He let her throw the javelin a few times. Mostly, she missed the target, a wet spot on the cavern wall some ten feet up. He said she was trying too hard, throwing too soon, or not turning with the throw. She threw the javelin a few more times. She was getting closer to the target. By that time, Quinn was very close, pressed against her back, a hand holding her straight at the waist. She had never been this close to a man before. She had hugged her father on many occasions, of course, and even Toby when they were both children, but this was the first time a man’s body was pressed against her, tense and expectant. His warmth seeped into her, and his touch made her feel safe….which was something of an oxymoron, she supposed, because she didn’t feel safe with Quinn at all.
She was never so acutely aware of a man’s scent, the feel of his body. She stopped trying to throw the javelin and just held very still while Quinn’s arm tightened about her waist and his hand went to the side of her face, to brush the long, tangled curtain of her hair away from her cheek. She probably smelled very bad, she thought. Like the jungle. But it wasn’t an unpleasant odor on Quinn, wild and flowering. It smelled primal, like life itself. Gently, he turned her about-face in his arms and gave her one of his intense looks. Her thudding heart seemed to lurch from her chest into her throat. He held her securely in his arms and bowed his head to lay a rather chaste kiss on the corner of her mouth. She had never been kissed before, and the tenderness of it surprised her; she’d always assumed that Toby would be the first boy to kiss her.
Quinn’s mouth tasted sweet and wild from the berries they had eaten; it didn’t feel like a boy’s mouth at all. He cupped the side of her face in his big, roughened hand. He turned his head to find her mouth more fully, and the coarseness of his unshaven cheek grazed her as he kissed her much less chastely. Sasha closed her eyes. She felt him press himself tightly against her as he kissed her, his warmth soaking into her dress. The tip of his tongue brushed the roof of her mouth, then darted over her teeth and tongue. Somehow, they had stumbled backward, until Sasha’s back was to the wall, with Quinn holding her up, cradling her, keeping her warm and secure in his arms. He kissed her with his lips but also his tongue. She had to work to keep up. She wasn’t a child and she would show him. She had a moment to think, This is how adults kiss, and then Quinn drew back and eyed her as if he might very much like to eat her for dessert.
She shivered under the weight of that look. “I’m not very good at this,” she complained, lowering her eyes shyly. “There’s nothing in the books about—”
He kissed her again, silencing her. He kissed her until she was breathless and made a small kitten-like noise in the back of her throat. Then he drew back. “You are very good at this,” he said, the first real compliment he had paid her. But then his expression changed, his eyes darkened, and rather than kiss her again, he released her and stepped back. She felt a dull, frustrating loss as the distance between them grew.
He was watching her carefully—with desire, yes, but also regret. He swallowed, and his throat clicked. “There’s something you ought to know, Sasha. The reason I was in the conservatory in the first place when the accident happened.”
She waited expectantly. Her heart was ticking very loudly in her throat. She wished he would just keep kissing her. If he kept kissing her, she knew she’d get so much better at it. Then he’d see she was no child, that she was useful to him. “What is it, Quinn?” she asked.
He looked reluctant.
“Tell me,” she said. But she was afraid. He was going to say something terrible, something that would dash everything to pieces.
“Sasha,” he began, “I had plans to release you from any obligation. From marrying me, I mean.” He swallowed again, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He looked piqued, but she didn’t know if it was embarrassment or the result of their kiss. She wanted to believe it was their kiss. “I’d planned on returning to Africa. In fact, I was there at your father’s house to tell Albertus that evening when he made his ridiculous announcement.”
“You mean…”
“The wedding is off, yes.”
She waited to feel a great wave of relief, but all that came out of her mouth was, “Oh.”
He smiled at her, a little. “So you see, you really had nothing to fear from me, after all.”
“I see,” she said. She didn’t have to marry Quinn. She was free to marry whomever she wanted—or no one, if that was what she desired. She should have been happy, ecstatic. Instead, she wondered if any of this had to do with Gabrielle, whoever she was. Was Gabrielle Quinn’s woman, waiting forlornly back in Africa for his return? Gabrielle for Gabriel, an archangel. She must be very beautiful to have such a beautiful name. Was that why he was so eager to return to the Dark Continent? It couldn’t be his debts he was running from; the Crown ruled there as well. Quinn wouldn’t be getting away from anything. It must be Gabrielle, then.
