New York City, New York

1867

Nora didn't know how the air could be so cold when not even a flake of snow had yet to fall. Another gust of wind made her clutch her hat even closer to her head, and she wrapped her arm around her waist, drawing her ivy green cloak tightly around her.

Nora huddled up to the warm body next to her, and her companion looked down his nose at her. They were close enough that she could see the freckles upon his face, dotting the cheeks that had turned pink from the chill.

"You know," Oliver drawled. "We needn't be sitting here if you're too cold. I shall take you home whenever you like."

"It isn't that cold," Nora lied through her chattering teeth.

Oliver rolled his eyes in response. "I don't even know why you wished to see the carriage parade today. It isn't as if we haven't seen loads of carriages in our lives."

They were sitting upon a wooden bench in Central Park, waiting for the daily parade of vehicles that would make its way through the green space. Occasionally, Nora enjoyed coming to see it. Oliver was right in that it wasn't anything new or exciting; it was more the tradition of it that appealed to her.

"Would you like to ice skate instead?" Nora asked, thinking that the movement would help thaw her body.

"You're already frozen solid, and now you wish to slide around on ice?" Oliver gave her a skeptical look.

"It isn't like I would be touching the ice at all, Oliver," Nora pointed out, matching the incredulity of his expression with the tone in her voice.

"Yes, that is until you fall," Oliver quickly replied, his mouth curving upwards with a knowing smile.

Nora's mouth popped open with an indignant noise. "Do you mean to say that I am not graceful on skates?"

"Are you?" Oliver asked, still smiling.

Her mouth clamped back together, and she admitted, "No." Nora sighed before adding, "Fine, let us leave."

"Oh, thank god."

Nora threw her hands up, exasperated, as she stood from the bench and began walking in the direction of their neighborhood. "If you didn't want to go to the carriage parade, you should have said so!"

Oliver fell into stride next to her and looped his arm into the crook of her elbow. "I was quite fine with going to the carriage parade," he commented. "Until I realized how damn cold it was."

Nora found herself rolling her eyes before the two of them fell into a comfortable silence. Talking was too challenging through the chattering of her teeth, anyway. Instead, Nora turned her attention to the sights around her.

Despite the chill, many other park-goers were still enjoying the winter activities, though they were just as bundled in winter clothing as Nora and Oliver. She watched as a smartly-dressed couple—well, she assumed they were a couple—laced up their ice skates near the edge of the rink. They were smiling shyly at each other, and Nora wondered if they were newly married. She didn't see a chaperone lurking nearby to keep sights on them, and so it appeared as though they were.

Although Nora would be the first to admit that looks could be deceiving, especially considering the way she was marching through the park on Oliver's arm.

As she tore her eyes away from the couple at the rink, Nora couldn't help her mind from wandering to Felix. She hadn't heard anything since she had sent her last letter, and she was anxious to know how he would react.

As she and Oliver neared the edge of the park, Nora felt herself beginning to warm due to their brisk pace, if only slightly. Luckily, the neighborhood where they both lived was only another ten minutes walk from there. Oliver resided with his mother and father in a fashionable house merely two blocks from the Williams.

When Oliver finally led Nora up the stairs of the stately brownstone that she called home, Nora held her breath. She hoped that her mother would still be entertaining Mrs. Riley and would pay them no attention. But upon entering through the front door, it instantly appeared that was not the case.

"Elinor Williams." Her mother's sharp voice greeted them as soon as they stepped over the threshold.

"Oh, Mrs. Williams!" Oliver exclaimed, his feigned enthusiasm almost too much for Nora to bear without laughing. "How lovely to see you. Elinor was just telling me about the newly styled gown you were trying. I must say that you wear it expertly."

Nora's mother was momentarily distracted by the flattery and then shook her head of it. "Why, thank you, Mr. Rockwell," she said briskly before turning to Nora. "You, my daughter, have received a letter of which I am curious to know the contents."

That piqued Nora's curiosity, and she glanced at the note in her mother's hand to see Felix's neat handwriting on the envelope. Her stomach involuntarily began to tie itself in knots.

