His eyes were hollower than the last time she had seen him, and as was typical, his cravat was askew. “Good morning, Miss Barton.”

“Good morning,” she replied. Neither of them mentioned the length of time since they had last met, and his eyes only met hers for the briefest of moments. Then they scanned her desk.

“May I?” He pointed to her newspaper.

“Of course.”

He reached for the paper, then picked up his chair and carried it to Mrs. Oliver’s side of the room. That wasn’t out of the ordinary. When he used to come regularly, he would often split his time between Diana’s desk and Mrs. Oliver’s.

Diana much preferred it when he sat by Mrs. Oliver. The pressure of having someone look over her shoulder while she worked was annoying at best. Of course, when he sat by Mrs. Oliver, he still managed to distract her.

Diana straightened the papers on her desk. Even with the paperwork turned in to Parliament, she still had plenty of work to do. She didn’t have time for a wandering eye. He opened the newspaper and started reading. He gave her no explanation for his absence and acted as if he had never been away.

“Did you know Lady Baldwin has removed to the country?” Lord Bryant folded his newspaper forward to glance at Diana.

She pretended to stop working, even though she had been watching him for at least two minutes. “Seeing as I have had no dealings with Lady Baldwin, no, I did not. Should I know her?”

“No, I don’t suppose you should.” He lifted his paper back up, blocking her view of him. She picked up her pen. The office always felt empty after Nate and Mr. Richardon left, and Lord Bryant seemed to fill it again, even though all he did was dawdle about. Perhaps that was why she missed him when he was gone.

“Lord Bryant, what is it exactly that you do every day?” She wanted to hear some excuse from him. Surely they had more to say to each other than simply good morning. “Aside from the time you spend in my office.”

The newspaper folded again, and he raised an eyebrow. “What do I do?”

“Yes, what do you do?”

He looked around the room. “I suppose I do this.”

“I said besides sitting in my office.”

“You did say that, but I’m not simply sitting in your office, am I?”

“No, he isn’t,” Mrs. Oliver chimed in. “He is also reading a newspaper.”

“I’m not certain that is what Lord Bryant meant.” Diana had watched him peek over the top of his newspaper to see what she was doing enough to know that the newspaper didn’t actually rivet him. It simply gave him something to occupy his time.

“Come, Diana, we both know why I’m here, and it isn’t because I needed a place to read the newspaper.”

He was here because she had asked him to be here. He was helping her. Was he trying to tell her he spent his days helping women? That was preposterous. He must mean something else, but what?