17
The trip the next day was miserable. Bryony didn’t know whether to blame it on the rain or the fact that her father and Heath spent a good part of the morning at the back of the group arguing about how Heath had secretly agreed to prospect for gold while pretending to help with the research.
Or maybe it was the fact that no one wanted to talk to Richard, not even Heath.
It certainly didn’t help that the sky had decided to open up, pelting them with a constant deluge of rain that made her wonder if she’d ever feel dry again, even wearing the parka Mikhail had given her. She couldn’t imagine how much more miserable she’d be if she was stuck wearing her wool coat.
Mikhail had explained to everyone that at lower altitudes, they were more likely to get rain at this time of year. Apparently the valley where they’d been studying the lichens had been high enough in altitude that clouds from the ocean didn’t have a chance of getting trapped between the mountain peaks and dump moisture. But now that they were coming closer to sea level, and since they were traveling through the valleys rather than climbing partway up the mountains to save time, they would likely have rain for the rest of the trip, including once they reached the Iskut River.
That alone was enough to put everyone in a foul mood, even without them learning Richard and Heath had been lying to them for the entire summer—or that Richard had been lying to everyone he knew for the past decade.
Then there was the fact that they didn’t find a place to cross the unnamed river they’d reached until nearly lunchtime. Richard and Heath had been wrong about finding a safe place to ford. The spot where they’d panned for gold yesterday afternoon turned out to be too deep in the center for them to cross. So they’d followed the river for what seemed like miles, down off the mountain completely and into a valley where the river finally widened and became more shallow.
The silence that had stretched between much of the group all morning continued as they ate lunch on the opposite side of the river. No one seemed to have anything to say, and Mikhail was anxious to get moving after going so far out of their way.
They’d been walking for another hour or so, mud sucking at their boots, when her father came up beside her. “Bryony, dear, walk with me for a bit.”
She moved her gaze to a mossy tree on their left rather than looking at her father. “I have nothing more to say about Richard. I would never marry a man like that, especially not after learning about the wife and child he abandoned. And nothing you say will change my mind.”
“I’m not going to try changing your mind.” Her father readjusted the hood on his head. “If anything, I want to apologize for not listening when you tried telling me how you felt about marrying him.”
She nearly tripped. “Do you mean that?”
“Yes.”
She eyed her father. He walked with his shoulders hunched forward against the rain, wearing Mikhail’s extra parka. His face didn’t give away what he was thinking, but as a renowned scientist, he prided himself on being right, not wrong, and admitting he’d been wrong about Richard would cost him dearly.
“I hope you understand that I just want the best for you.” His breath puffed plumes of white into the rain-drenched air. “I always have. I know you have a love for science, even though you’re a woman. And Richard looked like a good match. You could have continued to accompany us on expeditions and helped catalog the research, and if you marry someone else, I can’t say the same.”
There was a time when staying that involved in her father’s science would have excited her. But now?
Perhaps she’d spent too much time talking to Mikhail, because her father’s words felt hollow, an empty shell of a promise she didn’t even want anymore. “I want to go to college when I get home, and I want to study... Well, I’m not sure what I want to study. Perhaps botany or cartography or art. Something to do with my journals, and then?—”
“Science, Bryony? At a college?” He shook his head. “I know you like the subject, but there’s no place for women in the world of science. Nothing either of us do will change that.”
Her cheeks turned hot despite the cold air. “There’s a place for me here, isn’t there? Just like there was a place for me on the expedition last summer, and the summer before that. There’s so much of a place for me that Richard is publishing my work.”
“Having you accompany us on an expedition to sketch and take notes is a far cry from employing you in a lab. We’ve had this conversation before. While I’m happy to have your help from time to time, I simply can’t find a place for you at the Smithsonian Institution.”
“What about if I go to Boston and work for?—”
“Are you trying to humiliate me?” Red splotches appeared on her father’s cheeks. “Trying to make me a laughingstock among my peers?”
She pressed her eyes shut, willing herself to stay calm. Why did her father assume she was trying to humiliate him whenever she brought up science? “No. I was just?—”
“Good. Then this is the last I want to hear of it.”
Her shoulders sagged.
She had questions about what would come next, about what her father would expect of her after they returned to Washington, DC. They might agree that she wasn’t going to marry Richard, but did that mean Father would start searching for another husband? Perhaps someone he knew in the field of science so she’d have at least a bit of access to the world she loved?
He clearly didn’t want her going to college to study science, but would he support her if she once again asked to attend Wellesley and study education? Would he accept her becoming a spinster so long as she had a means of supporting herself that he didn’t find embarrassing?
She didn’t know, but at the moment, she didn’t have the heart to ask.
* * *
Bryony had disappeared.Mikhail looked around the campground, trying to figure out where she might have gone. The grouse they’d kicked up a couple of hours earlier was cooking over the fire, and everyone had set up their tents for the night.
