Lord Bryant glanced over to Mrs. Oliver, who was busy copying numbers into a ledger. A charade, for certain. She was listening to every word they spoke loud enough for her to hear. Mrs. Oliver lived for Lord Bryant’s visits.

“Ah, I had always assumed Mr. Broadcreek had something to do with that.”

“Yes, well he did. He wouldn’t leave my office until it was too late to make it to the ballast office.”

Lord Bryant cursed under his breath. “Does Mr. Broadcreek have nothing better to do with his evenings than accost you?”

“He has—thankfully—yet to accost me. But he does seem to end up here later in the day than most men. He has his own rail lines to worry about during business hours.”

“I will make a note to come later in the day, then.”

Mrs. Oliver sighed happily over her pretend work. She didn’t know that Diana had asked specifically for Lord Bryant to help her with Mr. Broadcreek.

Diana wouldn’t have minded kicking her legs up a few more times before returning to her chair, but with Lord Bryant here, that wasn’t a possibility. She regretfully returned to her seat.

Lord Bryant took his usual position on the inside corner of her desk.

“If you deign to come at all,” Diana said under her breath so Mrs. Oliver wouldn’t hear. “I thought our agreement was for you to come a few times a week.”

Lord Bryant leaned forward. “And I thought you were to stay out of ballrooms.”

Blast. “It is worth noting that I did not actually enter the ballroom.”

“Ah, heaven forbid Miss Barton do anything wrong.”

Diana started her fifth letter of the day. Lord Bryant leaned forward, watching her. She set her pen down and pushed the letter to the side. If she was going to have an audience, filling out payroll forms seemed to be a less distractible task. She reached for the stack of papers her man of business had dropped off yesterday.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking over payroll.”

“How many men do you employ?”

“Just over two hundred with the two companies and three lines.”

“That looks difficult.”

“It isn’t difficult.” She needed to sign a few places and make certain the funds were available for the managers of each line to pay the navvies working on the line. “But it does require a certain degree of concentration.”

“As I said, difficult.” Lord Bryant shuffled closer to her, his head craned to one side in an attempt to follow what she was doing.

“Would you like a chair?”

“Do you have one?” He sounded almost excited.

“Yes, in the back room there is a chair you can use.” She had to get him off her desk. She could never concentrate with a pair of legs dangling just to her left. She pointed to the storage room.

“Ah, the back room? It isn’t dark in there, is it?”

“It is a bit dark, but you should be able to find the chair easily enough.”