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THIRTY-SIX
On Sunday night, when she was still limping around the house, Alethia called Jeremy. She didn't want another week off sick, but there was no way she'd make it down the stairs, let alone all the way to the dig site.
"Sorry to bother you so late, but I figured you'd want an update. My ankle's still making my life hell, so..." she began.
"Good. Well, not good, but that solves a problem for me. With the wet weather last week, everyone had time to catch up on documentation, so everyone's catalogued their finds properly before we return to site tomorrow, along with the fine weather. What I need is someone to start writing the report. And if you're stuck working from home for another week, then I choose you." He coughed. "If you need further encouragement, I can throw in a day's pay to work on your thesis, because I know you wanted to finish off your lit review. Four days of project work, and one on your thesis."
Alethia blinked. That was almost too good to refuse. "Why me?"
Jeremy made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded almost like a growl. Nothing like Stan, of course, but still... "Our Kimberley team, which were working in the Northern Territory last week, are stuck in Kununurra for two weeks, in quarantine, before they're allowed to go to site. So I had to send some of our Perth staff up to break ground on the project while we're waiting for the proper team to be released so they can take up the reins. Which means we're short staffed here, and the crew in Kununurra have their own reports to write, so you are my last, best hope. I will even hand deliver a bulk pack of toilet paper to your house, if it'll sweeten the deal."
Alethia had to laugh at that. Who'd have thought you could bribe someone with toilet paper...until there was none to be had, of course. "I'm good for toilet paper." Thanks to Mum, who'd signed up for some sort of charity delivery service for the stuff. "But if you'll let me work from home this week, that would work really well. Plus, I'm supposed to give a talk on my lit review at uni in a couple of weeks, now they've rescheduled it and confirmed a date, so a day to start preparation on that would be nice..."
"It's a deal. Talk to Justin in the office to make sure you have access to all the project files you need." He cleared his throat. "Ah, I have to go. It's feeding time, and baby bolognese is his favourite at the moment..."
Jeremy's six month old son was definitely a handful – one he'd need both hands for. "Talk to you later then, Jeremy, and good luck." She ended the call, to find Stan staring at her. "What?"
"You say some very strange things that I struggle to understand. Why must you talk about a light review, and how far must you travel in order to reach Yew Knee? There was no place of that name in the colony in my time."
"A lit review is short for literature review. It's...a report on my research from written sources. Um, so the stuff I've found out by looking at the research that's been done before we started the excavation here at the cemetery. It's definitely not a light review. It's rather deep, quite the opposite. And uni...that's short for university. I'm doing my Doctor of Philosophy on our findings from the cemetery excavation, so I'll have to write a complete research thesis in three years' time, and likely some scholarly papers in between, but it's customary to update your research colleagues on how your project is going at certain stages, and I was supposed to do my presentation in April, with everyone else, but the event got cancelled because of the pandemic, and the restrictions have only just lifted enough for it to be rescheduled now. And as I still haven't presented, I have to go up on stage and present my research, or what the client will allow from my research, to the staff and students at the university."
"You are a scholar? And you will present your findings to the important men of your university? That is truly remarkable," Stan said.
Alethia coughed out a laugh. "The important women, too. The faculty's a pretty good split between men and women now, and students...well, I think last time they checked, the women outnumbered the men, but not by many. So it's entirely possible I'll present my findings to as many men as women, or even more women than men."
Stan just shook his head. "Remarkable. I can scarcely believe..."
"That women are allowed to be educated and be responsible for educating others?" Alethia finished for him, ready to defend her choices and the centuries of feminism that separated her from him.
"No, that you are a lady scholar. I should have guessed, with your thirst for research on your laptop, as you help me find out more about Carline, that it is not just a hobby, but a vocation for a lady in your time. I mean, a wife helping her husband with his studies, I understand, but a young lady who is not yet married...I'm sure, when you do marry, your husband will not allow..."
"Shut up. Right there."
Stan's mouth gaped open in shock.
"If I marry anyone – and I may never, which is absolutely fine in this day and age – he will not allow or forbid me to do anything. This is the twenty-first century and any man who thinks women exist only to further their own ambition don't deserve any woman's attention, ever." She tapped her finger on Stan's chest. "If you want to survive in this time, you'd better remember that. Women are people, as much as any man, and we make our own choices. Any man who tries to say otherwise should be gagged by his own testicles."
She backed up, and had to hide a smile as Stan cast a worried glance at his own unharmed groin.
"When I give my presentation at the university, you're going to come with me. You're going to be a good protector who watches and listens to everything, without saying a word, unless my life is in danger. Then maybe you'll learn a bit more about the future you've arrived in, because you'll never fit in with the people today if you can't accept women as equal to men. In fact, it might be kinder to send you back to where you came from, rather than watch you struggle. Especially as you've scared my stalker away."
"That is not what I meant, mistress. I was only a farm boy, not a scholar or a politician, with a silver tongue to smooth away the roughness of my words. I barely understood the betters of my own time, and those of yours – yourself included, obviously – confound me completely. I am not entirely stupid, or at least, I do not mean to be. Please educate me. Help me to understand. As a scholar, you are more qualified than anyone else to teach me how to behave as I must in your time. Do not send me back. I will not fail you. I promise."
Oh hell, if she met his gaze, she was going to cry. She'd almost kicked the puppy. A six foot, rock hard, muscled and winged wall of a puppy who could melt her knickers off with a single sentence spoken in That Voice, but...
"Of course I'll help you, Stan. That's what I promised. You've held up your part of the bargain, and I'd be a horrible bitch if I didn't hold up mine."
He gasped. "You cannot say that about yourself. I mean...that is...I would never..."
"Relax, Stan. I mean, your job just got easier. My boss is letting me work from home next week, so you can protect me from right here inside this apartment, where you can hide from the sun."
"I'm not hiding."
No, he wasn't. Not really. "Which is why you'll come to my presentation at the university. At least I'll know one friendly face in the crowd."
He ducked his head. "Will they allow me to enter? I am no scholar, and my learning was limited to the village school. Surely such eminent scholars will know I do not belong among them."
Universities and schools had changed a lot in two hundred years, and she suspected she'd enjoy Stan's surprise when he found that out.
"As long as you're wearing pants, a shirt and some shoes, and keep your mouth shut, they won't suspect a thing," Alethia said. She hoped not, anyway. And if they did...she'd just tell them he was her boyfriend, and she'd brought him along for moral support because she was nervous. Because no matter how prepared she'd be, that part would definitely be true.
