What I wanted to more than anything was to go up Silver Street to Morley Cottage and sit at the Philpots’ dining room table spread with Miss Elizabeth’s fossil fish and talk to her Bessy would bang a cup of tea in front of me and slump off, and we would watch the light change over Golden Cap I looked up at a watercolour Miss Elizabeth had made of that view and given me not long before our argument—trees and cottages in the foreground, the hills along the coast washed in soft light as they backed into the distance There were no people visible in the painting, but I often felt as if I were there somewhere, just out of sight, looking for curies on the shore The next two days I was busy with Mr Lyell and Monsieur Prévost, taking them upon beach to show them where the beasts had come from and teach them how to find other curies Neither had the eye, though they found a few bits and pieces Even then my luck were with me, for in front of them I found yet another ichthyosaurus We were standing on the ledge near to the other ichie’s site when I spotted a length of jaw and teeth almost under the foot of the Frenchman With my hammer I chipped off slices of rock to expose the eye, the vertebrae and ribs It was a good specimen, apart from a crushed tail which looked like a cart wheel run over it I confess it were a pleasure to wield my hammer and bring the creature into sight before their eyes “Miss Anning, you are truly a conjurer!” Mr Lyell exclaimed Monsieur Prévost too was impressed, though he could not say so in English I was just as happy that he could not speak, for it meant I could enjoy being in his company without having to worry about what his pretty words might mean The men wanted to see more, so I had to fetch the Days to dig out that ichie while I took them to the Ammonite Graveyard at Monmouth Beach, and on along to Pinhay Bay to hunt crinoids Only once they’d left to go to Weymouth and to Portland were I finally free to return to the plesie I would have to clean it fast, for Monsieur Prévost planned to leave for France in ten days I would be working day and night to get it ready, but it would be worth it That was how this trade was: for months every day would be just like the last, but for the changes in weather, with me hunting upon beach Then along come three monsters and two strangers and suddenly I would have to stay up all hours to finish preparing a specimen Maybe it were because I was in the workshop all the time till the plesie was done and the men gone that I didn’t find out until everyone else in Lyme already knew It took Mam shouting at me from her perch at the table one morning to get me outside “What, Mam?” I grumbled as I wiped my hair from my eyes,