Bright Hair About the Bone Read Online Free PDF Page A

paramount. There was no question that the matter would be swept under the carpet and one of the two parties removed. On the trumped-up accusation of a manufactured offence against the College—
“Just leave this in our hands, Dr. Dalton”
—Miss Talbot was required to leave a week or two before she was due to take her final examinations. He savoured some of the phrases:
“…conduct bringing the name of her college into disrepute…behaviour likely to redound to the dishonour of her sex…setback to the integration of females into the University…”
    Sir Richard had stormed and threatened but had accepted the inevitable. A product of the university himself, he understood the rules.
    Ah, well…in all conscience, the girl would have achieved nothing more than title to a degree at pass level, Dalton judged. Quite rightly, Cambridge had held out against the women walking away with a full degree on equal terms with the men. In any event, this woman was never about to scale any academic heights. And perhaps in the end she had been conscious of that? She had certainly accepted the decision of the authorities and departed with surprisingly little fuss, he remembered.
Suspiciously
little fuss? He tried to read the bland, friendly face across his desk. Comeuppance time? He didn’t doubt it.
    â€œI hear that congratulations are due, Felix? In my absence, I understand, you have succeeded in securing the affections of a certain Miss Esmé Leatherhead? The publishing family Leatherhead? Peregrine is her father? What a fortuitous connection for an up-and-coming young poet! You
are
still up and you are still coming, Felix? I wonder if you are aware that Esmé and I are old chums? No? She and I were at school together. A dear girl, though something of an idealist, I always thought…fastidious…exacting…she carries the burden of a Quaker upbringing, poor child! Have you not found so? I really must make a point of looking up my old friend—so much gossip to catch up on…And so far it seems you are managing to retain her affections?” There was no mistaking the menace in her sweet voice as it trailed away leaving thoughts unspoken.
    â€œYou unprincipled hussy! You wouldn’t!”
    â€œI most certainly would.”
    He assessed his options. “What do you want of me?”
    â€œA very undemanding little favour. Something you do every day as a matter of course, I expect. I want you to write a letter of recommendation on college writing paper…I’m sure you have a supply buried somewhere in a lower stratum of this rubbish heap?”
    Well, the girl had always been direct.
    â€œI’m afraid I could not recommend you to any man or to any organisation, Miss Talbot,” he answered frostily, “whatever you threaten. I am amazed that you have the temerity to ask.”
    She dismissed his bluster with an understanding smile. “Just as well, then, that that is not what I am seeking. You jump the gun, Felix. It seems to be a trait of yours. I am just recently back from Egypt. Indeed, I spent the autumn and winter there. I had gone to lick my wounds, bury my anger in the sands, and see if some hard physical work would take away the sting of injustice. I’ve been digging. Under the direction of a friend of my father—Andrew Merriman, the archaeologist. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”
    Dalton nodded. “So—you’ve been doing a little tomb-robbing?” The sneer was barely concealed behind the polite smile.
    â€œIf you’ve been doing a little versifying.” She sighed. “It would take up too much of our time to attempt to convince someone who makes a parade of his scorn for the sciences of the value of the new discipline. The Romance of the Past has ensnared me, and I’m not talking about your deeply unattractive Anglo-Saxon warriors. I’ve learned all Andrew could teach me about the techniques of