“What for?”
“I’m not certain. But I need you to get ahold of Mr. Gilbert. We need to make sure we have all the paperwork in order and know our rights since Mr. Oppenheim wants to have his name on the dig.”
“Are you concerned?”
Dad grimaced. “More than a little, I’m afraid. What if he wants to take away his funding if he doesn’t get what he wants? Or ... worse ... what if he threatens to tell Cope or Marsh or any of the other scoundrels who would drool over a find like this? We can’t fight against people like that ... we could lose it all.”
fifteen
“I must think twice before I speak once.”
~Earl Douglass
SUNDAY, JUNE30
Walking down to the creek with Joshua was just like old times. Except there was a lot more silence.
Anna had left her dad and Joshua to chat for a while this afternoon while she gathered her thoughts. She’d gone into her room and read a few more of his letters, needing to connect with the man she loved. But her father was correct, they simply needed to talk about it.
Once Louise came back from church and a visit with her family, Anna had asked Joshua to go for a walk with her. Now that they were out here, she needed the nerve to discuss what she should.
“Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind, or are you going to twist that dandelion to shreds?” He’d reached the edge of the creek and turned toward her.
Fine. Might as well get it over with. “I talked to my dad about us last night.”
“And?”
“Well, he thought it was silly that we hadn’t discussed our big fight.”
“The one yesterday, or the one before I left?” The teasing glint in his eyes took some of the edge off her nerves.
“You know which one I’m talking about, Joshua Ziegler.”
“Oh,thatone.” He nodded and took a seat in the grass. “Go ahead. You can ask me anything.” He bent his knees and rested his elbows on top. Casual and calm.
Okay. This wouldn’t be so bad. If she could spit it out. “Do you think that paleontology is so horrible?”
He jerked back. “What gave you that idea?”
“Because you questioned whether I should go on digs with my father. Then questioned what people would say about it!”
He didn’t look at her, but his shoulders sagged as he let out a long sigh. Turning toward her, he clenched his jaw. Then dipped his chin. “I didn’t understand a lot back then, Anna. Hadn’t quite wrapped my mind around the thought of you going out and working with a bunch of men. It was one thing when you were a kid and followed your dad around. It was cute. Your sketches were amazing. But when I thought of you going out on those expeditions as my future wife ... well, part of me didn’t handle it well.”
She opened her mouth but he held up a hand and she bit her lip. It was only fair to allow him to finish before she jumped in with her opinions.
“I didn’t handle it well because I didn’t understand. Yes, I was worried about what people thought. I’d read plenty in the medical journals about what people thought about women working in areas that some believed they shouldn’t. Oh, the good folks in Walker Creek knew you and your father well. Paleontology had always been a part of your lives. It was normal.But the more I studied, the more I realized that the last couple decades have brought about a huge rift between the scientific and church communities. They used to go hand in hand.”
She and Dad had many discussions about this in the last few years. She nodded.
“But now it’s almost like the two have shunned one another. Especially after Darwin’s book came out. As soon as you left the safe haven of our little community, people were going to judge you. The church shuns science because of the new prevalence of evolution. And scientists shun the church because they think we’re ignorant.”
“I know. We’ve encountered a lot of that. Especially since science has been trying to understand dinosaurs andwhenthey lived on the earth. I don’t get why they think the two have to be separate. To me, they go hand in hand. Dad’s never once had trouble with it, and you know Dad’s passion has been on finding his own dinosaur.” She picked up a blade of grass and peeled away one skinny piece at a time. “He’s in your corner, by the way. He said you were being protective.”
Joshua grinned at her and wiggled his eyebrows. “He knows me well. And yes, that’s part of it. I didn’t want you to be ridiculed or shunned because of your work. The other part was my own ignorance. I didn’t understand yet how my faith and science could be woven together. Not until I went to medical school. I faced a lot of opposition but also found a greater understanding.” He scooted closer and took her hand. “It’s important for you to keep doing what you’re doing.”
Her heart soared. “Really?”
“Yes.” With a squeeze to her hand, he scooted closer still. “Not only for the science—finding dinosaur fossils is amazing, by the way—but for women everywhere. There are women right now fighting for the right to go to school and study in the sciences. You’re incredibly talented at sketching, but I know you, Anna. Deep down, you would love to be a paleontologistyourself. I’ve seen the light in your eyes as you’re supervising the work that we are doing. You love every facet of this, don’t you?”
