I grip the handles tighter and pedal a bit faster.
It’s as if Julie’s email has made me feel a whole new loss: it’s only now I know Mum’s story that I can actually grieve. It’s only now I realize that I didn’t grieve properly when she died. I couldn’thave: I didn’t have a full enough picture of what had happened. I understand why people kept certain details from me but this meant I sensed something didn’t add up, so Mum’s death didn’t seem wholly real. But now it is real—thumpingly, heart-splittingly, gut-wrenchingly real.
I finish my workout, stretch and shower. I don’t know what Theo’s told the kids but they must understand something’s wrong because they all keep a respectful distance and don’t bother me. After we’ve eaten—in the kitchen because the builders are working outside—we toss our squeezed oranges off the hill and I manage to raise the hint of a smile.
At least I still have lots of work to do so can’t sink into a pit of despair. I carry the recycling up through the olive grove—today’s the day formultimateriale, or tin, plastic and polystyrene. I take delivery of a new wardrobe and the sofa bed for the cottage, only for Archie to spill a can of Coke Zero all over the sofa, which I then have to clean up. And I listen to Giuseppe tell me there’s a problem with the plaster in the bedroom of the cottage: some of it has started coming away from the wall. I don’t understand why, when the plaster everywhere else is perfect. But I don’t have the capacity to take in what he’s saying so ask him to just do whatever’s needed.
And all morning I ache with sadness for my mum. My misguided, impressionable, passionate, romantic Mum. A woman who was still young, just thirty-five when she died. And a woman I finally understand.
“Be careful, gang!” warns Theo.
Once the diggers have left the castle, Luisa takes us down into the underground chamber. I’m still feeling subdued and am much quieter than usual, but I’m surprised to feel a flurry of enthusiasm as I climb down the ladder. The second my head goes underground and I catch sight of the chamber—illuminated by several portable lights Luisa has positioned around the edges—I’m entranced.
It’s about twice as high as Theo is tall, and almost as spacious as the wine store or the big lounge in the house. It has a vaulted ceilingand stone walls held together by some kind of mortar. And along these walls are several arrow slits, some of them filled in, some letting through thin slashes of sunlight.
“This slaps!” gushes Callum.
“Oh my god, it’s unreal!” squeaks Mabel.
They’re not wrong. I can’t believe this massive space was lying underground, undiscovered for so long. Hundreds of years, possibly.
“Isit a dungeon?” asks Archie.
Luisa screws up her nose. “I’m sorry to say I don’t think so. If you look at that wall, you can see what would have been a fireplace and a chimney.”
As I move closer, I almost twist my ankle on the uneven ground, but grab onto the wall just in time. “Oh, yeah.”
We’re all fascinated, but Archie looks disappointed.
“It’s also too big for a dungeon,” Luisa goes on, tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear. “Prisoners wouldn’t have been given so much space.”
“So what was it?” asks Theo.
Luisa runs her hands down her cargo shorts. “I expect it formed part of the main palace. And we need to keep investigating, but the most probable answer is it was some kind of dwelling.”
“What’s that?” says Archie.
“A living space, a home,” answers Luisa.
“For a knight?” asks Archie.
Luisa angles her head. “Well, a chamber this size wouldn’t have belonged to anyone insignificant. So it could have been a knight, yes.”
Archie gives a satisfied smile.
“Or a princess,” points out Mabel, suddenly looking much younger than thirteen.
“Or a king!” throws in Callum, not bothering to disguise his excitement.
“It’s unbelievable,” I say. “And here we are standing in the same spot a thousand years later.”
Luisa gives a half-turn. “And just think, if we’ve found this chamber, there may be more—lots more. Who knows what we might uncover?”
Theo ruffles Archie’s hair. “What do you think, squirt? Are you happy?”
“Yeah,” says Archie. And he gives another smile.
I look at him and find myself smiling, too.
