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“I have been keeping a proper watch on the property.”

“With remarkable persistence. Have you found anything missing?”

“It has been a busy morning.”

“You are neglecting your own occupations,” Lydia said. “Was that not what we agreed to avoid?”

“I am not accounting. I am observing.” He came a step nearer. “What is that?”

She indicated the pot nearest the window. “The flower from the wood. Samuel found it where I said he would.” She bent toward it, pleased to have a question that was not about her marriage.

“There are more petals on this specimen than on the other. I thought that proved it was a different plant. Now I am not certain.” She moved the second pot nearer. “The leaves agree more closely when they are allowed to open.”

“You were wrong.”

“I may have been. I would rather know than keep defending a bad description.” She turned the pot carefully. “The lower leaves were folded when I found mine. That was still true when we looked at it on your desk. I blamed the damage from carrying it, but the fresh ones do much the same before they spread.”

She waited for him to lose interest. Most listeners began looking for a chair by the time she reached the lower leaves. Tristan bent nearer the pot instead, keeping his coat clear of the wet bench.

“Then a pressed specimen might look unlike a growing one,” he said. “Even if the drawing was accurate.”

“Yes. It might explain part of the disagreement. I should like another observation before I accuse either the artist or myself.” She glanced up. “You remembered the question.”

“You told me in the library that either the artist had drawn another plant, or the writer had used a different one. You said you would need to compare them, and that if it grew here, you would find it.” He shifted his weight. “It does grow here. You found it.”

“I had not realized it interested you.”

“I have an excellent memory for things that irritate me.”

“I did not irritate you.”

“You irritated me beyond all measure.” He said it so gravely that she laughed. His smile came slowly in answer, deepening when she failed to stop. She had forgotten how handsome he could be when he smiled, and for a moment she could not think of something clever to say.

“I could not stop thinking about the leaf,” he said

A drop fell from the broken pane onto the stone beside his boot. He moved the pot out from beneath it without looking away from her. At the far end, Samuel set down his knife and went outside with a tray, calling that he would be back directly.

“I thought you had forgotten,” she said. With Samuel gone, there seemed less reason to speak quietly, but she did.

“You were rather insistent about that leaf.”

“It was wrong in the book.”

“So you informed me. Several times.”

“Twice.” She set the pot back beside its companion. His hand was still on the edge of the bench, close enough to hers that she noticed the damp soil on her own fingers. “Possibly three times.”

He smiled, and for a moment she thought he would stay. Then he looked toward the door through which Samuel had gone. “I had better find Collins.”

Lydia lowered her hand to the bench. There had been no footstep outside, no servant waiting to fetch him. “Of course.” She bent over the drawing until he had gone, then found she could not remember which leaf she had meant to correct.

The days passed, bringing more brief encounters and conversations that ended just as Lydia began to enjoy them.

After luncheon she asked whether he would show her the kitchen garden. Tristan agreed, and for a while the walk was easy. They wandered through the orchard, where he pointed out the paths leading to the tenants’ cottages and promised to introduce her to the families another day. At the ornamental water, he told her how his father had once slipped from the bank while assuring a guest that it was perfectly safe. She laughed, and Tristan, encouraged, recalled another story. It was the first time she had heard him speak so freely about his family, and she found herself wishing the walk might never end.

A little farther along, Lydia touched his sleeve and suggested they sit on a nearby bench.

“There are papers I must finish before dinner.” He glanced towards the house. “We can walk again tomorrow.”