She giggled at him. “I appreciate your oath, Mr. Dun—Jacob.”
Lily Rose touched her arm and she turned to look at her companion. She stared into the older woman’s eyes and lowered her voice. “Do you not agree?”
The older woman leaned closer. “I was going to ask if you were certain you trusted him, but after spending time with him, I do believe he is trustworthy. I apologize for my interruption.”
Martha pulled back and sent her a nod. Then looked back at Jacob. “Well, you said you wanted to work on a dinosaur dig. That’s exactly what we’re doing. I’ve been excavating anApatosaurusfor the last two years and proposed to the museum to have a display there.”
“That’s wonderful.” He looked like he had more to say, but he clapped his lips back together.
“There is a catch.”
“Oh?” His brow dipped.
“We are apparently in competition with another team and have been given a deadline at the end of summer. August twenty-sixth to be exact.”
He blinked several times and opened his mouth and then closed it before opening it again. “That’s less than four months.”
“Yes.” She stuck out her hand. “So ... Mr. Jacob Duncan, will you work with me to uncover myApatosaurus?”
Eight
“The riches that every boy thinks will be his for this age have not yet appeared. About all I possess are books, bones, a team, a wagon, etc. I am about where I ought to have been fifteen years ago. But I am a student because that is all that satisfies me.”
~Earl Douglass
WEDNESDAY, MAY1, 1889•JANKOWSKIDIGSITE
Jacob sat in his roped-off section of the dig grid and worked his chisel next to the dorsal vertebrae he’d been assigned to work on. The sheer size of the fossil amazed him.
What it must have been like to see a creature like this. A wonder! With a long neck and even longer tail, the huge herbivorousSauropodcould have been up to seventy-five feet in length. Without anything living to compare it to, it was hard to imagine even now.
A little thrill made his arms tingle. Getting to work here was beyond his dreams. God had doubly blessed him.
Yesterday, he’d signed the contracts with Martha and herlawyer. A lot of the same verbiage had been used as the contract from the previous dig, but there wasn’t anything in the contract that made him pause. He’d even gone home and reread the other papers just to make sure. The only thing that niggled at the edge of his mind was the fact that the other contract did have a clause about not saying anything even if you were fired or quit the dig. He’d keep his mouth shut about the work he’d done. But what if Martha found out and she pressed him?
Could he keep the fact that he’d worked on the other dig a secret? He’d given his word to them that he would. But was that betrayingher?
The undisclosed truth lay between them like a chasm.
He’d laid the matter at the Lord’s feet in prayer and decided to move forward. After all, God had opened this door for him.
A shadow passed over his bones. “Good afternoon, Mr. Duncan.” Martha. Just the sound of her voice kicked his heart into overdrive.
“Good afternoon, Miss Jankowski.” He squinted up at her. A thin parasol kept the sun off her.
“You’ve done good work already, Mr. Duncan. I’m pleased you have joined us.” Her shadow moved with her as she motioned to a man behind her. “Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Parker—my assistant. If you need anything or have any questions and I’m not here, see him. But I can tell that you are experienced and know what you’re doing.” The smile that stretched across her face made the dimples in her cheeks deepen.
Her praise did him good and he returned the smile.
“I will check in with you before you leave today. Again, thank you for taking the job.” With that, she walked away and Mr. Parker studied him for a moment before tipping his hat and following the boss.
Chinking and clanging filled the silence as the rest of the dig site worked in precise and orderly fashion.
What a different atmosphere. Chaos reigned at the other dig. Too many men working in too furious a fashion. It wasn’t organized, and half the time, the men didn’t even know what they were digging.
Martha’s dig was the opposite.
It was a beautiful sight to behold.
