“I've gone mad,” he murmured. “I've gone mad, or you've gone mad, or perhaps the whole world has gone mad.”

“My vote's on you,” James quipped. “I'm quite sane, and Miss Trent shows no signs of derangement.”

“I don't believe this. I just don't believe this.” Blake threw up his arms as he strode away. “Dig up the entire garden! Add a new wing to the house! What do I matter? I just own the place.”

Caroline turned to James with concern as Blake disappeared around the corner. “How angry do you suppose he is?”

“On a scale of one to ten?”

“Er…if you think his mood would fit on such a scale.”

“It wouldn't.”

She chewed on her lower lip. “I was afraid of that.”

“But I wouldn't worry,” James said with a reassuring wave of his hand. “He'll come around. Ravenscroft isn't used to having his life disrupted. He's a bit grumpy, but he's not entirely unreasonable.”

“Are you certain of that?”

James recognized her question as rhetorical and took the shovel from her hands. “Here now,” he said, “tell me what you need me to do.”

Caroline gave him instructions to dig under the purple flowering plant and knelt down to watch his work. “Mind that you don't break the roots,” she said. Then a moment later: “Why do you suppose he is always so angry with me?”

James didn't reply for a few moments, and the shovel stilled in his hands as he obviously pondered how to answer her question. “He's not angry with you,” he finally said.

She gave a little laugh. “We were obviously not watching the same person just now.”

“I mean it. He's not angry with you.” He stepped on the edge of the shovel and pushed it further down in the dirt. “He's afraid of you.”

Caroline started coughing so hard James had to whack her on the back. When she caught her breath she said, “I beg your pardon.”

There was another long moment of silence, and then James said, “He was engaged once.”

“I know.”

“Do you know what happened?”

She shook her head. “Just that she died.”

“Blake loved her more than life itself.”

Caroline swallowed, surprised by the squeezing pain in her heart elicited by James's statement.

“They'd known each other all their lives,” he continued. “They worked together for the War Office.”

“Oh, no,” she said, her hand moving to her mouth.

“Marabelle was killed by a traitor. She'd gone out on a mission in Blake's place. He had a putrid throat or something of the sort.” James paused to wipe a bit of sweat from his brow. “He forbade her to go, utterly forbade her, but she was never the sort to listen to ultimatums. She just laughed and told him she'd see him later in the evening.”

Caroline swallowed, but the motion did little to ease the lump in her throat. “At least her family could take solace in the fact that she died for her country,” she offered.