How to Claim a Governess’s Heart - Bridget Barton Page 0,63
of these animals travelled from so far away it would be impossible to keep them alive on the journey. Instead, they preserve them and place them in exhibits to show you what it is like where they live. I am told they have just added a Colonial and Indian Exhibition from the Americas.”
“Will there be a platypus?” Betsy asked, wriggling in excitement.
“A platypus?” Lord John asked, shocked.
He looked over at Miss Thatcher for an explanation.
“You know she loves the field guide books the best. We found one written by a French trapper in the northern regions of the Americas. She has made me read it to her three times over,” Miss Thatcher explained.
“And in it,” Betsy interrupted, “they talk about how the Indians all wrap up in furs made from bears and stretch seal skins over wood to make boats that look like they are sitting on the water. The men trap beavers. They are funny creatures that eat wood and build big bridges blocking the rivers. They make good hats,” Betsy was explaining in rapid succession.
“I am aware of this as I have one atop my head as you speak,” Lord John interjected.
Betsy paused long enough to study Lord John’s hat.
“But the funniest looking animal that Monsieur Pierre found was a platypus. He said it is like a duck but covered with fur, not feathers. He had no drawings, though. Miss Thatcher and I tried to make one from his description, but it was a bizarre depiction. I can’t imagine they really look like he says.”
“Well, I suggest we locate one right away, then, and see for ourselves exactly what a platypus looks like,” Lord John suggested bouncing her in his arms.
Lord John, Miss Thatcher, and Betsy spent the rest of the afternoon examining one exhibit after another. They had located the new exhibition first but were disappointed to find that no platypus had been featured, though they did get a good look at a beaver, a seal and a strange creature called a skunk.
The plate next to the black-and-white striped animal informed them that this creature’s defensive mechanism was to produce an odorous perfume to ward off attacks. Despite having been dead for quite some time, the smell seemed to linger on it.
Lord John had learned of Betsy’s love for natural history almost from the first day of her arrival in London. Often when coming into the library to check on her, he would find Miss Thatcher sitting and reading one of the various horticulture or zoological books off the library shelf. Most of them were based on native plants and animals, but a few detailed exotic creatures and places.
There were few meals shared where Betsy wasn’t telling Lord John of a new animal that had entered her vocabulary. After reading of the new exhibition in the newspaper the previous morning, he knew right away that the Natural History Museum of London was the perfect place to take her.
Miss Thatcher too seemed genuinely interested in everything she saw. She stopped at every plaque reading ever detail about each showcased environment or animal.
“I’ve never seen so many different things all in one place,” she exclaimed excitedly. “I want to learn about all of it. Well, except that one over there,” she added with a giggle.
Along the wall where Miss Thatcher’s finger was pointed was several glass frames that housed spiders of increasing sizes. The last one was said to be from South America and was roughly the size of Lord John’s hand.
“I daresay they cannot move, let alone get through the glass to attack you,” Lord John teased.
“Though your words are rational, I think I would rather not take the chance that one is simply playing asleep.”
“I’ve saved the best part for last,” Lord John said as he ushered them to the back of the large building.
Betsy gasped with delight as they made their way through a door and into a giant atrium. Rays of sun hit the glass walls, the roof refracting and giving off a heavenly glow throughout the room. The floor was made of dirt with plants growing up on just about every inch. A long, winding pebble path led the onlooker up and down rows of various flora and fauna.
“Most of these plants are transplanted from different colonies around the empire,” Lord John explained. “But the butterflies,” he added, crouching down next to Betsy and directing her attention to one almost invisible on a flower, “are all native.”