“Gold coins,” Dom told him.
“In good condition?”
“Excellent condition, sir,” Townsend put in.
“That’s what I want to hear,” Van Arsdale said, seemingly uninterested in the finer details. “Find me lots more.”
Dom approached Tess once the American made his way back to his chair.
“Breathe,” he whispered to her.
She’d closed her eyes and seemed to be holding her breath. At his urging, her eyes opened and the frustration he saw there made the excitement of the last moments fade.
“I’m going back to the front to work,” she told him, then offered the Justinian coin they’d found to him. “This tells us that the burial took place after the sixth century, and that would fit with the theory that it could be Redwald or one of his sons.”
“It’s a good theory.”
“Not that Van Arsdale will care much about the details.” She stared down at her mud-covered boots. “It’s an odd feeling. I want to find more and yet I don’t.”
Before Dom could reply, she turned and made her way back to the spot where she’d been working for much of the day.
He glanced over at Tristan, who was bent over his field notebook, documenting each coin as well as sketching the spot where they’d discovered them.
“Let’s move a few more men to this area,” he suggested.
“Agreed,” Tristan told him. “I’ll see to it as soon as I have this all down.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Dom stepped up to the perimeter of the trench and directed a few men in a corner section to movedown toward the middle, closer to where the coins had been found.
As he made his way back to Tristan, he heard a gasp and turned quickly back to Tess.
She and the younger Bromley brother were hunched, their heads almost touching, as they stared down into the depression they’d excavated.
“Easy now,” Dan Bromley murmured.
Tess nodded and swiped gently with her brush. “It’s extraordinary.”
Dom glanced up at the Americans, who seemed to be in excited discussion, perhaps about the find of the gold coins. He climbed down to where Tess and Bromley were on their knees.
“What is it?”
When Tess looked up, her eyes were glassy. “It’s beautiful, but I’m not sure what it is.” She kept her voice quiet, and he understood.
Crouching beside her, he spotted what she’d found, and his mouth went dry. Gold and ornately carved, the object was in perfect condition.
Dan tapped the handle end of his trowel against the edge and a clump of dirt fell away.
“I think it’s a buckle,” Tess breathed, brushing eagerly. She used her fingers to peel away a bit more of the top sediment and the whole piece became visible. It wasn’t the tiny fragment she’d found earlier. This was massive in comparison.
With care and patience, she lifted it free of the soil and laid it in her palm. It filled her hand from her wrist to the tips of her fingers.
“This was a wealthy person,” she said softly. “The workmanship is breathtaking.”
It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful artifacts he’d ever seen, the kind that would cause gasps of delight for years. The kind that the papers would display in sketches and photographs. The kind that would be a centerpiece of a museum display.
Dom swallowed hard as he noted the shift of interest from the Van Arsdales.
Tess held his gaze, and it felt as if she was willing him to keep the find between the two of them for as long as possible.
