“And the years passed. And on rare occasions when there would be some reminder of you, I would indeed think about what I would say if I were to see you again. I thought I would be polite, cordial in an impersonal sort of way, as though seeing you again meant nothing. Or perhaps I would be hard-pressed to recall your name at all, should we come face-to-face.”

“Camille—”

“No, Grayson, you wanted to talk about the past. Well, this is my past!” Fury pulsed in her veins. “Then Harold died, and in spite of having pushed you out of my head and my heart, I thought, ‘If he had really meant what he had said, if he really loved me, surely he will come now.’ Perhaps, all those years ago, he had thought it was better for me to marry the sort of man I was expected to marry. Or perhaps he had thought it was somewhat dishonorable to ruin another man’s wedding.” She met his gaze directly. “Oh, I had all sorts of reasons why you did nothing after you made your grand declaration because as much as I wanted to believe you meant what you said, I wanted to forgive you.”

“Why?”

“I wish I knew.” She shook her head. “Perhaps because next to Beryl, you were the most important person in my life. Because I understood it was not your mistake alone. Because I realized I could have, should have, done something, gone after you perhaps. Instead, I did what I was expected to do. I was too weak or too young or too foolish to do otherwise.” She glared. “In that respect, I have changed a great deal.” She uttered a short laugh. “And you claim I broke your heart.”

He studied her for a long moment. “If you’re quite done.”

“Quite.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “If you can now think of something to say, do go on.”

“I, too, have thought of what I would say when I saw you again.”

She snorted in disdain.

“But it seems I have changed my mind,” he said slowly. “None of the things I had planned on saying to you now seem right.”

“Oh?”

“I had planned to apologize, of course, as I attempted to do when I first saw you.” He shook his head. “It was unfair of me to shock you the way I did or when I did. You had no warning, and God knows, I had done nothing to show my feelings before then.

“Next to Win, you had always been my closest friend, and I thought you always would be. It wasn’t until you were betrothed to Harold that I realized I could—no, I would lose you. I realized as well that I loved you.”

“I was engaged for several months before the wedding, Grayson. You could have said something, done something, at any time.”