Chapter 10
Where in Pluto’s dark hells is she?
Phin’s enthusiasm to find the woman he was going to marry had begun to wane around the time he checked the forty-fifth room for Olive, but not his determination.
It was just that… Well, he’d searched the whole damn estate when he’d returned after speaking to Athena at Newfincy, starting with the bedrooms and ending with the kitchens, scullery, and the remarkably well-stocked cellars.
Oh, and his jacket.
Well, at least he was dressed now, and his clothes had dried out during his search. He was still wearing the sturdy costume he often wore while excavating and the tweed hid the mud well.
When he checked Olive’s room, he’d found his jacket draped across a chair, so he’d shrugged into it while checking his reflection in her mirror.
His waistcoat was buttoned correctly, and he’d have to find a non-drenched hat before he could be considered proper, but at least he wouldn’t look like a complete barbarian when he proposed marriage to Olive.
On the other hand, she’d liked him in a kilt, hadn’t she?
Phin’s lips quirked upward. His brother, Lysander, was a bit of a clotheshorse, but swore that the ladies loved a man in a kilt.
Of course, his oldest brother was known as the Beast of the Oliphants partially because of his propensity to wear such a barbaric garment, but Lysander was rarely wrong.
He hadn’t been present much at the house party—busy with his estate—but he’d been here often enough to tease Phin about the Draw of the Kilt being still very much en force.
But for now…
With a nod to himself in the mirror, he yanked on his lapels, making sure he was straight, then turned to continue his search.
It wasn’t until he was standing in the front entrance hall, twisting around rather helplessly, that he put his hand in the pocket of his jacket, and his fingers brushed paper.
Oh, aye, he’d forgotten the letter from the Society, which he’d shoved in there days ago. But...
He pulled it from his pocket and realized it had been unfolded and re-folded in the wrong direction before being forced back into the envelope. It was safe to assume it had been read in the intermediate time, and it was also safe to assume who had been doing said unfolding, reading, refolding.
Olive.
If Olive had read the letter from the Society, could that explain why he couldn’t find her right now?
The answer came in a flash.
Aye, ye wee stupid dobber. She thinks ye took her virginity and are jaunting off to London and the Holy Land without her!
Since his cheek was still sensitive from his sister’s slap, he amended that last chastisement to, “she gave ye her virginity,” and decided he liked that better anyhow.
He slapped the paper against his palm, working his way through the conundrum. If she thought he was leaving her, after everything they’d just shared, where would she be? Because now, more than ever, he needed to find her and explain his feelings.
“Mr. Oliphant?”
He whirled about, only to be faced with one of the many young misses attending the house party. Which one was she? “Miss…Bonnie, aye?”
The young lady was bonnie indeed, but not in the sparkling way of her blonde sister. This Miss Oliphant, whom Phin knew resided at the Oliphant Inn with her mother, the baroness who was also the proprietress, had the same sort of quiet beauty of his Olive.
Her lips curled slightly, and he wasn’t certain he could interpret the knowing look in her eyes. “Aye,” she drawled in imitation. “You look as if you are searching for someone?”
It was clear she knew exactly who he was searching for, and Phin didn’t have time to play games.
“Do ye ken where Olive is?” He didn’t even bother with propriety—if he were lucky, he’d soon win the right to call her Olive to whomever he wanted. “I need to find her.”
“Of course you do.” The woman’s grin grew. “I could not quite understand what she was going on about, but it had something to do with a riverbank and mud and something falling in.”
Phin was already shaking his head. “That was days ago. We thought the sphaera had fallen into the ancient river mud, but excavations revealed we were mistaken.”
“I am not going to pretend to understand that, but I will tell you that the conversation I had with her was only about an hour ago.”
An hour ago. After they’d returned? After they’d decided the excavation was a failure?
Olive, love, ye’ve had another idea, have ye no’? Ye’ve solved it!
“She said she was going to prove she is as brilliant as you think she is. You do think she is brilliant, do you not?”
His smile was wide enough he was rather afraid of the top of his head falling off.
“Aye, Miss Bonnie, I do, and she is.” He surged into motion, ramming his new hat atop his head as he jumped toward the door. “And I will spend the rest of my life convincing her, if she doesnae already believe me!”
