Part 1

Chapter One




It was a cold and windy morning as Jane Rushton walked to her place of work, a spot of rain stung her face every few steps as if even the weather was teasing her. She had held her job at the library for twelve years, ever since she came out of college at the age of eighteen. In her younger days she had looked forward to marriage, a family and the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of a conventional life with a partner. Instead she seemed to have drifted through her teens and twenties, in the hope that her prince charming would one day come along and just as in the fairy tales; sweep her off her feet and whisk her off to his castle. Well that’s what she thought, for a long time she thought this, but her prince never came, and the more the years went by the more she became convinced it was never to be. One by one her friends got married and one by one they lost contact, when one day she realised that she no longer had a circle of friends. It was just her, her cat and her mother. She had mixed emotions as she climbed the steps to the library; on the one hand she felt at home, she was safe in this large stone womb. Safe from normal everyday life, secure in the cocoon of silence that the library gave her. And yet! And yet she knew that her prince would never find her here; hidden away as she was in this silent world of books, with only hushed whispers and the occasional echoing footsteps down an empty corridor.
“Good morning Miss Rushton”. It was the voice of one of the girls at the reception desk. “Oh! Yes good morning Elsie”. She walked quickly past the reception area her heels clicking on the old marbled tiles. Through the double doors at the far end of the room there were a number of rooms one of which was her office. In earlier times this office would have been a grand affair, and although the vast desk was still there, as well as the stained glass in the door, it was obvious that it was now a working office. There were books in glass cases, books on shelves and even books on the floor, with only two concessions to the modern day; one telephone and one computer. A girl came into the room “Sorry to disturb you Miss Rushton but this letter has just been delivered by hand for you”. Jane took the letter and examined it. It was from the museum. The library was in an old building and as such it had ample space, not just for books but also space for the local museum’s overflow of artefacts. These were secondary items belonging to the museum and were kept in the sub basement.
The letter read.

Within the next two days a gentleman by the name Joseph Earl will call with a letter of authority allowing him to examine the museum overspill held at that location. I would be grateful if you would show him every courtesy.

Thank you

D Hollingwood

Museum Director

“Well it would seem we are about to have visitors”. She mused, and without a second thought she laid down the letter and promptly forgot about it.


