"No." He couldn't go back to the party right as the reveal occured. If their leaving didn't somehow offset the spell somehow, then Samuel would know what happened. Melody didn't know him well enough to say how her fiance would react, though she was sure it wouldn't be positive. Ben could be walking into a death trap for all she knew. Melody held onto his arm to stop him from leaving. He couldn't leave her alone in Arthur bloody Pettigrew's backyard.

Tomorrow's news might very well feature their flushed faces leaving the closet. Or worse, the details of what happened in the closet. Her thoughts raced as the panic grew. There were worse places in the world to be banished to than Canada. They could have to walk the streets of their very own hometown with the glares following them. At that point, impoverished, freezing conditions in Canada might be the better of the two options. Her hand tightened around his wrist, her eyes widening in realization at the answer.

It was so obvious.

Despite the knowledge that Ben would despise her in the morning, her demand came blurting from her lips anyway, "marry me." She couldn't be a hussy if she was his wife. He would despise her in the morning, he might even force her to annul it somehow. But, somewhere back in Wellingtonshire everyone she knew and cared about was possibly learning of her transgression. And it wasn't as though she could return and then flee again. Someone would spot her. She would be trapped, and in an even worse way than her marriage to Samuel would've left her.