“Double, you say?” She looked sideways at him.
“Aye.”
“If I did decide to stay, how would you see this proceeding?” She motioned to the space between them. “I cannot think that the two of us working in close quarters would be advisable.”
True, that.
Howdidhe see this proceeding?
“We could work in shifts?” he offered tentatively, his mind scrambling to find solutions. “Ye could take the mornings and then leave me notes for the afternoon? I understand your methodology and know how to wield a trowel.”
“Do you still refuse to sharpen your trowel?” she asked conversationally.
“I see no need to hone mine to a knife’s edge, as well ye know, Chris.”
“Amateur.” She shook her head.
He couldn’t stop a grin. “Not all of us wish to attack an excavation site with the precision of a surgical scalpel.”
“Again. Amateur.”
A beat of silence.
“So we wouldn’t speak with one another?” she asked.
“Well...only when polite circumstances demand it.” His gaze slid out over the landscape, puffy white sheep grazing in the distance. “Would ye prefer we interact more closely?”
“No.” To the point. Pragmatic.
He spread his hands as if to say,Precisely.
“Heaven knows I could use your illustration skills,” she said finally. “Are they still up to snuff?”
“They are. Better, even.” He had never stopped drawing over the years.
“Well . . . I suppose we could give such an arrangement a go.”
Alistair nodded in agreement.
This would be a disaster.
She dabbed at her cheeks one last time before handing back his handkerchief.
“This is going to be a disaster,” she said, unerringly echoing his thoughts.
“Aye, most likely.”
She glanced at him. “I give us a week.”
“Confident of ye. I would have thought no more than three days.”
Even hours on, Alistair could still hear the treacle-sweet echo of her choked laugh.
IN HINDSIGHT, THREE days might have been optimistic.
Chrissi pondered this the next morning as she walked the stone circle and earthen mound, Alis at her side.
After coming to terms with Alis the day before, she had used the remaining sunlight to comb the site with a groom as an assistant—getting her bearings, examining the layout of the various elements, and making notes of things she wished to explore.
