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forever safeguarded against her? What could she offer him in return? She knew nothing of the world and less of marriage. Surely there were other alternatives?
    Of course, she admitted at last to herself, she ought to have sought work as a governess as soon as Mr. Marble first explained things. It might have been possible if she had acted right away, even though she had no references and it would have guaranteed a bleak future. But she had waited too long, the chance slipping further and further away with each passing day.
    Now, instead, she had impulsively committed herself to a life with a man she didn’t know.
    He is lovely, yes, but he has secrets. Deep, deep, secrets—and a habit of keeping them. It’s hard to say, she thought ruefully, where bravery stops and folly starts.
    She fell into bed at last, only to dream of Trethaerin Cove. Edward stood far out on the rocks, dressed as Admiral Lord Nelson. He was smiling and waving to her as if he had a message. The roar of the surf drowned out his words.
    She thought about it when she awoke in the morning. Dear Edward! In truth she couldn’t really remember what he looked like.
    Yet she was prepared to marry Captain Richard Acton because Edward had worshipped him.
    * * *
    The next day they reached Exeter. At a major posting house Helena was installed in a private suite. She had a suspicion that it might be the best in the house. Perhaps Captain Acton was fairly well heeled, if he could afford such accommodation. It was more than extraordinary that she still didn’t know.
    After she finished her light meal, someone knocked on the door. She answered, then bit her lip. It was not the maid. Instead, Captain Acton—tall, elegant, rather too devastatingly good-looking—strode into the room.
    He sat down at the table opposite her.
    “Are you fatigued?” he asked simply.
    “Not particularly, why?”
    “Because I think we should marry right away. I set about procuring a special license before I came to Trethaerin.”
    Helena swallowed hard. Could she really go through with it?
    “Then you were very sure of yourself, sir.”
    He smiled. “Just a contingency. It didn’t have to be acted upon.”
    “But now you think that it should?”
    “What do you take me for? We can hardly continue to travel together unless we are man and wife.”
    “Of course. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.” Rising panic robbed her of breath. Her heart thundered. What was she about to do? “Captain Acton. If you wish to change your mind, it isn’t too late.”
    “You think I should abandon you in Exeter, after bringing you up from Cornwall alone?”
    “I was at school here. Perhaps they would give me a post as a teacher.”
    “When you turn up unchaperoned at the door? It won’t wash, my dear.”
    “But I wouldn’t hold you to such a Banbury arrangement as this marriage, Captain Acton, if you should wish otherwise.”
    He grinned. “I do not wish otherwise. I thought Edward had told you all of my faults? Changing my mind isn’t one of them; nonsense poems are.” His laugh seemed filled with a lighthearted good humor. It was better than any testimonial. “Good Lord! Relax, dear lady! I thought you learned from your cousin Edward that I was a renowned buffoon and completely harmless. Must I prove it? ‘There once was a soldier who sighed / To the lady he took as his bride / They will never believe—’ I can’t tell you the rest. Until after we’re married, of course.”
    Helena was forced to laugh. “You think I should marry you to hear the end of a shocking verse, Captain?”
    “It’s not sufficient incentive? Then how about this one? ‘The lady who came up from Bath—’ No, that’s even worse. I am lost to decent society. Unless you save me, Miss Trethaerin, I shall be forever confined to a soldier’s barren life.”
    “Then you are determined on this match, Captain?”
    Her panic unaccountably shifted, choking, as if to mock her earlier doubts. What if he should say