She felt a sting of outrage. “So this was all some ruse?” she said, sounding angrier than she’d intended. Quinn’s hands still held her tightly. The idea hadn’t disturbed her until that moment. She put her hands up between them and pushed him away. “You’re just playing with me? Entertaining yourself until you return to Africa?”
Quinn scowled. “I am trying to set things straight between us, revealing my intentions toward you, or lack thereof, before things get too…out of hand.” He removed his hands from her. “That is the honorable thing a gentleman does, isn’t it? And you prefer gentlemen.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Well then.”
She gave him a hard shove, and a harder look. Quinn stumbled back before catching himself. “Do you kiss a lot of women that you have no intentions toward, Quinn?”
He looked surprised by her vitriol. “I’ve had my share of woman in the past, yes. I’m not perfect, Sasha.”
“So you’re a roué as well as a drunk and a gambler?”
“Now, hang on. I’m attempting to be honest here...”
“I’m not one of your loose women, Quinn!” she shouted angrily, balling up her fists.
“No, I can see that.” Suddenly he bit back a smile. “Are you angry, little Sasha?”
“No!” she stated, angrily. “I simply don’t appreciate being played with!”
His face suddenly grew serious, like carven stone. His eyes pinned her. They were not child’s eyes, Toby’s eyes. They were Quinn’s eyes. And Quinn was a hunter. “I’m not playing,” he growled. He leaned toward her. His body brushed hers, and Sasha learned that a man’s body was nothing at all like a woman’s. He caught her face in his big hands; he kissed her, hard, a bruising kiss.
She pushed him away. “Who is Gabrielle?” she demanded to know.
Now he looked angry, his vivid blue eyes clouding up. He actually drew back, a small snarl on his face. “She is no concern of yours.”
“I hate you, Quinn!” she shouted, and struck his chest hard, though it did almost nothing to stagger Quinn, much to her disappointment. He wasn’t nearly as fragile-looking as he seemed.
“I’ll never speak to you again!” With a cry of frustration, she returned to the comfortless fire. Alone.
CHAPTER 13
Chirp.
Sasha opened her eyes to the sound so close to her ear. A wet nose probed her ear and she nearly screamed as she sat up in the dim firelight, throwing off the coat that Quinn had laid over her shoulders. The something by her ear darted away and scrabbled up a nearby rock, but in the chancy light she couldn’t see it clearly. She started to scream again, but Quinn’s big hand suddenly clamped over her mouth.
“Shh,” he said in her ear. She held very still as he rooted around, taking a burning branch from the edge of the fire and bringing it close to the rock where the chirping was loudest. Something squealed in alarm and leapt away.
Sasha shivered, even with Quinn pressed securely against her. What if it was a vampire bat come to feed on them? Her mind wanted to make up all kinds of monsters in the phantom dark.
Chirp…c
hiiiirp.
Quinn moved the homemade torch to follow the sound, and Sasha saw something small and quick dart to the top of a boulder and just stare at them with lemur-large eyes. It looked like a cross between a squirrel and a small monkey, with orange and white fur and huge, owl-yellow eyes. Its nose was longer than it ought to be, wriggling like a short elephant’s trunk, and its back legs were long like a kangaroo, easily helping the small creature dart from rock to rock.
“What is that?” Sasha breathed, watching the little beastie dance in and out of the firelight.
Slowly Quinn wrapped both hands around the torch. “It’s called dessert. And catgut.” He started moving slyly toward it.
“What?” Sasha stopped him, a hand on his arm, touching him despite the fact that she was still quite cross with him and absolutely not speaking to him. “Don’t, Quinn! Don’t kill it.”
“Why in hell not?”
“It’s a mammal.”
“So?”
“John and many of his friends at university believe that we evolved from just such small creatures.”
