“It must be so difficult to juggle so many invitations,” Poppy said with genuine sympathy. She’d always been an ardent supporter.

“Thank you, Poppy. No one but you really cares how taxing it all is for me.”

She walked into the drawing room and paused to look around. The room, as familiar to her as her own home, was just as Eliza had left it. There were two well-worn armchairs in the window, with stacks of books and gazettes on a table between them. A settee with lumpy seating from years of use was in the middle of the room. Clocks in various stages of repair sat on the mantel—Eliza had a peculiar hobby of repairing them. Near the door was a small desk stacked with papers and ledgers. The judge’s chair was before the hearth, and next to it, a large basket of yarn on the floor, into which the black cat, Pris, had wedged himself today. The judge liked to knit. It was the thing he could do by feel.

Hollis was here, standing on a footstool at the bookshelves that lined one wall, and appeared to be attempting to tidy them up. Caroline didn’t think it was possible to tidy a room as cluttered as this, but she respected Hollis’s willingness to try.

“Is that Caroline?” the judge asked, putting down his knitting, training his sightless eyes to the middle of the room.

“Yes, Your Honor! It is me, in all my glory, which, today, I don’t mind saying, is quite incomparable,” Caroline said as she sailed across the room and bent to kiss his cheek. “Have you missed me?”

“Almost as much as I miss dear Eliza,” he said, and smiled as he patted her cheek with his hand. “Hollis tells me you have been entertaining a prince of your own.”

“Entertaining him! Certainly not. Avoiding him.” Caroline laughed as she reached for Hollis’s hand to squeeze it.

“Ha!” Hollis said. “Every time I see you you’ve had some encounter with him that you can hardly keep to yourself.”

“I can’t deny it,” Caroline admitted, and ungracefully fell onto her back on the settee, nestling her head against a faded pillow on one end, and stacking her feet on the arm of the settee at the opposite end, letting them fall naturally to the side. “This summer has been a storm of activity, I tell you. I’m exhausted from it all.”

Hollis hopped down from the stool and settled on the floor beside Caroline. “So? What news have you brought us today?”

“Well, I’ve gone and made a terrible mess of things for Beck.”

Hollis laughed with delight. “How grand! I am forever amused when things have been made a terrible mess for Beck.”

“Hollis, don’t be unkind,” the judge said. He’d resumed his knitting, and the cat was trying to catch the line of yarn that went up to his needles. “Beckett Hawke has been very good to you.”

Hollis glanced heavenward. “Yes, of course he has, but that does not change the fundamental fact that he is Beck.”

“Beck wasn’t even there when I made the mess. He’s gone to Four Corners to race the horse he brought from Alucia. Did I tell you? I heard him say he’d wagered one hundred pounds. Can you imagine?”

“I cannot,” the judge said.

“Poppy!” Hollis called out. “Will you bring us some tea, darling?”

They all heard Poppy’s indiscernible reply from some other part of the house.

“All right, tell us,” Hollis urged her.

Caroline turned onto her side and propped her head onto her palm. “Since we returned from Alucia, Beck is determined to see me married. I told him that no one would court me, not really, as I’ve turned down every eligible gentleman in London. Haven’t I, Hollis?”

“I wouldn’t say all of them.”

“Do you know what my brother did? He whispered the size of my dowry to his friends, and suddenly every gentleman with a debt has come to call.”

The judge laughed. “That’s one way to accomplish it.”

Poppy banged into the room with a caddy which carried a tarnished tea service. “All at the ready,” she announced. “Cook has made a new batch of gooseberry jam.”

“Oh, I’ll have some,” the judge said.

“Serve the tea, darling, then take your own and sit,” Hollis said. “Caro is about to tell us all how she’s fended off an unprecedented number of suitors.”

“Do tell!” Poppy said eagerly.

Caroline sat up while Poppy served tea, stroking Pris, the cat, who had made his way onto her lap. And then she proceeded to regale the Tricklebanks about the night she had two gentlemen callers and a third unexpected one, and how they’d all trooped off to the Debridge supper, where she had announced she wanted a suitor to find his interest in her, and not the size of her dowry.

“My God, you didn’t,” Hollis said with an expression that could be construed as either horrified or admiring.

“I did. Why not? It was true and everyone knew it, including the peacock Katherine Maugham. And do you know the only person who was not shocked by what I said?”

“Who?” Hollis asked.

“Prince Leopold, that’s who. He laughed.”

