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Chapter Six
Sebastian chuckled to himself as he strode along the coast a short time later. He could tell Lady Calliope was doing everything possible to pretend that he didn’t even exist. In point of fact, she ensured that she stayed as close to Mary as possible and suggested that they move a bit farther up the beach, as if she was the guide, and not Miss Anning.
Joseph had remained behind with Sebastian and was inspecting various ammonites. He would check specific rocks along the shore and had even brought a little hammer and chisel in which to break apart ones he thought might have a treasure inside. “I’ve been lucky enough to find a select few with crystalized geodes,” he told Sebastian.
As he knelt by a limestone rock, Sebastian joined him as he set to work cracking it open. As it finally broke, Joseph’s face turned grim. “And sometimes you don’t find anything at all.” He got back to his feet, and they continued their even pace while Joseph meticulously inspected every rock that they passed.
“When is the best time to find fossils here?” Sebastian asked curiously.
“During the storm season,” Joseph replied. “Many times we’ve gone to the beach hoping to find more prehistoric bones, but most of the time, there is nothing. However, when a good squall line comes along, it generally either washes something ashore, or it uncovers an artifact that wasn’t visible just the day before. April is a bit late to gain the unusual, but we’ve been fortunate enough to find fossils all year. The coast is littered with them.”
Sebastian glanced around at the cliffs and conceded that there were definite treasures to be found among them. “Determination and persistence are the best ways to accomplish most things,” Seb noted. “There’s also a certain amount of intelligence involved as well. For most, it would be difficult to note if something is a prehistoric vertebra, or just a distinctly shaped rock.”
Joseph nodded. “You are right about that. And my sister has a knack for discovering them.”
The conversation fell silent as they continued to stroll along the shore, so Sebastian allowed his mind to wander.
There were times he held the regret that he wasn’t simply a commoner. It would certainly make life easier. The villagers of Lyme Regis might believe that he had a comfortable existence, and that might be true for the most part. He had certainly never had to face the hardships of these people, and likely never would. But he grew weary of being so revered just because he had a title, when it had been nothing more than an accident of birth that had made him a viscount. He could have just as easily been born a working man.
Not only had he come to Lyme Regis to bedevil the lovely, Lady Calliope, but he hoped to prove to himself that he was capable of more than just a torrid, London lifestyle. It was expected for a man of his station to sow his wild oats, but now that Grey had moved on, he realized that the thrill of cutting a swath through the city had dimmed considerably. When he’d been younger, the deviltry he’d caused had been perfectly acceptable, but he was two and thirty. There had to be some point when a man had to cease being a rake and start acting with some decorum.
He stopped walking abruptly. Could it be that he was finally growing up?
His grandfather would claim it was impossible, but for the first time in his life, Seb’s mind seemed… clear. Perhaps it was the sea air, but he was starting to gain a new perspective on life. Granted, he wasn’t ready to settle down and start a nursery just yet, but the idea of taking a bride and planting some roots like Grey had wasn’t quite as distasteful as it might have been just a sennight ago.
He glanced up to where Lady Calliope was walking along with Mary and a grin grew across his face. Then again, the idea of holding a baby girl with copper red hair didn’t sound all that terrible.
Calliope tried to be circumspect when it came to glancing over her shoulder to spy on the viscount. But apparently, she wasn’t doing it well enough, because Mary finally spoke up. “Are you sure you don’t want to see if Lord Blakely wishes to join us?”
Calliope’s head whipped back around. “What? No, of course not.” She clenched her bare fists at her sides and told herself that she would not look back at him anymore.
“I merely wondered since you seem quite fascinated with checking in on him.” Mary shrugged as she bent down to inspect something in the sand.
“I assure you, I can’t abide him in the least,” Calliope returned firmly. “He is a thorn in my side.” Determined to put the viscount out of her thoughts once and for all and to prove to Mary, as well as herself, that he meant nothing, she crouched down beside her guide. “What have you found there?”
Mary’s dark head lowered to peer more closely at the item in question. “A fossil. A particularly interesting one.”
“It looks like some sort of plant,” Calliope noted, hoping that she might have guessed correctly.
Mary shook her head. “No. It’s more of a type of animal, like a starfish, or a sea urchin. It just appears like a leaf because of its distinct shape.” She ran her finger in a line down the center of the spine. “There are these branches that come out of the main stem and act as arms to the central body.”
As she continued to note the various characteristics of the fossil, Calliope realized how gifted this young woman was. She was certainly ahead of her time, and should the geological society eventually accept females, she could likely teach the men who participated quite a lot about her scientific findings.
After the fossil was tucked into Mary’s bag, they continued their quest. It might have seemed like an easy task to wander among the sand and stone, but Calliope realized just how daunting a task it truly was. Out of the thousands of rocks and shells that littered the coastline, only a small percentage of them turned out to be something of value. Since Mary had been walking these same paths since she’d been a child, it was no wonder she had a keen eye for certain distinctions that separated one from another. She managed to uncover items that most people might just walk past without giving it a second glance, but Mary did not. Calliope realized that she had chosen the perfect guide, as she could learn a lot from this woman.
If only she wasn’t so distracted by a certain gentleman…
Calliope gritted her teeth as she pressed forward.
She started toward a sizeable ledge that bordered the base of the cliffs. It was so smooth that it looked out of place with the rest of the shoreline. As she drew closer, Calliope inhaled sharply, for a large, limestone expanse was littered with countless swirled fossils. “This is… amazing,” she breathed.
“This is what we call the ammonite pavement,” Mary said with a touch of pride in her voice. She pointed toward a certain formation. “That’s a rare mollusk. There are several here just like it.”
“How did they all… get here?” Calliope asked, fascinated by the view before her.
“It’s a preserving process that happens over a period of many years.”
She glanced over at Mary. “It’s all rather overwhelming to think about, isn’t it?”