“Sounds like rubbish to me.”
“But what if it’s true? You could be killing what might one day evolve into millions of people. A whole civilization on this planet.” She waited, her heart thudding and her hand gripping his sleeve. She couldn’t see Quinn’s face in the dark, so she didn’t know if she’d gotten through to him or not. She tightened her grip and added, “Besides, he’s cute.”
“I’m sure he’ll make a cute dish.”
“Quinn!” She made it a command. “If you kill that mammal, I shall never speak to you again!”
“You said that last night, yet here you are, speaking to me.”
She shook his arm. “I mean it, Quinn.”
Finally, he relaxed. Sasha released him and withdrew a few berries from her pocket and started crawling toward the small creature.
“I cannot believe you’re feeding it!”
Sasha ignored him. When she was close enough to see the creature’s twitching whiskers, she held a bright green berry out to it. It sniffed at her hand with its trunk-like nose; it didn’t seem overly concerned with their presence; then again, it had probably never seen a human being before so had no reason to fear one. It took the berry from her with tiny, claw-like hands and nibbled it down quickly until it was gone. Sasha offered it another berry. This time it jumped boldly to her shoulder, startling her. It sniffed her hair. She fed it another berry. “I’ll call it Newton the Second,” she said with delight, its nose tickling her ear.
“Saints preserve me!” Quinn grumbled, turned over, and immediately went back to sleep.
CHAPTER 14
The following morning, they made two very useful discoveries.
The first happened when Quinn and Sasha returned to the pool of water to drink and wash. With dull sunlight filtering through the chimney of the cavern, Quinn spotted an abandoned reptile’s nest with three large rotting eggs in it. They were too large and awkward for the toad monster to wrap his mouth around, so they just sat there amidst the rocks. Sasha didn’t understand why this was of interest to Quinn until he used his knife to carve small holes in the tops of the leathery eggs and pour out the rotting contents. Then he washed the eggs thoroughly in the underground lake and refilled them almost to the top, plugging the holes with scraps of fabric. He handed their three homemade waterskins to Sasha to carry, explaining that such survival techniques were common among African tribes—though in Africa they used ostrich eggs, not dinosaur eggs.
Since carrying the eggs and her javelin was going to prove problematic, and Quinn couldn’t carry the waterskins and cut down the tall grasses in their path at the same time, something had to be done. Sasha ducked behind some stalactites and shimmied out of the remnants of her corset and petticoat, fashioning from the fabric and whalebones a secure homemade rucksack to carry their water-eggs and remaining food stores. If Quinn could be clever, so could she.
Quinn said she was very clever indeed, thought not very practical where Newton was concerned. The last thing they needed coming along was a pet. Sasha ignored him. Newton was extremely alert and she knew that could only be useful to them in their travels. Besides, she was still angry with him. Quinn was no gentleman to have kissed her like that. In fact, he was positively beastly, and she had no idea why she’d let it happen. She vowed to be more vigilant next time.
Sasha made the second discovery as they were preparing to leave the cave. She was carrying the waterskins and her javelin, Newton riding on her shoulder, when she spotted something she’d overlooked the night before, when the light had been bad. The inside of the cavern wall was covered in small, cramped markings. At first glance, they looked like primitive cuneiform, something the ape-men might have made, but as Sasha drew closer, she realized the markings were letters. English letters. She felt her heart catch and she forgot her anger with Quinn for the moment. “Come look at this.”
DEAR FRIEND, read the small, precise script, PERHAPS ONE DAY SOMEONE WILL READ THIS AND UNDERSTAND. MY NAME IS DR JOHN ULYSSES OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY, USA, AND THE DATE, AS FAR AS I UNDERSTAND IT, IS the 15TH of FEBRUARY, 1889.
I STUMBLED INTO THIS WORLD BY ACCIDENT THROUGH A PORTAL OF MY OWN DESIGN. SOON AFTER MY ARRIVAL, I WAS CAPTURED BY AN ANCIENT PREDATORY PEOPLE CALLED THE SEN, AND THEIR LEADER, MUK. MUK OFFERED ME MY FREEDOM IN EXCHANGE FOR AGREEING TO KILL THE CERATOSAURUS THAT IS RAVAGING HIS LAND.
