites in Scotland at the moment—Agricola’s line-of-march, and the location of Mons Graupius, and that sort of thing.” He nodded at her. “But he’ll have heard of your Fighting Man, for sure.” He gave Benedikt a nod. “Hullo again.”
    Rebecca Maxwell-Smith looked from one to the other of them. “You’ve already met?”
    “We’ve met.” Another nod. “But we haven’t actually been introduced. The Mercedes with the CD plates—I told you.”
    “Oh!” She caught her mistake skilfully. “How silly of me! Yes … well… Mr Wiesehöfer—this is Dr David Audley, who is helping us with our excavations.”
    “ ‘Helping’ is hardly the word.” Audley shook his head. “I’m no archaeologist—and Roman Britain isn’t my field… . The truth is, I’m a wheelbarrow-wheeler, and a cook-and-bottle washer, and a hewer-of-wood and drawer-of-water, is what I am, Mr Wiesehöfer. Not a professional.”
    He had the build for manual work, thought Benedikt, smiling back at the disclaimer. But he was also a professional in another field, who wasn’t prepared to compromise his cover by lying about his qualifications for being here in Duntisbury Chase, even for the benefit of an innocent foreigner.
    “Dr Audley.” He nodded again. It would be interesting to probe that cover further, to find out how Audley accounted for his presence. But it wasn’t in Thomas Wiesehöfer’s own cover to show such curiosity yet.
    “If you want to see the villa—here it is,” Rebecca Maxwell-Smith gestured around her. “We haven’t got very far with it, but of course you’re welcome to see what there is of it.”
    “This is the end of the preliminary reconnaissance operations,” explained Audley. “The big effort starts next spring.”
    “Ah, yes.” What Audley had not added was that the reconnaissance had ended prematurely, somewhat to the archaeologists’ irritation. At first, after the General’s death, they had been allowed to carry on, with only the loss of a single day for the funeral. But then Miss Rebecca Maxwell-Smith had very recently indicated her wish that operations should cease for the time being, with the promise of generous financial aid the following year when she had full control of her inheritance. And with the estate trustees already obedient to her strong will, there was nothing the archaeologists had been able to do about it except to register their disappointment publicly—and their mystification at her change of heart privately. But Thomas Wiesehöfer ought not to know any of that.
    He looked around. “But you have made discoveries, so I have been told.”
    “Oh yes.” The girl nodded. “They have a fair idea of the extent of the buildings, as far as the trees.”
    “They’ve uncovered the edge of a pavement over there—” Audley pointed “—and it just may be an Orpheus one, too.” He watched Benedikt covertly as he spoke.
    “An Orpheus pavement?” Benedikt obliged him quickly. “I have seen fragments of such a pavement not far from my home, near Münster-Sarmsheim, also discovered recently—not as large as your great pavement at Woodchester, of course …But there are many villas in the territories of the Treveri, so there is always hope.” He smiled at Audley. “I may see this find,