Horatio

I can’t believe it. After all these months, I finally had someone come up and show me some coins which he found that were actually worth something. It was Harry Oldfield and he had shown more interest than most when I had first discussed the situation at the meeting.

There were several old Victorian coins - early dates - and the odd few from George VI, but the one that really made my eyes bulge was from the reign of Queen Elizabeth dated 1568 - a silver coin. It shows the figure of Queen Elizabeth. I am so excited as this is worth a lot of money. Of course, I didn’t give that information away to Harry - but asked him whether he wanted to sell his findings to me out right - or whether he wanted me to get them valued as his agent, and then I take a 25% cut of the value he is offered.

Then he was almost embarrassed when he showed me the last find. It was a fine specimen of a prehistoric stone hammer head, although I didn’t think he had recognised it as such.

“Is this worth anything?” he said.

“I’m not too sure,” I said, “although added into the collection with the coins, it will certainly increase the value.”

“How much will you give me?” he asked straight out, and I stopped in my tracks for a moment. It had to be high enough to tempt him to sell the things to me, and yet not so high as to make him think it was worth much more than I mentioned.

“Two pounds for the lot,” I said.

“Blimey, that’s more than I expected.”

“Well there are several coins and the other item - so I don’t think that is a bad offer. What do you say? Is it a deal?”

“Can I have a few days to think it over and talk to my friends about it?”

“Either you trust me or you don’t,” I countered. “If you want to find somebody else to sell it for you, or buy it from you, that’s up to you. Good day,” and I started shutting the door.

“Wait,” he said. “All right, it’s a deal. But I want Two Guineas now and in cash.”

“Oh, so it’s Guineas now is it? Well, since you are here and I hope you and your friends will keep looking for more, all right. It is a deal.”

I reached into my pocket and withdrew two £1 notes from my money clip, and added the required two shillings to make it up to two Guineas.

“And do come back if you find more,” I said. “This could be the start of a fortune for you. Who knows but what a whole bag of those coins might be out there somewhere in your field.”

“Thanks for this. I’ll see what else I can find,” and he trotted off whistling, and no doubt was about to spend a certain amount of his wealth on drinks at the local. That is fine with me. Nothing like a satisfied customer to make others take note. I rather thought that a few more coins would be coming my way in the next few weeks.

Now that Louisa and her mother are back, I am missing the freedom of last month. Blanche tries to avoid talking to me, and has treated me very coolly ever since our special evening. Never mind. She asked for it, and she got it - and it no doubt wasn’t the first she’d had that day either.

I got out my coin collecting books, and started going through to see just how much this little beauty of a coin was going to make me. Probably ten times what I paid Harry but he would never know that.

And the stone hammer too probably has a value, although I am not sure exactly what it will be in financial terms. Certainly there will be people about who will find it of great interest, and want to know exactly where it was found so they can then speculate about who lived there when, and what sort of animals they ate, and what sort of houses they lived in. These archeologists get one little detail and create a whole fairy tale story from it.

I can’t think of any excuse for another more personal meeting with Hannah. We will have to have another business meeting before too long when I report on the progress of our house buying project, but I have to wait until I hear specific figures from Lord Howard’s Steward, Mr. Charles Andrew.

That gives me an idea. I can say I have to go to Glossop to discuss the situation with the Steward and perhaps the Cashier, Mr Evason and the Clerk to the Works for Lord Howard, and I can meet up with Hannah there. We can both have a reason for being in Glossop - and nobody there will know who we are, or that we are not man and wife. I will write her a letter - making it sound very official and yet intimating that it will be our rendezvous.

We have our fortnight’s holiday in Brittany to look forward to, or to dread, more likely. Louisa seems even more of an anathema to me now that I consider that there is some hope for me with Hannah. I shall try to enjoy myself, and at least enjoy the better weather, and interesting scenery, take in whatever historic buildings they have on offer, but I shall avoid having Louisa in an intimate way. It will mean more when I do it with Hannah if I can tell her honestly that I have not had relations with Louisa. And I cannot for the life of me imagine that Louisa will initiate any activity in that regard. She probably will not understand, but be grateful for whatever she decides is bothering me.