Page 44 of It's All About the Duke
“I suppose that’s because Megalosaurus isn’t the official or scientific name for the ancient reptiles. They don’t have one. Not yet anyway, but Mr. Buckland hopes they will soon. He recently found the giant bones and is still doing his examination of them. It was Mr. Herbert Wentfield who discovered the creature’s eggs and the dragon bones.”
“Dragon bones?” Rath asked in disbelief as he stepped a little closer to her.
“Yes,” she answered truthfully.
“Miss Fast, I’ve read that big bones were unearthed a few years ago up north, and some believed them to be from dragons. Scientists determined those bones were actually from ancient Roman military elephants that were brought over here long ago. There never was such a thing as a dragon.”
“I’m not saying I believe there are such bones in existence from legendary beasts such as dragons, Megalosauruses, or unicorns that might have lived long ago,” she argued. “Only that some people do. Mr. Portington and Mr. Wentfield do.”
Another man?
Rath was doing his best to follow this conversation. “And who is Mr. Portington?”
She moved her hat even farther up her forehead. Rath knew such action was why she usually had a golden glow to her cheeks.
“He’s my neighbor and Eugenia’s brother-in-law. She lives with him and her sister, Veronica. All three men are collectors of fossils, bones, and various other artifacts from all over the world. As for the bones of a dragon, all I can say to that is what Mr. Portington told me when I questioned him about them. He said there was a time when some people thought the world was flat and that aballoon filled with hot air couldn’t possibly take people into the air, fly them around as if they were birds, and bring them safely back to the ground again.”
The more she told him, the more interested he became in this outrageous story. “You seem to know many things about these men already, so I’m wondering why you wanted to know more.” He looked around the garden and saw a small bench under a barren tree. “Why don’t we sit down over there and you can explain what all this is about?”
“I’m not sure Justine would approve of me sitting alone in the garden with a gentleman.”
“I am your guardian. I can be alone with you, and call you Marlena by the way. I see your eyebrows go up sometimes when I do.”
“It feels inappropriate.”
“What did Mr. Olingworth call you?”
She studied on that for a few seconds before saying, “Marlena, but I was a still a girl with braids in my hair and freckles across my nose when I went to live with him.”
Rath gave her an expression that would surely let her know he’d gotten the best of that conversation, and said, “I’m willing for Mrs. Abernathy to be out here while we talk. Where is she?”
Marlena smiled at him and shook her head. “She is riding around town in the extravagant carriageyouhad delivered yesterday. She’s quite pleased to have it and wants everyone she knows to see her in it. I don’t think she’ll ever walk anywhere again.”
“Now she doesn’t have to. You didn’t want to go with her?”
Marlena’s softened gaze stared into his eyes, and that warm feeling washed over him again. “I’ve told you before that I like being outside. I’ve missed living in thecountryside, first with my cousins and then Mr. Olingworth. I also prefer walking to riding in a stuffy coach.”
He didn’t know why but it pleased him that fancy trappings didn’t interest her. “And do you believe me when I say Mrs. Abernathy will not mind us being out here together because I am your guardian?”
“I suppose that does make it acceptable. I was often alone with Mr. Olingworth. Except, of course, for the servants. But he wasn’t—” She hesitated and her gaze fell softly on his again.
He was fairly certain he knew what she started to say, and he should be a gentleman and let it pass. The rake inside him wouldn’t allow that. “What? You are not shy, Marlena, finish your sentence.”
She gazed into his eyes without wavering. “Not as young and handsome as you are. Not as…”
“Desirable?”
Marlena inhaled deeply. He’d told her what she was thinking. What she was too embarrassed by her womanly emotions to say out loud?
“Mr. Olingworth was a gentleman at all times.”
“Ah, a gentleman. Which was a good thing. I’m glad.”
Rath extended his hand toward the bench and they walked over to it. He took off his cloak and spread it on the seat before they made themselves comfortable. It wasn’t a long bench so there wasn’t much distance between them. Rath took the papers out of his pocket and laid them beside him with his hat on top so the breeze wouldn’t blow them across the garden.
He listened to Marlena’s tale about Miss Everard’s brother-in-law and his penchant for collecting fossils and unusual specimens and artifacts. And how he’d gotten so carried away that he’d spent what was left of Miss Everard’s inheritance—the money intended for her upcoming Season—on the Megalosaurus eggs.
“So you see, Mr. Wentfield is the one I’m most interested in as he was paid a large sum for the eggs. I was hoping to find him, write to him about what Mr. Portington had done, and ask him to buy back the eggs so Eugenia can have her Season. I know Justine would have insisted I stay out of their affairs so I didn’t want to ask her for help.”
