Someone Irresistible (37 page)

She stuck her hand out and he placed it in her palm, though she never uttered a sound because she couldn’t think of anything appropriate—and because she feared a scene if she broke down in front of strange pedestrians in the park.

Reaching for the bow, Mimi pulled at the ribbon until it came loose, then quickly discarded it. With nimble fingers, she tore at the paper, then lifted the top of the little box.

Inside lay a tiny hinged jewel case made of ivory, carved on top into a breathtaking scene of flying birds that soared above trees.

“It’s lovely,” she murmured.

He smiled smugly. “It is, isn’t it? It’s from Persia, but I bought it in France, to hold my pocketwatch, things of that nature.”

She lifted it from the outer box. “It looks too small for a pocketwatch.”

“Exactly,” he said, adding sheepishly, “I discovered that. And I don’t wear jewelry, so I don’t very well need a case.” He lowered his voice. “I want you to have it.”

Mimi glanced up to him, unsure. His hard, flat, masculine features told her nothing, but in his eyes she observed a hidden mischief, a sparkle of excitement that made her desperate.

With delicate fingers, she lifted the lid.

The inside, except for a patch of black velvet, was empty.

Her heart sank, and he no doubt witnessed her disappointment as her face fell. She didn’t know whether to tell him it lacked a bloody ring or thank him politely for his generous gift in which she would delightfully place a pair of her earrings.

She’d evidently paused long enough for him to notice he had her stumped.

Suddenly he reached for her, clasping his large, warm palm over hers as she held the box.

“You noticed it’s empty,” he maintained faintly.

She swallowed. “Yes, but it’s—”

“I thought,” he cut in, rubbing her knuckles with one long finger,

“that you might use this box, as my treasured gift to you, for a place inside which you could keep the ring you wore when you were married to Carter.”

Mimi stilled, eyes widening as clarity enveloped her. And then her entire body began to shake.

“Nathan…”

With his free hand he reached into another pocket, his tone calm and thoughtful, as he finally revealed his purpose. “I was rather hoping you’d wear mine on your finger instead.”

That said, he held out to her a small, brilliantly cut emerald set upon a thin band of gold.

Her eyes filled with tears again and this time she didn’t stop them from flowing. She couldn’t speak, and he accepted that. Reaching for her hand, he gently removed the ring that Carter had placed there nearly three years ago. Then he turned the ivory jewel case toward him and placed her late husband’s ring inside on the black velvet.

“I love you, Mimi,” he whispered passionately. “I love your charm and your joy. I love that you were loyal to a husband who left you lonely.

I love your talent and honesty.” He inhaled deeply, and swallowed with a force of emotion. “But most of all, I love that you love me in spite of my failings. Please say that you’ll marry me.”

In spite of my failings…

“You will never fail me, Nathan,” she murmured huskily. She reached for his cheek with her palm and gradually drew him down so that his forehead touched hers.

For moments they stayed like that, oblivious to passersby around them, the birds chirping on the water, the bubbling of the fountain.

Finally Nathan took her hand in his and slid the perfectly formed emerald betrothal ring on her finger. His ring.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He said nothing, but his lips grazed her forehead and temple. She clutched the ivory case in her hand, feeling the gold ring on her finger, loose and lighter than Carter’s, but there from a deeply felt passion that

she trusted would never die.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, come back to you sooner,” he said after a long moment.

She sniffed. “I knew you needed time.”

He grunted. “I didn’t need that much time.”

She smiled, still leaning against him. “Perhaps, but I needed time to sculpt the Megalosaur.”

He placed his fingers under her chin and lifted it to delicately kiss her lips. “I should have forgiven you anyway, for the support, the caring you’ve shown me, the challenges you’ve given me. I should have known.”

Forgiven her? And then she understood… he still didn’t know the truth about that night long ago, the total truth about his ruin. Suddenly she felt a pulsing joy within that he’d confessed his love and proposed marriage even as he thought she’d betrayed him that night long ago.

She skimmed her palm across his warm cheek, her thumb across the bone. “Oh, Nathan, my sweet love. I didn’t steal your jawbone years ago.”

He tried to pull away, though in shock or offense, she couldn’t be sure. But she clung to him, squeezing her eyes shut to whisper, “Mary did it.”

Nathan sat there, in stunned silence, hardly breathing, not speaking as he absorbed the shock of her words. For moments he didn’t understand, and then, with hard-hitting incredulity, he again felt the weight of lies and deception against him. He held to the woman he loved, adored inside and out, smelling her distinctive scent, feeling her, absorbing her heat as he did her devotion, even as he gradually came to realize that the truth he had accepted in the last few weeks was never the truth at all.

That’s when the forceful words uttered between him and Mimi’s sister during their last verbal encounter shrieked within his mind and total understanding dawned.

If your sister loved me, Miss Marsh, she would have told me what
she’d done months ago.

Perhaps she wants to know you love her, Professor, in spite of the
fact that she didn’t.