The following day she was in the middle of trying to trace some books that had gone missing within the library. It was one thing for books to be lost by the public but entirely another for them to be lost by the library. The girl had interrupted her again and she felt annoyed, not that she had been interrupted but that she had forgotten her name. She was a school leaver and so much reminded her of herself when she had first started there. “Sorry Miss Rushton but”. At this point she cut her short. “No, not Miss Rushton. Jane please, and you are”? “Wendy Tripp, miss”. “No not miss, your not in school now, anyway you wanted something”? The young girl now looked a little flushed. “Oh yes. There’s a man to see you”. “Very well show him in”. When the young man came in she was back at the figures trying to find the discrepancy, and for a second or two she hadn’t noticed him standing there. The first thing that caught her eye was the shabby trousers, then the old brown jumper, a jumper with holes starting in at the elbows, she could see one or two little treads just peeking out. Then there was the face, or should that be the face within the hair, collar length hair and a beard, he was clean but with a somewhat windswept appearance.
“Hi, my names Joe, I have a letter of introduction from the director of the museum”. This is not what she had been expecting. In the past, the kind of people that had come to view the museum exhibits were in the most part ancient fossils, almost as old as the artefacts themselves. She quickly perused the letter and said “Well Mr Earl what exactly can I do for you”? As she looked at him she tried to make out what kind of man this was, not that she had any kind of experience of men in general, but she was intrigued by this one. For a start he was quite young, how young she couldn’t say, but if she were to hazard a guess, she would have said around her age. Then there were the clothes, not the kind that might be worn by a professional gentleman. His hands were lean and delicate, the kind one might expect from a musician. But it was the eyes, they were of the most beautiful pale blue, and yet they somehow seemed to radiate a brilliance that she could have got lost in. The face looked kindly, but she wasn’t really able to tell because of all that hair. “Please take a seat Mr Earl”. He took his seat on an old Cain backed chair that creaked a little and gave the impression that it wasn’t too stable. “Clovis points and knapped flint”. He exclaimed “That is to say, that is my reason for being here. I would like to see what items of interest you may have in the way of Clovis points and any related flint knappings”. “I see”. She said, but not seeing at all “I have to admit that Clovis points and flints are not the kind of thing I come across in my normal everyday work”. They both began to laugh. “Yes I am a fool”. He said. “I get carried away, just because I have an interest in something doesn’t mean that everyone else knows what I’m talking about, please forgive me”. She took a large bunch of keys from a drawer and made for the door. “Come and I’ll take you down, but I’m afraid you will have to look for your points yourself as I have really no idea what they are”. And with this they made for the lift at the end of the corridor.
The sub basement was two large rooms with a large archway in the partitioning wall. In the first part of the room were the heavy objects, such as marble statues and the like. Through the archway was what Joseph Earl had come for, there was shelf after shelf, case after case, and drawer after drawer of specimens. “Is this what your after Mr Earl” Through his beard she saw his mouth break into a big grin. “Oh yes”. And as he pulled open drawer after drawer his smile became even wider. As she looked at him she noticed herself smiling as well, his enthusiasm was infectious, he looked for all the world like a little boy, opening presents on Christmas morning. Turning to her he said. “What do you know about Indians”? He had caught her off guard. “Well, um, Asian or American”? “Ah now therein lies the rub, to quote the Bard himself”. He then began to explain that the American Indian had always considered themselves to have been of Asian decent and that they had never been in contact with any European until Mr Columbus came knocking on their door. “I really must leave you Mr Earl; I have an enormous workload to get through”. He looked at her with a big beaming smile. “Yes, of course, I’m sorry; I really do get carried away at times. At another time perhaps”? She smiled in return. “Yes I think I would really like that”. With that she made to walk to the next room, after about the fifth step she stopped, turned round and said. “How long can we expect to have your company Mr Earl”? “Well I can’t see me being finished within five weeks”. With that she turned and walked away, a big smile crept across her face.
“Behave yourself Jane Rushton, your behaving like a fourteen year old school girl”. She thought to herself as she hurried back to her office. When she got back she looked in the mirror that was hanging in the toilet next to her office. She was a little breathless and more than a little flushed. At about three fifteen Wendy came into her office. “It’s the late correspondence, err Jane, can I just leave it here”. Jane just took a quick glance. “Yes Wendy that’s OK. Oh by the way we have a Mr Earl down stairs, make sure we don’t lock him in tonight”. “He’s already gone miss, I mean Jane. He left about half an hour ago, but he did say to make sure that we told you that he would be here tomorrow at nine sharp”. She found herself feeling a little disappointed at this, she found herself somehow attracted to him but couldn’t understand why. It was certainly not his clothes; she had seen better apparel in the Oxfam shop. It wasn’t his face; she could hardly see that for all the hair he was carrying. If she had to give some kind of description, well perhaps he had been blessed by the hairy fairy, yes; that would have seemed the most apt. Now his eyes, they were something different, they did have some kind of mesmeric attraction and yes they did fascinate her. He did have that enthusiasm that was infectious, she too had enthusiasm for her job but it was by no means on the same level as his. She had only just met him, only known him for an hour but the way he spoke of his work, she could see it in his eyes. Then there was the way he spoke of those points; she felt she needed to know more about this. Yes she had made her mind up she was most definitely going to find out more.

