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"I shall ring for tea," she said. "Tea will make everything better."

"I don't know why you are trying to make everything better for Kate," said Mina indignantly. "She is the one who has behaved abominably! Or did he force himself upon you, Katie Kat? What a rogue! And to think I was going to draw him as a Greek hero!"

"He did not force himself upon me," Kate said firmly. "Mr Briar and I have become good friends, working so closely alongside one another, and I enjoy his company very much. I suspect we both became a little carried away in the moment, and you happened to come upon us at a time of poor decision-making. It is nothing, and I would be so obliged if you would both forget it and we could never speak of it again."

"Do you like him, dearest?" Bella asked gently. "Do you love him?"

"I hardly know, Bell," said Kate. "I know I enjoy his company and he is very intelligent, and yes, he is very handsome. And when he kissed me, it felt... well, I suppose it felt wonderful."

Bella smiled at this and squeezed her hand.

"But I have been thinking," Kate continued, looking down at her lap. "What if he does this on every expedition? He is a young, handsome man who travels the world. What if he always finds some girl upon whom to bestow his charms, with no intention of making any promises? He has never spoken to me of anything beyond the excavation, and I have no notion what he thinks of me. Oh, Bella, I do not know what to do!"

"I think you should get Papa to challenge him to a duel," said Mina, with complete seriousness. She had slipped from her chair and now came to kneel in front of Kate, taking both her hands in her own.

Bella laughed aloud. "A duel, Mina? What can you be thinking?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose Papa is a bit old for that sort of thing. Would George do it, do you think?"

"No one is fighting a duel!" Bella exclaimed. "Good heavens, Mina, you are making the whole thing worse. Now, Kate, listen to me..."

She broke off as a maid entered with the tea things and did not speak again until the table was laid with a steaming teapot, cups and a plate of small lemon cakes which Kate knew were Bella's favourites. Bella poured the tea, handed a cup to Kate and waited until the maid had withdrawn before continuing. "I know that when you have those sorts of feelings for a gentleman, it is easy to lose your head. Lord knows I lost mine, and it all worked out well, but it might very easily have gone otherwise. And in these situations, when no promises have been made, things can work out very badly indeed. I hardly need tell you what would happen if Papa heard of this."

Kate groaned and covered her face with her hands. "Please do not remind me."

"Now, you have not told me anything that gives me great cause for worry, but I do think it would be sensible for you to distance yourself from the work at the mound for a little while."

"But we are so close to finding something wonderful!" Kate protested, lowering her hands. "Oh, Bella, you cannot ask me to abandon it now!"

"I am not asking you to abandon anything, darling. Only to give yourself a little time. You have been spending nearly every waking hour in Mr Briar's company, and clearly the two of you are finding it difficult to concentrate entirely upon the work."

Kate opened her mouth to object, but Bella held up a hand. "I know you are fascinated by the excavation, and I know how much it means to you. But you must think of yourself as well. It may be that Mr Briar has the very best of intentions, but if so, he should speak to you properly and then approach Papa. You cannot continue to be so close to him, with opportunities to find yourselves alone, when you have no idea what he intends."

"But what if he has no intentions at all?" Kate asked in a small voice.

"Then you will be very glad that you took a little distance before you became any more attached to him. From what I have seen, he seems a good man, but we barely know him. We know nothing of his family, his background or his prospects, although he seems wealthy enough, given his affinity for fine clothes. If he is a good sort of man and he wishes to pursue you, then he will declare himself and court you openly and honourably."

Kate considered this for a moment. She knew that Bella was speaking good sense, but the thought of staying away from the excavation, of sitting in the library with her books while Nathaniel and the men continued the work without her, was unbearable. Worse still was the thought that he might have no desire to court her at all. She had allowed him to kiss her, had kissed him back with an enthusiasm that now made her cheeks burn to remember. What if he was, right now, laughing at her foolishness?

"I know what you say is true," she said at last, "but I have all these feelings and I cannot find a sensible way to order them. I do not know how I shall even look at him again."

"You will, Kate, and it will resolve itself in time. But in the meantime, you must find ways to protect yourself, and perhaps to protect him too. You know full well what Papa might do if he discovered what happened today."

"He would kill him," said Mina.

"He would not kill him," Bella replied, although she sounded less certain than Kate would have liked. "But he would certainly make his displeasure known, and I should hate to be Mr Briar when that happened."

Kate thought of Nathaniel standing beside her in the trench, his hand against her cheek and the look in his eyes just before he had kissed her. She could not reconcile that man with the dreadful flirt she had imagined a few moments earlier. Surely he had felt something of what she had felt? Surely a gentleman could not kiss a woman in such a way and mean nothing by it?

"Do you promise you will not tell Papa?" she asked, looking between her sisters.

"Of course," said Bella. "I shall say nothing, provided you promise me that you will be sensible."

"I promise," Kate said, although she had no notion how she was supposed to manage it.

They both looked towards Mina, who had just taken a large bite of lemon cake.

"Oh, very well," she said around a mouthful of cake. She paused to swallow."I shall not tell Papa or Mama either. But I still think Mr Briar ought to be challenged to a duel. And Bella, you did promise me those brushes."