This book is dedicated to my oldest friends, henceforth to be known as The Fossil Girls. Vanessa, Carla, Jane, and Annie . . . Where has the time gone?
1847
Wollombi, New South Wales, Australia
“It’s blood—bad blood—that’s causing it. A new pinafore and some education ain’t going to change nothing. Still the same soul tucked beneath. You can teach a wild dog to come when it’s called, but you wouldn’t turn your back on it, not once it’s bloodied.”
Mellie sat hot and cross-legged on the dirt of the scullery floor wedged between the washboard and the mangle, hands over her ears, trying to block out Cook’s words. Why she kept finding herself on the edge of the millpond at sunrise, with nothing for company but a blanket of mist and the cries of the curlews, she didn’t understand.
Twisting this way and that, she plucked at her soggy nightgown, searching for the bad blood Cook kept ranting about. No sign of any stains on her skin or her nightgown, bad or otherwise.
“Why does she keep going down there? That’s what I’d like to know.” Fanny pushed up her sleeves and threw another bundle of kindling under the main copper.
“Only thing a scullery maid needs worry about is how to clean. Get to it.”
“She ought to have learned her lesson by now.”
“She’s drawn to the place.” Cook’s beady eyes skewered Mellie. “If you keep going down there, you’ll be taken. Small, plain, and bony, or large, round, and plump, he don’t care so long as he gets tender young flesh.”
Mellie crawled closer to the copper and rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms. The more she tried to remember how she ended up at the millpond, the more the nothingness grew, as though someone had singed a great hole in her memory. She’d tried to explain that she didn’t do it on purpose, didn’t know how she’d ended up there. But Cook never believed a word, called it a flight of fancy, whatever that was.
“Did you hear what I said?” Cook reefed Mellie to her feet and gave her a bone-rattling shake. “You’ll be taken.”
“Taken where?” Mellie’s words squeaked, high-pitched and quivering.
“To his lair. He’ll drag you down into the murky depths and . . .” Cook clapped her hands. “Gone.” The loud, horrible slap bounced off the weatherboard walls. “Never to be seen again.”
Mellie stuck her fingers in her ears and crawled back into the corner.
“You can’t say that,” Fanny hissed. “It’s not true.”
“True enough, if it keeps her out of the millpond. ...
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About The Fossil HunterBuried secrets. An ancient fossil. And one woman's determination to unravel a nineteenth-century mystery. Australia, 1847. The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is sprinting through the bush with a monster at her heels—but no one believes her. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur paleontologist who is convinced she will one day find proof that great sea dragons swam in the vast inland sea that covered her property millions of years ago. Mellie is instantly swept up in the dream. Australia, 1919. Penelope Jane "PJ" Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I intent on making peace with her father and commemorating the deaths of her two younger brothers in the trenches. Her reception is disappointing. Desperate for a distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History Museum and her brothers' favorite camping spot. But the gorge has a sinister reputation: seventy years ago, several girls disappeared from the area. When PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, she's determined to find answers about what happened all those years ago ... and perhaps some closure on the loss of her brothers. Weaving together these two timelines, The Fossil Keeper offers everything you love: history, mystery, suspense, romance, and startling discoveries that will keep the pages turning. Praise for The Fossil Hunter: "This elegant dual narrative historical from Cooper follows a young woman as she pieces together the fate of a 19th-century paleontologist ... Cooper's confident prose and deep empathy for her characters will keep readers hooked as she unspools her intrigue-filled mystery. Historical fans will want to dig this one up." — Publishers Weekly • Tea Cooper is a USA TODAY?bestselling and Daphne du Maurier award-winning author • Full-length historical mystery • Stand-alone novel • Includes discussion questions for book clubs |
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