The Fox

by Arlene Radasky

  Lovern used his teeth and we both used our free hands to untie the thread’s knot. We were forbidden to cut it. He put the thread into his memory bag.

  I crossed my arms and grasped the hem of my tunic, lifted it over my head and Lovern came up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and nibbled my neck, just under my ear, causing my knees to grow weak. Chills ran down my body and my nipples stiffened.

  “I cannot get ready for bed if you do not let me go,” I said.

  “I am here to help you undress,” he whispered into my ear.

  His strong arms enveloped me, carrying his scent of honey and crushed acorns. No other person smelled like him. No other man could make me want to be surrounded by him forever. I fell into his arms, and he turned me around to face him. My breath came faster as my heart danced in my chest. Heat rushed up from my toes to my face, and my breasts ached, waiting for his soft fingers to caress them. My body ached with desire. I buried my face into his chest, wanting his scent in my nose forever.

  “Jahna. When I think back on the time I did not know you, I wonder how I could have thought I was alive. I need you. I am strong with you near me. Now, with this contract, we will be together forever. You are now my family. You are my life.”

  “It is for you that I have waited so long,” I said. “I have taken no man before you. You are the one who taught me that to love is to feel the presence of the gods. My life will be lived as your partner, your wife. I will love you through this life and all we have hereafter.”

  His gentle blue eyes misted. Then one of his hands left my waist and encircled my breast. My nipples hardened even more at his touch, and I gasped. I stood on my tiptoes, and pulled his lips to mine.

  When our lovemaking was over, I lay next to him, weak, and rolled to him so my nose was against his ribs, inhaling his scent. His fingers combed through my hair; then his palm rested on the back of my head. We whispered promises of fealty. This night burned itself into my memories. It would be there until my death.

  We spent that night in a bed that smelled of sweet heather, in each other’s arms.

  The day of our marriage ended.

  Tomorrow I would follow my labyrinth.

  CHAPTER 8

  AINE

  April, 2005

  I had been given ninety-six hours to find her.

  Marc talked Lauri, Tim, Kendy, and Matt into staying for four days. They’d still have time to pack up the tent and equipment and go on to Wales if we didn’t find anything in the time they gave me.

  I called the farmer who owned the property, Mr. Treadwell, and told him we were coming up today. As he hesitated, thoughts of him telling me he’d changed his mind ran through my head. I reached for my antacids.

  “Just be sure to close the gate when you come up,” he said. “It wouldn’t be good fer me cattle to roam the roads, unattended.”

  I thanked him and assured him we’d close the gate.

  There was little conversation between Marc and I at first. The unpaved farm road was rough and full of ruts and I was glad we’d a Range Rover and a sturdy van for transportation. I decided not to ask any questions on the ride up about the discussion of their staying here. I was in the Rover with Marc and the rest of the crew was in the van behind us. Marc convinced the crew to stay, but I didn’t know if I wanted to find out how much he told them about our discussion last night. I hoped he’d been discreet about Jahna.

  The morning fog kept the dust down. It was also obscuring our view of the hill. I’d seen the hill and taken pictures of it last fall, but could hardly make out anything in this blanket of cold and moisture. Thankfully, I had my map coordinates out and the GPS in hand or we’d have driven right by it.

  It wasn’t a large hill, and it blended in with the landscape of pastures and surrounding hills. It also backed into the mountain just behind it, and was just tall enough to see the countryside, making any defense of it by ancient people easier. I knew they’d been here. Now I needed to prove it to the crew and Marc.

  We parked at the bottom and gathered around the van to unload our little bit of equipment. I asked for a few minutes to walk up to the hilltop to find the first spot I wanted to excavate.

  “I’m only going to get one chance at this and I’d like to make sure I pick the right area to start.”

  Marc looked at me with concern, sighed, and nodded while the rest of the team demurred and then agreed. The fog started lifting but the ground was damp and the air was still cold. The Rover’s heater was on the blink, so the crew got back into the van to wait. Marc went with me.

