of the paper he was reading before it returned to her. “Lord Coleridge is sure to attend, and I do believe you still owe him an answer.” Her mother’s brows rose, enforcing on Caroline the importance of giving the right answer.
Caroline swallowed, but held on to the soft smile she’d managed to force upon her lips. “Thank you for the reminder, Mother,” she said sweetly, then took another sip from her tea.
Again, her parents exchanged a meaningful look. “I do hope you will not keep the poor man waiting much longer,” her mother then remarked in a nonchalant tone as though she’d merely commented on the weather and not urged her daughter to make a life-altering decision.
Exhaustion and no small amount of annoyance washed over Caroline in that moment, and she finally found the courage to admit to herself that she was sick of the life forced on her. She was sick of the lies, the pretense, the strategies. She was sick of acting against her nature, of being someone she was not, of silencing herself at every turn.
She was sick of it all!
Now more than ever for the past night had shown her all that could be, all she was missing out on, all she wanted. Always had Caroline possessed a daring spirit, however, she’d never dared to use it for herself. For amusement’s sake.
For love.
In that moment, as Caroline sat at the breakfast table with her two parents, dressed in another mouse-grey dress, her spectacles upon her nose and her vision slightly blurred, she realized that she did not want to continue like this. That she could not continue like this without going mad.
Again, she recalled the previous night, the way her pulse had thudded in her veins as she and Charlaine had arrived at the ball. She remembered the dim lights, the vibrant colors, the sense of audacity that had lingered in the air. She remembered how Lord Coleridge—as she now knew—had all but forced her into a dance…and how Pierce had interfered, not even aware that it had been her at the time.
Indeed, he was a good man, a truly good man in every sense of the word. The thought made her smile for he was a thief and a highwayman as well. A true knight of the road.
It would seem the world was far from black and white, and Caroline no longer wanted to see only the small corner she’d been born into. No, she wanted more. She wanted to explore the world, make her own decisions and come to her own conclusions. After all, in a world where a highwayman was a good man and a lord was the devil, what else was possible? What else did she not know?
And she wanted Pierce.
A small sigh escaped her as memories resurfaced of how he’d kissed her the night before. At first, she’d thought him furious with her presence at the masquerade because he deemed her incapable of taking care of herself. That, of course, had riled her. However, as the evening had progressed, Caroline had more and more become aware of his lingering gaze as well as the longing behind it and she’d come to realize that his anger had stemmed from an altogether different emotion: jealousy.
Taking another sip from her tea lest she sigh again, Caroline did her best to hide her smile behind the teacup in her hands. Still, her heart thudded wildly in her chest and her lips began to tingle with the memory of his kisses.
Would he attend the Hawthorne ball tonight? Would he find a way to kiss her again? Caroline desperately wished it would be so. And still, she knew that it would never be enough…not until she finally stood up and told him and the rest of the world what she wanted.
And what she wanted was freedom.
The freedom to choose.
To choose the life she wished to live and the man she’d come to love.
And she did love him.
As incapable as Caroline had been to say the words the night before, they now seemed the only things on her mind. Still hidden behind her teacup, her lips moved and silently whispered those three little words she ought to have said to Pierce. Caroline could only hope it was not too late, that she could still say them and have them received with the same joy she had felt at hearing his declaration.
Well, there was only one way to find out. She needed to step out into the world as