Lettie hugged her arms tighter around her middle. “Thank you, Rhys,” she whispered.

Caroline frowned and swept over. “Why are you looking as though you are headed to your own funeral, hmm?” she demanded. “Lord Exmoor is respectable and kind and never fails to arrive with flowers, and he puts the most thought into those flowers and—”

“Whether or not Lettie loves him is the only thing I care about,” Rhys cut in, gently but firmly, bringing Caroline up short.

For a moment. “And why shouldn’t you wish to marry him?” she pressed, dropping her hands upon her hips.

Why shouldn’t she indeed?

As Caroline launched into a lengthy debate with their brother over Lord Exmoor’s suitability and all the reasons for which Lettie would be a daft ninny to not marry him, Lettie slid her gaze to the window and stared out.

The rub of it was, had this moment come before she’d been reunited with Anthony, there wouldn’t be this same sense of dread. Oh, there’d be nervousness about this momentous change that would await, but she’d resolved herself to wed and have a life of her own beyond the one she now shared with her mother. For that was a fate she wanted even less than a comfortable marriage devoid of passion.

That had been the case.

Until she’d tasted passion.

Until she’d known what it was to speak freely and converse with someone who was so very easy to talk to. A man whom she’d known so very well as a child, but whom, in the time they’d spent together in London, she had come to learn even more about. As well as herself. And there was no unseeing that joy she’d tasted or the future she truly wanted.

“…and that is precisely why Lettie should be grateful,” Caroline was saying.

She caught Rhys’ scowl for their sister in the windowpane. “None of my sisters will be grateful to any man for marrying them. The men who’ll offer for you and Lettie had better get down on the floor and kiss your hems and be grateful for the gift of worshipping you.”

Despite her frustration and outrage at Rhys’ unwillingness to forgive Anthony and for Rhys being such a stubborn dunderhead about the whole matter, Lettie felt her heart fill with love for her brother. “Thank you,” she said softly.

Caroline folded her arms. “I still think she’s mad to even think twice about marrying him,” she muttered.

As if on cue, their mother swept into the room, her usual frown upon her lips. This time, it was even darker than usual. “Who is thinking twice about marrying whom?” she asked without preamble.

Lettie and her siblings froze.

“Er…uh…” Caroline shifted on her feet.