Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Both men laughed. “I bet ya were. Will she be staying in Ireland with ya then?” Matt inquired.
I nodded. “She will. She also gave me some great news.”
The sound of someone gasping had the three of us looking down at something one of the student archeologists was working on.
“What is that?” Ryan asked, bending down to take a closer look at the ground. Matt and I followed.
“She’s pregnant,” I said as I narrowed my eyes to look closer at the object slowly emerging from under hundreds of years of dirt.
“No shite.” Matt gave me a slap on the back. “Congratulations.”
Ryan turned and looked at me, his hand outstretched. “That’s great, Lucas. Congratulations.”
Smiling, I shook his hand. “Thanks.”
“Is that what I think it is?” Matt asked as Ryan and I both turned back to the dig.
I knew they’d both had the same thought I did: that what Lindsay was uncovering appeared to be bone.
Slowly shaking my head, I said, “It’s a skull.”
Ryan and I looked at each other. “Do you think it’s a burial chamber?”
“I think if it was, we’d have found other human remains.” Standing, I looked out over the site. “We know they were making leather and possibly blades for weapons. This is clearly the base of a large room.” Turning to look at Ryan, I asked, “When does the lidar equipment get here?”
“Tomorrow.”
I nodded. “I say we send it up, get some scans, and then decide which way we want to keep going. If this is a compound, we’ve just stumbled on something much bigger than we thought.”
Everyone smiled, and I placed my hand over my pounding heart. “I fucking love working in the field.”
By the end of the day, we’d managed to clear away enough to identify what might possibly be a full set of skeletal remains. I’d called Sam Martin, my former college professor and the man who’d invited me on the dig, and had caught him up on our findings over the last two days. To say he was excited was an understatement.
I pulled into the small driveway of the place I was renting and drew in a deep breath. Today had been a hell of a day, and I couldn’t wait to turn off my brain and pull Hollie into my arms. I was renting a small apartment in an older building that had been remodeled. It had once been a general store and was now separated into two apartments. Ryan was renting out the other side and was hoping his wife would be able to leave London soon to join him.
“Hollie?” I called out as I tossed my keys into the small bowl that sat on the table in the front entrance.
When I was greeted with silence, I made my way to the bedroom. Hollie had seemed so exhausted earlier this morning. After being a selfish bastard and keeping her up half the night to make love to her, she had only gotten a few hours of sleep before she’d woken up and run to the bathroom to threw up.
I frowned when I found the bedroom empty as well. Turning, I headed to the kitchen where I found an apple pie sitting on the table.
“Apple pie? Is she missing home already?”
I peeked out into the small area out back, but she wasn’t there, so I called her. She picked up after one ring.
“Hey! Are you home?” she asked.
“I am, where are you?”
I could hear someone else taking in the background.
“I’m over at O’Brien’s. I was dying to try another one of Benny’s dishes, so I came here for lunch.”
“And you’re still there?”
“Yep!”
“What in the hell have you been doing there all this time?”
Hollie laughed. “Well, I met Benny’s mother, Sarah, though he calls her Ma. Anyway, she decided she needed to teach me how to make a few Irish dishes. After that, she took me to Dunnes, which is a grocery store, though they call it the market. I picked up some stuff for us and I told Sarah I would make her an apple pie—so don’t eat that apple pie in the kitchen.”
“Okay, so why are you back over at O’Brien’s?”
“I wanted to know more about the pub, so I walked over to talk to Benny. You weren’t lying when you said the Irish like to talk. I’ve been chatting with this older man for two hours! His name is Willy, and I’m pretty sure I know his entire life story.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Do you need me to come over and save you?”
“If you don’t mind, that would be great!”
With a chuckle, I replied, “I’m on my way.”
The moment I walked in, I spied Hollie at a table with three older men. She clearly had them all in a trance, and I highly doubted she’d used magick to do it. She was saying something, and they were all ears.