Chapter 2


It was still raining as she got off the bus, but this was a different rain, not the teasing rain of the morning but a in your face kind of rain. “Is that you dear”? Her mother shouted as she came through the door. “Yes mum and I’m soaked”. “Then come in and get those wet things off”. Jane took off her wet clothes and changed, and after a quick coffee she began to make the tea. It was something of a ritual, Jane would make the tea and her mother would make the conversation, “I rang Harriet up today, she says she thinks Brenda is loosing her marbles, can’t seem to hold a conversation these days”. Jane was now absent mindedly peeling the potatoes. “Really”! “Yes and guess what? Her youngest daughter is expecting another baby that will be her fourth grandchild”. This was a subject that seemed to come up every month or so. “Now don’t start mother, we’ve been through this before”. “Well if you don’t get those ovaries working my grandchildren will only know their Gran as a six foot by two foot piece of grass and daisies”. Its not that Jane didn’t want what her mother wanted but it was just one of those things, it hadn’t happened for her, yet. Her mother seemed to have the bit between her teeth now. “Girls these days, and this emancipation thing”! Jane was starting to get annoyed now, and it was the potatoes that were taking the brunt of it. “Oh for goodness sake mother, things were different in your day. I mean you didn’t have the same kind of freedom as we do now, some couples don’t even get married these days, even sex was different in those days”. Her mother looked at her in a strange way and then laughed “Sex was different, how different, do you think we did it standing on our heads, or perhaps hanging from the branches of trees”. The picture of her mother hanging upside down from the branch of a tree did kind of tickle her. “Now mother you’re just being silly, you know I meant no sex before marriage, and that kind of thing”. By now he mother had sat down at the small dinning table. “Right little missy, you just sit down while I put you straight on a little matter”. Reluctantly Jane did as she was bid and sat opposite her mother. “Now then, little miss Jane Rushton, let me enlighten you, this is something you didn’t know”. Her mother paused a little as if wondering whether this was a good idea or not, then continued. “You were never told this but I’m sure a modern emancipated young woman like you can handle it. I was only married for five months before little Jane came along”. In spite of herself, Jane felt a sense of shock. It had never even crossed her mind that her mother would have been capable of; and not married. All those lectures she used to get from her mother when she was a teenager, when all the time her mother had been doing that very thing. There was something of a glint in her mother’s eye as Jane sat there speechless. She couldn’t understand what had brought on the utter frankness from her mother. Jane’s face gradually turned from a look of surprise into a slight scowl. “Just one moment mother, don’t you move”. She got up slowly walked into the lounge, made a bee line for a corner cupboard and opened it, took out a bottle and marched back again. “Well mother what have you got to say”? “About what dear”. Her mother said with the look of a naughty little girl. “Gin mother, gin, you’ve been at the bottle and you promised me you wouldn’t”. There was a sheepish look on her mothers face now. “Well I only had a little dear”. No wonder her mother had been a little feisty, it was more than a little gin. “Mother you’ve had almost a tumbler full”. “Really dear, how can you tell”? “Because I marked the bloody bottle, that’s how, the doctors have told you and told you. One wine glass every other night. Not a tumbler full in an afternoon”. Her mother knew she had more than overreached herself and was in a frame of mind to make amends. “Sorry dear I know I deserve a visit from the smack fairy”. Jane smiled weakly, she couldn’t stay annoyed for long with her mother, after all she was all she had. As far as she knew her mother was her last living relative, and who could tell for how many more years she would have her. Jane had the urge to defuse the atmosphere that had been created between them. So without a second thought it came out. “I met a man today” Immediately she realised that her mother would put two and two together and make forty three. “Really dear, and is he nice”. This was unexpected, she half expected her to ask if he wanted children. “Well, he seems to be, but I don’t know a lot about him. I don’t think you would like him though. He has far too much hair”. A big smile crept across her mothers face. “Tell me, tell me everything and don’t leave out a single detail”. All during dinner and until bed time Mr Earl was the topic of conversation. Little did he know it, but that certain gentleman had entered into the lives of two ladies that day?
A finger of sun light peeked in through a crack in the curtains of Jane’s darkened bedroom. Beneath the opalescent shade of the table lamp the alarm clock began to herald the dawn of a new day. With sleepy eyes Jane peeked through the curtains to see what kind of day she would be stepping into. This was part of her little ritual for getting up; she had done this since the age of six and on more than one occasion had annoyed her mother by gazing out of the window rather than getting dressed. Her mother was already up and while she was physically capable would be up before her daughter to make breakfast. “Come along dear, breakfast’s ready”. Her mother called, and had called for countless days before that. Now that everyone was fed and watered, including the cat, it was time to make inroads into this new day. The sun was shinning as Jane closed the door behind her and headed off to the bus stop.

