“Doctor
Theo Tyler? How do you do.” The interviewer sits down and puts
her recording device on the table between them.
“I see from your webpage you describe yourself
as a historian and a desk archaeologist. What do you mean by that?”
“You can be historian without being an
archaeologist, but you can’t be an archaeologist without being a
historian. My life isn’t spent
excavating. My archaeology is mainly
theoretical. By interpreting landscape, place names and documentary evidence
where it exists, a lot can be inferred about past events and where settlements
might have been established.”
“So,
what in your background drew you to this area of study? “
He smiles
slightly “Most boys are interested in the Vikings, aren’t they? A boyhood
fascination developed into a more general attraction to the period from the fourth
to the twelfth century.
“The
Dark ages?”
“A rather
reductive term. It doesn’t mean the peoples of these islands were mindless
primitives. Those centuries are only so-called because the documentary and
material evidence from the period between the Romans’ departure and the arrival
of the Normans is far more limited than before or after. I prefer early
medieval.”
“You’re
upbringing was unusual. The debutante
and the punk rocker…?” She smiles and arches her eyebrows at him.
“I have no
wish to talk about my family. “
“But
life was hard after your father died,” she pursues. “Your
mother didn’t cope well….?
“It certainly
wasn’t easy. My mother is … was…..” Theo clears his throat. “Needless to say, we
survived the trauma and the press intrusion.
It took her awhile to come to terms with his death, but as I said, it’s
not a time of my life I want to discuss.”
The interviewer
clears her throat, “Fair enough. Um … you went to a
rebrick university for your under-graduate years? You could have attended
Oxford or Cambridge, but you chose not to?”
“My rebellious phase.”
“And
that was when you began a relationship with Aniela Sobieralska? I’ve heard it
said it was fiery?”
“Not at the
start. It grew into a tempestuous
association. But she’s moved on. I hope she’s happy now.” Theo lifts his hand
and circles his finger-tips at his hairline, above his temple. ”I hope her husband
has given her what I couldn’t, or wouldn’t.”
“To
get back to your rebellious phase. You’re teaching here now. Do you repudiate your youthful idealism ….?””
“Not at
all. I’m just older…”
“And
wiser?”
“I’m more pragmatic. I have less
energy to expend on trying to overthrow the class system.”
“And
yet you’re…?”
“Just a temporary university lecturer at Lancaster
College, filling in for a permanent member of staff who is engaged in a
research project.”
“You’re
hopeful of tenure here?”
“One day. Here …
or somewhere else.”
“How
did you react to Jane Smith, when you first met her in the Spring of 2016?”
“Jane?” Theo
pauses, his mouth quirks up at the corner. “It was a very brief encounter.
There was no time to respond.”
“Your
first impression then?”
Theo covers his mouth as if to disguise his
expression, but then nods. “I was a bit
put out, to be completely honest. It was a surprise. She and her associate were established in the
room I usually use in the college. The
colours she was wearing were very … gaudy. And she was…...” He shakes his head as if he’s
decided against pursuing the subject.
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter.
Whatever I thought of her was unexpressed and I had no expectation of
ever meeting her again.”
“So
how did that come about?”
“A few months later we met in the pub over the road
from Lancaster. It was a pure fluke that we were both there at the same
time. But if it hadn’t been for her free-range
sandwich……….” I
“Can
you explain that?”
“She mis-spoke.” He shakes his head and now there is a
definite smile hovering around his mouth. “Jane was there filling in time
before an appointment. We got talking, slightly unwillingly on her part. But I’d
remembered she had been engaged by the NITP to organize a September conference at
Lancaster College. As I was thinking about holding a conference myself, I thought
her expertise might be useful to me. I decided to put aside any preconceptions
and raise the subject.”
“And
did she help?”
“She gave me
an overview of what I needed to take into consideration. But to be honest the
subject rather went onto the back burner after she told me what her appointment
was about.”
“Which
was?”
“She was
obviously upset. She’d come in to talk to Lancaster’s conference manager about
an imposed change to her arrangements with college. Strangely her problem intersected with one of
mine. It raised my suspicions of an
improper relationship between the hierarchy of the college, a developer, and the
planning department of Beacon’s Hill council … for whom I’m the archaeological
consultant.”
“That
sounds complicated.”
Theo nods. “You
could say that. Had it not been for that coincidence and the subsequent discovery
that she had a strange story to tell about her own family connection to a
wartime find of a Viking hoard … well, none of it would have happened….”
BLURB
“I found Buried Treasure a compelling read. It was so
many things: a love story, a hunt for clues to lost secrets, and a fascinating
look at how our past experiences shape us, and how we can heal even after
damage. The characters were wonderfully well drawn. ”
Jane thinks he sees her as shallow and ill-educated.
Theo thinks she sees him as a snob, stuffy and out of touch.
Within the ancient precincts of the university the
first encounter between the conference planner and the academic is accidental
and unpromising. Just as well there’s no reason for them ever to meet again.
But behind the armour they’ve each constructed from old scars, they’ve more in
common than divides them. Both have an archaeological puzzle they are driven to
solve. As their stories intertwine, their quest to uncover the past unearths
more than expected.
Links…
BURIED TREASURE
Find Gilli’s other books TORN, LIFE CLASS and FLY or FALL at
Contact Gilli at
1 comment:
Thanks for inviting me, Pauline. I enjoyed giving Theo a grilling, even if it was through a third party interviewer. Gillix
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