as I love you.”
Caroline’s eyes flew open at the softly whispered words and, for a long moment, she could not seem to breathe. Her body stilled, and every fiber of her being latched on to that murmured declaration, unwilling to ever let it go. Had he meant it? Her always doubtful mind whispered while her trusting heart danced with joy.
Sensing the change in her, Pierce lifted his head, his eyes searching hers in the silvery semi-dark of the room. “Are you all right?” he whispered as his knuckles gently brushed along her jaw, then tucked a loose curl behind her ear.
“I’m fine,” Caroline all but croaked as their gazes locked in a way they never had before. “I…I…” I love you as well. Would she ever be able to say it? Why was there this lump in her throat? “I—”
A sharp knock on the door startled them both, and they almost fell off the settee.
Grumbling something rather unseemly under his breath, Pierce pushed to his feet and then offered her his hand to assist her. “Who is it?” he called out before his hand moved to return the puff sleeve to its place upon her shoulder, a soft smile teased his lips as he looked at her.
“My lord?” came a hushed voice through the door. “Is that you? It’s Jacob. Albert sent me to find you.”
In no more than three large strides, Pierce was by the door, yanking it open and revealing a familiar young man. “What happened?”
With his hat clutched in his hands, Jacob tried very hard not to take note of the young woman in the darkened room, her curls hopelessly undone and her gown wrinkled beyond repair. At the sight of the dark red that came to his face, Caroline could not help but smile, surprised by the impulse to reassure him.
“Miss Palmer pointed me down this corridor. I’ve been knocking on every door,” Jacob rushed to explain before he gulped down a lungful of air. “Albert told me to bring you home.” His gaze now remained fixed on Pierce with a steadiness that spoke of a focused mind. “He says Lord Coleridge’s butler has been found.” The young man’s voice darkened when he spoke Coleridge’s name, and Caroline knew that Pierce had shared Daphne’s story with him.
“His butler?” Caroline asked as she stepped up to the two men, giving up on fixing her hair.
Jacob’s eyes moved to something beyond her shoulder as Pierce turned to her. “He was there the night Coleridge and his friends returned to London, but had since been relieved of his position. I thought he might have observed something, overheard something.”
“Good thinking,” Caroline commented, delighting in the proud smile that came to Pierce’s face. It made her think that perhaps he longed for her respect as much as she longed for his.
“Fetch the carriage,” he told Jacob, who immediately darted off, before taking her arm. “We’ll head home immediately.” Then he stopped and looked around the room, his eyes searching before they fell on her abandoned red mask on the floor. Picking it up, he refastened it, hiding her face from the crowd outside, before donning his own. “We’ll see you home first.”
Caroline stopped. “I cannot go home like this.” She glanced down at her gown. “I need to get out of this dress first.”
His brows rose, and a wicked smile came to his lips. “That sounds like an awfully good idea.”
For a moment, Caroline was at a loss, but then she caught his meaning and her cheeks flushed with warmth at the thought of how he’d understood her comment. Fortunately, her mask was hiding the evidence of her discomfiture. “I meant,” she began, striding past him so she wouldn’t have to meet his eyes, “that I need to change before I can go home.”
Catching up to her near the archway leading back into the ballroom, Pierce grasped her arm, pulling it through the crook of his. Then he leaned closer and whispered in her ear, “I know what you meant, but you cannot deny that my idea is far more appealing than yours.”
Unable not to, Caroline laughed. “You’re a wicked man!”
“Is that a compliment?” he asked with a smile.
Pausing in her step, Caroline looked up at him. His dark eyes held hers, and the longing and regard she saw there took her breath away. He did love her, didn’t he? “Well, I do believe it is,” she whispered, smiling up at him with all the love she couldn’t seem to put