Page 15 of Things We Do for Love and Science
Chapter Five
“How are things?” Deliawaved at Sandra, who was sitting at her desk with a deepening scowl.
“Johnny Snow’s hogging the ultra-centrifuge, and he is so bloody slooow.” Sandra was in the midst of a series of experiments and patience wasn’t her strong point.
“Maybe once the new funding comes through, we’ll get another ultra-centrifuge. What do you think?” Delia dipped her head toward her friend.
Sandra snorted. “Ithinkit’s definitely a high-risk strategy by John Winter to put that dosser in charge of making the funding application. I bet a month’s salary he’ll fuck it up somehow.”
The dosser in question was John Winter’s nephew of the same name. In order to keep the two Johns apart, John Winter the Younger was generally referred to as Johnny Snow.
He didn’t quite have the looks of the actor from the TV showGame of Thrones, but a resemblance was definitely there. He was also of about the same height.
Delia chuckled. She shared Sandra’s estimation of John’s nephew, even though she didn’t voice it quite so brutally. But Sandra could be relied on to call a spade a spade. She’d come over for her post-doc from Germany and was blazing a trail through Renwood University’s biochemistry lab not just in terms of science.
With her blonde hair and blue eyes, she fitted the cliché of a German some people insisted on cleaving to. To the chagrin of a few of her nastier colleagues, her stature didn’t justify the label ‘Valkyrie’ although they’d been itching to use it. But no hope there, as even Johnny Snow towered over her.
Grudgingly, they had decided to settle for ‘Sandra, The Pushy Kraut.’
Delia had offered to have a word with the team to put a stop to it, but Sandra had refused, determined to fight her own battles. It worried Delia, and she was certain she only knew half of what her friend had to put up with.
Most people kept their thoughts about the German scientist to themselves when Delia was around, since Professor Winter relied on her to run the lab smoothly.
“You collated the last application, didn’t you?” Sandra asked.
Delia rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes, such a horrendous time suck. I convinced John Winter I wouldn’t be able to help him with the Renwood Longevity Project if my schedule was taken up with compiling the funding application. Now I’m beginning to think I would’ve been better off slaving away on the grant application than having to chase Renwood DNA.”
Sandra perked up. “He’s sending you back to the earl?”
“Yes.” Delia suppressed a groan. “Tomorrow, I’ll have the dubious pleasure of becoming acquainted with the inside of the Renwood family vault.” She’d have to face Gabriel again, in all his beauty and heavy sadness. Should she ask Sandra to accompany her? No. Bad enough that she was John Winter’s dogsbody; it wouldn’t be fair to drag her friend into the mix.
“The earl asked you to go down there with him?” Sandra blinked at her. “Is he pissed off?”
“No, no.” She waved her hand. “He’s fine. I offered because I feel horrible for making him crack open another ancestor casket.”
Sandra sighed. “You’ve such a soft heart, Delia. And nobody knows it but me. Me and the seventh Earl of Renwood.”
Delia scoffed. “With that many financial problems to sort out, I doubt he has the mental bandwidth to marvel at the softness of my heart.”
Sandra raised one eyebrow. “Yeah right. The man bends over backward to give you all the ancestor DNA you need but never thinks about you. Sounds plausible.
Delia tapped the desk. “You and your mad notions. If anything, he finds my constant requests annoying.”
“And yet he complies.” Sandra smirked.
Delia drew in a sharp breath. “Would you stop?”
Sandra lifted her head. “Oh, the ultra-centrifuge is free, finally.” She grabbed the tube with her sample and dashed across the room.
Delia took up the notes of her experiment and entered into the zone, happy that the availability of the centrifuge had delivered her from further talk about Gabriel. And not a moment too soon.
~ * ~
