"You should know," he chuckled as he led his companion to the dance floor, "that I have vastly over-payed for this privilege. They did not have change, you see."

This was as transparent an excuse as a windowpane, for indeed no money was being directly collected as no gentleman worth the name would carry money on his person. Still, it was true enough that he had doubled Eloise Manwaring's listed price—it was for a good cause, after all—and the prospect of dancing with his one-time flame, the woman who in another life would have been his wife, had left him lightheaded. The light pressure of her hand on his forearm did not help, either.

Ten years and Eloise's being an ocean away had not, it seemed, dulled his feelings for her. This dance might have been a mistake after all.