'How
odd.'
Joseph shifted from one foot to the other. 'I have to get back to Chapel, Miss Philpot. Mam'll want her shawl.'
'Of course.' I glanced at the plesiosaurus once more, then set the paper Mary had copied back down on the pile of rocks in the crate. As I did so my eyes spied the tail of a fish. Then I saw a fin, and another tail, and realised the entire crate was full of fish fossils. A scrap of paper was stuck amongst them with 'EP' in Mary's hand. She was saving them for me. She must think that one day we would be friends again, that she would forgive me and want me to forgive her. The thought made my eyes brim.
Joseph stood aside so that I could go. I paused as I passed him. 'Joseph, I should be very grateful if you didn't tell Mary or your mother that I have been here. There is no need to upset them, is there?'
Joseph nodded. 'I guess I owe you a favour anyway.'
'Why?'
'It were you suggested I become an apprentice after we sold the croc. That were the best thing ever happened to me. I thought once I started I wouldn't never have to hunt curies again, but always something pulls me back into it. After this is sold--' he nodded at the plesiosaurus '--I'm done with curies for good. It'll be upholstering and nothing else.
I'll be glad if I never have to go down upon beach again. So I will keep your secret for you, Miss Philpot.' Joseph smiled briefly--the only smile I had ever seen on his face. It brought out a touch of his father's handsomeness.
'I hope you will be very happy,' I said, using the words I hadn't been able to say to his sister.
The rapping on our front door interrupted us as we were eating. It was so sudden and loud that we all three jumped, and Margaret upset her watercress soup.
Normally we let Bessy go to the door in her own ponderous fashion, but the knocks were so urgent that Louise sprang up and hurried down the passage to answer it.
Margaret and I could not see whom she let in, but we heard low voices in the passage.
Then Louise put her head around the door. 'Molly Anning is here to see us,' she said.
'She has said she will wait until we have finished eating. I've left her to warm by the fire and will get Bessy to build it up.'
Margaret jumped up. 'I'll just get Mrs Anning some soup.'
I looked down at my own soup. I could not sit and eat it while an Anning waited in the other room. I got up as well, but stood uncertain in the doorway of the parlour.
Louise saved me, as she often does. 'Brandy, perhaps,' she said as she brushed past with a grumbling Bessy in tow.
'Yes, yes.' I went and fetched the bottle and a glass.
Molly Anning was sitting motionless by the fire, the centre of all the activity around her, much as she had been when she came to see us with her letter to Colonel Birch. Bessy was poking the fire and glaring at our visitor's legs, which she perceived to be in the way. Margaret was setting up a small table at her side for the soup, while Louise moved the coal scuttle. I hovered with the brandy bottle, but Molly Anning shook her head when I offered it. She said nothing while she ate her soup, sucking at it as if she didn't like watercress and was eating it only to please us.
As she mopped her bowl with a chunk of bread, I felt my sisters' eyes on me.
They had played their parts with the visitor, and were now expecting me to play mine.
My mouth felt glued shut, however. It had been a very long time since I had spoken either to Mary or to her mother.
I cleared my throat. 'Is something wrong, Molly?' I managed at last. 'Are Joseph and Mary all right?'
Molly Anning swallowed the last of her bread and ran her tongue around her mouth. 'Mary's taken to her bed,' she declared.
'Oh dear, is she ill?' Margaret asked.
