A Room Full of Bones: A Ruth Galloway Investigation

Although Kate was awake and ready for action at six, Ruth still found herself running round the house like a mad thing in order to get to Sandra’s at eight. By the time she had fed Flint, changed her own clothes twice, got Kate strapped in the car with a bag full of nappies and a change of clothes, and gone back because she was convinced she’d left the gas on, it was a quarter past. After a lightning changeover at Sandra’s, Ruth was finally on her way to Great Yarmouth. Now, after getting stuck behind two holiday coaches (who on earth would go to Norfolk in November?), she finally makes it to the Meeting House by nine-thirty. She hopes the seminars haven’t started.
    But when she enters the room signposted Refreshments, she realises that she has misjudged her colleagues. At nine-thirty, the assembled archaeologists are still tucking into coffee and Danish pastries. After agonies of indecision about her clothes, Ruth has finally settled on a black trouser suit to look professional (and slightly thinner). She is almost the only person not in jeans. The room also seems full of dyed hair – purple, red, pink, even a multi-coloured Mohican. Almost everyone has tattoos and multiple piercings. Someone has even brought their dog.
    In the end, though, it’s the dog that makes Ruth decide that she was right to come. As she stands uncertainly inthe doorway, the animal comes bounding up to her and jumps up to lick her nose. Ruth is taken aback. She likes all animals but she is really happiest with cats and this is a particularly large and whiskery dog. Why on earth is it so pleased to see her?
    ‘Claudia!’ calls an amused and familiar voice. ‘Come here.’
    ‘Hallo Max,’ says Ruth.
    Max hasn’t changed much in the past eighteen months. If anything he looks slightly healthier than she remembers, less haunted-looking. His face is brown, making his hair look greyer and his eyes bluer. He is grinning now, a wider grin than she ever remembers him giving but, then again, there hadn’t been that much to smile about when they last met.
    ‘Ruth. How lovely. Cathbad said you might be here.’
    The druid telegraph system is as efficient as ever. Ruth can see Cathbad across the room, his purple cloak not that outlandish in this setting. Bob Woonunga is standing next to him; he’s wearing a cloak as well but his looks as if it is made of fur.
    ‘I don’t really know why I’m here,’ says Ruth. She can feel herself smiling back at Max. Her facial muscles feel rusty from lack of use. ‘Cathbad persuaded me.’
    ‘Ah, well, he is very persuasive. Would you like a coffee?’
    ‘Yes, please.’
    They walk over to the urns, Claudia following them.
    ‘She’s grown,’ says Ruth, patting the dog’s head.
    ‘Yes,’ says Max. ‘She’s eating me out of house and home. As you see, I’ve turned into one of those pathetic creatureswho can’t leave their dog even for a day. Actually, the dog sitter let me down.’
    ‘It sounds worse than childcare,’ says Ruth, helping herself to a pastry.
    Max looks rather embarrassed, bending down to ruffle Claudia’s fur. ‘How’s your … how’s Kate? I’d love to meet her.’
    Max had sent a card and a present when Kate was born and Ruth had expected him to follow these tokens in person, but somehow it had never happened. She told herself at the time that she was relieved. These last months have been complicated enough without Max reappearing in her life. It’s good to see him now though.
    ‘Kate’s well,’ she says. ‘She had her first birthday last weekend.’
    ‘Her first birthday,’ Max looks startled. ‘I don’t believe it.’
    ‘No,’ says Ruth drily. ‘It seems much longer.’ But she knows what Max means. Before she had Kate, she had noticed how the years had begun to run together, nothing to distinguish one from the other except the appearance of a few more grey hairs. Now, with Kate, every week marks a new milestone. And while, on the one hand, it does seem amazing that Kate is already a year old; on the other, it seems as if she has been around forever.
    Come and meet her, she is about to say. Come back to the house when we’ve finished discussing skulls and bones. We can walk on the beach and look at Kate and talk about life. But at that moment Cathbad claps his hands importantly.
    ‘Let’s go into the main hall now, friends. The first session is about to start.’
    The first session, entitled ‘Honouring Our Ancient Dead’, is more interesting