If James hadn't been holding on to her sash, she probably would have grabbed the damned book and heaved it out the window-and then pushed him right along after it.

Elizabeth felt his eyes on her face, burning into her skin, and when she looked up at him, she realized that he had followed her gaze to Mrs. Seeton's book.

"Don't say anything," she whispered, painfully aware of the presence of the Ravenscrofts. “Please don't mortify me like that."

James nodded curtly, and Elizabeth felt her entire body go limp with relief. She didn't know Blake, and she hardly knew Caroline, but she couldn't bear for them to know she'd been so pathetic as to turn to a guidebook to find a husband.

Blake shut the library door behind him, then looked up at the room's occupants with a blank expression. "Er," he said, his eyes darting back and forth between Elizabeth and James, "would you like us to leave?"

"Yes," James bit off.

"No!" Elizabeth practically yelled.

"I think we should go," Blake said to his wife.

"Elizabeth wants us to stay," Caroline pointed out, "and we can't leave her here alone with him."

"It wouldn't be proper," Elizabeth hastened to add. She didn't want to be alone with James. If they were alone, he would wear her down, make her forget her anger. He'd use soft words and gentle touches, and she'd lose sight of what was true and what was right. She knew he had that power, and she hated herself for it.

"I think we're well past propriety," James retorted.

Caroline sank against the edge of a table. "Oh, dear."

Blake gave her an amused glance. "Since when have you been so concerned with propriety?"

"Since- Oh, be quiet." And then, in a hushed voice she added, "Don't you want them to marry?"

"I didn't even know she existed until ten minutes ago."

"I'm not going to marry him," Elizabeth declared, trying not to notice that her voice broke on her words. "And I'd appreciate it if the two of you would not speak as if I weren't in the room."

Caroline's eyes slid to the floor. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I hate it when people do that to me."

"I want to go home," Elizabeth said yet again.

"I know, dear," Caroline murmured, "but we really should sort this out, and-"

Someone started banging on the door.

"Go away," Blake yelled.

"You'll feel much better in the morning if we sort this out now," Caroline continued. "I promise you that-"

"QUIET!"

James's voice shook the room with so much power that Elizabeth sat down. Unfortunately, his hand was still wrapped around her sash, so she found herself gasping for air as it cut into her ribs. "James," she wheezed, "let go."

He did, although probably more out of his desire to shake his fist at everyone than anything else. "For the love of God," he thundered, "how is a man meant to think with all of this noise? Can we possibly conduct a single conversation? Just one, that we all may follow?"

"Actually," Caroline put in, probably unwisely, "if one wants to place a fine point upon it, we were discussing a single topic. Of course we were all talking at once-"

Her husband yanked her to his side with enough authority to force out a little yelp. She made no sound after that.

"I need to speak with Elizabeth," James said. "Alone."

Elizabeth's response was sure and swift. "No."

Blake started walking toward the door, dragging Caroline after him. "It's time we left, darling."

"We can't leave her here against her will/' Caroline protested. "It isn't right, and in all conscience, I cannot-''

"He's not going to hurt her," Blake interrupted.

But Caroline just hooked one of her feet around the leg of a table. "I'm not leaving her," she ground out.

Elizabeth mouthed a heartfelt “thank you'' from across the room.

"Blake…" James said, flicking his eyes over at Caroline, who had thrown her orange pumpkin arms around a wing chair.

Blake shrugged. "You'll soon learn, James, that there are times one just can't argue with one's wife."

"Well, he can learn that with some other wife," Elizabeth declared, "because I'm not marrying him."

"Fine!" James exploded, waving an angry arm at Blake and Caroline. "Stay and listen. You're likely to listen against the door, anyway. And as for you…" He turned his furious gaze on Elizabeth. "You will listen to me and you will marry me."

"See?" Caroline whispered to Blake. "I knew he'd come around and let us stay."

James turned slowly around, his neck held so tightly that his jaw was shaking. "Ravenscroft," he said to Blake, his voice dangerously controlled, "don't you ever get the urge to strangle her?"

"Oh, all the time," Blake said cheerfully. "But for the most part, I'm glad she married me instead of you."

"What?" Elizabeth screeched. "He asked her to marry him?" Her head snapped back and forth for several seconds before she managed to stop moving and fix her eyes on Caroline. "He asked you to marry him?"

