“Then you know about her discovery. Can you believe it? Coprolites. So much information will be gleaned from those stones now that we know what they really are.”

Diana still didn’t know what they were, and more to the point, she didn’t know how to go about persuading this young woman to guard her heart from Lord Bryant. He was a scoundrel and a cad, even if he was a pleasant one.

Which was perhaps the worst kind.

And he was suddenly standing beside her. “Your friend, Mrs. Oliver, said she would wait for you outside.”

“Oh.” Could she not think of anything better to say? She hadn’t warned off Lady Emily, and she hadn’t managed not to make a scene, and she most definitely hadn’t been able to get the image of the two of them—Lord Bryant and Lady Emily—dancing together out of her mind. Sitting in her office, even alone with him, was not the same as dancing. Not the same as whispering together in a ballroom. Diana blinked and turned to leave. The air in the bookstore suddenly felt stifling. It was too thick and hazy, and she felt as if she were trespassing in a forbidden land.

A small hand landed on her forearm. “Wait.” Lady Emily had stepped forward. “We didn’t get to finish our conversation about coprolites.”

Lord Bryant’s eyes widened. “You were speaking of coprolites?”

“Yes, I finally found another woman as interested in geology and paleontology as I am.”

One eyebrow arched above a perfect nose. “You did?”

“What are coprolites?” asked a young lady who had followed behind Lord Bryant.

“Yes, Miss Barton.” Lord Bryant leaned forward. “Please explain what coprolites are.”

Oh dear. She had never actually said she knew what a coprolite was. “It is a very interesting type of stone . . .” Diana fidgeted with the belt at her waist and looked to Lady Emily for help, but she had retreated slightly behind the shop owner once the other women started speaking. Lord Bryant’s smile was growing by the second, his teeth practically glowing.

He cocked his head to one side. “But would you really consider it a stone?”

Lady Emily had called it a stone. What else could it be? “Mary Anning said something truly fascinating about them. Isn’t that correct, Lady Emily?”

Lady Emily took a half step out from behind the lanky store owner. Her eyes scanned the crop of four or five women who had gathered around Diana and Lord Bryant. She then looked back behind the storekeeper longingly. Apparently speaking in front of these ladies was not the same as speaking alone to Diana—or to anyone holding a book.

“Well . . .” Lady Emily’s voice was quiet, her head down. Lord Bryant shook his head in a short but very understandable movement. He did not want Lady Emily to continue. But once she was no longer looking at him, she was no longer looking at anyone. “It is remarkable, really. From these fossils, we will be able to understand so much more about what strange and wondrous ancient creatures ate. At first, scientists thought they were bezoar stones because, well, they were often located in the abdomen. But they weren’t stones the animals had swallowed.” Lady Emily finally gained the courage to look up, and her strikingly pale eyes held on to Diana’s.