I AM PRESENTLY ON THE TRAIL OF THE CREATURE AND PREDICT I SHALL CATCH UP TO HER WITHIN A FORTNIGHT, BUT I WON’T BE KILLING HER. MUK LET SLIP THAT THE CREATURE HAS A VAST TERRITORY THAT INCLUDES WHAT HE CALLS THE “VALLEY OF SONG,” A SACRED LAND BY WHICH HE THOUGHT I HAD ARRIVED. WHEN I INQUIRED FURTHER ABOUT THIS “VALLEY,” HE EXPLAINED THAT IT IS A NETWORK OF MOUNTAIN RANGES THAT PRODUCE ODD SONGS WHEN THE WING BLOWS. I SUSPECT THE VALLEY IS NOT UNLIKE THE GRAND CANYON, WHICH PRODUCES ITS OWN NATURAL WINDSONGS AT TIMES.
SINCE IT WAS A TUNING MACHINE THAT BROUGHT ME HERE, NATURALLY I BECAME VERY INTERESTED IN THIS VALLEY. I HAVE A THEORY THAT I MAY BE ABLE TO RECREATE THE TONES THAT OPENED THE DOOR TO THIS PREHISTORIC PLANET BY CHANNELING WIND THROUGH ROCK FORMATIONS. I ONLY WISH I HAD A COLLEAGUE TO ASSIT ME.
I AM EN ROUTE TO THE VALLEY NOW BUT WILL WRITE MORE IF I AM ABLE. GOD BE WITH YOU, MY FRIEND.
It was signed by John with a scrawl she recognized from his frequent letters.
“Dr. Ulysses is your friend, yes?” Quinn said. “The one Muk mentioned as the man who ran away.”
Sasha touched the chalked writing with her fingertips. It was still so fresh. “Yes.” She swallowed against what felt like a walnut stuck in her throat. “John wrote this in February, around the time he disappeared.”
“Three months ago,” Quinn calculated. “Do you think he made it to this ‘Valley of Song’?”
Sasha shook her head. “It’s been three months, Quinn. I think if he’d reached it, he would have made use of it by now, if he could. Obviously, something went wrong.” She took a deep breath that hurt, swallowed hard, and added, “Something happened. Something bad.”
She.
Sasha felt the food in her stomach lurch at the thought. Newton chirped with concern and put his nose to her ear.
“Maybe the Valley of Song just didn’t work out and he moved on,” Quinn suggested in an obvious effort to cheer her up. “He wouldn’t have stayed here in Muk’s territory when Muk discovered that he had failed to kill She.”
That sounded reasonable too. “Maybe you’re right.”
“We should move on as well, as soon as possible. See if we can find Dr. Ulysses. I’m sure between the two of you, you can find a way home.”
“We have to kill She first, Quinn, and free Toby,” she reminded him.
Quinn spoke softly. “Yes, of course. And if we kill She, then Muk will be in our debt. He may even grant us a guide to find this Valley.”
Sasha nodded. It was the only plan they had, as flimsy and ill conceived as it was. She took a deep breat
h. They couldn’t go on being angry with each other, she knew. Without Quinn, she would die out here in the jungle. She turned around. Quinn was right there, standing over her, protective, possessive. It made her angry. It made her afraid. It made her stomach leap up in a funny way, like a stabbed fish. “I’m sorry, Quinn,” she said. “For everything.”
In answer, he leaned down as he had last night and laid a light kiss on her cheek, on her nose, and finally on her lips. She opened her mouth to him, despite her vow, despite everything. He kissed her, his tongue tracing her bottom lip.
Chittering, Newton reached out and clawed Quinn’s cheek.
“Bloody hell!” he barked and drew back, letting out a long stream of curses as he clutched his face. Newton chattered angrily, admonishing him.
Planet of Dinosaurs, The Complete Collection (Includes Planet of Dinosaurs, Sea of Serpents, & Valley of Dragons) Page 7