The woman’s laughter followed him out into the sunshine.
Phineas started to run, ignoring the heat and the way the air felt heavy after the storm. All he knew was that he needed to get to the dig site to find his love and tell her how special she was.
He was out of breath by the time he jogged over the last hill, and he had to stop to brace his hands against his knees as he scanned the area.
From this height, he could see the river curling in the distance and the ruins where they’d spent the last few days.
The canvas tarps were still stretched out over the excavation site, although he was certain anything of interest had already been removed and catalogued to be added to the disregarded Dumpkins collection.
But where was Olive?
Straightening, Phin peered down at the dig site. If she’d had an idea about the sphaera, why wasn’t she working along the ancient riverbank?
But then he saw her and a slow smile came to his face.
She was working along the ancient riverbank, just not near the original building.
Suddenly anxious to see her, he clamped his hat to his head and jogged down the hill toward the opposite side of the ruins where she was bustling around the edge of the excavation site to what he now knew was the riverbank. The bend in the riverbank.
“What are ye doing, lass?”
It wasn’t until she straightened and spun about that he realized perhaps he could’ve phrased that better—less accusatory—and winced. Before she could defend herself, he hurried to reassure her.
“I mean, I can see ye’re doing a fine job of staking the site, and ye’re making all the correct notations in the chart.
” Around the two of them, an archaeological excavation was slowly taking shape.
She’d used the same stakes and string and rulers to mark out a grid, and she’d even begun to shave off the top layer, as they’d done days ago along the back wall of the civic building’s ruins. “But why here?”
She glanced around, as if confused by his question. Perhaps she’d been expecting him to say something else when he’d come barreling up?
“This is the bend in the river.”
He frowned, trying to understand. “Olive, lass, we excavated the riverbank, remember? We determined the sphaera wasnae there. We dug down past the last level of Roman artifacts.”
Now she was frowning too, as she brushed her palms against one another and stepped closer to him.
“Yes, we did. Over there.” She nodded meaningfully toward the ruins, her words slow, as if he were the one hard of understanding. “This is the bend.”
He blew out a half-laugh at himself and pulled off his hat to run a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, lass. I dinnae understand the difference. Can ye explain?”
Slowly, a smile crept across her lips until she was beaming. “Thank you.”
Why wasn’t this making any sense?
“For what?” he asked in frustration.
“For believing me to be intelligent enough to have a reason for my actions, instead of telling me I am wrong or unwise. Thank you for asking me to explain.”
That was it? Smiling gently, he reached for her hands and loved that there was dirt under her nails.
“Olive, lass, I’ve been trying to tell ye for ages that I think ye’re a brilliant scholar.
Of course I trust ye to have made an intelligent decision, and I’m looking forward to being enlightened.
I will never make ye feel like ye have a lesser intellect than ye do because I ken ye’re far smarter than I am. ”
She was chewing on her lower lip again, Zeus help him, and her blush was climbing up her neck. She kept her attention fixed on his chin, but he could see the little sparkle of pleasure behind her spectacles.
“I do not know about that,” she whispered.
“I do.” He leaned forward and brushed a kiss across her forehead. “Now, will ye explain to me?”
“The bend in the river,” she blurted, glancing up at him, then away once more.
“If the sphaera did fall off the backside of the roof and into the river, there is nothing to say it sunk immediately.” She slowly raised her eyes to his.
“Gold is heavy, of course, but if it did not sink into the mud, that meant it was swept downstream.”
Phin’s eyes widened.
“To the bend in the river,” he whispered.
Nodding eagerly, she pulled one hand from his to point as she turned slightly.
“See? We knew where the river turned, but we just did not know why it was relevant. There could be all sorts of artifacts buried in the mud there, instead of along the backside of the ruins.”
“And if the sphaera isnae among them, that means—”
“Either it did not fall into the river, or it is somewhere along the bank between the two!” she finished excitedly.
“And we’ll just excavate the entire riverbank until we find it!”
She was beaming. “It will not be too difficult, because we know exactly how far down we need to dig, and—”
He didn’t give her time to finish, but swept her up in his arms with a loud whoop, and spun her around. Luckily, she began to laugh before pounding at his shoulders to be released, and his grin threatened to shear his face in two.