Read Online World Enough and Time by Lauren Gallagher - Free Book Online Page B

shifted and his cheeks darkened a little. “I’m leaving the area in a few months.”
    So it’s true . “Oh. Um, where to?”
    “Northern California,” he said. “I was accepted into the doctorate program at Stanford.”
    “Wow, congratulations.”
    “Thanks.” He smiled. “They were my top choice. Not that I particularly want to spend five years of my life in California, but…” He shrugged. “There’s a price for everything, isn’t there?”
    Indeed there is . I cleared my throat. “So, hopefully this doesn’t make me sound like a complete idiot, but what exactly does one do with a degree in linguistics?”
    “Well, I’m specializing in Forensic Linguistics.”
    “Forensic Linguistics?”
    “Yep. It’s pretty cool, I think,” he said. “They study things like suicide notes, threat letters, that sort of thing. See if they can identify who wrote them based on how they use language. Word choices, stuff like that.”
    I absently ran my finger along the edge of my menu. “Isn’t it pretty obvious who wrote a suicide note?”
    “If it’s actually a suicide, yes. But sometimes it’s a forgery to cover up a murder.”
    “Really?”
    He nodded. “Or, as another example, it’s a way of determining if a confession is legitimate or forged. When someone has a certain speech pattern or writing pattern, then their confession or suicide note deviates from that, it can raise some red flags.”
    “Wouldn’t most people’s normal patterns change if they’re confessing to a crime or writing a suicide note?” I asked. “I mean, I would think stress changes the way people think and speak.”
    “Sure,” he said. “But there are indicators that it’s someone else’s speech pattern. Like, the order of certain words. Say if someone usually says ‘then we’, but their confession is full of ‘we then’. It’s subtle, but enough to raise questions.”
    “Wow, I’ve never heard of that. Sounds like an interesting job.”
    “I like to think so.” He shrugged. “It’s probably excruciatingly boring to some people. I find it fascinating.”
    “I can see why,” I said. “I didn’t realize that field even existed.”
    “Neither did I, until a few years ago,” he said. “I was asking an advisor about majors and all of that, and said that I was interested in linguistics, but didn’t know what the hell I’d ever do with it. He gave me some information about forensic linguistics, and I never looked back.” Connor took a drink. “So, as long as we’re talking about careers, what made you decide to train horses for a living?”
    I shrugged. “I grew up around them. My family has a cattle ranch outside of Cheyenne, and horses were just part of the business. Figured I’d just keep doing the cattle thing, but a friend got me into jumping, and then another got me into dressage.”
    He rested his elbows in front of him and folded his hands under his chin. “Now, forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is dressage?”
    I laughed. “If I try to explain it, we’ll be here all night.”
    “Are you suggesting I’m unintelligent?” He put a hand to his chest in mock offense.
    “Not at all,” I said. “It’s just that hard to explain unless you know a thing or two about horses.”
    “Which I definitely do not . Just, you know, in layman’s terms.”
    I turned my nose up and sniffed haughtily. “Dressage people are above ‘layman’s terms’, Mr. Graham.”
    He chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Dear God, it’s one of those sports, isn’t it? The snobbiest of the snobs?”
    Nodding, I laughed. “Yeah, basically. But at least you called it a sport, so I’ll forgive you.”
    “Well, it’s in the Olympics, isn’t it?” he said. “I do believe being a sport is a requirement for that.”
    “You’d be amazed at how many people don’t think it’s a sport, since they think the horse does all the work.”
    “I’ve wondered about that, to be honest with you.” He grinned. “So I assume