“Why don’t I take it for you?”

She pushed the globe into his arms. Their eyes met for the briefest moment. Her breath caught. A week had been long enough for her to forget his eyes’ intensity. Her hand shook slightly as she pulled it away from him. “Yes, why don’t you?” She needed to get away from him. Why in heaven’s name did he have to be in this shop at this exact moment? “I’ll go apologize again to the shopkeeper and see if I need to pay for any damages.”

Lord Bryant looked over the globe. “No damage done.” Their eyes met again, and this time, he was first to turn away. “I’ll right the globe, but you ought to leave. Lady Emily is here, and I would rather the two of you didn’t meet.” Lady Emily? Here? Diana’s head whipped to the side as she took in the group of women watching the two of them together. Which one was Lady Emily?

“I should warn you,” she said, “Mrs. Oliver is behind that bookshelf.”

He pursed his lips. Diana averted her eyes. Looking at Lord Bryant’s lips was even worse than looking him in the eye. He shifted the globe in his hands. There was no pin on his chest. Had he forgotten about it? Did he treat everything of value as carelessly as he treated women? “I can handle Mrs. Oliver. You just leave as quickly as possible.”

She took a quick step away from him and landed awkwardly on her foot. If she wasn’t careful, she would make another spectacle of herself. Diana nodded. There wasn’t anything she would rather do than leave that shop. Lord Bryant’s measured footsteps echoed from the floor as he made his way back to the globe stand and the bookshelf.

Diana eyed the door. She could simply slip out and leave Lord Bryant to deal with the aftermath with the shopkeeper, but that wouldn’t do, would it? If she had no relationship with the dashing baron, she wouldn’t expect him to clean up after her messes, and neither would any of the ladies nearby. Besides, he was the one who had leaned forward to whisper to her. She hadn’t meant to run into him. He was the one who rushed over to help with the globe. Really, Diana hadn’t done anything wrong.

Not on purpose anyway.

She took a deep breath. Luckily, the shopkeeper was not in the crowd of ladies; he was still speaking with the petite young woman from earlier. Diana took the long way around the room to avoid the mass of women and reached the shopkeeper’s side.

He pushed his spectacles up his nose and nodded at the young woman. “I can order the book for you.”

The young lady smiled. “Yes, please do so. I’m fascinated by these coprolites. We used to think they were all bezoar stones, you know. Mary Anning, though, she figured it out. And I hear they are written about in Buckland’s book.”