Hollis giggled. “Papa, I wish you could see how sparkly Caro is just now. At every mention of the prince, another spark shoots right off of her,” she said, squeezing Caroline’s knee. “She’s in love with him.”

Poppy gasped. “Another royal wedding!”

“Good Lord, not another one,” the judge moaned.

“Rest assured there won’t be another one,” Caroline said confidently, even if the mention of it sent a wave of shivers down her spine, just like those she’d felt at Eliza’s wedding.

“Why not?” Hollis asked. “It’s a lovely fairy tale dream to be an ordinary person and be swept off your feet by a true prince.”

“It is indeed a fairy tale, which is precisely why nothing will ever come of it. But I don’t mind, really. It’s been quite a lot of fun, and honestly, the reality hasn’t kept me from kissing him.”

Poppy and Hollis squealed at the same time.

“Heaven help you, Caroline Hawke!” the judge said disapprovingly over their shrieks of delight. “That sort of talk will see you ostracized from the very society you love to rule!”

Caroline laughed. “I haven’t yet gone out into the square and announced it, Your Honor. And really, is it so terrible? Men and women do share kisses. I’ve seen it happen time and again. I saw Lady Munro kiss Mr. Richard Williams at Kew Gardens just before we departed for Helenamar.”

“What? And you’re only telling me this now?” Hollis exclaimed.

“My point, if you will hear it, is that sort of affection should be reserved for husband and wife,” the judge said sternly. “Or at the very least, if you cannot contain your lust until you are married, for the gentleman who is to be your husband. What would Lord Hawke say to this?”

“He’d lock me away. For God’s sake, we must all swear to never tell him!” Caroline said, laughing.

“But...but aren’t you concerned about the maids, Caro?” Hollis asked.

“What maids?” the judge asked.

“Prince Leopold is notorious for a rather untoward preference for housemaids.”

“What?” Poppy exclaimed.

Hollis sighed. “Does no one in this house read my gazette? Did you not hear what happened in Arundel with the Norfolk maid?”

“No! Tell us!” Poppy said, inching forward on her seat.

“Hollis! You make it sound dreadful,” Caroline said. “The prince explained it to me. Norfolk was the one who was behaving badly. He was visiting the poor thing at night, if you take my meaning, and showering her with the sort of affections she did not want. And the prince, well...he helped her to escape. She was a Weslorian and I think he felt obliged.”

“Why would he feel obliged to help a Weslorian?” the judge asked.

“Well...” Caroline started, but paused. She didn’t quite know why.

“What did he do with her?” Hollis asked.

“What do you mean?”

“If he helped her to escape, what did he do with her? Where is she now?”

Caroline didn’t know the answer to this, either. She’d been so ready to accept his explanation so she’d not have to think poorly of him. “I...I really don’t know.” Her sparkle was rapidly dimming. What had he done with her? And the other one?

“Caro, you’d do well to keep your distance. Who knows what the man is about, really,” the judge cautioned her.

“Don’t look so distressed, darling. I didn’t mean to intrude on your joy in being the one and only Caroline Hawke,” Hollis said cheerfully. “Tell us, what’s next on your social calendar?”

“Oh, the, ah...the Pennybacker ball next week.” At the mention of the ball, she rallied out of her disappointment. “I have a new dress. The blue one, Hollis, remember?”

“It’s beautiful. I intend to wear the same dress I wore to Eliza’s ball—Oh! I nearly forgot. We’ve a letter from Eliza.” She went to the desk to fetch it and handed it to Caroline to read.

My dearest beloveds, I hope this letter finds you well and in good health. Papa, have you taken the willow-bark tea, and did it help the pain in your fingers? The queen swears it has reversed her own pain and sends her best wishes for you.

My husband and I have been at Tannymeade long enough that it is beginning to feel a bit like home. I have a dog now, a very big one. His head comes just under my hand, and there he keeps it most of the day. I’ve named him Bru, which in Alucian means loyal. It is quite beautiful here, but I will confess the ocean smells terribly briny in the afternoons and I have asked for the windows to be shut against the stench. It leaves us feeling too warm, but my prince has assured me that when the season turns to autumn, the smell will dissipate. Speaking of my husband, we’ve been trying diligently for an heir, and with God’s blessing, we might report happy news very soon.

News has reached us of Prince Leopold’s bad behavior, and the duke frets over him most days. He shall see his brother soon enough, I expect, as he said the king has sent word he is to return to Alucia at once.