“Mrs. Oliver, you knew full well we were in here, and what’s more, you left the office unattended. You, of all people, should know how important approving the payroll is. Lord Bryant and I cannot be dallying about in the storage room. One more instance like this and I’m afraid I will have to find another woman to work here with me.”

Mrs. Oliver’s face paled. “ But I thought . . .”

“Yes, I know what you thought, but I hope you know me well enough to know that the most important thing in my life right now is this railroad. Even Lord Bryant cannot deter me from this path.”

A woman who knew what she wanted. His favorite kind. “Don’t take it out on Mrs. Oliver.” Everton turned around, grabbed the chair that had caused all the problems in the first place, and brought it to Diana’s desk. Diana had already managed to sit down and start reading whatever gobbledygook she was working on. He sat down and scooted his chair closer to hers. “How can I help?”

Diana raised a solitary eyebrow. “You want to help me?”

“Yes. I’ve slowed you down. It only seems fair.” Diana leaned forward, grabbed a large stack of papers, and started to hand it to him. The papers were filled with numbers. Blast. “This doesn’t mean I’m trying to make you fall in love with me.”

“I thought that was exactly what you were trying to do.” Diana still held on to the other side of the papers as if it was hard for her to release control over them.

“Yes.” Everton glanced at Mrs. Oliver. She had returned to her desk, so he lowered his voice. “But that was part of our game. I want to help you, at least until you make up for the time lost while I was here, but . . .”

She dipped her head low and to his side without taking her eyes off the paper in front of her. “You aren’t seriously intentioned toward me.”

“Exactly. Don’t take it personally.”

“How could I when you aren’t seriously intentioned toward anyone?”

She was right of course. But shouldn’t she be at least a little regretful about that? Even Miss Thornell, who had been deeply in love with a farmer despite her father being a viscount, was a little tempted by him. Diana just raised her chin and went to work. He leaned forward and asked her a question, his breath disturbing the one dark lock that fell from her hair. He would help her, but she would pay for his labor by spending the next few hours very close to him.

It would serve her right. No woman should have the power to make him feel like he did when she was near. It was too close to hope, and he had given up on hope a long time ago.

Chapter 12

In the four days since Mrs. Oliver had locked Diana and Lord Bryant in the storage room together, Lord Bryant had visited on two of them. The first visit’s purpose was just to remind her not to show up to the card party he was attending that evening. The next day, he had made a similarly short visit, and the day after that, he hadn’t shown up at all.