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A watery smile crossed her lips. ‘I suspect it was sheer curiosity. The Ravels will be a source of much fascination. And I suppose to gloat that I have hurt my ankle. I’ve proclaimed the dangers of being unaware often enough.’
‘You hold yourself in too little regard, Henri. And there is nothing to be ashamed about. The dog slipped its chain. You were unfamiliar with the dog and it happened.’
‘Even so, I handled it poorly.’ She raised her shimmering eyes to his. Robert clenched his fists to keep from dragging her into his arms. She was a neighbour and that was all. ‘I keep thinking about…the attack. I dislike being a bother and now everyone is making me rest and trying to take burdens from me. I want to use my mind.’ She held up a hand. ‘And, no, I don’t want to read Ivanhoe or a Minerva Press novel. Or even the latest Fenimore Cooper. Sophie has already suggested the possibility, but they hold no attraction. I want to do something with my mind. Something useful.’
Robert tapped a finger against his lips. Yesterday he’d seen the softer side of Henri Thorndike and found, to his surprise, that he enjoyed it. He wanted to explore the woman behind the façade of efficiency, the one who wasn’t always standing, being capable. He enjoyed puzzles and Henri had secrets that she wanted to keep hidden. All he had to do was to keep her off balance. He didn’t want the new softer Henri to be subsumed back into the fearsome Lady Thorndike.
‘Do you dislike numbers?’
‘I can do arithmetic…well enough.’ She tilted her chin in the air. ‘I manage the accounts. My aunt is hopeless. And I’m much better than Sebastian. It infuriates me when men proclaim women can’t add up. We can. I am better than most. But I won’t read about the scientific method and archaeology despite our truce. A woman must have her principles.’
‘Another project of mine.’ He returned in a few heartbeats with a huge sheaf of papers and put them in her lap. His hands brushed her shoulder. Her flesh quivered under the gentle touch. ‘Make yourself useful and sort out my research on aluminium. Find where I’ve gone wrong. Aluminium is one of the most abundant minerals on the planet, but in its pure form it is worth a king’s ransom. If a process can be found, it could change the world.’
Her brow knotted. ‘I know how rare aluminium is. It is worth more than gold if you can get it as a metal, but I know nothing about such things. Seek someone else to make sense of it and find a flaw in your reasoning.’
‘But you can learn. You have a quick mind. It would be a great help to me. Of course, there’s always sewing.’
Henri screwed up her face as he guessed she might. Henri might have started the Ladies’ Aid Sewing Circle, but he’d never seen her with a needle in her hand. ‘Sewing and I are nodding acquaintances only.’
‘But I thought you gave lectures on the importance of needlework? You have organised classes for the lasses from the factory.’
‘Telling other people that it is a good thing and actually enjoying myself are two separate things. My threads always tangle and I have a habit of pricking my thumb. I leave it to the experts.’
‘Either you can wallow in self-pity about your ankle and contemplate the amount of beef jelly being delivered, or you can do something productive and help me. Your choice.’
She folded her hands in her lap and her face took on a mulish expression, which was far better than her earlier broken-hearted one. ‘And you trust me with your research, but not with the Roman encampment?’
‘Find a hole in my logic, and we will discuss the treasure-hunting picnic.’
She was silent for a long time, her neat white teeth worrying her full bottom lip, turning it a luscious red. ‘It is tempting, but.’
‘No buts, just do it.’ He leant forwards so their foreheads nearly touched. ‘Prove a woman is just as good as a man at such things, Henri. Prove to me that there is more to you than unadulterated self-pity.’
Chapter Seven
Henri scrunched up a piece of paper and threw it on the study floor. Two days into her helping Robert to sort out his research and she found she actually was beginning to be interested in the scientific method. She could see how he’d started, how some experiments hadn’t worked and how other ones had. She could see how it could be applied to the excavation. She also had learnt that Robert Montemorcy had a habit of making notes in the margins. She might not be able to calculate as well as he could, but she certainly could organise.
‘You are downstairs.’ Robert came into the room. Henri’s breath caught slightly. His hair curled at the ends as if he had been caught out in the rain. ‘How did you keep your weight off your foot when you came down the stairs? Cane or banister? If you’d called, I’d have been happy to carry you.’
