Page 134 of Her Reluctant Hero
Mallory hadn’t looked away from Adrian. He nodded to signal her to go on.
“You did it, Adrian,” she said, her voice husky. He’d like to think the kiss had something to do with that and with the dark shine in her eyes. “This is it. It’s the one.”
“But you found it. Tell them.”
A smile spread across her face as she turned to the professor. “We located the figurehead. We didn’t get to uncover it all, but it looks to be intact.”
Adrian shifted his attention to his mentor in time to watch him pale, then turn bright red with joy. Now he embraced Mallory, released her to embrace Adrian, before he hugged them both together, blubbering something about being glad they were both here for this.
Adrian wouldn’t have wanted to share this with anyone else.
The party on the beach that night would have been wilder if Adrian had let his divers drink some of the champagne Dr. Vigil broke out. But drinking increased the risk of the bends, so Adrian insisted they abstain. He wanted to uncover the rest of the figurehead tomorrow, photograph it and perhaps bring it up the following day.
He’d have something tangible to show for his sacrifice.
The celebration was getting to be a bit much. Besides, he needed to go write all this down for his book. That responsibility wasn’t something he wanted to think about, but always hung in the back of his mind. He’d written magazine articles throughout his career, but writing a book was overwhelming.
He’d barely set out his notebook when Mallory pushed her way into his tent without preamble, a plastic cup of diet soda in her hand. “It seems a real shame that you can’t have a little drink to celebrate.”
He didn’t have the energy to try to figure out why she’d followed him. “I want to get that figurehead out of the water more than I want a glass of champagne. There’ll be plenty of time for that later.”
She acknowledged the fact silently and sat across from him, again uninvited. She had an agenda. He didn’t expect to wait long to find out what it was.
“You and Toney seem to have made peace,” he remarked.
She shrugged. “There’s a truce. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine the more I leave him alone and the more I leave you alone.” She set the cup on his table. “Have you thought about how you’re going to get the wood up?”
“It’s looking pretty hopeless. I just want a few good photographs, then we can start removing it. We should have enough to carbon date, and maybe if we’re lucky we’ll find something intact on the underside.”
“You don’t seem very excited.”
He folded his arms on the notebook. “Sad, I know. The biggest find of my life, and all I can think about is how long can we afford to stay out here, even with your contribution.”
“We could get corporate sponsorship. We wouldn’t have to give details—”
Aha. There it was. Now she wanted to bring in the big guns. He turned to the papers in front of him. “No. I’m doing this myself. We can’t risk anyone else knowing what we have here. I won’t lose it again.”
She drew her lower lip between her teeth as if considering what to say next. “But we need more people. If someone gets sick or hurt, it’s going to slow everything down.”
He leaned back in his camp chair and laced his fingers over his stomach. “Look at it this way. The fewer people in camp, the fewer I can drive nuts.”
She accepted his attempt at humor with a half smile of her own. “Too late.”
“Look, I appreciate your concern, but really, I don’t want you to worry.” He sat forward, shuffled his papers.
She frowned. “I’m part of this dive, Adrian. Of course I’m going to worry.”
“But it’s not your dive.” He watched the pain flash across her face and swallowed the regret that washed through him. But he had to be sure she knew he was calling the shots, to remind her he couldn’t give up that much control. “You dissolved our partnership when you asked me to sign those papers, Mal, no matter how much money you contribute.”
Mallory squared her shoulders, unwilling to show how much his words hurt. She’d done her best to be a part of this team. Now he was claiming she didn’t have a voice. Like Dr. Vigil said, she was accustomed to being his equal. Apparently he no longer saw her as such.
She held his gaze as she stood. “I was only trying to help. I won’t forget my place again.”
She turned blindly out of his tent and went to find Dr. Vigil. He was in his tent, and three sheets to the wind, though he still pored over the books she’d brought.
“You doing okay in here?” she asked, ducking under the flap. She’d watched him age over the course of the dive. Something else that worried Adrian, no doubt.
“Do you know that the masthead has a pipe running through its mouth?” he asked, eyes bright when she entered. “The marines would use that to shoot fire at their enemies, terrifying them with the sight of an animal spitting fire.”
