Chapter Thirteen
While Julian never would have wished for anything to happen to the Leightons’ daughter-in-law, he’d be lying if he didn’t admit, at least to himself, that he was happy to have Elaina to himself again.
Even their morning ritual felt different as he teased her about taking all the bacon and leaving him only a few pieces.
“A gentleman would never accuse a lady of stealing food,” she said primly with a small twitch to her lips.
“Ah ha! A lady only points out what a gentleman shouldn’t do when they are guilty.”
“Perhaps a little.” Her nose scrunched up in the most adorable fashion before she let out an indignant huff and reached into her shirt to pull out three pieces of bacon she’d wrapped in a napkin. “Very well. Here…”
She held it out to him and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Are you offering me… bosom bacon?”
She was also laughing.
“As if you are so picky. Just two days ago I saw you drop a biscuit on the ground and then eat it without so much as brushing off the grass.”
“Damn. I didn’t think you were looking.” He was guilty as charged. A little grass was of no matter when he had been starving. He wouldn’t point out that Mrs. Leighton laid waste to the luncheon before any of them even got there. That would indeed be considered ungentlemanly.
“Let that serve as a warning. I am quite skilled at watching you without your knowing.”
“Is that so?” He raised a brow, intrigued by her admission.
“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.
They gathered their tools and stowed everything in the wagon. They had just pulled up to the stables and unhitched the mules, when the rain dumped. With a squeal, she ran for the building and he followed after her.
There was only a boy of fifteen from the village who was tending the horses and mules while they were in residence. He’d taken the mules to the far end of the stable to brush them, leaving Julian alone with Elaina.
It was peculiar. They were alone all day at the site, but here with the sweet scents of hay and rain, it was more intimate.
“I’m sorry to say, it appears we are stuck out here for the time being,” she said.
He shrugged.
“I don’t know I wouldn’t use the word stuck. It sounds like a place one wouldn’t want to be.”
“And you don’t mind? Being here?” She swallowed and he could almost hear the words with me at the end of her question.
“No. Though I am a bit peckish after missing our lunch. You wouldn’t have anything else down your shirt, would you?”
She smiled and shook her head.
“I’m afraid not.”
“I’m not so sure I should trust you. Perhaps I should check for myself.”
He’d meant it as a joke, but only realized what he had really said when her eyes grew wide.
“Of course, I would never,” he said quickly.
“Of course,” she repeated in a tone that almost sounded put out. “I’m going to make a run for the house. I don’t need to worry about catching a chill when I can take a warm bath inside.”
With that she rushed out into the rain leaving him there to wonder what he’d done to irritate her this time.
*
The man wasirksome. Elaina had known it for some time, but each day she spent with him it became more and more obvious.
The worst part was she wasn’t exactly sure why she was put out with him at the moment. Because he’d quickly retreated on his comment about checking down her shirt for bacon?
How ridiculous. She would never allow such a thing. But for whatever reason she was a bit ruffled that he’d said that he would never do such a thing.
Never?
Because he had no interest in her in that way. A noted rake and flirt had no interest in her as a woman. She well knew where she stood with the earl. He’d made his preference known years ago.
But in that moment in the stables, she thought she saw something else in his gaze. She had allowed him to make a fool of her yet again with his silly songs and witty jokes.
In her room she rang for Nettie and asked her to have a bath readied. When she was warm and dry, she settled in by the window to read. The constant tapping of rain against the glass distracted her from the words on the page.
Or perhaps it was her thoughts.
She was a coward. Just as she had been five years ago. He’d hurt her feelings and she’d run away so the pain would go away.
But it hadn’t gone away. Instead, it had transformed into ugly anger, turning her into a hateful shrew who hid away from the possibility of further rejection.
Yet it was so easy to let down her guard with Julian as he teased out her smiles and made her laugh.
She wanted something he couldn’t offer. Was that his fault?
She thought perhaps it was no one’s fault.
But where did that leave her? She couldn’t be angry with herself for not being the type of person he was attracted to. And she could no longer be angry with him either.
He had never led her to believe differently. Maybe the way he’d communicated his lack of interest could have been handled in a less hurtful way, but he hadn’t lied.
When it was time for dinner, Lainey dressed and rested her hand on the door. Taking a deep breath, she opened it and went down the stairs toward the dining room where Julian most likely would be waiting for her to dine.
She’d planned to stay in her room and request a tray be brought up with her dinner. But she wasn’t going to hide anymore.
It was time to move on. To let go of the past. And that was what she planned to do.