home, and now he wanted a wife. His letters had revealed a fiercely independent spirit, a dependable hardworking man with the soul of a poet.
In short, Jason Sinclair was the absolute opposite of Wade Marshall, her first husband. He'd allowed life to rule his world, whereas Jason Sinclair obviously ruled life. Jason had decided on a course, set a goal, and accomplished it. The obstacles he must have overcome would have crushed Wade.
All Jason needed was the right woman to bring him out of his shell of loneliness and self-imposed isolation. And Caroline knew that she was that woman.
Guilt squeezed her chest. The candid descriptions in Jason's letters of his childhood had been intended for Derek. But until she'd begun writing Derek's responses, Jason's letters had been dry and businesslike, without a hint of intimacy. It was as if something in her words had prompted him to confide in her – in Derek.
"Please don't let me upset you with my rambling," Melanie said, trying to sound lighthearted. "I suppose now is not the time to be telling you these things. I'm sure it's nothing to be alarmed about. I think it's terribly romantic. Falling in love through letters…"
Unsure which of them Melanie was trying to convince, Caroline tried to focus on other things. Thinking back over the past year, she couldn't say exactly when she'd fallen in love with Jason. His letters had spoken to her heart from the first one her employer, Derek Sinclair, had given her to read and answer.
At first, Derek had approved each response before she'd posted it, but as time passed and her skills in copying his handwriting increased, Derek's scrutiny had become less and less thorough. Eventually, Caroline became Derek's voice with his cousin. When the letter came from Jason requesting a wife, Derek was out of the country. Acting on Derek's behalf, and without his knowledge, she'd chosen the one woman who understood Jason better than anyone else – herself.
How well she understood the desire to shed the past and start over in a new place. Because she refused to live by the standards imposed upon women in New Orleans society, she'd been ostracized. She chose not to hide the fact that she was capable of using her mind for something other than picking the right color draperies for the sitting room. As a result, men looked at her with suspicion, as if she were a freak of nature.
Women distrusted her because she enjoyed the world of business, a world she shared with their husbands, a world entirely closed to them. Both men and women disliked her because she threatened the status quo. She'd been unwilling to compromise, to lower her standards in order to fit their mold, and so she'd been treated like a pariah.
Only Melanie had befriended her, and she'd repaid her kindness by entangling her in this desperate plot.
"I just wish I could have left you out of this," Caroline said sincerely. She picked up the envelope containing the other letter, the one to Derek, and gave it to Melanie. Her hand trembled slightly as she thought of what she was doing, what she had done. "Answering Jason Sinclair's request for a wife without so much as showing Derek the letter is shocking enough, but involving you… He'll be furious."
"He'll get over it." Melanie's brown eyes danced with mischief. "I'm glad to have helped. It was actually very exciting. How many women get the chance to be a groom in a wedding?"
Caroline laughed in spite of her doubts. "That was a stroke of genius."
Melanie shrugged dramatically. "Whoever said the proxy groom had to be a male?"
Caroline touched a finger to the writing on the letter she'd just finished. Satisfied that the ink was dry, she folded the paper quickly and slipped it inside an envelope before she lost her nerve.
Sealing the envelope, she stood and gathered her things, gazing one last time at the small wooden desk and chair that had been hers for the past year.
"You know, I think I'll actually miss this place," she said sincerely.
It was a shame most women were never allowed a glimpse into the exciting, dynamic world of business. Here at the Sinclair Coffee Company she'd felt needed, competent. And there was a certain satisfaction that came from earning one's own way.
"And I shall miss you." Melanie smiled a sweet, melancholy smile.
The two women embraced, and when they drew apart, Caroline's eyes brimmed with tears. "And I you. I – I've never had a