“Berking forced his way onto the team?” Saffron was surprised. If anything, she’d expect the head of the department to want to stay in the comfort of his office, where he could prop up his feet and terrorize his staff members. Or just her. But it was very glamorous to be on a scientific expedition, and would bring more prestige to Berking’s reputation as a botanist, what with all the opportunities to discover new plants and especially determine their taxonomy. Getting the chance to discover a new species was all some people in the biology department thought about, it seemed. Regardless of his reasons, Saffron was glad Berking was going to Brazil.
“That’s what Henry said. Richard Blake is going too, though I’m not sure why he’d want to, considering he and Henry have a dispute over the funding.”
“Richard Blake? The funding coordinator?” Saffron asked, remembering his blandly handsome face.
“I overhead Berking talking about it the other day.” They paused beneath a streetlamp, Alexander frowning. “I thought he’d been talking about Dr. Henry securing the rest of the funding for the expedition. He said something about the money being ill-gotten. That’s the source of Henry and Blake’s argument. Blake is supposed to contact the donors and solicit pledges, but apparently Henry went straight to Cedric Ermine himself. Blake mentioned, rather bitterly, that they had finally secured the last bit thanks to Dr. Henry’s, er, ingenuity.”
Saffron laughed at Alexander’s serious tones. “I can’t imagine a man like Dr. Henry having much ingenuity beyond building a jaguar trap using sticks and leaves.”
“I got the impression it wasn’t that sort of ingenuity,” Alexander said.
Saffron thought again of Miss Ermine and her fawning over Dr. Henry. She could guess what he meant. She sighed, continuing on down the sidewalk. “I’m afraid I’m as confused as ever.”
“The police will sort it out, no doubt. Once they figure out what poison it was, Dr. Maxwell will hopefully be in the clear.”
It was still early when they reached her building, though their walk was quite a long one. Saffron invited Alexander up to continue their conversation about the function of color variegation. Or at least, that was the reason she gave. She wasn’t going to waste a moment of Alexander Ashton being talkative and perhaps even a little flirtatious.
Saffron stepped in first to see if Elizabeth was home, and she wasn’t. She flicked the radiator and the lamps on in the sitting room, checking for any stray embarrassing articles, and invited Alexander in.
They sat in the sitting room for a while, Saffron chattering about the various examples of variegation and whether they were of benefit to the plants. Alexander’s theories became more and more outlandish, concluding that the cause for the darker green lines on the swordlike sansevieria plant in the corner of the sitting room was because there was a draft in the room and it was alternating too hot and too cold. Laughing, Saffron went to get a reference book with more information on the sansevieria, which was more of an excuse to powder her nose.
When she returned, she found Alexander examining the photographs on the mantle. Perched in a small silver frame was a photograph of Saffron and her parents. In the photograph, Saffron had been fifteen, a gangly girl with big eyes. Her mother had a smile very similar to Saffron’s, though in the black and white photograph it wasn’t clear that Saffron shared her coloring with her father. Thomas Everleigh stood proudly with his family, bright eyes framed by glasses and his graying brown hair smoothed back.
Next to Saffron’s family portrait was Elizabeth’s family, a group of light-haired, tall people. The Hale family all looked as strong and robust as their name suggested, like they’d spent their days hiking through the hills and fields of Bedford, where Elizabeth and Saffron grew up. Elizabeth sat in the middle of her mother and father, and two older brothers stood behind, both wearing uniforms. The oldest looked steadily into the camera. The younger brother glowed with pride. The familiar pang of heartache touched Saffron when she looked into Wesley’s eyes.
“Elizabeth’s family?” Alexander asked.
“Yes. This was just before her brothers were sent out.” Saffron indicated the older brother. “Nicholas is still in the military, off doing something important, Elizabeth says. But Wesley died at Flanders.”
Alexander’s eyes lingered on the brothers for a long moment, a strange expression on his face. “You and Elizabeth grew up together?”
She nodded and turned to the couch, where she sat with the book in her lap.