Thomas & Anne lived in an old farmhouse on the edge of a village, which scattered itself down a steep hill amidst rolling hills & valleys. Thatched & tiled cottages dotted the narrow lanes leading down the hill through part of the village, which didn't seem to have much of a front garden, but sat close to the lane, each having a very different front door.
The abandoned coal yard halfway down the hill, was still much the same after a fire partially destroyed it, & it too existed close to the road, but never seemed to change from one year to another. The village shop was more or less the center of the village & often became the cornerstone for gossip, sometimes forming a concentration of ladies fussing about the goings on within the village.
A school of inspirational learning was close by where Thomas & Anne in particular, gleaned snippets of historical knowledge whenever their teachers administered explicit involvement of knights on horseback or foot, engaging in a certain amount of bloody battles, arrows & swords charging into the melee with unequaled bravery.
The old farmhouse had several outbuildings where the children would engage in imaginative play. In the weekends they would occasionally pack a picnic lunch & set off with renewed enthusiasm to explore the nearby countryside, walking through the woods & paddling streams in boots when it wasn't raining or cold. They both enjoyed the excitement of reading books, particularly about history, having an insatiable interest in what the kings & queens wore, of castles built in extreme locations on high hilltops overlooking the sea. Battle scenes in particular, stimulated their curious minds & imagination, to the point of overindulgent scenes being re-enacted. On a rare occasion they were scrabbling around deep in a combe not too far from home, when they came across a few bones which, much to their disappointment were that of a dead sheep.
In the depths of the countryside, an occasional fox would emerge from a hedgerow late in the evening, when the spring was well established over the fields & valleys, encompassing the mellow ambience of the longer evenings, birds singing into the encroaching night. Shadows from the moon casting strange shapes, glancing off gravestones embraced with lichen, in the churchyard. An owl would hoot, high in the dusty beams of a barn, before it would call out & swoop low over the nearby fields, hunting its prey. A hush would settle over the village, as a full moon rose & fingered moonbeams over the rooftops winding in & out of the darkness in the lanes & around the houses. Cows turned out for the night after late milking, bellowing to their stolen calves, munching with sweet breaths, would move slowly in the stillness of the moonbeams flickering in the sweet grass.
In the lanes, late daffodils nodded in the cool breeze of the night, bluebells pushing up through the damp earth, bending their heads to the dewy grass below amongst the lush nettles.
The moon ambled across the sky while the children slept, dreaming of fierce battles where the English soldiers would fight the French, weapons crashing down, slaughtering their enemies. At the battle of Agincourt, King Harry would fight bravely against all the odds, the French soldiers losing many of their ruling classes, dropping dead on the battlefield & King Henry returning to England a conquering hero. The battle having taken place on a muddied, ploughed field after it had rained, now lay thick with tortured bodies & spilt blood, archers having loosed many arrows, groaned dying in pools of blood & abandoned weaponry.
The next morning, Sunday, the children had taken off for the best part of the day, taking lunch with them. Setting out toward the combe again, the day bright with morning sun glistening on a pond used to water cattle, the small valleys damp with a slight dew. The sun was warm on their backs as they scrambled toward the bottom of the combe, taking care not to slip on the damp patches of spring grass. Their voices echoed around the steep sides bouncing off the depths, their feet selecting the easier ground to descend into the abyss. They had been here a few times before & were confident that once near the bottom, they would be able to climb out again. If it had rained, it would have been too slippery & dangerous for them even to consider such a feat & they were forbidden to go near the combe. They laughed & joked a little as they picked their way down, their lunches slung around their backs so as to use both hands for gripping objects & support. At last they found themselves at the combe's most deepest part.
The sun had gone behind a cloud & the lower walls were dark & dank, their echoed voices eerie in the dimness cast upon them. Thomas & Anne sat for a moment on a fallen log to catch their breaths, wondering if the brightness of the spring sunshine would return to their darkened cave-like environment. They now spoke in hushed tones, then decided to explore further. They started rummaging around under a few odd rocks & scrambled up & over several mossy logs.
As the sun reappeared, bright & warmer, Thomas suddenly spotted something glinting in the sunshine. He fell upon it with enthusiasm, expressing a squeal of surprise.
"What do we have here?" he said to Anne, as she was close behind him & spotted it at almost the same time.
"It looks rather interesting & with luck, may be something a little bit special!" she replied.
Thomas bent to pick it up out of the red ochre coloured clay that had partially hidden it.
"It's quite small, but there seems to be more than one!" cried Thomas, holding the first piece between finger & thumb, then looking down again. It was what looked to him, to be an old coin with perhaps a faint picture on it. In his excited state, he almost dropped it.
Anne said, "I wonder how it got here?"
"Surely it can't be very old!" said Thomas.
"Of course it can!" retorted Anne.
But before anything further was discussed, Anne suddenly discovered almost below her feet, another coin just appearing from under a small stone. She bent & held it carefully, peering long & hard.
"Well, there is one way to find out!" said Thomas, as he carefully pocketed the small coin.
"Hadn't we better keep looking, in case there are more!" Anne gestured.
"That's what I was about to say, silly!" Thomas replied, as he continued looking down at the same spot where the first two coins were found.
After a little more time had elapsed, they both discovered with great excitement, several more coins amongst the stones & clay. An overwhelming desire to explore further, the hidden depths of their inquisitive demands were fulfilled, until no more coins were discovered. They both decided it was time to head back & carefully tucked the coins away & made their way out of the combe.
On their return home, they displayed the coins to their parents, who decided it was best to take them to the museum some miles away for examination. This done, the expert in coins, who was called to the museum specially to examine them, after considerable time, let out a long breath as he stood up & faced the expectant children with a parent standing hopefully, at the other side of the table.
"Well then!" he started. "I have not seen anything like this for a very long time indeed." They are quite old & it's still a mystery as to where they were found."
But in the end, it turned out that they were several hundred years old & the faint picture on one side told a history that was never quite possible to confirm. The children became almost famous for a brief while, having their pictures printed in several newspapers & the fact that they had found some very old coins. It was agreed that the actual place deep within the combe, would forever remain a secret, their secret.
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