Page 40 of Discovering Her Earl

“I am supposed to be evaluating your skills on the site, am I not? It seems the best time to get a true glimpse of your efforts is when you do not know I’m watching.”

Very well, that was an extremely viable reason to be observing him. He hid his disappointment. Why he would want her to be watching him because she was interested in him made no sense. For he could not be interested in her.

Not in that way, at least. Not as a man who was interested in a woman he had come to care for.

He’d only wanted her to stop hating him. Or if he was being greedy, for her to consider him a friend. But only so their work here would not be so boring and maybe she would include him in the larger expedition to Egypt.

That was all he wanted from Miss Elaina Bantham.

He didn’t want to kiss her or become more acquainted with the places she hid her bacon. Except…

Oh, dear, but he did.

He snatched up a piece of the offered breakfast meat she had squirreled away in her shirt.

“Mmm… Lemony,” he teased her.

As she blinked, he realized he’d revealed he knew her scent. Another thing a gentleman did not comment on.

“Perhaps we should get going. I’ll get the wagon and meet you in the front,” he offered as a way to escape.

“It’s just the two of us now. I can accompany you to the stable to get the wagon.”

“Very well.” But he wouldn’t have a moment to himself to get his head on straight and prepare himself for spending the day with her alone.

Rather than say anything that would further incriminate himself, he drove the wagon to the site in silence. She was equally silent on their journey. Perhaps she had other food items hidden in covert places and didn’t want him to puzzle it out. Regardless, they arrived just as the sun was coming up.

Or rather the dim glow on the horizon in the east. It didn’t appear they’d get a full day of work in before it began to rain.

In silent agreement, they went to their areas of the dig and began working. Moving small sections of dirt from where it had been to a new pile.

For whatever reason, he began to sing a song his stablemaster used to sing when he’d been younger.

Our boots and clothes are all in pawn

Go down, you blood red roses, Go down

It’s flamin’ drafty ’round Cape Horn

Go down, you blood red roses, Go down

Oh, you pinks and posies

She was watching him with a smirk on her lips.

“Go on then. This is where you would sing—”

Before he could tell her, she belted out the next bit of lyrics.

“Go down, you blood red roses, Go down”

They sang it through a few more times for good measure before he started singing something he realized wasn’t suitable in a lady’s presence.

But, of course, Miss Elaina Bantham knew the words to that ditty as well and didn’t blink an eye as she sang about a bailer’s arse.

When the sky turned gray before their lunch was expected, she frowned up at the clouds.

“I believe we should head back before we get caught in the rain. It’s not warm enough to spend the day drenched,” she said.