Oliver wiped his brow with the back of his gloves , took them off , and hurled them against the toolbox across from him . He got up from the dirt and brushed away the loose soil from his brown khakis and sweat-stained tee shirt . He grabbed hold of the edge of the pit and hoisted himself out and onto the edge . He stared into the hole . Is she right ? Am I the fool they accuse me of being ?
“ Don ’ t worry about her .” Victoria placed her hand on his shoulder and lowered herself to Oliver ’ s side . “ She is just frustrated ; all of us are .”
“ Maybe she ’ s right , though .” Oliver ran his fingers through his stringy hair . “ Maybe this was all a fairytale from the beginning .”
Oliver cast his eyes up at the castle of Eilean Donan , looming over the dig site . It was a medieval marvel and one of the most visited sites in all of Scotland . Nearly six months before they arrived , Oliver obtained approval from the Scottish government to excavate the grounds under the condition that everything was returned to the way in which they found it . They had spent weeks mapping out a search grid , procuring the right tools , and practicing the technique for pulling up sections of the ground a piece at a time . Was all of our work for naught ? What did we miss ?
Jeremy walked around the pit and looked down into the dig site . “ What do we do now , Mr . Lockheart ?”
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