Page 49 of Nothing But a Rakehell
“Dancing?” Keswick asked.
He caught the warning look Glory shot the girl.
“It was nothing,” she said quickly. “Just a sort of . . . experiment we’ve been working on.”
“Be careful through here, Lady Glory.” Miss Munroe stepped closer to her and Keswick fell back, out of the way. “Those boulders must have rolled all the way from the cliff face. There are bits and pieces all along here.”
Glory slowed her pace. Keswick let the two of them pull ahead. He hoped Miss Munroe would keep her conversation short. He wanted to get away, back to the house. Or perhaps he would take a page from Glory’s book and ride out alone. He peered out, across the stretch of shoreline. Party guests were still scattered along the riverside, but a group had gathered around Tensford at the cliff.
“My lady! Careful!”
He snatched his attention back. Glory had stumbled. She teetered, struggling to keep her balance. Miss Munroe had a hold of one of her arms and was trying to pull her upright. She had reached with her other hand and grabbed onto a boulder, her fingers dug into a cleft in the stone.
He hurried forward and went to support Glory’s other side. “I’ve got her,” he told Miss Munroe. You can let go—”
Just like that, the stone gave way. Thrown off balance, Miss Munroe cried out and pitched forward. She sent Glory crashing into him. He felt the shifting of the loose gravel beneath his feet and all three of them abruptly went down in a tangle.
He took the brunt of it, thank God. Glory lay stretched out along his chest and Miss Munroe sprawled across both sets of their legs.
“Are you all right? Both of you?” He struggled up onto his elbows, sharp stone biting into his skin.
“I’m fine. I’m so sorry.” Glory sounded mortified.
“No, no, it was my fault. I had no idea the boulder wouldn’t hold our weight.” Miss Munroe shifted to a sitting position.
The other guests arrived to assist them. Mr. Lycett helped Miss Munroe to her feet and then Sterne lifted Glory away. Keswick saw Lycett exchange a glance with the friend he’d been gossiping with. He bristled. He would give the man the drubbing he deserved—
“By God.” Tensford said it in a hushed tone. “By all that is holy.”
The earl stood behind him. He didn’t take note as Keswick got to his feet and brushed himself off. The chatter of questions and reassurances around them all died away as their host stepped past him, his eyes transfixed, his expression changing from concern to elation.
“By God,” he repeated. “Keswick! Glory! Miss Munroe!”
“Yes, yes. We are all fine,” Keswick said irritably. “It was an accident, nothing more.”
“The most fortunate accident! Look! You’ve done it!”
He pointed and everyone turned. Keswick started.
A whole section of rock had peeled away from the boulder. There, highlighted in the newly exposed stone, was a . . . creature. A fish of some sort, easily four feet long. It stood out, clear as day. Scales, fins and all.
“Are those spines? Or teeth?” someone asked.
“What is it?” Miss Ruddock breathed.
“It is a fossil,” Tensford answered.
“It doesn’t look like the one I found.”
“No, it does not. Nor does it look like any I have found.” Joy was growing in Tensford and infusing his voice. “This is afind. A magnificent specimen—just exactly what I’ve been looking for, all of these years!”
* * *
Tensford was in alt.Everyone else got caught up in the thrill of the discovery, too. Hope came down from the house, with the rest of the guests who had skipped the outing. Servants brought cold tea and lemonade and biscuits and an impromptu celebration took place, right there at the riverside. Miss Ruddock sketched the scene, and everyone involved in the discovery.
Except for Keswick, who had disappeared quickly, in the initial frenzy after the revelation. Glory refused to fret over it. She’d spooked him, but she doubted he’d run all the way back to London. He would be back, and she would have to tread carefully. In the meantime, she wanted some answers.
Mr. Lycett became interested when he heard that the specimen might be worth some significant money. He hung around, asking questions, but he and the other guests quickly lost interest once Tensford and Sterne began the painstaking, slow process of digging the specimen out from the boulder. It took meticulous work. They explored, hammered, cut and chiseled and everyone else had returned to the house by the time they fully separated a six-foot slab of rock.