Chapter 3



The Sun was pleasant as Jane rode the bus to work, in fact the day was pleasant and in her mind the whole world was pleasant. The library looked the same but today it seemed as though she were seeing it for the first time, she noticed carvings, high up under the eves, carvings that she had never seen before. The markings on the neo classical marble columns seemed to stand out, and shout at her “Look, look at the beauty”. By eight fifty she was in her office and had started work. A short time later Wendy popped her head round the door. “Excuse me Jane but Mr Earl is waiting to see you”. Without any hesitation she said. “Fine just show him in, thank you Wendy”. With a slight tap on the door Mr Earl entered the room. “I am disturbing you again”. “No not at all, please come in and sit down”. She looked at him and a little smile crossed her lips, he hadn’t changed his clothes, he still wore the same jumper and trousers. The thought crossed her mind that he needed looking after. The image of his bachelor flat popped into her mind, she could see it all, the unwashed dishes in the sink, the dirty washing in the corner, his books strewn around the room, the only thing in his life was his work. “Would you like a coffee before you start, I was just about to make one”. His face lit up “I’ll say, that’s fine thanks; I’ve not had breakfast this morning”. A little childish voice rang out in her head in a sing song voice. “I knew it, I knew it”.
The coffee made they sat down to enjoy it. It was Jane who prompted the conversation. “I left you a little abruptly yesterday but I really did have a lot of work to do. You were speaking of Indians as I recall”. “It’s quite alright Miss Rushton; you don’t really need to show an interest in my work”. This was her chance to find out about his work and possibly something about him as well, she knew that people liked nothing better than to talk about themselves. “No, on the contrary, I am very interested. As a matter of fact I was telling my mother about you and your work last night. She too showed a great deal of interest”. “Well if you’re sure”. And so he went on to explain that the first American Indians were thought to be, what is known as Clovis people who came from Asia almost eleven thousand years ago. They had left behind some very singular artefacts, namely spear heads known as Clovis points. These were so named because the location they were found in was called Clovis. These points were made from flint and made in a distinct manner. The points themselves were shaped on both sides and it took a very skilled workman to do it. When the Clovis people entered the American continent there were still a large number of huge animals at large. Giant bears, mammoths and the like but within a short time of the arrival of Clovis they had all died out, it is believed that it was the Clovis point that led to the demise of those creatures.
She was enraptured, totally under his spell “Perhaps you would like to have lunch with me and I can tell you more”. She tried not to be too eager, but it was impossible to hide “Yes, yes that would be lovely, I would really like that”. Coffee over she led the way again and took him down to the sub basement. “Have you found anything Mr Earl”? Jane looked at him with what she considered to be her most charming smile. “Please, I would much rather you called me Joe. No one calls me Joseph and I have been known as Joe from the age of three”. “Well in that case you must call me Jane”. Although she had her doubts about his appearance never the less his charm overwhelmed her, to be in his company was a joy, and so had every intention of enjoying every moment of it. As they walked through the archway into the depositary a question came to her. “Joe, if your interest is in the origins of the American Indian then what on earth do you expect to find here”? At this his face lit up. “Yes, that’s it you see, we now know that these points are eleven thousand five hundred years old. The bones of the animals that they killed tell us that, but the only people who have a point that is the same, are from the people who lived in France twenty thousand years ago called the Solutrians. So I’m trying to establish a Solutrian link in this country as well”. Jane was spellbound as he went on. “The thing is that the American Indians are very proud of the fact that they are of Asian origin and have no European blood. Now then recent research done by a certain American scientist by the name of Dr Douglas Wallis has thrown a spanner into the Clovis works, so to speak. His work with mitochondrial DNA has shown”. A shrill tone interrupted the conversation, it was Jane’s pager. In one deft movement she had removed it from her waist, turned it off, looked at it and returned it to its place of keeping. “I have to go Joe, it would seem I’m needed, but don’t forget lunch”. And with a smile she left him and made for the door.
It had been decided that they would have lunch in her office, so Wendy nipped out to the sandwich bar for the food for them. Joe offered to pay but Jane was having none of it. “No, it’s my office so it’s my food”. She smiled at him teasingly. “In that case dear lady”. Joe was now affecting an eighteenth century manner in return, “Perhaps you would care to join me for some refreshment at a future date, say dinner for instance, and I shall bring coin of the realm to pay for our repast”. Jane smiled at him; she was on the spot now this was something unexpected but not unwanted. She replied in the same vain and hoped that it didn’t sound too contrived. “I gratefully accept my lord and look forward to a splendid meal in whatever castle you may choose”. “In that case, no sooner said than done, this Saturday and I’ll pick you up if you wish”. It had all been settled, addresses given, directions taken and times agreed on. Lunch over they went their separate ways. She saw him again that day but only for a moment, he stopped off at her office just to say he was leaving and that he would be in at the same time tomorrow.
The bus ride home that night was over before she knew it, a familiar voice came from the living room. “Is that you dear”? “Yes mother”. As Jane took off her coat and shoes she asked her mother if she would rather have a salad than a dinner. “If you want dear, why is there something wrong”? As Jane entered the room she could see a look of concern on her mothers face. “Not trouble at work is it dear? Sit down and tell me about it. You know what they say, a trouble shared is a trouble halved”. Jane sat next to her mother and with a very straight face said “Well you know that man I told you about”? Her mothers face grew even more concerned. Jane looked at her mother and a big beaming smile grew upon her face. “He’s asked me out, he wants to take me for a meal on Saturday and he’s picking me up”. Her mothers smile matched her own and with her eyes wide with excitement her mother said. “You must tell me everything, forget the dinner, start at the beginning and don’t miss out a single detail. They talked together as if old school friends, not mother and daughter; it was a closeness that they had not known for a long time.
The meal was late that night. A pleasant uneasiness formed part of Jane’s sleep that night, dreams came and went like ships in a fog, one minute they were clear as day and the next; disappearing into forgetfulness only a vague memory. Jane lay awake as the Sun once again found the chink in the curtains. She watched the tiny specks of dust as they danced a madrigal in the Sun’s light, lost in her own thoughts until the clatter of the alarm brought her to earth. It was the start of a new day.

Continued in part two