Wind Raker - Book IV of The Order of the Air by Melissa Scott, Jo Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

the best collection in the world of everything Pacific, better even than the Victoria Museum in Melbourne. At least these things were being preserved and studied rather than broken up as curiosities to private collectors.
    The private areas of the museum were even more confusing. An electric fan turned slowly overhead, moving air from the single open window, and a middle-aged woman looked up from a dining table in the middle of the room. She had a cardboard box full of stone fishhooks and was sorting them into seven green cloth trays, a magnifying glass at her elbow. She was perhaps Jerry's age, with brown hair going gray pulled back in an untidy bun, and a white shirtwaist dress. She looked up when the door opened, her face lighting with a smile that seemed entirely unfeigned. There was something vaguely familiar about that expression, but he couldn’t seem to place it.
    "This is Dr. Ballard," Dr. Buck said. "Dr. Ballard, Mrs. Patton."
    She got up quickly and offered her hand, which Jerry shook. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Patton."
    "It's so nice to meet you too," she said. "I've heard a great deal about you, and I'm delighted you'll be spending the summer in Hawai'i." Like Dr. Buck, she pronounced the last word with the ending emphasized, as though it were part of a language other than English — which he supposed it was, now that he thought about it.
    "I will leave Dr. Ballard to your tender care," Dr. Buck said. "How are the fishhooks coming?"
    "Slowly," she said. She gave Jerry another smile, inviting him to see. "We've been given a box of fishhooks that a man collected all over the South Pacific on his travels — lovely, of course, but he could not tell us where any of them came from or when he got them. So I'm sorting them stylistically by island group. There are about two hundred, all total." She picked up the nearest one. "This one is from Easter Island. It's very distinctive."
    "If you say so," Jerry said politely. "I'm a Classicist by training, and I'm afraid the taxonomy of Polynesian fishhooks isn't my area of expertise."
    "Polynesian, Melanesian, Maori…" Dr. Buck said. "We have a little of everything. At best we hope for context and order, so that future generations may be able to give these artifacts the attention they deserve. Mrs. Patton has been one of our volunteers for the better part of a decade, saving the years when she had to leave the islands." His expression seemed rather warmer than one might expect for a mere volunteer. "And of course a family friend."
    Jerry couldn't get over the prickling feeling that he'd met her before. "Why did you leave the islands?"
    "My husband is in the service. We were posted elsewhere for a while. And delighted to return!" She got up, putting the fishhook back on the cloth tray, and reached down for an enormous straw handbag under the chair. "You're welcome to stay until you find another place, Dr. Ballard. We've rented this house and it's perfectly enormous for us. You could stay in a hotel, of course, but I must tell you that Honolulu hotels are very expensive and not very good. If you're going to be here for several months you're much better off with a rental. There is an agent I can recommend if you're interested. Or I do have a friend who has a house for rent. A military family unexpectedly transferred."
    "Much appreciated," Jerry said. He wondered if a hotel wasn't better, though. A cottage just for him seemed excessive — though if he could persuade Radke to share, they would have a certain amount of privacy. But then they’d have to hire someone to cook and clean and that could be complicated. And all of that assumed that Radke was actually interested, though he’d certainly seemed not uninterested…
    "I will see you tomorrow then," Buck said, offering his hand again. "Perhaps you could meet me at nine and we'll drive over to the dig together? Beatrice, is nine too early for you?"
    "Not at all," she said. "Buddy will be in school, so I'll deliver Dr.