Mimi could have told him everything at the dig, easily, but she hadn’t, because not only did she love Mary and want to protect her father’s reputation; she knew it would be the only true barrier between them and any future they might have together. If he wanted her, he

would have to accept her knowing she might have betrayed him. It would be the ultimate forgiveness, and he had done it.

Finally, through the still spring air, listening to each nervous breath she exhaled, he accepted everything with a peace inside that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

“Does your father know?” he asked, his voice raspy, running his fingers along her soft neck.

She shook her head. “No.”

She sounded pained, and he lifted her chin, pushing her back a little so he could see her clearly.

“Look at me,” he insisted in a whisper.

She inhaled deeply and opened glittering eyes to his—eyes that would forever make him weak.

“It happened exactly like your father told me, only Mary took the jawbone instead of you?”

“Yes…”

He paused, then said, “And she did it for him.”

Mimi nodded negligibly, never glancing away, her expression twisted into one of deep sorrow. “Nobody knows, Nathan. Mary gave it to Carter soon after she’d taken it, and I found it after his death, in the attic, with his things. I eventually told my father, because I knew he always suspected. To protect everyone involved, I simply took the blame. Only Mary and I know the truth, and I found out when she told me. The guilt over what she did has stricken her for years.” She pinched her lips together in budding anger. “But I screamed at her, naturally, when I discovered it.”

God, he had to smile. He would expect nothing less from her. “Good for you.”

She tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a wail. “I would have given it back to you when I discovered it, but you’d left the country. I didn’t know what to do, or who to tell, to go to, so I—I kept it.”

He seethed inside with smoldering agitation anew, but he never let it show. “Mary did all this so your father wouldn’t have to sculpt it?”

“Yes. She—she loves him so much, Nathan, and in many ways, he’s all she has. She’s wanted him to stop sculpting for years, and then when his arthritis got so bad, she didn’t want him to ruin his reputation in front of Owen, Waterhouse Hawkins, Prince Albert. He could still sculpt thigh bones and ribs, but a jawbone like that one—” She shook her head sharply in denial. “Oh, God, Nathan, I’m so sorry.”

She still held the jewel case he’d given her in her hand, still clung to

the box. He reached for the lid and closed it over the top in a sharp manner of finality.

“I have an idea,” he remarked very slowly, sitting erect once more and glancing around the pond, noticing how the crowd had grown as the hour of the queen’s grand arrival approached. The party would be a memorable commemoration, a beginning for his science, his career, and his life with Mimi. In the end, this would be a perfect day, indeed.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, squaring her shoulders in an attempt to regain some lost poise. “And that is?”

He grinned wryly, looked back into her eyes, and with sly humor, rubbed the toe of her shoe under his boot, back and forth, in a private gesture nobody could see.

“Let’s have a marvelous night of celebration, a toast to us, and plan this wedding.” He leaned very close to whisper, “I’m about ready to ravish you here on the spot.”

She softly brushed her lips against his as she replied, “I’ve been thinking about that very thing, Professor Price.”

“Have you?”

She grinned against his mouth. “But next time you may linger intimately inside of me on our own soft bed. That should give
you
something to ponder for the next few weeks.”

His body jumped in response to that silky, verbal caress. With gentlemanly smoothness, he stood, grabbed her arm, and quickly drew her to her feet, pulling her close to him with her elbow. “I can’t take the pain. Back to the party now, Mimi,” he ordered, amused, “before I’m arrested for easing it right here beside the pond.”

She laughed outright and linked her arm through his, and they began the short stroll back to the new Crystal Palace, just as they had the night it all began.

^

Acknowledgments

From an early age dinosaurs fascinated me. But it wasn’t until I began researching this book that I realized what a profound effect the discovery of dinosaurs had on Victorian society. In the mid-1800s, science and technology invaded all walks of life in Europe, and, humans being an inquisitive bunch, the discovery of giant “beasts,” as they were called, became a huge spectacle in which everybody wanted to take part.

All characters in this book are fictional, with the exception of Sir

Richard Owen and Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. Owen was indeed an historical anatomist and the central figure in the major dinosaur excavations of the mid-nineteenth century. He was the person who coined the phrase “Dinosauria” and his work was generally accepted as factual and astonishing—until later in that century when new and more accurate information proved many of his earlier observations incorrect. Waterhouse Hawkins was Owen’s actual dinosaur sculptor, and the dinosaur sculptures that were displayed in the Crystal Palace were created by him.

The banquet at the new Crystal Palace on New Year’s Eve, 1853 was an historical event as well, and, to the best of my ability, I used all information gleaned to recreate it in this book. In my research, I was able to find a copy of the dinner menu, the invitation (which was, in fact, displayed on the wing of a drawn Pterodactyl), and even a picture of the gathering inside Waterhouse Hawkins’s Iguanodon mold. I’m sure the real historical dinner was a fascinating event!

I’d like to thank my editor, Lyssa Keusch, and my agent, Denise Marcil, two of the best in the business, for their patience and understanding during a tough writing year.

And finally, I will admit that this book never would have been finished if not for the support and inspiration of my great friend and critique partner, Michele Albert. She’s one of a kind and I can’t help but love her!