Dying Fall

you.’
    So Pippa was married before. Ruth tries, and fails, to imagine the path that led her to Clayton Henry. She also wonders what happened to Chloe’s father if Clayton can refer to himself as ‘Dad’. Maybe he died and Clayton provided a shoulder to cry on. It’s hard to imagine any other circumstances in which the affable, but distinctly rotund, Clayton would end up with the beautiful Pippa. Still, there’s no doubt that they look happy together and the house is fantastic (she’s had the tour). Cathbad had been delighted to discover that it was built on the site of an old plague pit. He’s probably off somewhere now, communing with the unquiet spirits. She hasn’t seen him for ages.
    ‘Must be hard,’ says Clayton. ‘Combining motherhood with work. How do you and Cathbad manage?’
    She really must get this straight. ‘We’re not together,’ she says. ‘We’re just friends. Cathbad isn’t Kate’s father.’
    ‘Oh …’ Clayton looks intrigued, his eyes bright, but Ruth has no intention of saying any more.
    ‘I’m looking forward to seeing the bones on Monday,’ she says.
    Clayton shudders. ‘You forensics girls are always so bloodthirsty.’
    Ruth is annoyed at being called a girl. ‘I hardly think there’ll be any blood,’ she says coldly.
    ‘No. Just a pile of dry bones,’ says Clayton. ‘But you can tell everything from bones these days, can’t you?’
    ‘I wouldn’t say that,’ says Ruth cautiously. ‘Accuracy of tests vary. Carbon 14 tests can be out by as much as hundreds of years. They can be affected by sun spots, solar flares, nuclear testing – things like that. Isotopic analysis should be able to tell us where the individual was born, judging by the chemicals present in the bones.’
    ‘And how accurate is that?’
    ‘Usually pretty accurate. Analysis of calcified tissue gives a good indication of the palaeodiet.’
    ‘Paleo what?’
    ‘What the individual ate,’ explains Ruth, adding a cheese roulade to her palaeodiet. ‘By using oxygen isotope analysis we can get information on diet which can then point to the region where this man or woman originated and perhaps where they spent their last years.’
    ‘Why do you say “or woman”? Dan was pretty sure it was a man.’
    ‘I’m sure he was,’ says Ruth. ‘It’s just … I was caught out that way myself once.’
    Clayton laughs. ‘Be a great thing if King Arthur turned out to be a woman. It’d make the papers all over theworld. The feminists would love us. I’d be rich.’ He corrects himself. ‘The university would be rich.’
    Ruth thinks that he sounds rather bitter. She remembers what he said about the department being unpopular, about not being able to attract students. She says, rather diffidently, ‘You said the department wasn’t very profitable.’
    ‘My dear girl,’ says Clayton. ‘We’re in desperate straits. Absolutely stony broke. But a big find could change everything. The publicity would mean everything to us. And I’m not going to keep this quiet, whatever anyone says.’
    He looks quite steely as he says this and, for the first time, Ruth sees the head of department as someone to be reckoned with.
    ‘Who wants it kept quiet?’ she asks.
    ‘Oh, no one important.’ The breezy host is back. Clayton leans back in his chair and gestures to a waiter, who immediately fills his glass before turning to Ruth. ‘No thanks,’ she says hastily. As Cathbad has disappeared, she assumes that she’s doing the driving. Clayton raises his brimming glass to her.
    ‘We’re counting on you, Ruth,’ he says, jovially. ‘If you confirm that the bones are … who we hope they are … then I’m saved. We’re all saved. You really do hold the future of the department in your hands.’
    *
    After lunch, Clayton makes a little speech, full of in-jokes and many references to the Dean (Gail Shires) who isn’t present. Ruth gathers that Ms Shires is not a fan of thehistory department, also that the feeling is reciprocated. She is starting to feel tired and wishes they could go home. She has switched to orange juice as the last time she saw Cathbad he was in the conservatory with Pippa and several other gilt-edged women, holding forth on exorcism, glass brimming. Despite herself, she feels rather resentful. She wanted Cathbad to enjoy himself but not to become a fully fledged member of Clayton’s beautiful people. He might really be her husband, the way he’s taking her for