They were discussing the theatre when she reached the doorway, and she knocked softly against the doorframe. James stood up instantly when he saw her.

“May I come in?” she asked.

“Of course,” Penelope said. “Here, sit by me.”

Caroline shook her head. “I'd rather stand, thank you.

“As you wish.”

“Do you know where Blake is?” Caroline asked, her posture as regal as a queen's. “I wish to say this only once.”

“I'm right here.”

Caroline whipped her head around. Blake was standing in the doorway, his body somehow rigid and weary at the same time. His cheeks were touched with color, and she wondered if he'd been walking in the chill night air.

“Good. I would like to say something if I may.”

“Please do,” Blake said.

Caroline gave each of the room's three other occupants an assessing glance and then finally said, “I do not require a husband. I certainly do not require a husband who does not require a wife. All I wish is to be allowed to remain here, in hiding, until my twenty-first birthday.”

“But Caroline!” Penelope protested. “These gentlemen have compromised you. You must allow one of them to make it right.”

Caroline swallowed. She didn't have much in life, but she did have her pride, and she wasn't about to let Blake Ravenscroft humiliate her any more than he had already. She looked straight at him even as she addressed her words to his sister. “Lady Fairwich, these gentlemen have done nothing to compromise me.”

“Nothing?” Blake asked.

Caroline glared at him, wondering what devil had prompted him to speak when he was so vocal about avoiding marriage. “Nothing which meant anything,” she said in a scathing voice.

Their eyes met, and both knew she was talking about their encounter on the beach. The difference was that only Caroline knew she was lying.

Her time with Blake had meant everything to her. Every minute of every encounter was held close to her heart.

She blinked back tears. Soon she'd be gone, and all she'd have to keep her warm inside were memories. There would be no man to hold her, no friends to tease her, no seaside manor that had, in just a few short weeks, become home.

But of all the things she would miss, the absence that would hurt the most was that of Blake's smile. It was so rare, but when his lips turned up at the edges…And then when he actually laughed, the pure joy of the sound made her want to sing.

But he wasn't smiling now. His face was hard, and he was glaring at her as if she were some sort of antidote, and she knew that if she didn't get out of the room that instant she was going to make an utter fool of herself. “Excuse me,” she said quickly, rushing toward the door.

“You can't go now!” Penelope exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

Caroline didn't turn around as she said, “I've said what I came here to say.”