As he picked up his book once more, however, he sensed Regina shift. And then, her tentative voice, “Bronwyn is very smart, isn’t she?”
He glanced up sharply, not certain if he had heard her right. To his surprise, Regina was once more gazing at the trio across the room, the longing in her eyes more pronounced than before.
“She is,” he answered softly. “In fact, I daresay she is brilliant.”
She nodded, swallowing hard. Suddenly her face scrunched. “But she cannot do anything with such a mind. She is a female, after all.”
He blinked at the vehemence in her voice. “She can do anything she wishes,” he answered.
She looked at him then, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “You are her husband. Surely you don’t support her pursuing such interests.”
“Actually, I do.” When she continued to look at him with a determined distrust, he was tempted to turn away and let her continue on with her pique. Or to argue with her, as he would have done in the past.
Instead, he remembered Bronwyn’s gentle way of handling confrontation with Nelly and Eliza. His raising his voice and arguing with them had never had the success that she’d had with her patient forthrightness. And so, taking a deep breath, he looked Regina full in the face.
“Do you know what Bronwyn’s dearest dream is?” When she said nothing, he continued. “To have a paper published in the Royal Society of London, to have that scientific body acknowledge her findings.”
She frowned, looking Bronwyn’s way. “She is a woman. That will never happen.”
“I daresay,” he replied, “that Bronwyn can do anything she puts her mind to. As can you.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and looked back to him, her eyes wide, vulnerability and longing swirling in their dark depths.
When she turned back to gaze thoughtfully at the book in her hands, a faint hope making her face fairly glow, Ash looked to his wife. To his surprise Bronwyn was gazing at him, her eyes moist, a proud smile on her face. And for the first time in his life, he felt a pride in himself as well.
Chapter 16
In all his years of running one of London’s premier gambling hells, living his life in shadows and sin in keeping with the darkness of his soul, Ash had never imagined himself on a family outing to the beach. Yet here he was, hiking over sand, climbing over rocks, the laughter and chatter of Bronwyn and his wards in symphony with the calling of the gulls in the bright blue sky above them. And, to his everlasting shock, he was enjoying himself.
The trip had been decided upon just that morning. Bronwyn, it seemed, had noticed Regina’s particular interest in fossils, and had written to her friend Miss Athwart of the Quayside for any particularly fertile fossil hunting grounds on Synne. Miss Athwart had pointed them to this remote beach, located near the mouth to one of the rivers that cut through the Isle. The cliffs rose in a sharp slope on one side of the river, a shale wall that by all accounts held all manner of treasures. And it was there, beneath that wall, that their efforts were focused.
“Bronwyn,” Nelly cried, looking up from where she crouched near a collection of broken bits of shale and stone. “I have found some. I have found more fairy coins!”
Bronwyn made her way over the rocky ground toward her. Nelly, for her part, gingerly plucked several small items from the ground, placing them with infinite care in the palm of her hand and holding them up for Bronwyn to see.
“There must be a dozen at least,” she said with pride, beaming at her.
They were all busy searching for the small star-shaped fossils Bronwyn had told the girls about. Crinoids, she had called them, a marine animal that had lived long ago and could be found imbedded in the rocks at the river’s mouth. The long, slender arms of the creatures often broke apart, she had told them, and looked very much like small star stones. Nelly had naturally latched on to the more magical mythology of the fossils, that fairies used them as currency. Eliza was making a game of how many she could fit into the small leather pouch she had brought for just this purpose. And Regina, garbed in her beloved trousers to make it easier to move about, had taken to scouring the rock face for more intact specimens.
Ash, on the other hand, had been content to watch from a distance. While the truce existed among them all, that did not mean he had been willingly invited into their conversations. He was still very much an outsider, though a grudgingly accepted one.
Until, that was, Nelly looked in his direction and waved an arm to gain his attention.
“You must come and have a look. This one is so very tiny, I think you could balance it on a pinhead.”
Ash looked about, certain she must have meant someone else. But no, there was no one else near him at all. But she was still staring at him expectantly, so he started off across the sand toward her.
By the time he reached her she was on her feet, fairly bouncing in her impatience. The moment he reached her she grabbed his hand, depositing her collection in his palm.
“They are even smaller in your hand,” she said in awe as she gazed down at the tiny dark gray star-shaped stones. Her eyes were glowing with excitement when she looked back up at him. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
“They are,” he agreed.
She beamed at him, then closed his fingers about her prize. “You shall keep them safe for me, won’t you? Eliza is finding ever so many, and I am determined to beat her. But I have forgotten to bring a pouch.”
“I shall guard them with my life,” he replied with utmost gravity, depositing them into his waistcoat pocket.
Again, that brilliant smile that took his breath away. It was an expression he had never seen on her face before, one he had never thought to see. It made him think that maybe she did not despise him, that she might care for him.