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“I… How did you…” she stammered.
“You read German,” he said. “Latin. You rattle off the names of Aztec deities like old friends. You knew where to access a set of historical maps. Casually referenced the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Where did you go?”
“University College, London,” she replied.
“And how hard didyouhave to fight for it?” he gently pressed.
Ellie looked back out into the darkness—but she could feel him quietly, patiently waiting for her answer.
“There was little question that I could be accepted. My scores were frankly too high for them to deny me. But I needed a scholarship. We had just finished paying for school for… my brother,” she elaborated awkwardly. “There weren’t any additional funds left for me. I suppose that even though I’d been talking about going to university since I was a child, everyone simply assumed it was a fantasy.”
Ellie kept her voice even, but so much roiled beneath the calm surface of the story.
She remembered looking into her future and watching it narrow precipitously. Feeling the dreams she had nurtured as a child grind to dust under the weight of the reality of her position.
Ellie steeled herself against the old hurt and pressed on.
“I applied for all the funds open to female candidates. Some rejected me immediately by letter despite my examination scores. At several of the remaining interviews, I was asked whether the trustees would be wasting their money on me when I inevitably married and gave up my occupation. Whether I could reasonably be expected to demonstrate the mental fortitude required to keep up with a strenuous course of study. Whether I would be a distraction to my male classmates. One of the committee members told me that university wasn’t the place to try to find arich husband.”
Ellie wasn’t able to keep that bit calm. Bitterness snapped through her voice. She stopped it by clamping her mouth shut.
“I was finally able to secure funding through a private trust and complete my education,” she finished flatly.
Of course, that had been far from the end of it. After the battle for the funds, she had faced the constant, snickering remarks from her fellow students. The flirtations that felt more like threats.
Comments about ‘taking up space in the library’ that weremeantto be overheard.
If you’re going to be here, you might at least pretty yourself up a bit…
“I’m sorry,” Bates said.
Ellie was startled to realize that he had come to stand beside her.
“Why? You weren’t part of it.” She took another deep breath. “And it is hardly fair of me to judge your decisions based upon my experience, which must necessarily have been very different from your own.”
Bates braced his arms on the frame of the canopy and leaned out from it. The low, orange glow of the lamp gilded his form.
“Naw. Don’t do that,” he said.
“Do what?” Ellie demanded.
“Let me off the hook that easy,” he replied. “It was a stupid move. My old man showed up during my last semester and told me he hoped I’d wised up. Handed me a ticket back to San Francisco for the week after graduation so I could take up my position with the firm. So of course, I told him to go to hell.” His mouth twisted into a thin smirk. “My buddy Fairfax never lets me hear the end of it. Says I could’ve made something of myself.”
“But you never wanted to make anything of yourself,” Ellie quietly protested, fighting back a wince at his casual mention of her brother again.
“Careful,” Bates returned, his eyes flashing darkly. “You might be starting to get to know me.”
“What did your father do?” Ellie asked.
“Disowned me,” Bates neatly replied.
“Excuse me?”
Bates pushed off the frame and strolled back to the stern.
“With full pomp and circumstance. I am officially no longer a legal descendant of George Bates Jr.,” he reported as he plopped down on the bench.
“In a fit of pique over university?” Ellie pressed, feeling a sympathetic outrage.
