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She didn’t respond for a moment, simply paused in place to stare at the ground before peering up at the trees, as if her attention belonged with the birds above.

The graceful arch of her neck and the accentuation of the hollow of her throat stole his attention entirely, but he forced himself to focus on her response, instead.

“Only a select few, I suppose,” she finally responded.

That didn’t give him the peace of mind for which he’d been hoping, for he still did not know if she had a poor opinion of him.

“At any rate,” she said, looking back down from the trees to stare at him next. “I should not have said a word. You have distracted me with your charming little smile and made me say something I should not have.”

Her words pushed aside all thoughts of being boring or being put on her list of despicable gentlemen. “Charming?” he repeated. “You think my smile charming?”

She paused, as if only just realizing what she’d said. “I believe you think it is charming. And you use it to your advantage often.”

He couldn’t help himself, smiling down at her with what he hoped was all the charm in the world.

“You see?” she said with a little shake of her head. “You are smiling now to get away with breaking your own rule of no speaking when we, in fact, ought to be silent in our search for birds.” She narrowed her eyes. “And I suspect that you are also whispering with me to distract me from adding to my”—she glanced left and right, then whispered softer—“list.”

She was an astute little thing. “Perhaps you are correct in your assumptions. Or perhaps I merely wished to ask how you enjoyed my class.”

She blew out a soft breath. “Very well, since you continue to ask, I shall be honest with you.” She waited for his nod, then continued. “I thought you did a fine job. I truly appreciated the new observation journal, as I am always running out of pages in mine. I shall certainly make good use of yours soon enough. Overall, I thought you engaging, instructive, and entertaining.”

He had never been more flattered. And yet, he knew she was still holding back. “However…?” he prompted.

She bit her upper lip then continued. “However, I could have done less with hearing from the rest of the party. After all, I joined this excursion to learn from you—not to learn about others.”

Henry paused. Had that been another slip of the tongue? “You…joined the excursion to learn from me?”

She started, her mouth opening slightly as a blush emblazoned across her features as bright as a sunbird. “No, I-I told you, I came to see the birds. I was simply under the impression that your class would be more instructive, that is all.”

Henry did not believe her for a second. Was that why she’d blushed when he’d asked the group their reasonings for being on the excursion? Could that have truly been hers?

Instead of pressing her for more information, he allowed her to keep her secrets. At least until he managed to coax them out of her.

“At any rate,” she said with revived composure, “your instruction was fine. For beginners.”

Henry grinned. He was beginning to notice each time she had a critique about him, it was most often after she’d mistakenly revealed something about herself. But that proved to make whatever she had to say that much more amusing.

“And you do not consider yourself a beginner,” he guessed.

She took a few steps away from him, her eyes focused upward again. “I suppose some might consider me a beginner.”

“And what do you consider yourself?”

She pulled in her lips. “I thought you came to ask me how I felt about your instruction, not to inspect me as you would a new specimen.”

“Forgive me,” he said at once. “I did not intend to upset you. I am merely curious, that is all. If my lessons are not instructive enough for you, please share with me your level, and I shall do my best to accommodate.”

“That is very generous, but I could not ask you to do such a thing.”

“Whyever not? I would be⁠—”

She held her forefinger in the air between them, silencing his words with the action. Was this the second time in less than a week that the woman was shushing him?

“You did promise you wouldn’t do that again, Miss Fernside,” he said with amusement.

But she shook her head again. “Shh. Listen.”

He watched her, her eyes sweeping across the trees above. What had she heard?