...Bart strode purposefully away from Jake, his back rigid with anger. How dare he? He wasn’t a child, so why did Jake persist in treating him like one? God, there were times when he wondered why the hell he even liked the man, let alone loved him!

Jake knew how much Bart’s work meant to him, yet he still insisted in treating it like…a…an encumbrance. How much had his work contributed to their knowledge? How much had they learned because of his expertise in archaeology and culture and because he made it his life work to study every new language, every odd icon, glyph, marking—or scratching as Jake chose to call it — they came across? Jake liked to denigrate his career choice, even though it produced a lot of useful information, and the major damned well knew it.

Why did Jake enjoy annoying him like this, hurting his feelings…feelings he claimed to care about? Damn the man!

Why didn’t Jake believe him when Bart told him there could be important information in the other small buildings in the temple complex? Didn’t he think Bart knew—better than he did—damn it, how unsafe the structures were? He’d done this work for over fifteen years and had been on more digs than he could remember, but still Jake thought he took unnecessary risks. Bart wasn’t a fool nor was he incompetent.

Bart couldn’t remember the last time Jake had questioned Delia’s ability; he simply waved his arm in the air and told her to get on with whatever it was she wanted to do. He couldn’t be bothered to listen to her reasons and explanations. He trusted her competence.

Why didn’t he treat Bart with the same respect? No, Bart was just supposed to shut up when he was told, work where and when he was told and his opinion on the mechanics of his job was overruled at the drop of a hat—or cap if you wanted to be pedantic.

And this man is my lover?

He knew Jake was still watching him from the hill just above the temple complex, so he marched straight into the main building, which Jake had already decided was the only one perfectly safe place for him to investigate. As Bart entered the dark interior, he glanced back in time to see Jake give a slight shrug before he turned away to begin another patrol circuit of the large site.

As usual, Carl was keeping a close eye on Delia as she did her version of digging in the dirt with the assistance of Ron Eisley. No one denigrated her work. No, she was collecting important samples. Bart gave himself a mental shake. It wasn’t her fault and he shouldn’t get snarky with her over Jake’s attitude.

He waited about fifteen minutes, knowing that would put Jake on the far side of the complex site and out of visual range of the particular building Bart wanted to investigate. While he waited, Bart went over his ideas concerning the site.

The main structure appeared to be a temple, though Bart had agreed it was possible it was a palace when Carl had made the suggestion. However, Bart stuck to his opinion it was a temple, and it seemed probable many of the other structures would have specific uses as part of a complex. Making assumptive comparisons, Bart concluded the buildings might have been used for the storage of records, a library, and living quarters for the priests. Likely there would have been more mundane uses, too, such as storehouses, kitchens, even a barn. Possibly there would also have been other smaller temples, maybe a mortuary temple or chapels for the use of the nobility. From the layouts of temple complexes he was familiar with, he believed the particular building he was interested in could be the one where the records had been kept. In truth, there was no way to know what he might find until he investigated.