She filled the next two pages with all the stories she’d gotten to tell and the different people she’d met. Some were wealthy and famous people who’d come to see the great dinosaur bones. Others were simple folks who couldn’t resist the pull of the great beasts in the ground. It sounded like Eliza enjoyed educating both groups equally.
When he flipped the last page over, he felt his smile slip. He was almost done with her letter.
Now to the most exciting news. One of the wives of the workers told me the most fascinating story about some bones that were found prior to Earl’s discovery. We went out to the ranch and spoke to the owner. He’s willing to allow me tohunt for the site of the fossils and even dig them out if we find them! Won’t that be fantastic?
And just as exciting, Dr. Masterson is coming here. Can you believe it? Mr. Carnegie sent a wire the other day, and I must admit that I’ve been just a bit ecstatic over the news. You know how much I have loved Dr. Masterson’s research and papers. He’s the one who inspired me to write and submit my own in the first place. And to think, I get to meet him!
I know I teased you about coming to visit. I was genuine and earnest in my request, but I don’t believe you took me seriously. So I’m going to ask again.
Would you please come out to visit? I’d love to share this excitement with you. And even if you don’t find it interesting, there’s nothing else for you to do out here, so you could bring all the papers you wanted to grade and every book imaginable to read. There’s nothing to distract you. Although it can get pretty windy, and your dear books might get covered in dust.
I would beg and plead if I could. It would be nice to see a friendly face. You could even see the Rocky Mountains you’ve always dreamed of seeing on your way out!
Please? Would you do this for me?
I promise I won’t ask anything else of you. At least ... not this year.
Your dear friend,
Eliza
Devin looked up from the letter and stared out the window.
He really had no desire to go stare at a wide trench in the ground. Then there was his schedule. All the meetings. All the planning that had to be done for the next term. The reorganization he had to do of the department.
He wasn’t all that thrilled to leave Dad either. What if something happened to him while Devin was gone? He scratched his jaw and looked down at the letter again. If he said any of that to Dad, he’d get an earful about his pitiful excuses.
But the picture Eliza painted with her vibrant words tugged on him. Seeing an alligator fossil at sixteen was probably small potatoes to seeing mammoth skeletons unearthed in Utah. Beyond all that, there was Eliza with her joy and cheer. He missed his dearest friend. Pulling out a couple sheets of clean paper, he thought through his response.
Obviously he was going.
What other choice did he have?
THURSDAY, JUNE22, 1916•CARNEGIEINSTITUTE
It should have been him! Why he’d been passed over for the prestigious job by some upstart in petticoats and feathers was beyond his understanding. It was as if Mr. Carnegie didn’t care thathewas the foremost expert on fossilization and the Jurassic period this side of the Mississippi River. The opportunity to study and be a part of the work at Dinosaur National Monument and show Earl who was the expert hadn’t just slipped through his fingers—it hadn’t even been offered to him.
In the beginning, he’d simply wanted what was owed to him.
The prestige. The fame. The accolades.
He’d already missed out on what should have been his in Utah.
This wasn’t just about that joker-posing-as-a-paleontologist out at the quarry.
Now that woman was invading his realm and taking opportunities that should have been his.
Now, it was personal.
Besides, she was easier to deal with and more insignificant.
He stroked his jaw, his mind cluttered with thoughts. Mr. Carnegie, and anyone in the scientific community who supported that woman, needed to see reason. She was not qualified to explain the depths of evolutionary science. She didn’t even believe in it! Was she going to tell some sort of antiquated Bible story and try to charm tourists and scientists alike with her poppycock ideas about creation? He scoffed, the sound echoing off the walls of his office. They’d come a long way in the past few decades. This was no place for a woman. Especially not a spoiled, rich one who always got her way simply because of who her family was.
Anger rippled through him. There had to be a solution. A way to expose her for the fraud she was.
His university friends were adamant against any sort of campaign to topple the annoying Miss Mills. Not because they didn’t share his viewpoint. They did. But they refused to do anything to anger Mr. Carnegie and have their funding for various experiments and areas of study taken from them.
Cowards.
