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After calling ahead, Matt drove Darcy up the mountain to Dr. Sledd's house. He rang the bell while Darcy took in the view from the hilltop, spinning around when Dr. Sledd opened the door. He was wearing a tweed coat, a clean white shirt, and house shoes.
"Good morning, Mr. Méndez," he said, almost cordially, "and to you too, miss. Won't you come in?"
He stepped back to allow them to enter.
"Dr. Sledd, this is Darcy."
"Very pleased to meet you, Darcy, very pleased indeed."
They shook hands lightly.
"Thank you, sir."
"Please come have a seat in my study." He led the way, adding "Is Darcy your first or last name?"
"It's my family name, sir, or close to it."
"And how do you pronounce it exactly, if you please?"
They all sat down.
Darcy uttered something Matt recognized as similar to "Darcy," but with some guttural, back-of-the-throat sounds added in. It sounded to Matt like "darshell."
Dr. Sledd turned his ear to her.
"Again, please?"
She repeated her name, and he reached for a pencil.
"I think I have it. One more time, if you don't mind?"
She complied, and then he looked up and pronounced her name, gutturals included.
"Is that close?"
"Yes!" she said. "That’s it exactly."
He scribbled for a second or two.
"I studied phonology, eons ago," he said.
He handed the slip of paper to her.
"This is my transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Does the name have any particular meaning?"
"Yes, sir. In English, the closest word I know of is 'rainbow.' It's my family's totem: 'from the rainbow.'"
"Aaaah!" he said, and sat back in his chair.
Damn, I wish I'd asked her that, thought Matt.
"Interesting!" Sledd exclaimed, finally. "The French word for rainbow is 'arc-en-ciel,' did you know? In Spanish, it's 'arco iris,' and in Latin, the parent language of both French and Spanish, it's 'arco pluvius.' Your name may derive from something like ‘d’arc ciel,’ or ‘from the rainbow.’ Evidently, there is some affinity to the French form. Oh, my dear," he exclaimed, "this is fascinating!"
"I'm glad you think so, sir," replied Darcy. "I read your paper on the Germanic precursors to the Great English Vowel Shift on the internet and found it very intriguing."
"Did you indeed?" Sledd positively glowed. "Did you happen to be on the moon at the time?"
"Yes sir, I was," she answered.
"Unbelievable, the power of technology," he mused. "I have managed to learn to use email, myself, with some difficulty. It has been invaluable to my more scholarly pursuits, but I had no idea that any of my publications were available on the internet. I shall have to investigate that—but at another time, another time.
“Ms. Darcy, could you allow me a few questions on the verb structure of your native language?"
The two of them launched into an involved discussion that Matt could not follow, punctuated by scribbling, questions back and forth, and foreign words pronounced over and over by one, then the other.
While they talked, a sleek, yellow and white cat appeared from behind a couch and hopped into Darcy's lap and began purring. She scratched its head absentmindedly.
"Look at that!" said Sledd. "That's Grendel. He's named for the monster in Beowulf, because that's what he is. He usually hates guests, even attacks them sometimes...but he doesn't seem to hate you!"
"He's beautiful, Dr. Sledd."
"Oh, my goodness, this is fun," added Sledd. "Mr. Méndez, I'm sorry I'm not a better host, but I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing Ms. Darcy by. I agree with you, by the way. I think she’s the genuine article. I'd love to go on like this for days—for weeks!"
"I would too, Dr. Sledd," said Darcy, "but I'm afraid it will have to be continued another time. I should have thanked you earlier for your advice—about fame, that is. I believe you may be right. Very soon I am going to look into it."
"One can hardly be sure about such a unique situation, my dear, but it has been my experience that the old saying about how one can lead a horse to water but not make him drink is false. If you lock up the horse for a few days without water, he will drink, and gladly, I should think. He merely needs to have his attention focused for him."
"I understand, Dr. Sledd. I may have to leave for a while, but when time permits, I hope you will allow me to return to your lovely study and continue our explorations."
"There is nothing I would like better, my dear. I am yours to command. In the meantime, I wish you all success in the future!"
When they left, Dr. Sledd actually kissed Darcy's hand. Darcy smiled all the way to the truck.
