Page 44 of Discovering Her Earl

Hearing his given name made him look at her in surprise.

“Why don’t you want to unearth the piece yourself? What’s wrong?”

She could feel the tension coming off him and when she took his hand it seemed to soothe him.

“Tell me. What is the matter?”

He rubbed his forehead, leaving a smudge of dirt there. She reached up and wiped it away.

He blew out a breath and shook his head.

“I’m sorry. I’m being utterly ridiculous. I just think…” He looked up at the sky and everywhere but at her for a moment. “I just think it would be better if you did it so… So, I don’t ruin it. It’s too important for me to do something wrong. I do everything wrong and I will wreck this.” He said a bit more but had shifted to Gaelic. He repeated the words, gun luach under his breath as he paced again.

He came to her and held out his brush with a shaking hand, his blue eyes begging her to take it. As if it would release him from this intense pressure he’d placed on himself.

For a second or two she just stood there, trying to determine how she should proceed.

She was in a perfect position to take over and use this situation as a reason why he couldn’t accompany them to Egypt. After all, what good is another person to help look for treasure when the person couldn’t actually do the job?

But seeing the way his hand trembled as he held out the brush to her again, she only wanted to help him.

She couldn’t very well accuse him of being reckless, when he was worried into a panic over doing something incorrectly.

“I think you were right,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “I have no business here.”

He was all but offering up his surrender on a silver platter and she… couldn’t accept it.

She shook her head.

“I was not right. I said you wouldn’t care, but you obviously care a great deal. And because you care, I know you will do a smashing good job of it. Come on. Let’s work at it together. Back in the pit you go.”

She gestured to the spot where the artifact waited for them.

She tugged on his hand and he took a step forward and another. Once they were crouched by the artifact, she moved the lantern so they could see better.

“You remember the books you read?”

He nodded.

“Tell me what you read,” she encouraged as she held out a small metal pick. He took it and let out a deep breath.

“I should use the probe to feel about and loosen the dirt. Then brush it away. Just a little at a time. And go very slow.”

“That is just it. You can do this.”

He nodded and cleared away a bit of the dirt. Over the next few minutes, he revealed more of the pottery and had taken over completely while she only watched and gave a bit of instruction and more encouragement.

He stopped a few times to take a breath before continuing and she felt him relax as he felt more comfortable with the procedure. His hands had steadied.

When all of the dirt was completely cleared away, she went to find a crate to secure the artifact.

“Before you put it inside, you’ll want to mark the crate so it can be identified. The name of the dig, and the grid location. Then, date it and add your name because you were the one who found it.”

As he documented the find on the wooden crate, he smiled and then when it was secured the smile grew wider.

“I did it,” he said more to himself than to her.

“You did,” she answered anyway. “Just like I knew you would.”