The Ghost Fields (Ruth Galloway) Read Free Page A

should say something momentous, tell Kate about her own first day at school or something, but Kate seems quite happy, singing a jingle from an advertisement for breakfast cereal. In the end, Ruth joins in. Crunchy nuts, crunchy nuts and raisins too. Yoo hoo hoo. Raisins too.
    It still sounds funny to refer to Nelson as ‘Daddy’. When Kate was three and asking questions, Ruth decided to tell her the truth, or at least a sanitised version of it. Nelson is her father; he loves her but he lives with his other family. Does he love them too? Of course he does. They all love each other in a messy twenty-first-century way. Nelson had been appalled when Ruth had told him what she was going to say. But he realised that Kate – a bright, enquiring child – needed to know something and, after all, what else could they say? Nelson’s wife, Michelle, also took the agreed line, which Ruth knows is more than she deserves. She’s glad that Kate has Michelle in her life as Michelle is a proper homemaker, good at all the mother things. She would have done those plaits right, for a start (she’s a hairdresser).
    They drive past the field where the Bronze Age body was found in July. English Heritage have agreed to fund another dig and they will also include the project in their DNA study. There’s even a chance that the dig might be filmed. Two years ago Ruth appeared in a TV programme called Women Who Kill and, while the experience was traumatic in all sorts of ways, she didn’t altogether dislike the feeling of being a TV archaeology expert. She’s not a natural, like Frank Barker, the American historian who fronted the programme, but the Guardian did describe her as ‘likeable’, which is a start.
    ‘Mummy might be on TV again,’ she says to Kate.
    ‘I hope Blue Bear does come to our house,’ says Kate.
    She’s right too. Blue Bear is more important just now.
    Ruth had been scared that Kate would cry, that she would cry, that they would have to be prised apart by disapproving teaching assistants. But in the end, when Kate just waves happily and disappears into the sea of blue sweatshirts, that somehow feels worse than anything. Ruth turns away, blinking back foolish tears.
    ‘Mrs Galloway?’
    Ruth turns. This is an altogether new persona for her. She likes to be called Dr Galloway at work and she has never been Mrs anything. Mrs Galloway is her mother, a formidable born-again Christian living in South London, within sight of the promised land. Should she insist on Ms or would that blight Kate’s prospects on the first day?
    ‘Mrs Galloway?’ The speaker is a woman. Teacher? Parent? Ruth doesn’t know. Whoever she is, she looks scarily at home in the lower-case, primary-coloured environment of the infant classrooms.
    ‘I’m Miss Coles, the classroom assistant. I just wondered if Kate was having school dinners or packed lunch.’
    ‘Dinners,’ says Ruth. She doesn’t feel up to preparing sandwiches every day.
    ‘Not a fussy eater then? That’s good.’
    Ruth says nothing. The truth is that Kate is a rather fussy eater but Ruth always gives her food that she likes. She dreads to think of Kate’s reaction when presented with cottage pie or semolina. But surely school dinners are different now? There’s probably a salad bar and a wine list.
    Miss Coles seems to take Ruth’s silence for extreme emotion (which isn’t that far from the truth). She pats the air above Ruth’s arm.
    ‘Don’t worry. She’ll settle in really quickly. Why don’t you go home and have a nice cup of tea?’
    Actually I’ve got to give a lecture on palaeolithic burial practices, thinks Ruth. But she doesn’t say this aloud. She thanks Miss Coles and walks quickly away.
     
    Nelson, too, finds it hard to stop thinking about Kate. He wishes that he had been able to take her to school but it was generous enough of Michelle to agree to the early morning visit. The late breakfast together was meant to be Nelson’s attempt to say thank you,