“Shall we visit the remaining caves or the mine tomorrow?” she asked at dinner.
Lucian raised an eyebrow and frowned. “You will find nothing here.”
“You do not know that for certain.”
“I will send footmen and gardeners out to search these areas and they can report back to us.”
“No!” she insisted. “There is no fun in doing so. I am the one who has been searching and I want to be the one to find the mummy.”
Lucian dropped his chin then pinched the space between his eyes. “If they were to find something, they would report directly to us and then we could go see for ourselves.”
“It is not the same,” Eliza argued. “Besides, if they came back and said they found nothing, I would still want to look for myself.”
“Very well,” he blew out on a sigh. “As soon as I have the availability, I will escort you to each location so you can search and be done with this madness.”
Eliza couldn’t contain the happiness that bubbled up from inside. “Thank you,” she gushed. “I promise that you will not be disappointed. We will find a treasure.”
“A mummy is not a treasure,” he argued.
“It is to some, as were all the other valuables taken from homes.”
“The very ones that will be returned to their owners,” he warned.
“Of course!” she agreed. “The fun is in the quest and discovery. I never intended to keep anything.”
“You will likely not find anything to keep either,” he warned.
“Can you not at least show some anticipation? It could be a great adventure.” Though it wasn’t as if they were traveling to a far continent to fight their way through jungles.
“I adventured there, often, as a child,” he reminded her.
Would his children one day do the same? Would they find the toy swords and play the same games Lucian had enjoyed with his brothers?
A longing settled into her heart, one that Eliza could not understand. She had never longed to marry and have children because she would not allow herself to do so. But, the idea of Lucian fathering children who would explore caves, get dirty, and play at pirates or knights left her sad. She’d be left out of one of the many joys of life.
Except, she had her own life, full of excitement and when she was bored, created a world to which she could escape. Further, she had no responsibility to a husband or home and could do as she wished. That was much better than being a mother and forced to remain in one place.
Wasn’t it?
Goodness, what had come over her.
“It will be an adventure to me,” she insisted, then finished the wine in her glass.
Unfortunately, they did not venture anywhere the following day because it was raining. At least there were no storms, just dreary rain that did not let up and Eliza had no choice but to make her way to the parlor following breakfast to work on her novel.
What surprised her, however, was when Lucian joined her late in the afternoon.
“I have been reading your previous works again,” he announced.
There was an edge to his voice and Eliza wondered what he found objectionable.
“These are the last two and I thought I would enjoy them in here, while you work.” He smiled, which was something Eliza hadn’t seen him do very often. “What better way to spend a rainy day than reading and sipping tea?”
“I have no objection.” Though she did wonder why when there were several rooms within this manor where he could read.
Eliza returned her attention to the pages before her. She was almost finished making her revisions and creating clean pages to submit to her publisher. All she needed now was to finally finish her story. She still did not know how it would end because it would depend on what was found, if anything.
Oh, she knew that just because the mummy was stashed at a park owned by an earl who liked rocks that it could be somewhere else, but she had no other clues. Besides, after she had been banned from Wyndhill Park, she had researched the various estates throughout England and those with Park in the name she had inquired into the ownership. If one was an earl, she questioned the gossips in Society. None of them had any interest in rocks or fossils as far as they knew, which brought her back to being convinced the mummy was located here.
