Ben was nodding before she’d even finished the offer. “Thanks, yeah. Thank you.” He was by now convinced that Melody wasn’t in the main ballroom, and Miss Montague seemed like she’d been gone long enough to be sure that Melody wasn’t in the retiring rooms, too, which meant there was nothing to be gained by staying. The only thing his continued presence in the ballroom would do was alert more people to his predicament, and he didn’t want that — especially when there was still a chance that nothing was wrong at all. Ben still hadn’t come up with any viable explanations for why Melody would have disappeared from the ball without so much as a word, especially since he hadn’t been particularly difficult to find at any point throughout the night, but he was still holding on to the hope that there was one, somewhere.

That, or Melody was ill and had gone home intending to send him a note, but she’d passed out somewhere before she could manage it. Or something had happened that had put them back at odds with each other and she’d stormed off, somehow without his realizing they were even fighting again. Or — he didn’t know. Nothing that was coming to mind was good.

“I’m sure she just went home early,” he said, though he was not at all sure of this. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Thank you.”

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