Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,44

and stared down it. ‘But they do not seem to be straight.’

‘Perhaps your ancient dwelling is built on an angle?’

‘Which would still necessitate a straight wall, Max.’

‘They could simply be very bad builders?’

From her expression, he could tell she was already engrossed in trying to formulate a theory, so he rested his forearms on his shovel and simply enjoyed watching her do it. After a long ponder, which for Effie was about twenty seconds, her eyes wandered to the original hole she had found the pot in. ‘Unless...’

Then she was off pacing again, only this time from the post holes to the spot he had originally encountered her with her head in the ground. Typically, she checked each measurement twice and then positively beamed from ear to ear. ‘I think this hut is round, Max! Exactly like the hearth! And the hearth has to be the centre because it is exactly fifteen feet from it to each of those posts.’

‘If that is the centre, then this hut of yours is huge.’

She blinked and her lips parted as she considered it. ‘Good heavens! I think you’re right! Forget the trench I suggested. We need another one exactly fifteen feet opposite this one to test your theory... Now if my mathematics is correct...’ which of course it would be ‘...a circle of a diameter of thirty feet has a circumference of ninety-four. Gracious—that is big!’ She tapped her lip and he watched her long lashes flutter in time with her rapid blinking as she calculated with baffling speed. ‘And as we already know the post holes so far are three feet apart, then we have at least another twenty-nine post holes to excavate! Or thereabouts as it is not exact but I am assuming the doorframe to be narrower—as doorframes so often are... Why are you staring at me like that?’

At some point his jaw must have dropped without his knowledge. ‘Because you are a marvel, Effie. A tremendously odd, tremendously irritating marvel.’

* * *

‘It sounds as if you had a very productive day and an exciting one.’

When he’d sent word that he would not be home to take afternoon tea with her as he’d promised, his sister had insisted on dinner instead and insisted on inviting Effie. Which meant Max had been subjected to hours of scrutiny as she watched the pair of them—first over the dining table and now in the drawing room as they enjoyed a nightcap. It was subtle, because he had categorically warned his interfering sibling against attempting to matchmake two weeks ago after the first meal the bane had attended, but it was obvious to him she still held out hope romance would kindle and that hope bothered him. So much so he had even considered broaching the subject and having the cringingly awkward conversation with her to set the record straight.

His sister believed Miranda had been shallow and heartless in not marrying him or even waiting until he was properly healed to terminate their engagement. She believed his former fiancée’s reaction was unique to her because she was vain and selfish and that another woman wouldn’t be so lily-livered about a few scars.

As much as Max wanted to cling to that belief himself, he had long accepted it wasn’t going to be the case. His deformity inspired revulsion. He’d seen it first-hand both in Miranda’s eyes each time she glanced at him before he released her from the commitment and in the eyes of every man, woman and child since. The constant horrified looks had been one of the main reasons he had imprisoned himself in his sister’s London house. On the few occasions she had dragged him out when he was well enough to walk, people pointed and stared. And those were the better reactions. A few crossed the road, others recoiled in horror and one mother had clutched her child towards her and covered his eyes with her hand—no doubt to prevent the poor thing from having nightmares. Never mind the nightmares her extreme reaction had given Max. From that day on he’d taken his exercise in Eleanor’s garden and hadn’t cut his hair since.

Effie might not obviously recoil in horror, she was much too intelligent and kind for that sort of behaviour, but