Gray didn’t even have time to open his umbrella before Annabelle started dashing across the street. He followed, splashing through rain puddles, to tell Haig everything. It couldn’t have gone better if he’d written the script himself.

“It was perfect,” Annabelle gushed as they reached the pharmacy. The dash through the rain had left water dripping from her hair into her eyes. Gray passed her his handkerchief, and she took it, flashing him a brilliant smile as she dried her face.

“She’s right,” he told Captain Haig. “The editors are complete opposites, but they were both appalled by the applesauce and will help spread the word. Annabelle, you were pitch-perfect.”

“Tell me!” Haig ordered, and Annabelle obliged. Gray watched her face as she spoke, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She embodied laughter and optimism and steadfast determination. Being with her felt like wind in his sails, filling him with buoyant optimism. He couldn’t even concentrate on what she was saying to Haig; all he could see was the joy in her eyes as water dripped off her hair. She glowed with happiness.

But sobering thoughts intruded. What was Luke doing at this exact moment? Was he hungry? Sick? If he caught some tropical disease, would they let him see a doctor? While Gray and Annabelle dined on watercress sandwiches and apricot tart, Luke sweltered in a prison cell.

For a few hours this morning, he had forgotten Annabelle’s betrayal, but he remembered now, and the pain was raw and real. Annabelle kept chattering, still bubbling with excitement as his gaze tracked to the rain spattering in the street. Soon they would be on the train to Boston, and then they’d board the Pelican for the two-day journey to Washington. He would be trapped with this radiant person who reminded him of everything good in the world.

He couldn’t do it. Annabelle and her luminous optimism was out of his reach now. The moment he tried to join in her happiness, his mind would inevitably stray back to Luke and her role in his downfall. Luke had earned his place in that prison, and Gray couldn’t let it darken the rest of his life. Somehow he would forge ahead to build a future with a good woman beside him, but that woman could never be Annabelle. Her bright exuberance would be a constant reminder. He needed to put her behind him and try to move forward. This afternoon’s triumph would forever mark the end of this bittersweet chapter in his life.

A pair of horses pulling a hansom cab clopped toward them, and he raised his umbrella to draw the cabbie’s attention. Annabelle and Captain Haig kept up their lively stream of conversation as they boarded, but all Gray could concentrate on was how to say good-bye to her forever.