FRONTIERLAND: LOST WORLDS 1

EPILOGUE

1894

Dearest Edward:

Three years have passed since our adventure on that remarkable plateau discovered by my brother Adam in 1890 and verified by Professor Challenger in his expedition the next year. It seems as though it were yesterday and yet so much has happened since then.

It was gracious of you to invite me to your wedding last year and I'm only sorry I could not join you, but as you know, I had to go back to America again to handle some of my family affairs. Now that I'm back in London, I hope you'll be able to join us at the opening of Professor Summerlee's new library at the Natural History Museum, where of course, the preserved remains of the dinosaur we brought back from South America are now on public display. The great public fanfare caused when it first appeared has since died down, I understand, but it still arouses considerable interest.

But I digress, back to you: Jack told me all about your wedding to Professor Summerlee's daughter Julia at St. Saviour's Church. I gather you wanted a quite intimate affair, with only close friends and family present, but even so the gentlemen of the press, it seems, managed to get in on the act! I hope it didn't spoil things for you! I understand Professor Summerlee was the perfect picture of the distinguished gentleman as he gave his daughter away. He is a wonderful man, full of compassion and warmth under a quite, I must admit, harsh exterior sometimes. By the sound of things, Professor Challenger was happy for you both too! Jack told me you had your old friend Jack Henry as best man, an office he offered to provide himself, but since you had known each other for many years, he understood. And I gather he had you and your new bride up in Scotland for a time.

Your book, The Lost World, caused a sensation when it came out even in America, though I gather Professor Challenger tried to obstruct its publication, and wouldn't let you use any of his observations, so you had to rely on Professor Summerlee for research material, which of course is how you met Julia. This all means you're richer than I am now, but I know you are happy as the landlord and landlady of the Pelican Inn in Kent, as Jack told me when he visited you both there, as I hope to do soon! I read your book and feel grateful you left out the part about my falling into that gorge and how you walked into quicksand! But I understand Professor Challenger has calmed down about it now. Did you have some problem with the newspaper? I gather they had the rights to the material of your book, so I guess you had to share the royalties with them.

How is your son George? I'm told Challenger is godfather to him and was as pleased as punch! I'm so very glad for you all.

Thank you for your understanding and forgiveness that in the end, I couldn't accept the honour of becoming Mrs. Malone, a position far suited I am sure, to the lovely Julia, who sounds talented, warm and from the photograph you sent, very much a lady of beauty and spirit. Though I was both grateful and moved, something in me has never been able to let go of my old life and I guess I still live in that other lost world, the past. I am sure I would have made you unhappy eventually, bound as I still seem to be to Adam's memory. Now that I am free from the burden of my family affairs, I've (as you know) directed my time to founding the Adam White Institute, which is dedicated to preserving the plateau in his name and studying its wonders. But though I have already met one or two gentlemen in America who have expressed marital ambitions I seem to be on my way to becoming the one thing I never wanted to be, a dowager, a spinster with a great project to complete. Already we have started work on obtaining protection orders from the governments of Brazil and England. Thank you also for your help with establishing the Institute. I'm also grateful to Professors Summerlee and Challenger who agreed to become Fellows, and Challenger returned to me as promised, Adam's original notes which we keep at the Institute. I must admit, it was a shame you decided not to join our new expedition which is due to start soon, but even more, I was surprised when Professor Challenger declined as well! I gather he is planning a new expedition to Nepal or Tibet, I forget which, to prove his theory about the Yeti, the creature that is similar to the beings we found on the plateau and that held me captive. I still shudder when I think of them. But it is strange, almost as though, having proved his theory about the plateau, he seeks a new path, a new challenge. (Please pardon the accidental play on words!) But Jack and I are starting out soon with a much larger retinue than we had last time.

Poor Jack. I am beginning to feel he is not a marrying man really, though he did meet an artist he liked in Paris. We of course, both realised we were not really suited, he being at heart, not a passionate man in that way, but eternally bound to his explorations. I am sure he will find happiness one day. For me, I will probably have to make a decision soon, as I do still have my suitors in my homeland and I can't stay unmarried forever! But I'm glad he's agreed to join me this time!

I toy with the idea of bringing Adam's remains home for burial but somehow cannot bring myself to do so. It is as though his spirit is somehow bound to that place. Perhaps it is best to leave things as they are!

I do hope to see you soon at the library, Professor Summerlee, Jack and Challenger will all be there. To think of what came out of my going to see that Mr. Holmes and walking in to your offices at the newspaper three years ago! Well, I shall always remember the way in which, in your own way, you changed my life. And you saved me, in more ways than one!

I do recall, you know, a quote from your Shakespeare, which I think has been a guide for both of us, and perhaps led us to the plateau those years ago. It goes:

To thine own self be true.

I am, and hope to remain always,

Your friend,

LILIAN WHITE.