Boneseeker Read Free Page A

that color, Henry.”
    His eyebrows rise. “Still blue. Like my heart.”
    I roll my eyes. “ Please , Henry. I know you, remember. Or at least I did. Your poetry will have no effect on me.”
    I flush.
    I’ve done it again. I can never discern polite conversation from taboo. I speak my thoughts, directly. Which is why I lasted all of four months at boarding school. And why I was expelled for fighting.
    Practically the societal kiss-of-death for a woman.
    Henry’s mouth curls up on the sides into a closed lip smirk. “Poetry has no effect? Pity, that. I find it most effective with the female persuasion. Arabella, you’ve changed quite a bit, as well….”
    Henry’s hands fidget and the motion triggers images.
    My mind time-travels. A tinier, happier version of us darts through my memory and across the English countryside, dirty and mischievous.
    I’m instantly at ease. It’s as if we’ve never parted. Our four year estrangement melting away.
    How easily I forgive him. Too easily.
    I see it too, in his eyes.
    Same old Henry.
    Except even larger and strikingly more handsome when last I saw him. My mind replays our final goodbye as he stepped onto the boat, bound for boarding school. The very-rare pain that had gripped my heart.
    He steps closer and gently wraps his fingers around my elbow and the images flicker away.
    Little shocks of excitement spark up my arm, and the heat spreads as my flush deepens. My face might catch fire at any second.
    His voice drops an octave, his face becoming all seriousness. “Listen, I know you were offended by father’s offer of my protection. He was merely placating Stygian. I haven’t forgotten your mind, your brilliance. You thrashed me in almost every subject, so please, friends again?”
    I am staring. Stop staring . The words, spontaneous combustion , keep popping in my head.
    I shiver and hope he doesn’t notice.
    My mind flicks to our singular kiss…which changed everything.
    I’d grown to detest that fateful kiss as it had wholly altered our comfortable, easy friendship into…something else entirely. Ironically, the coming together of the kiss, kept us awkwardly apart till the day he stepped on the boat. Wasting our final days together.
    I shake my head, banning the memory. “Yes, Henry. I’d like to be friends again. I thought we still were.”
    He smiles. “Good.” His eyes pick through the piles of bones. “Tell me more particulars about the expedition. I have only heard the basics. It’s been a whirlwind since our arrival.”
    My mind sharpens. The blazing fire of obsession burning off all other thought.
    I think of father, huddled over a singular piece of paper, unmoving for hours, working through a problem.
    I cannot help my smile.
    Henry smiles back; his eyes squint playfully as he bites his bottom lip.
    I catch my breath, distracted.
    This is a first . Once aboard the obsession juggernaut, I never swerve or falter. A deductive automaton. Just like father.
    He clears his throat. “Arabella, the expedition?”
    My mind clicks as a litany of images invade my cortex. “Remember the massive storm a few months prior; the one that snapped off tree tops like matchsticks?”
    “Yes, I read of it.”
    “It unearthed a hand in upstate New York, and the museum acquired it. It is currently locked safely away in Earnest’s office. It’s twice the size of your own, Henry. And you are a tall man.”
    He worries his lip. “Ape?”
    “It has 27 bones, the same as our hands. The sheer size; it would be larger than any ape I’ve ever seen. I’ve spent hours examining it.”
    “Yes, I’ll wager you have.”
    White-hot anger flashes. I’m quite used to men having no idea what to do with me and my mind.
    “The results are inconclusive. That comment was very droll. So you suggest more feminine pursuits, Henry? Has boarding school narrowed your thoughts about women? Expect me to knit, to play an instrument and speak when spoken to?”
    My eyes flick to challenge his,