A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan Read Free Book Online Page B

preserve me,” I said, quite involuntarily. “Mama will have fits if I answer that question.”
    I succeeded in provoking a fleeting laugh, though it hadn’t been my goal. “Miss Hendemore—Isabella—you are not the first young lady to set her cap for me. But I do believe you are the first one to do so, not because of my wealth, but because of my hobby. Unless I’m very much mistaken, you came to Falchester not in search of a husband, but in search of someone with an interest in natural history, and that was the primary quality that recommended me to you.”
    If Mama was eavesdropping, she would never let me hear the end of this … but at that precise moment, I could not imagine lying to the man who might become my husband, even if the frank truth might cause him to cry off.
    I took a deep breath and unclenched my hands from each other, my fingers cramping at the release. “Mr. Camherst—Jacob—” The name felt strange on my tongue, and intimate. Had it been the same for him? “Natural history has been a passion of mine since I was a small child. It is not a ladylike passion, I fear, and there are few husbands in the world who would tolerate it in their wives. I do not know if you would be one such. But I know, at least, that you would keep a library on the subject, and I hoped that I might be allowed to read from it.”
    He regarded me with a bemused expression. “You want me for my library. ”
    Put so baldly, it sounded ridiculous. “Oh dear—I don’t mean to insult you—”
    This time his laugh was more full-bodied. “It’s the strangest insult I’ve ever suffered, if indeed I would give it that name. So Edgeworth, then—”
    “I was eleven,” I admitted. “The first time. I’ve read it dozens of times since.”
    “I see,” he said. “I didn’t hear quite everything you said to Swargin, but I thought I recognized the name. And you did identify the swamp-wyrm; of that I was sure.”
    “Those dragons,” I said wretchedly. “I was sure I had made a mull of my entire future, gabbling away like that in public.”
    He smiled, and the sight caused my heart to flutter a little, most ludicrously. “Not a mull of it—not then, anyway. But there was that other time…”
    My heart changed from fluttering to lurching. “Other time?” I racked my memory for other occasions on which I had disgraced myself. There were so many!
    “Yes, that time just a moment ago, when I asked you to marry me.” His smile widened. “You still haven’t given me an answer.”
    So I hadn’t, and after I got over my moment of horrified self-castigation, I swallowed and returned his smile. Miraculously, my voice worked on the first try. “Yes,” I said. “If you haven’t run off by now, you’re quite possibly the only man in Scirland who would have me. How could I do anything but agree?”
    Prey down, the horns sounded in my head. And this time, I was decidedly the victor.

FOUR
    My wedding, and a gift — Married life — The Great Sparkling Inquiry — Miss Natalie Oscott and her grandfather — Plans for an expedition to Vystrana
    Papa gave his consent to my wedding, and I saw true joy in his eye when I returned home after the Season’s end. I teared up unexpectedly, and could not muster the words to thank him for pointing me at such a chance for happiness, but I believe he understood.
    The wedding took place that autumn, just after my seventeenth birthday. It was a lavish affair; with only the one daughter, my parents could afford to dower me well and send me off in grand style. We had several truly august personages in attendence, too, thanks to the connections of the Camherst family, which were somewhat better than my own.
    My clearest recollections of the day ought to be of my husband, and many of them are, but the one I wish to share concerns my father instead. A bride has few if any quiet moments to herself during the course of her wedding day, but that evening, Papa drew me aside and presented me