Read Online Jane by Robin Maxwell - Free Book Online Page A

surely Ral Conrath was who he claimed to be. He knew far too much about exploration and site engineering and fossil hunting to be a charlatan. I quieted my racing heart and suspicious mind and allowed myself to be swept away, as were my parents, into the wonders of our guest’s world.
    “Won’t you tell us about yourself, Mr. Conrath?”
    I regarded my mother with astonishment. Under normal circumstances, Samantha Edlington-Porter would consider rude such a personal question of a stranger. Even our guest seemed for a brief moment to be caught off guard. Then Ral’s lips set themselves into a wry grin.
    “Bit of a rough start. Drunk for a father. Put-upon mother. Four older brothers who enjoyed beating me to a pulp.”
    “And how was it that you became so accomplished a man?” Mother persisted.
    I saw out the corner of my eye that Father, too, was most curious about Ral Conrath. This man who seemed never to be lost for words went very still for a long moment. Clearly, he had never been asked this question before.
    “To tell you the truth, it was a book that changed my life.”
    “A book?” I said. “Which one?”
    “The first of Donnelly’s studies.”
    “Was it his treatise on Francis Bacon as the author of Shakespeare’s plays?” Mother asked. “I remember when he came to Cambridge to argue it. I found it quite fascinating.”
    Ral shook his head.
    “Let me guess,” said Archie. “ The Antediluvian World. ”
    “That’s the one, Professor.”
    “Well, you certainly weren’t alone in your interest. There was a time when everyone was talking about that book.”
    “I don’t know what you’re referring to,” I interjected.
    “These books were published before you were born,” Father told me. “An American senator…”
    “Did he not run for the vice presidency of the United States?” my mother piped in.
    “He did indeed … and lost,” said Father. “His name was Ignatius Donnelly and the book in question was Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. It caused quite a sensation in its day. Some people loved it, some thought the man was a crackpot.”
    “I was one who believed a lost continent existed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…” Mother said. She went inward then, remembering, “… just beyond the Pillars of Hercules. There were colonies in Egypt and South America, too. I was very impressed with the man’s scholarship.”
    “He did a hell of a lot of research,” my father said, “but Donnelly never had me convinced.”
    “You were in the minority, dear,” Mother said, smiling prettily and turning back to our guest. “Please go on.”
    “For me it wasn’t so much about whether the man was right or wrong. It just got a poor young boy thinking about the world outside the South Dakota dirt farm he’d grown up on. All his brothers who were taking up the plow and would probably never leave.”
    Ral lifted his wineglass and took a sip before continuing. I noticed that his fingers, though clean, were rough and unmanicured.
    “I decided to become an adventuring man because of that book. See the world. Meet interesting people.” He lowered his eyes and his tone grew suddenly humble. “Like all of you.”
    “Well, you’re a very interesting man yourself,” Mother insisted.
    Ral flashed his hostess a brilliant smile, encouraged to go on with his story.
    “Of course all the action was in Egypt,” he said.
    “That’s where you met Petrie?” Father said.
    “Nope. Met him for the first time in Jerusalem. In 1891.”
    I caught myself leaning forward in my chair, then forced myself to ease back. I would remain reserved, unlike my mother, who was acting uncharacteristically dazzled.
    “Petrie was excavating at Tel-el-Amarna, and I went to work for him as a common digger. That’s where I first got my hands dirty with ancient sand. But within the year he left for London to take up the chair Mrs. Edwards created for him at the university…”
    “The first ever professorship in