  “How’d you get them to stay?” I asked as he and I followed an old trail to the top. Oh Lord, I could tell I was having an attack of what my mother called “run of the mouth.” I couldn’t stop talking. It sometimes happened when I was nervous or happy. She could slow me down by holding her finger up, but she wasn’t here. So, without any reason to stop, I continued, “When you knocked on my door this morning, I thought it was to say goodbye and please drop off the Rover when I was done. Then I opened the door and there you were, standing with the trowel in your hand and a smile on your face. I was quite taken aback! By the way, did you have Mrs. Dingleberry pack us a big lunch? I didn’t have time to eat breakfast, as you know.” I ran out of breath.

  Marc shook his head and chuckled.

  We reached the top of the hill. Sunlight and warmth filled the last steps of the trail and we surveyed the scene below. The valley was still invisible and I imagined this is what Noah saw after landing on Mount Ararat. It was a sea of grey, nothing but the ground we stood on and the mountain behind us visible.

  “It was fun to see you so flummoxed,” said Marc, “and I’ve never seen you speechless before. You certainly are back to normal. When we were dating, I barely ever got a word in edgewise. Anyway, last night I explained the job offer in Wales. Then I said to think of the opportunity of finding a new location in Scotland. I told them to imagine being the first team on a new dig and all the exciting things that could come of it. Finally, I asked them to compare it to being one of many on an established dig in Wales and getting paid. They of course, being of sound minds, chose Wales. I then implored and finally retreated by offering them £500 each if they stayed for the rest of the week. They said they’d stay four days. No pressure on you or anything but something had better come up out of the ground fast.”

  Looking over the edge of the hill, I asked, “Where are you going to get £2000 to pay them with?”

  Marc reached out and touched my arm. I turned, not knowing what to expect and still feeling the possibility of loss in my stomach. His eyes were the lapis blue I remembered from our university days, the color I saw when, together, we made plans for the future, plans to conquer history. The feeling of loss was replaced with something else. Confusion. Why did it feel like I’d been standing beside him, in this place, forever?

  “Aine. I’ve almost enjoyed this last month, gathering the crew together and getting here. I’d thought of it as a challenge.” He paused, shuffling from one foot to the other, his hands deep in his pockets. “And I have to admit, a way to get to know you again.” His hands came out of his pockets and ran through his hair. “I’m sorry I was such an ass last night. Doug’s call took me by surprise. Why don’t we call a truce and see what the next few days bring? I thought it over after we talked in your room last night. I spoke to them,” he said, pointing down the hill, “after I’d already decided I’d stay for a week. I told myself, ‘just pretend it’s a small vacation.’ God knows I won’t get one for a long time if I go to Wales. So I’ll just sit tight and let the youngsters do all the hard work and I’ll man the computer. The money will either come out of the grants you’ll get from this dig or you’ll sell everything you own to pay them,” he said, looking at me with a sly grin.

  “Oh God. I’m already in debt up to my armpits. Oh well. If all goes like I know it will, we won’t have to worry about anything anyway. And you won’t have to go to Wales. We’ll have all the m
oney we need.”

  Suddenly serious, I asked, “Marc, will you be unhappy here?”

  “I had doubts earlier and still have a few, but I made the choice to stay. Heaven knows why, but I’m going to make the most of it, even if only for a week.”

  Marc and I walked around the edge of the hill. I stopped every so often and bent to touch the ground. Then I could smell peat fires around me. I heard animals in their corrals and felt the vibrating footsteps of people. This was where I was supposed to start. I turned to Marc. “We’ll start digging here.”

  The fog cleared enough to see the bottom of the hill. We waved to the van and they came tumbling out and grabbed the little equipment we had: stakes and twine to mark the quadrants, and spades, trowels, brushes, and sifting screens for digging.

  After trudging up the path, Tim marked the area I pointed to with the stakes and twine and asked me why I’d picked it. “It just felt right,” I answered. I didn’t tell him a warm feeling came over me as I felt the ground, a feeling that raised the hair on the back of my neck. Jahna had touched me.

