before he went back to Oxford I ain’t going to chase after him for his money.” “I don’t think he has thought about it one way or the other,” I said “He is a scholar, not a practical man If put to him, though, I am sure he would honour the debt and pay Doctor Carpenter—for Mary’s treatment as well as Fanny’s.” “No.” Molly Anning’s stubbornness revealed a certain pride I had not realised she possessed She measured most things by the coins they represented and the distance they put between the Annings and the workhouse, but in this instance I believe she understood that money was not the issue Whether or not William Buckland was involved, the Annings had placed an innocent girl in danger, and effectively crippled her Fanny could not now expect to marry well, or at all Her fair looks might make up for a great deal, but most husbands at that working level of society would need a wife who was able to walk a mile No amount of money could make up for what Fanny had lost Molly Anning took on the debt as a sort of punishment Mary never talked about the half hour she was buried before I found her But the experience changed her I often caught in her eyes a faraway expression, as if she were listening to someone calling from the top of Black Ven, or a gull crying out at sea Death had come and camped next to her on the beach, taking Captain Cury while sparing her, and reminding her of its presence and of her own limits All of us begin to feel deeply our mortality at some time in our lives, but it is usually when we are older than Mary was then Mary’s contact with death also came at a time when she was maturing One day I helped Molly Anning remove the bandages that had bound Mary’s broken bones, and discovered that under her ill-?tting dress she had a womanly figure, with her waist and breasts and hips all in good proportion Her shoulders were perhaps a little hunched from her fascination with the ground, and her knuckles were raw, her fingers rough and cracked from use She was not graceful, as Margaret had been at that age But she had a fresh, bold presence that could attract men She had begun to sense it as well She took more care to wash her face and hands, and asked Margaret for some of the salve she had concocted to try to save my own hands from the drying force of Blue Lias clay Made of beeswax, turpentine, lavender and yarrow, it was useful for dressing wounds as well as chapped skin, but Mary wore it on her hands, elbows and cheeks, and I began to associate her with that scent, a curious mixture of the medicinal and the floral Mary’s hair was always going to be a dull brown, and scrubby from the wind rather than the curled ringlets that were the fashion But she did at least comb her fringe daily, and pull the rest into a bun which she covered with a cap and bonnet I am not sure how much good making an effort with her looks did,