Free Site Unseen by Dana Cameron Page A

they had also survived. Too many unknowns, I thought, putting the maps away, there's nothing to see here, yet. So I went and stared at the dirt for a while.
    Tapping my pen against my teeth, I looked at the floor of the unit. It was just a circle of differently colored soil, mottled yellow and red sand, framed within the uniform brown of the surrounding level. It was definitely a feature, most likely a posthole, maybe dating to the seventeenth century, possibly as early as the Jacobean fort. Way too many unknowns, and there was nothing else to do but wait and see if others like it showed up.
    Wait and see. The idea was not as easy as it sounded. Never mind that it might be the beginning of the fort, never mind that it might be the best evidence yet for this history-shattering discovery, never mind that it could make my career, I thought. I had to wait and I was pretty sure the suspense was going to kill me.
    I realized that now I was chewing the pen cap, gnawing hard on the plastic. I carefully replaced the pen in my back pocket before I could break it or a tooth. As I turned, I noticed that Neal had joined me.
    "Pretty neat," he said, nodding at the feature.
    "Yep. It could be it." The thought alone made me long for my pen cap.
    "What's the plan, then?" he asked.
    "Well, I'm going up to tell Pauline about this. Give the others ten more minutes to finish up--we started late--and then get an elevation on this. The others need to know when things might start happening in their units. After that, we keep digging."
    Neal was silent for a moment then said, "It seems like we should be able to do more, once we've got this."
    "We're doing what needs to be done," I said. "You're right though, just carrying on seems like so little. Oh," I continued, as if with an afterthought. "There seems to be a little tension between you and Meg. That what you were telling me about last night?"
    The crew chief immediately flushed red.
    "I had a word with Meg. I think she'll be a little more open to suggestion in the future." We walked up the slope a bit together. "Her work looks pretty good, don't you think?"
    He nodded, still red.
    "Not everyone would have seen that transition right at the top like that. Most folks would have gone down a bit before they picked up on it."
    Neal shrugged.
    "I mean, I think we can be more confident about her." I stopped and caught Neal's eye. "Which is good, you know, because that frees you up for your work and for watching out for Alan, right? Everybody wins."
    He nodded. "Gotcha, Em."
    "Good. Back in a bit."
    Congratulating myself on handling things so effectively, I went up to the house. I found Pauline working steadily in the front flower beds, pulling weeds and deadheading faded blooms.
    "Hey Paul," I hailed her. "Got a minute?"
    She smiled. "Of course." After she carefully wiped off her shears, we sat on the steps leading to the big wraparound porch. I told her about Meg's find of the lead ball and the posthole, but she was curiously unmoved by these discoveries. She sat leaning against one of the porch posts, watching the terns wheel against the backdrop of the opposite shore, her eyes half closed.
    I began to get worried; surely she wasn't ill? "You see? It's possible we've got the first hard, in-ground evidence for the fort."
    Her eyes were closed completely now. "I do see. It's great news, isn't it?"
    I put my hand on her arm. "Paul, forgive me for saying so, but you don't seem, well, excited," I said. "Are you okay? You should come over, have a look at Meg's feature."
    "I'll stop by later, as usual," she said unhurriedly. Pauline picked up on my concern, however, and opened her eyes again. "I'm thrilled, of course," she explained. "But if I'm not capering, it's because I thoroughly expected you to find the fort, dear. It was only a matter of time."
    I stared at her. "It wasn't just a matter of time, we had practically nothing--we still don't even know if that's what we've got!"
    "You've got it, don't