Despite knowing the answer, she asked sweetly, "Who is it from, mother?"

Nora couldn't remember the last time she had seen her mother smile so widely in response to a simple question. "It is from that Englishman," she said, gleaming. It was a mischievous look that didn't quite sit well with Nora.

She ignored the pointed look that Oliver was giving her. "Oh my! What a surprise this is, mother. I cannot imagine what he would be writing me about."

She was quite awful at lying. But fortunately, her untruths went unnoticed, masked by her mother's excitement.

"The return address says that he is in Boston!" her mother trilled, and Nora tried not to groan. But before Nora could say anything, her mother added, "We must invite him to visit at once!"

"Mother," she said carefully. "We do not even know why he is in America. He may not be able to travel to New York. We should not get ahead of ourselves."

Nora was shocked to see her mother roll her eyes. She would never have imagined that Mrs. Williams would get caught in such an uncouth act as eye-rolling. "I cannot see why else he would be writing to you from Boston if he did not wish to get in touch while he was here," her mother replied.

Oliver took the opportunity to jump in. "Yes, why else indeed Mrs. Williams," he drawled as he continued to look at Nora, his expression growing amused.

"And this is the perfect opportunity to grow the relationship between you and his lordship," her mother added, and Nora could have expired on the spot. This was precisely the reason that Nora hadn't written to Felix that she wished to see him. If she invited him to visit, her mother would be hoovering over them the entire visit, and if the crazed woman caught any scent of the possibility of a match, she would insist upon their marriage.

But Mrs. Williams didn't realize that while they might be a match in love, there was just no possibility of a match in marriage. Nora still couldn't imagine that Felix would be permitted to marry an average American girl.

Despite her relatively mundane response to Felix's last letter, Nora had still been considering traveling to Boston to see him. She just hadn't figured out how to make the trip without her mother knowing. And now that seemed near impossible.

Nora reached out to grab the letter from her mother before the woman could open it herself. She went to break the seal and then paused as she realized that her mother was breathing down her neck.

Oliver clapped his hands loudly. "I daresay, Mrs. Williams, this seems to be a conversation better suited for the drawing-room. Wouldn't you say? I have yet to even take off my overcoat, and we are speaking of marital arrangements in the front entry! We shall all catch a chill, and then our Felix will not be able to visit. And how dreadful might that be."

"No one said anything about marital arrangements, Oliver," Nora ground through her teeth, but Oliver was already ushering her disgruntled mother through the double doors that led to the drawing-room. Nora inwardly cursed him for bringing up the possibility of marriage, even though he had made up for it by getting her mother's prying eyes away from her.

As soon as both of them had disappeared from view, Nora hastily opened the letter.

Dear Nora,

My stay at the Tremont Hotel has indeed been pleasurable. The accommodations here are truly splendid. The sea journey was not as enjoyable as you are correct in that I do not always handle that type of travel well. I am sorry to hear that New York is just as bleak as Boston in that the snow has not fallen. Never fear, Nora, it must be coming soon.

I must address you candidly, now. You still have not told me why you fled from England. Now I am here in America, and you continue to seem uninterested in my presence, though I am less than a day's travel from your home. Tell me, Nora. Have I done something wrong? Is it because of what occurred between us that night? You must know what I speak of. Again, I am asking you for the truth.

Yours always,

Felix

Oh, hell. He had finally brought it up. Nora was hoping that they wouldn't have to speak of what had happened before she'd left for America.

She snapped her head up just in time to see her mother's head pop around the door frame. No matter what, she couldn't let that meddling woman read this. And so when her mother asked her what the letter read, Nora exclaimed the first thing that she knew would placate the matron. "He says he would like to come to visit!"

"Oh splendid!" Her mother beamed widely in response.

"Did he now?" Oliver asked, with one brow raised as he popped up behind Nora's mother.

"Certainly," Nora said with a weak smile before glancing down at the parchment in her fingers.

She wanted to scream inwardly, for more than one reason. But mostly because Felix had asked if he had done something wrong, and of course he had done nothing even remotely of the sort.

Oh, dear. 

What was she going to say to him now?