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still remember the date his letter arrived: the 12th of May 1820.
Mary
lady answered for her husband. “We shall take a shilling’s worth of crinoids.” She smiled
Sje knew mary needed a shilling to pay postman
Lt. Col. Birch announced that the funds raised would be given to the Anning family of Lyme Regis, who helped him to assemble the collection.
500 poundd!
Colonel Birch
He wanted to do things proper. But what man would give a family £400 and not have real intentions?
“I want to tell you about what happened in London, Mary. You are not to tell anyone I told you.
“Colonel Birch has named you in public, Mary.
He has told some of the most interested fossil collectors in the country to seek you out.
I love Colonel Birch and am waiting for him to come back.”
“But I don’t want you to make a fool of yourself. I want you to think sensibly about what is possible for your life.”
“You’re jealous of me.”
You’re a dried-up old spinster who will never get a man or a monster. And I will.” It felt so good and so horrible to say these things aloud that I thought I might be sick.
“I saved your life once. I dug you out of the clay. And this is how you repay me, with the unkindest thoughts.”
Colonel Birch
was accompanying a lady. A widow.
I am not a superstitious person, but I knew he would come, for though he did not know it, it was my birthday.
Colonel Birch dismounted, reached for my hand and kissed it in front of all the visitors rummaging through the curies and the villagers walking past. I didn’t care.
I did not want to watch him hand over the money. Though I was grateful for it,
he took my hand so that I would not fall. “Mary, I cannot marry you,” he said.
It is my birthday today. I am twenty-one years old, and this is what I want.”
Are they going to have sex?
With Mary the severing was far more painful because she was so close to my heart.
Without Mary’s knowledge and encouragement, I felt my own studies slacken.
At the same time I had to watch her become more popular with outsiders.
eventually I did grow used to not having Mary’s company or her friendship.
It had been impossible to get Mr. Buckland to understand that Mary and I no longer had anything to do with each other.
I want you to persuade the Annings not to sell this specimen to Colonel Birch as they did the last one. He sold that on to the Royal College of Surgeons, and we would rather this one not go there as well.”
Whatever anger there was between us, I was delighted that she had found something no one ever had before. I walked
“EP” in Mary’s hand.
She was saving them for me. She must think that one day we would be friends again,
will keep your secret for you, Miss Philpot.” Joseph smiled
letter from her pocket, Molly Anning handed it to me.
from Paris. The words “plesiosaurus” and “Cuvier” popped out at me,
opinion that you have joined together two separate individuals, perhaps that of the head of a sea serpent with the body of an ichthyosaurus.
Mademoiselle, perhaps your family might take more care when collecting and presenting specimens.
“Says the Frenchman has ruined her reputation as a hunter. She’s gone to bed over it, says there’s no reason
“How dare that Frenchman threaten our business! You’ll have to sort him out.”
“Molly, I am going to help you. Don’t cry, now.
We will manage.”
the men I wanted to see would be blinded by their interest in the plesiosaurus and would not attend to my letter, no matter how eloquent or urgent. I must see them in person
I only knew that when I read Joseph Pentland’s letter, I was consumed with anger.
something else, though. This was also my chance for an adventure in an unadventurous life.
I had always thought of the sea as a boundary keeping me in my place on land. Now, though, it became
an opening.
not expect it, but I
had never been so happy.
delicious anonymity of standing on deck
the Dispatch,” he confirmed, “run aground on Goodwin Sands.
“Cargo was taken to shore yesterday!” one called. “They’re taking it overland to London.”
the specimen would now probably arrive in London after me,
something had shifted in me while I spent all that time on deck watching the horizon: I was responsible for myself.