"Yes," Caroline replied with a dismissive shrug. "But he wasn't serious."

Elizabeth turned hard eyes to James. “Are you in the habit of extending insincere marriage proposals?''

James turned even harder eyes to Caroline. "You are not improving the situation."

Caroline turned limpid eyes to her husband.

"Don't look to me for help," he said.

"He would have married me if I'd said yes," Caroline explained with a loud sigh. "But he only asked to goad Blake into proposing. It was really quite thoughtful of him. He'll make you a wonderful husband, Elizabeth. I promise."

Elizabeth stared at the three of them in disbelief. Watching them interact was exhausting.

"We're confusing you, aren't we?" Caroline asked.

Elizabeth was quite without words.

"It's really a rather remarkable story," Blake said with a shrug. "I'd write a book about it, except no one would believe me."

"Do you think?" Caroline asked, her eyes lighting with delight. "What would you call it?"

"Not sure," Blake said, scratching his chin. "Perhaps something about catching oneself an heiress."

James shoved his furious face up close to Blake. “Why not HOW TO DRIVE YOUR FRIENDS COMPLETELY AND IRREVOCABLY INSANE?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "You're all mad. I'm sure of it."

Blake shrugged. "I'm sure of it half the time, too."

"May I please have a word with Elizabeth?" James snapped.

"So sorry," Blake said in a voice that was clearly designed to annoy. "I'd quite forgotten why we were here."

James sank his left hand into the hair right above his forehead and pulled; it seemed the only way to keep from wrapping his hand around Blake's neck. "I'm starting to realize,'' he growled, “why courtships are best conducted in private."

Blake raised a brow. "Meaning?"

"Meaning that you have ruined everything."

"Why?" Elizabeth countered. "Because he inadvertently revealed your identity?"

"I was going to tell you everything tomorrow."

"I don't believe you."

"I don't care if you believe me!" James shouted. "It's the truth."

"Pardon my interruption," Caroline put in, "but shouldn't you care if she believes you? After all, you did ask her to be your wife."

James started to shake, desperate to strangle someone in the room but not certain with whom he was the most furious. There was Blake, with his mocking stares; Caroline, who had to be the meddlingist woman in all creation; and Elizabeth…

Elizabeth. Yes, she had to be the one he really wanted to light into, because just the thought of her name made his temperature rise by several degrees. And this was not due merely to passion.

He was furious. Bone-shaking, teeth-rattling, muscles-about-to-jump-from-his-skin furious. And his three current companions clearly did not realize what danger they were courting each time they cracked another asinine joke.

"I am going to speak now," he said, keeping his voice painfully slow and steady. "And the person who interrupts me will be tossed out the window. Is that clear?''

No one said anything.

"Is that clear?"

"I thought you wanted us to be quiet," Blake said.

Which turned out to be all the incentive Caroline needed to open her mouth and say, "Do you think he realizes that the window isn't open?"

Elizabeth clapped her hand over her mouth. James glared at her. God help her if she laughed.

He drew a deep breath and stared hard into her blue eyes. "I did not tell you who I was because I was called here to investigate the blackmail of my aunt."

"Someone is blackmailing your aunt?" Caroline breathed.

"Good God!" Blake exclaimed. "The cretin must have a death wish." He looked over at Elizabeth. "I, for one, am terrified by the old dragon."

James looked at the Ravenscrofts, then looked markedly at the window, then looked back at Elizabeth. "It would not have been prudent to inform you of my true purposes here at Danbury House, because, if you recall, you were the prime suspect."

"You suspected Elizabeth?" Caroline interrupted. "Are you completely insane?"

"He did," Elizabeth affirmed. "And he is. Insane, I mean."

James took a steadying breath. He was about two steps away from spontaneous combustion. "I quickly cleared Elizabeth of suspicion," he ground out.

"That's when you should have told me who you were," Elizabeth said. "Before-" She cut herself off and stared purposefully at the ground.

"Before what?" Caroline asked.

"The window, my dear," Blake said, patting his wife on the arm. "Remember the window."

She nodded and turned back to James and Elizabeth, her expression expectant.

James purposefully ignored her, focusing his entire being on Elizabeth. She was sitting in a chair, her back ramrod straight, and her face looked so tense he thought that the merest caress might cause her to shatter. He tried to remember what she'd looked like just an hour earlier, flushed with passion and delight. To his great horror, he could not.