  After marking the quadrants, we started removing and sifting the first layers of topsoil.

  We found the first pieces of pottery just before we left for the day. We were using hand trowels to remove the soil at that point but the ground wasn’t difficult to dig in after we cut through the sod with the shovels. The sun hid behind clouds and we stayed cool even though we worked hard. We’d been digging for several hours and found nothing when I decided to take a short break to watch the sifting.

  Matt balanced our square-frame screen on his hip. On the other side, it was supported by pieces of lumber attached to the screen frame. The soil that was going through the screen created a pile at his feet. The rocks that came up were tossed to the right of him and anything that he felt needed a closer look was laid to his left, in a bucket. So far, the bucket was empty. I watched as three small pieces of pottery emerged from the debris and lay on the screen along with the larger pebbles. Matt stopped shaking the screen and looked at me with anticipation. The pieces were dirt-covered and might have been overlooked by an amateur. With experience, you get an eye that searches for anything that looks as if it were man-made. I picked them up and looked for signs of age.

  “They are coil pots,” I observed, brushing off some of the soil. I walked them over to Marc and handed them to him. He looked at them and said, “Yes, this could be good news. I don’t think we should break out the champagne yet, though.” He handed them back to me and said, “I hope there’s more. Lots more.”

  That night, back at the inn, I asked Marc to call and ask George Wyemouth to come while I was on the phone looking for more money for the project. I now had employees and tests to pay for. With George’s connections to labs he could get our items carbon dated quickly. Without his help, it would take months to get results. I didn’t have months.

  In the second of my four days, we found a bronze blade similar to the one the farmer showed me last fall, more pottery, and two postholes. I was giddy after the postholes became visible. “This could be the reason to open a bottle of champagne!” I laughed. Marc stood next to me and I pulled myself up on tiptoes to kiss him. As I started to go back to level ground, he grabbed my waist, looked into my eyes, and said, “Congratulations, Aine. You may have a viable site.” He let me down and shrugging his shoulders said, “And I may have to stay another week just to see exactly what is here.”

  I don’t usually notice sunsets while I’m working. At that time of the day, I am in the tent, helping sort all the items we’d exhumed during the day. This one, however, pulled me into a whorl of feelings. I noticed the pink colors floating around me while I was walking from the tent to the Rover to get my coat. I glanced up at the sky but I wasn’t expecting the grandeur that overcame me. The daytime scattered alabaster cumulous, and steel gray nimbus clouds wore edges of cyclamen pink. The sun was just sitting on the cusp of the three hills across the pasture.

  “Everybody, come see this! Wow!” I said.

  Lauri and Kendy came out of the tent and looked around. Kendy said, “It’s beautiful. Sunset is the best time of the day. I use these colors in my art at home all the time. They are so peaceful.”

  Lauri continued, “Ohh. It’s wonderful. Whew, just look at those clouds on the horizon, though. I’m sure glad we covered everything. I think we may have a gusher tonight.” Tarps, weighted with stones, covered our working area.

  Marc walked over, and I shivered in the cooling air. I snuggled into the warm curve his arm and shoulder made as he opened up his coat and gathered me into it. I sighed, knowing I could get into trouble with this man all too easily. I felt a stirring of interest in his body vibrations and wondered what he was thinking.

  “I don’t think I’ve taken the time to see one of these in a long time. It’s pretty good,” Marc said. He turned to take in the sight behind us. “Look! Up on the trail. There’s a last bit of sunlight hitting that pile of rocks. It looks like a beam from a ray gun on a spaceship! Kapowie! Rocks and bad guys, gone! Hey, is there a good movie playing in town?”

  The mood ruined, I said, “I swear I’ll never get used to you guys and your lack of romance. Just go and let me look for a few minutes.” I shoved him off with my hands. He left his coat on my shoulders and walked to the Rover to get CDs to use for a backup for his computer.

