“So you did” was all Norma Jean responded to that before she lifted her chin, turned on her heel, then marched back to the door, turning once she reached it. “Are you picking me up from school tomorrow?”
“I have a meeting with one of my suppliers, so Mother will fetch you tomorrow from school as well.”
Annaliese wasn’t sure, but it almost sounded as if Norma Jean muttered “excellent” under her breath before she headed out the door.
Seth resumed raking his hand through his hair. “Did any of that seem peculiar to you?”
“It’s hard to say, but if I were to hazard a guess, I imagine Norma Jean is acting peculiarly because she’s put out with you, as well as put out with me, and clearly doesn’t want us to be friends.”
“Then she’s certain to stay in a peculiar frame of mind as I have no intention of discontinuing our association, not when I have so many questions to ask you about your insects.” He picked up one of her journals, glanced over a few pages, and then returned his attention to her. “Do you really believe that butterflies taste with their feet?”
“I do, just as I also believe, since this is also on that page, that ladybirds play dead to avoid predators, something I’ve witnessed firsthand.”
“Fascinating.” Seth closed the journal and set it aside. “I now find myself anxious to resume our insect discussion and wish I had spare time this afternoon. With that said, and even though I told Norma Jean that I would not be here tomorrow to fetch her from school, I could return here tomorrow at this same time if you’d like to continue our insect discussion then.”
Annaliese’s stomach began turning all fluttery again. “Iwon’t be available the hour before lunch like today, but I’ll be free at lunchtime, and then the hour after lunch.”
“Wonderful.” Seth smiled. “I’ll be here at noon, then, and do know that I’m greatly looking forward to having you regale me with all the knowledge you’ve amassed regarding ladybirds, caterpillars, and any other creatures you want to tell me about.”
It really wasn’t unexpected when Annaliese found herself wishing that tomorrow was already here, especially when, for the first time ever, she was going to sit down with a gentleman who gave new meaning to the wordappealingand discuss not the weather or fashion, but bugs.
Eleven
Seth pulled his pocket watch out yet again, disappointment stealing through him when he realized that only three minutes had passed since he’d last checked the time.
“A few more minutes, Leonardo,” he told his horse, who he’d named after the oh-so-extraordinary Leonardo da Vinci, and who didn’t particular care to linger about when he’d been promised a late-morning gallop but had been forced to linger under a large maple tree instead.
“I know you’re champing at the bit,” Seth said. “But Annaliese won’t be available until noon. I don’t want to arrive at the academy too early since that might allow Norma Jean an opportunity to spot me. The last thing I want is for her to decide I’m checking up on her again since that’ll just leave her surlier than she already is.”
Leonardo gave a toss of his head, quite as if he wanted Seth to know that all the lingering was making him surly as well.
“Now, don’t be like that. It’s a beautiful day and just look at how lovely the trees are. You should take this time to appreciate the crimson leaves since all of them will soon be on the ground and we’ll have to wait until next year to see them again, although...”
Seth took a moment to consider the maple leaves that werealready scattered on the ground, the thought springing to mind that they would look lovely in a bowl on Annaliese’s desk. Trying to ignore the next thought that sprang to mind—one that centered around the idea that he’d never thought of leaves as lovely before, or thought about putting them in a bowl—he swung from the saddle and began picking up a few leaves, abandoning his picking after he turned one of the leaves over and discovered a spider sac on the back of it.
All thoughts of leaves displayed in a bowl disappeared in a trice since he knew without a doubt that a spider sac would appeal to Annaliese far more than any of the crimson leaves he’d been considering giving her.
The sac would also give them something riveting to talk about when they finally met at the academy for lunch, and a lunch he’d been counting down the minutes to ever since he’d woken up that morning before the sun had risen.
Curiously enough, he hadn’t lost sleep the night before, something he’d been losing for weeks, because he’d been contemplating the symmetry of Annaliese’s face. Instead, he’d been up half the night because he’d been reviewing the time he’d spent with her at the academy, sifting through every word she’d spoken to him. He’d then turned his thoughts to everything he’d read in the journal she’d let him take home, and a journal that was filled with observations that were worthy of any professional entomologist or arachnologist out there.
After tucking the spider sac carefully amongst the handful of leaves he’d collected, he walked back to Leonardo, put the leaves in his saddlebag, and checked his watch again. Relief was swift when he realized it was eleven fifty and then realized that ten minutes would allow him to arrive at the academy precisely at noon.
He swung up into the saddle, urged Leonardo into a gallop, then found his thoughts wandering after Leonardo settledinto an even gait, unsurprised when those thoughts wandered directly back to Annaliese.
With all the thinking he’d been doing about her of late, it had still been quite the revelation that, even though he’d been convinced that his fascination with the lady was due to the symmetry of her face, he’d been a little off the mark about that. Granted, he still found her face fascinating, but it was becoming more and more evident that his fascination was a result ofeverythingabout Annaliese.
She truly was one of the most intelligent ladies he’d ever met, and the one journal of hers that he’d read thus far had impressed him so much that he’d sent off a note earlier that morning to a publishing friend, asking him if he’d be interested in meeting Annaliese to discuss publishing her work.
Making such an inquiry on Annaliese’s behalf had been rather presumptuous of him, but she had told him the day before that shehadsent out a few query letters to publishing houses during the time she was in mourning for her late father. However, once the publishers discovered she was a young lady from the upper echelons of society and not a man of any scientific experience, they’d flatly refused to have anything else to do with her.
If nothing else, his inquiry to his publishing friend might at least crack open a door for her and...
A chorus of high-pitched shrieks took that moment to reach his ears, snapping him from his thoughts.
He immediately kneed Leonardo into a gallop but was forced to rein to a stop when he reached the wrought iron gate of the Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies, a sense of foreboding settling over him when he encountered an unmanned gate. The very idea that Norbert Tweed or another member of the Merriweather staff were being delinquent with minding the entrance into the academy suggested that something was gravely amiss.
After fishing out the hairpin he’d neglected to return to Annaliese,and one he now never left home without, he swung from the saddle and headed for the gate. It took him less than a minute to pick the lock, and once the gate opened, he hefted himself back onto Leonardo and kneed him into motion again, rounding a bend a blink of an eye later and catching sight of a scene that gave new meaning to the wordchaotic.
