curls. When they shook hands his skin was slightly clammy and Albert found his touch instinctively distasteful.
“Is there any chance of a brandy, Wollaston-Franks?” Albert noticed he didn’t use the curator’s title—perhaps as a Peer he felt he didn’t need to, but there was something in his manner Albert found faintly repugnant. His father, meanwhile, was too excited about the dig to notice much about the man—too excited even to note that he yawned several times, www.total-e-bound.com
ostentatiously and unapologetically, as he talked about the dig. Albert saw that Sir Augustus had been right—it must be Lord Dawlish’s wife who was a keen patron of the sciences, because it could not be him.
The only time the man showed a touch of animation was when—much to Albert’s surprise—his father insisted that Henry Elkington should accompany them on the dig.
Dawlish’s eyes narrowed and an expression Albert couldn’t quite define flashed across his face so quickly it might have been his imagination—a look of supercilious cunning that made his face quite ugly.
But then Wollaston-Franks was around the desk, clapping his father on the back and saying how pleased he was that the reverend was moving on, putting the past behind him, giving his protégé a chance to shine. And before Albert could really process anything that had happened—Dawlish’s look of low cunning, his father’s unexpected move of rapprochement towards Henry—the meeting was over and they were being ushered out of the office.
As Wollaston-Franks and his father walked ahead, deep in conversation, Albert found himself arrested by Dawlish’s hand on his sleeve. “A word of warning, Mr Boundry…
Albert… May I call you Albert?”
Albert looked at him questioningly. “Of warning, my Lord?”
“Mmmm. That fellow Elkington. Don’t trust him. He rides Sir Augustus’ coat-tails and he’s set to make his name off the backs of better and more scrupulous men. I am surprised that your father, after his recent experiences, appears to be taken in.”
Albert hesitated. He, too, was surprised by his father’s abrupt change of heart. But it was indelicate of Dawlish to allude to the flawed research paper, and there was something about the man he simply didn’t like. This poisonous whispering behind the others’ backs did nothing to endear him.
“Thank you, but I prefer to make my own judgements. And I think my father is acting gracefully. Mr Elkington did, after all, point out a genuine error that my father had overlooked. It suggests that he is not without talent. Perhaps the contributions of a man of greater youth and energy will be of benefit to my father.”
He wasn’t sure why he found himself defending Henry Elkington to this man. But then he wasn’t sure of anything when it came to Henry.
Chapter Five
SS Adriatic , May 1876
The next time he saw Henry Elkington, he thought it was a dream.
He groaned and leaned his hot forehead against the cool iron railings. In spite of the brisk, salty wind, he felt feverish. In the wake of the ship the water was thrashed white by the relentless churning of the enormous screw, and if he had felt well enough to raise his head to regard the queasily oscillating prospect of the horizon, he would have seen the docks of Liverpool disappearing at more than fourteen knots an hour.
He was quite alone on the deck of the Adriatic . The other first class passengers were dining beneath the swaying chandeliers, trying to ignore the wine slopping out of glasses with the movement of the ship to stain expensive cuffs and waistcoats.
Albert gripped the ship’s railings more tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. His head ached abominably.
A wave of laughter and stuffy air billowed from behind him and was cut off abruptly as the doors to the state rooms swung open and then closed again. The sound echoed strangely in his poor head and, stepping back automatically to steady himself as he felt the world sway,
“Is there any chance of a brandy, Wollaston-Franks?” Albert noticed he didn’t use the curator’s title—perhaps as a Peer he felt he didn’t need to, but there was something in his manner Albert found faintly repugnant. His father, meanwhile, was too excited about the dig to notice much about the man—too excited even to note that he yawned several times, www.total-e-bound.com
ostentatiously and unapologetically, as he talked about the dig. Albert saw that Sir Augustus had been right—it must be Lord Dawlish’s wife who was a keen patron of the sciences, because it could not be him.
The only time the man showed a touch of animation was when—much to Albert’s surprise—his father insisted that Henry Elkington should accompany them on the dig.
Dawlish’s eyes narrowed and an expression Albert couldn’t quite define flashed across his face so quickly it might have been his imagination—a look of supercilious cunning that made his face quite ugly.
But then Wollaston-Franks was around the desk, clapping his father on the back and saying how pleased he was that the reverend was moving on, putting the past behind him, giving his protégé a chance to shine. And before Albert could really process anything that had happened—Dawlish’s look of low cunning, his father’s unexpected move of rapprochement towards Henry—the meeting was over and they were being ushered out of the office.
As Wollaston-Franks and his father walked ahead, deep in conversation, Albert found himself arrested by Dawlish’s hand on his sleeve. “A word of warning, Mr Boundry…
Albert… May I call you Albert?”
Albert looked at him questioningly. “Of warning, my Lord?”
“Mmmm. That fellow Elkington. Don’t trust him. He rides Sir Augustus’ coat-tails and he’s set to make his name off the backs of better and more scrupulous men. I am surprised that your father, after his recent experiences, appears to be taken in.”
Albert hesitated. He, too, was surprised by his father’s abrupt change of heart. But it was indelicate of Dawlish to allude to the flawed research paper, and there was something about the man he simply didn’t like. This poisonous whispering behind the others’ backs did nothing to endear him.
“Thank you, but I prefer to make my own judgements. And I think my father is acting gracefully. Mr Elkington did, after all, point out a genuine error that my father had overlooked. It suggests that he is not without talent. Perhaps the contributions of a man of greater youth and energy will be of benefit to my father.”
He wasn’t sure why he found himself defending Henry Elkington to this man. But then he wasn’t sure of anything when it came to Henry.
Chapter Five
SS Adriatic , May 1876
The next time he saw Henry Elkington, he thought it was a dream.
He groaned and leaned his hot forehead against the cool iron railings. In spite of the brisk, salty wind, he felt feverish. In the wake of the ship the water was thrashed white by the relentless churning of the enormous screw, and if he had felt well enough to raise his head to regard the queasily oscillating prospect of the horizon, he would have seen the docks of Liverpool disappearing at more than fourteen knots an hour.
He was quite alone on the deck of the Adriatic . The other first class passengers were dining beneath the swaying chandeliers, trying to ignore the wine slopping out of glasses with the movement of the ship to stain expensive cuffs and waistcoats.
Albert gripped the ship’s railings more tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. His head ached abominably.
A wave of laughter and stuffy air billowed from behind him and was cut off abruptly as the doors to the state rooms swung open and then closed again. The sound echoed strangely in his poor head and, stepping back automatically to steady himself as he felt the world sway,
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