  The sky went from a light blue to a smoky-lavendar in about two minutes and the clouds from rose to mauve with it. I was enjoying every moment and turned back to the mountain behind us to look at the trail where Marc’s imaginative laser beam was pointed. The light was still being concentrated on the spot through a trick of the clouds, but a few shadows were beginning to creep up. Suddenly, I knew I needed to go get a closer look at that pile of rocks. No big revelation or scene in my head, just the certain knowledge that I was going there tomorrow. If it did rain, I hoped the weather cooperated and the rain would stop early in the morning. I didn’t want to climb it in a storm, but there wasn’t a question of going; I was going. I memorized the rocks and boulders nearby, and knew I could find it in the morning.

  Back at the tent, the team was talking about the latest sci-fi movie they’d seen and the one they hoped to catch tonight. “Aine, we’re going into town for dinner and to catch a movie. Coming?” Marc asked.

  “Sure, this may be the last good night out I get for awhile,” I said, knowing my evenings would be taken up by deciphering the day’s work the further along we got. I wanted this dig to be perfect.

  “Let’s take the Rover and the van so we don’t have to cram into one car,” suggested Marc. “Put the box of pottery and the blade in the back of the van and Matt and I’ll take it to Mrs. Dingleberry’s. Tim can take the rover with Aine, Kendy and Lauri and we’ll meet you there.”

  We got into Fort William about an hour later and found a café next to the movie theater that was showing the film we wanted to see. It was one of the Ring movies, and we were all excited to have a night off to enjoy it. Marc and Matt arrived thirty minutes behind us.

  “Marc,” I asked, “how long until the registration of the site is done, and when is George getting here?”

  “A few days, and tomorrow. The Scottish Historical Association will process our request for listing on the monuments list, and George will get in on the morning train. I thought you and I could wait here tonight and bring him back to the dig in the morning. He gets in around eight,” said Marc.

  A chorus of catcalls and laughter went up from the rest of the team at that suggestion. The other customers in the café looked at us, and found a noisy group of disheveled friends.

  “No wonder you wanted to bring two cars. We thought that was a bit extravagant of the tight Scotsman in you, Marc,” said Lauri. “A night in town with a lady!”

  “No, no!” Marc said. “I was thinking of your comfort! Tim is always complaining about not having enough room for his 6’5” frame and size 13 feet!”

  “Now don’t you go pinning thi
s on me, Marc. I can fold up nicely when needed,” said Tim.

  I listened. Heat climbed up my back, around my neck and infused my face at these remarks. “If Marc and I decide to stay, it will be in separate rooms. There is nothing else to it, and I will thank you to stop this!” I said. “Anyway, I didn’t bring clothes or anything else for overnight so I probably won’t stay.”

  Marc said, “Don’t worry, there’s a small shop where we can get whatever we need.”

  That encouraged them, of course, and when we got into the movie, I was upset with Marc for putting me into this position. I angled my way around everyone else until I stood next to him as we slipped into our seats. “What was that all about? What’ve you been saying to them that has them thinking we are a couple?”

  I wondered if I wanted us to be a couple. What would be wrong with having Marc as my lover? No, I don’t want anything permanent now. I’ve work to do to get my career on track. But just one night, what could that hurt? I searched through my pockets for my antacids.

  Just the truth,” he said. “I told them we enjoy working together, that I respect your knowledge and decisions and would follow you to the ends of the earth if you asked.” His eyes told me he was teasing.

  I turned to slap his shoulder in response, and he gently caught my wrist. I tried to twist it away and was surprised by his eyes. They sparkled. They actually sparkled in that dim theater light. He smiled and kissed my fingertips. I gasped, then, unasked, my fingers touched his lips and my eyes welled with unshed tears. The movie started, and he held my hand through to the end. I don’t remember the plot.

  The exiting crowd escorted us outside. “Thank heavens the rain hasn’t started. I hate driving on these single lane roads in the dark as it is. I can’t imagine doing it in a storm, too,” Matt complained.