Page 134 of Kathryn

Chapter Thirty

Several mornings later Gerrit surprised Katie.

“Where are we going?” she asked when he led her past the large open excavation where the fossil hunters from town worked and where Katie had spent her days helping them.

“You will see,” he said mysteriously. About fifteen feet before they reached the area where he was working, he stopped and gestured to an undisturbed section. “This area is yours.”

Katie’s head whipped up. “Mine?”

He nodded, a faint curl at the corners of his mouth.

“All mine?”

“All yours. Miss Frampton and Mr. Nelson have both spoken highly of your care and patience, so it seemed time to give you your own patch.”

“They are just being kind,” she said, but flushed with pleasure regardless.

“They are not just being kind,” he demurred. “You have an instinct for this, and I believe you possess the patience necessary for the bigger finds.” He gestured to the area he’d just given her. “Who knows what you might unearth here?”

It was tempting—or habit, rather—to shrug off his praise, but then she thought about the past weeks and realized he was right. Not only did she enjoy the excitement of hunting fossils, but she did not mind the hours of painstaking labor required to extract something without destroying it.

“Thank you. I find that I have caught the fossil fever,” she confessed.

Although Dulverton merely nodded, Katie could see her words pleased him. When she had first begun to accompany him, it had been his approval she’d sought. But it had not taken many days before she looked forward to their daily digs for her own reasons. It was no surprise to her that fossil hunting had become all the rage. It was like solving a mystery and digging for buried treasure rolled into one. Yes, it was dirty work, but that did not bother her in the least. Indeed, it reminded her of the best time of her life: her childhood, when every day had felt like summer and had been spent running free and exploring with her siblings.

Even Becky had noticed the change in her. And, aside from chiding her to wear a hat with a larger brim and netting when she was out in the sun, her maid had been delighted.

“You remind me of young Katie,” she’d said just last night as she’d brushed Katie’s hair and readied her for bed. “Full of life and excitement and optimism.”

Katie had scoffed at her friend’s embarrassing declaration, but the truth was that she felt better than she had in ages—in years.

As she looked from her very own section of the dig to where Dulverton had settled down to his work, she could not believe how happy she was.

Indeed, she would be almost completely happy if not for the matter of Jasper, who was still lurking in the area although he had not again accosted her.

Katie wanted to tell Dulverton the truth—to truly clear the air between them—in the worst way. She chewed her lip and pensively regarded her husband. Would it be the wise thing to do?

He was kneeling on one of the thick canvas pads everyone used to spare their knees. His hat was pulled low, his hands bare as he exposed the delicate tracery of the long-dead creature’s tentacles. When he turned his mind to something, as he was doing now, his focus was total, and he looked almost fierce.

He wore the same expression at the chess table.

And in bed.

They had gone from spending only an hour or so in each other’s company to spending most of their days and nights together. They broke their fast together, traveled to the dig together, ate a midday meal and tea in the tent, rode home together, discussing the finds of the day, they were apart a few hours before dinner but back together, and alone, after dinner in the library where they played a few games of chess every evening and then worked on their own projects until bedtime.

Ah, bedtime… the best time of the day in Katie’s opinion, especially since Dulverton had begun to spend the night in her bed. True, he was always up and gone before she woke, but he was there all night. Sometimes they made love; sometimes he just held her.

“Is aught amiss?”

Katie blinked and saw that Dulverton had stood up and was approaching her.

“No, nothing is wrong. I am just… happy.”

The stern Duke of Dulverton smiled. It was not a half-smile or a wry smile or a cool smile, but a slow-growing full-blown grin. Who would believe the man had teeth?

Katie found herself grinning in return, vaguely aware the two of them were standing in the middle of a churned-up hillside like a pair of fools just…smiling.

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