Anne Barbour Read Online Free

was so sorry to hear of your wound. Are you recovering?”
    He had shifted his position slightly, and now she could see his face clearly in the sunlight. She almost gasped as the horror of his appearance struck her. Dear Lord, was this really David? The smooth-faced, smiling boy she had known had been transformed to a gaunt, harsh-featured, infinitely weary man.
    A silence stretched between them, until Kate, recalling herself, continued.
    “I’m so glad you’re here! I’ll just untether Belle, and we can go.”
    As she ran to accomplish this, David called after her.
    “But, what on earth were you doing when I arrived? It sounded like a coal miner at work, as well it might have been, judging from your appearance.”
    Kate whirled, her face alight.
    “Yes, I suppose I must look a sight,” she laughed, uncaring, “but, oh, David, wait till I show you!”
    She darted behind the rock from which she had emerged a short time before, and when she returned, she carried something wrapped in an old shawl.
    “Look! Just look!”
    David reached down to receive the bundle and stared in amazement at its contents.
    He turned the object, examining it carefully. It was the head of a young boy, carved in marble. Tousled hair curled over a smooth brow, and a turned-up nose wrinkled engagingly. His lips curled in a mischievous smile. The detail was astonishing; one could almost trace a delicate network of veins along the temples. The artist had captured all the exuberance and vulnerability of childhood.
    David let out a soft whistle.    . ,
    “Where in the world did you find this?”
    “Back there!” She gestured. “I discovered it several months ago. And there’s so much more! Oh, David, we never dreamed—you and Philip and I—when we spent so much time playing here—there’s a whole house, right beneath our feet!”
    “What?”
    “Yes. One day I was sitting up here by myself, and a really ferocious storm blew up. It seemed only a matter of moments, and then thunder and lightning scared me to death. I shrank back against the rock wall, trying to find some shelter. Mud and rocks began to slide from above as I made my way farther along the ledge—farther back into the underbrush than any of us had ever gone before—and suddenly, I slid. I was so frightened! I thought I was going to tumble all the way down into the valley, but I lodged against a tree, with my foot caught in a sort of crevice.
    “As I tried to wrench it free, the crevice grew wider, and before I knew it, I had fallen into what seemed like a cave. The first thing I saw was the head. I scrabbled about some more, and saw that I was in some sort of room, with vases made of bronze, and what looked like part of a leather sandal.”
    “Good Lord, Kate. Do you know what you’ve stumbled into?”
    “I think so. It can only be an ancient Roman villa! A family lived in this place—a Roman family, but so far from home, and so long ago. You can see—” she pointed to the thin line of road that lay between their vantage point and the river beyond—”the house was situated close to the old Via Julia—the road between Bath and Bristol.” She turned her attention to the sculpture. “The marble head is, I believe, a portrait bust. He was a real child, don’t you think? Look, here, he has a tiny scar at the corner of his mouth.”
    David ran his fingers over the childish contours.
    “This is astonishing! Yes, I believe you’re right, but it’s a much finer example of marble portraiture than any I’ve ever seen in this country.”
    “Yes, it is, isn’t it?” She wrapped the bust carefully in the old shawl. “Uncle Thomas took me to see the excavations at Bignor, and ...” She stopped at David’s questioning look. “It was, oh, three years ago, I think, when a farmer in Sussex found the remains of a whole villa in his field. It’s a huge place, and two portrait busts were found, but not nearly so fine as this. I’ve left the artifacts pretty much as I