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time in which to become properly reacquainted.
    Having completed their progress, they resumed their places in the colonnade while the music faded. He bowed and she curtsied. When he offered her his arm and asked if she would care for some refreshment, she accepted, then proceeded to ponder the awkwardness between them while she sipped her champagne.
    There was no doubt that she was a very different woman than the one he’d left behind, and since that was the case, he might be a very different man than the one she’d last seen. Four years could have a dramatic effect on a person, depending on their experiences during that time, and he had not only been to war but had lost his brother as well. It would have been ridiculous for either one of them to expect the other to have remained unchanged.
    Accepting a dance with a gentleman who’d just offered, Katherine excused herself to Lucien and returned to the dance floor with her new partner. She hoped that she and Lucien could find a means by which to rebuild the closeness they’d once shared, though she expected that doing so would take time and effort on both their parts. One thing was for certain—she could never allow him to know what she’d been through in his absence. Telling him would only give rise to unnecessary arguments filled with anger and pain—emotions she had no desire to stir up again.

 
    Chapter 3

    L ucien watched from the sidelines while Katherine danced a quadrille. He was painfully aware of the age-old possessiveness that gripped him, especially when she was in the company of another man. He took a lengthy sip of his champagne. It had been both wonderful and torturous to dance with her, the mere touch of her hand heating him deep within, even though she wore gloves. Keeping his true feelings for her at bay had not been an easy task. Indeed, it had been not only frustrating but also harder than ever before—a true effort in discipline. Or perhaps he’d just forgotten with time how easily she affected him. Perhaps it had always been this difficult. He was damned if he knew.
    Katherine laughed in response to something her partner said, and Lucien took another sip of his drink, fighting the urge to storm out onto the dance floor and claim her as his own. He had to be patient with her and progress slowly if he was to open her mind to the idea of sharing her future with him, for he knew all too well that she had never viewed him as anything more than a dear friend and brother-figure—the boy who’d taught her how to skip stones across the lake and whistle with a blade of grass. Lucien winced. He had fond memories of those days gone by, but he’d also never given Katherine a reason to consider him romantically, perhaps because he’d thought she deserved better. As a second son, he had not been able to offer her the title that she, as the daughter of a baronet, ought to have. This feeling had only been amplified when he’d overheard their mothers talking one day over tea. They’d been discussing the coming Season when Dame Bethany had distinctly said, “It would be such a feather in Katherine’s cap if she could land a peer.”
    “I must confess that I’ve always liked the idea of her marrying one of my boys,” his own mother had said with careful deliberation.
    “Oh! Do you really suppose Lord Leveen might consider making her his viscountess? After all, she’s quite a bit younger than him.”
    “Actually, I was thinking of his brother, Lucien. He’s always seemed very fond of her, so I’m sure he’d treat her well.”
    “Er . . . yes, of course. I suppose that might be an option as well.” In the event that all else fails, Lucien had imagined her thinking. “Didn’t he just buy a commission in the army, though? I have to tell you, Lady Roxberry, that as much as I like Lucien, he cannot offer her nearly as much security as a man of Lord Crossby’s stature, for instance, can.”
    Lucien hadn’t stayed to hear the remainder of what had