Gray carried a heavy suitcase down the steps of his Alexandria townhouse to wait for Mr. Holder, who had gone to fetch the carriage from the public stable a block away. This morning he would take the train to Baltimore, then catch the afternoon passenger ship to Cuba. For weeks he had been dreaming about presenting the issue of Good Housekeeping to Luke in person. There wasn’t much he could do to brighten his brother’s life, but this article would help. Luke deserved to know of the success of his applesauce plan.

After setting down his bag, Gray looked down the street for a sign of Mr. Holder and the carriage. Instead he spotted Caroline disembarking from the Red Line streetcar and heading his way with fire in her step. In her hand she carried a copy of Good Housekeeping, and Gray braced himself for a confrontation.

Caroline didn’t slow her steps until she stood less than a yard away. “A thoroughly modern couple?” she said as she whapped the magazine against his chest. He adroitly caught it.

“Good morning, Caroline. It’s nice to see you.”

“There’s nothing good about this morning. I just read an article that implied my brother is in the throes of enchantment with a scheming and traitorous woman. How could you!”

A pair of ladies taking their morning stroll stopped to peer at them, and he forced his voice to remain calm. “Do you believe everything you read?”

Caroline planted both fists on her hips while she took several calming breaths. “All I need is for you to assure me that not a word of that story is true.”

Mrs. Sharpe had gotten a lot wrong, but she had seen and understood more than he cared to admit. He was still a little enthralled with Annabelle. Not that it would ever come to anything, but it was still there.

“I can’t do that.”

She flinched, apparently expecting an immediate denial he had no intention of delivering. An odd series of emotions played across her face. Surprise, anger, and . . . fear.

“Gray, the two of us haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I would step in front of a bullet for you. She wouldn’t. She proved that on the day she walked into the War Department and turned over information that sent a cannon blast into the heart of our family.”

He didn’t want to hear it, but there was truth in what Caroline said. He didn’t doubt for a second that she’d take a bullet for him, as he would for her. He didn’t have much of a family left. In fact, Caroline was the beginning and the end of it.

Mr. Holder and the carriage rounded the street corner and would be here in less than a minute, but Gray needed to make peace with Caroline before he left.