‘Is that how you met? Over tea?’ Evie turned her attention his direction, playing the polite hostess who recognised one guest had dominated the conversation for too long. ‘I had no idea Andrew had made it as far as Kuban.’
‘He didn’t,’ Dimitri put in quickly. Maybe it was selfish, but he wanted to disabuse her of the notion that Andrew had been to the remote Russian kingdom in the steppes. In fact, Andrew had not strayed from the conventional path that made up every Englishman’s Grand Tour. ‘We met in Naples. I was hosting a gathering for expatriates around Europe to celebrate work I’d completed at Herculaneum. My team and I had uncovered a mosaic destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. We spent that spring restoring it.’
‘Wonderful stuff. What the Prince was doing in Herculaneum rekindled my love for ancient history.’ Andrew leaned forward, ready to take up the reins of conversation again.
Evie smiled. ‘My father would enjoy hearing about your experiences.’
Andrew cut her off with a wave of his hand. ‘Ancient history, Evie, not medieval. There’s quite a difference. Centuries, in fact.’ His tone bordered on patronising as he laughed. Was Evie going to sit there and let his remark go unchallenged? Of course she was. She wasn’t going to pick an argument with the object of her affections.
Dimitri couldn’t help himself. After all, Andrew wasn’t the object of his affections. ‘I think she knows the difference, Andrew. Miss Milham and I were having the most enjoyable afternoon. She showed me the Arthur tapestry and some that she’s done as well. Miss Milham is very talented and exceedingly knowledgeable on several subjects.’
Andrew’s gaze fixed on him, sharp with curiosity. ‘Ah, the tapestry. I remember now. I had wondered why you’d come.’
Dimitri heard the veiled slander—that Evie alone couldn’t possibly be attraction enough. He hoped Evie hadn’t heard it. It would hurt her. Perhaps it was remarks like that which had led to her self-consciousness. Such remarks were nothing to him, but she had not cut her social teeth in a royal court. He met Andrew’s gaze with his own, unwavering, his sense of protectiveness rising instinctively on Evie’s behalf. ‘Well, then you have your answer. I am still looking for mine. What exactly brings you here this afternoon?’
* * *
What had just happened? Evie glanced from Andrew to Dimitri. Were they fighting over her? It was too preposterous to believe; the golden-haired Andrew Adair and a Russian prince, sparring over her while they sipped lemonade in the garden. It was ridiculous in the extreme and yet she wasn’t sure what else to make of it. Oh, how she wished Beatrice and May were here! They would know for certain.
‘More lemonade?’ Evie groped for something to say that would relieve the tension. She was not equipped to handle such a situation. She passed around the dwindling tray of cakes to give herself something to do. Dimitri took two, Andrew took three, shooting the Prince a triumphant look designed to make a point. At this rate, the two of them were going to eat themselves sick. She gingerly picked up the threads of the original conversation. ‘You met in Naples, and then what?’
‘The Prince made a fortune on the mosaic, selling it to a museum in Naples,’ Andrew supplied drily. ‘He was moving on to Greece, to a temple excavation on the peninsula. I was intrigued so I tagged along. We did the temple and another small dig near Athens, then worked our way home.’ Andrew sat back in his chair and folded his hands across his stomach with smug victory. ‘I told him about our local Roman villa, which has never quite got off the ground in terms of a full excavation, and the rest is history.’ He laughed at his joke. The tension eased and Evie was almost convinced she’d imagined it to begin with. The visit concluded amiably, the gentlemen polishing off the last cakes and the remainder of the lemonade before rising to leave.
The Prince bowed over her hand as he had at the assembly room. She was struck once more by the intensity of his gaze and the heat generated by his touch. It still didn’t mean anything, she reminded herself, but silly as it was, she liked how her stomach fluttered when he touched her. ‘I was wondering, Miss Milham, if you would consider helping on the villa excavation? You mentioned you draw your own tapestry patterns and I need someone to do a catalogue of drawings for any artefacts we might uncover.’
Her pulse sped up at the prospect, flattered that he’d acknowledged her skills. What an honour, an honour far beyond any she’d ever expected. For a moment she couldn’t find any words. She settled on ‘I would like that very much.’ When he touched her, looked at her with those dark eyes, spoke to her in that low voice with its dentalised ‘th’s and hard ‘r’s, she felt like a princess. Almost.
‘Come to the site tomorrow.’ He released her hand with a smile and the magic was gone. She was once more merely Evie Milham, plain and quiet, the sort who admired men on their pedestals, not one who was put up on a pedestal of her own. She certainly wasn’t the sort of girl those men fought over. Not the sort of girl a prince would pay serious attentions to, but for a moment she had been.
The walk back to Andrew’s was...different. For once, it was silent. Usually, most of their walks were filled with Andrew’s talk. Andrew liked to think out loud. Normally, Dimitri didn’t mind. Today, however, Andrew was silent except for the occasional swish of his walking stick cutting through the high grass in the meadow. Dimitri opted to wait. When Andrew was done processing he would talk.
‘What happened back there?’ Andrew gave the grass a hard thwack with his stick. Apparently, he was done processing. ‘For a moment, I thought we were going to quarrel over Evie Milham.’ He said the last as if the notion was insane. Dimitri didn’t think it was in the least preposterous. Didn’t Andrew see it? The beauty beneath the simple attire and the simple hair; the devotion she was waiting to lavish on him? As for himself, he was thinking far too much about that hidden beauty. When she’d spoken of tapestries and stitchery, he’d wanted to take her hair down pin by pin, pull it loose from its tight coiffure and spread it through his fingers like so much embroidery silk.
‘I was unaware there was anything to quarrel about.’ Dimitri shot Andrew a wry smile. ‘She is quite solidly yours by her own design.’ Perhaps Andrew needed a little push in Evie’s direction, something to drag him out of his oblivion. Maybe he could help with that. Maybe Evie could use some help with that. She was making it too easy for Andrew, catering to his every whim. Andrew would never respect a woman like that. He would, however, use that woman. Dimitri’s stomach gave a small twist. He hardly knew her, but it sat poorly with him to think of Evie Milham being used in that manner.
Andrew lifted a brow. ‘Do I sense a wager coming on? There was a time when you could turn a lowly country girl’s head like that!’ He snapped his fingers and tossed a smug grin at Dimitri. ‘Or, are you losing your touch? I admit I have a head start. She’s known me her entire life. But you’re a prince,’ he goaded. ‘Surely that evens the playing field.’
‘Those games are fine with ladies of the court,’ Dimitri offered warily. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of pushing Andrew towards Evie any more. Last night, it had seemed like the right thing to do, a way to help out Miss Milham. His stomach twisted again. ‘I think those games are rather cruel, however, when played with unsuspecting country ladies.’ Dimitri’s stomach twisted harder, more violently than before. This time he didn’t think it had anything to do with Evie and everything to do with seed cakes. Too many seed cakes.
All things in moderation, his old nyanya had told him more than once growing up, always after he’d over-indulged. Some day he’d learn, but apparently not today. His covert eating contest with Andrew had been petty. From the hitch in Andrew’s step, it looked like he might be feeling the effects as well. They’d behaved childishly and they’d got their just desserts in the most literal way possible. Andrew