By the end of the night Maggie’s feet were aching and so was her heart. Here she’d let Reeve take all those liberties in the garden, and he didn’t even love her. That was unfortunate indeed, for if there was one thing in the world Maggie was sure of, it was that she cared for him in a deep and lasting way. Perhaps, she reflected somberly, as Duncan spun her around and around Government House’s spectacular ballroom, she should have accepted Reeve’s proposal and worried about love later.

She shook her head as if answering a question only she could hear. No, she’d done the right thing by refusing. Marrying for any reason other than love would be a terrible mistake.

Suddenly, Duncan’s fingers tightened at the side of Maggie’s waist and, startled, she looked up into his eyes. They were serious and angry, even though his mouth was smiling.

“Would you mind letting me in on this little debate,” he asked coldly, “or is it one-sided?”

Maggie flushed, thinking back on her disappearance earlier in the evening and all that had happened in the garden. She did hope that no one had seen and reported the sordid details to Duncan Kirk. “I was just thinking,” she said somewhat defensively.

“You’ve been doing a lot of that since you vanished from the ballroom a little while ago,” Kirk replied without missing so much as a step in the sweeping waltz they were engaged in. He looked around, and when his eyes came back to Maggie’s face, they were angry. “Were you with McKenna? It’s the oddest thing, but I haven’t seen him since he danced with you.”

Maggie resented not only Kirk’s implication, true as it was, but his tone as well. Besides, she was still nettled at the pinch he’d given her in the receiving line when she’d refused to curtsy to the governor. “Mr. McKenna,” she said, “has asked for my hand in marriage.”

Duncan Kirk suddenly went rigid, stopping there in the middle of the ballroom, his face going crimson and then ghostly pale all in the space of a moment. “What?” he rasped.

Maggie regretted speaking so rashly, for there was something dangerous in this man’s bearing and in his eyes, but she had no choice now but to carry on. She lifted her chin. “I believe you heard me,” she said, and her voice was remarkably even, considering that she was quaking inside.

Without another word Duncan half propelled and half thrust her through the crowd, his grip painful on her arm. He nodded tersely at the governor and his wife, then fairly hurled Maggie into the great entryway. There were two maids there, fussing with cloaks and coats, but Maggie doubted that Duncan had even noticed them. To people like himself, such lowly creatures were all but invisible.