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“Good evening,” said the figure sitting on the sill.

Mariah started so violently she almost toppled to the floor. “Oh! You startled me!”

He dropped to the floor with barely a sound. How could a man his size move so quietly? “I apologize. It seems to be a failing of mine.”

Mariah took a deep breath to calm her thundering pulse, and then another. Just his voice could make her heart jump, let alone the shock of his appearance out of nowhere at the very moment she was wondering if he mightn’t be a figment of her imagination after all. “You must try to improve yourself in that,” she said, trying to be poised and serene, outwardly at least.

He laughed. “Must I? Or perhaps, mustn’t we all?”

“What do you mean?” She sat up straighter and discreetly pulled the blankets over her knees. This was the second time he had caught her in such undress.

“You startled me.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “How on earth⁠—?”

“By not screaming,” he said.

“Why would I do that? I hoped you would come.” So much for poise. She sounded as eager as a child. She bit her lip in consternation. “Even though I’m still vexed you won’t tell me your proper name.”

“Does it matter that much?”

She wanted to know so badly she almost said yes, but couldn’t. He might call her bluff and leave. “You must not trust me, if you won’t tell me,” she muttered.

“Ah.” He nodded. “Obviously I do, to keep visiting you this way. What would my name change?”

“It’s improper for me to call you by your Christian name.”

“Is it?” Still shrouded by darkness, he pulled out her dressing table chair and straddled it backward, a very inelegant pose, and folded his arms across the top of the back. “More improper than wishing I would come again?”

“But you address me as Lady Mariah,” she said, ignoring his pointed question. “I can hardly call you...” She hesitated. “I should not call you Harry when you address me so formally.”

“I like you to call me Harry, Mariah.” His voice dropped on her name, making it sound even more intimate.

Her heart leaped again, and she felt a bit breathless. “Why is that?”

“If we must mind that rule of propriety, then why not others? It will be one rapid descent from cordiality to stiff formality. It will start with correct address, and then soon we shall be sitting uncomfortably upright in the drawing room, drinking tea neither of us wants, discussing the weather with great civility and a complete lack of wit. If that is your desire...” He trailed off as she tried to stifle her laugh.

“Of course not!”

“That is a great relief,” he said. “I would be hard-pressed to discuss this weather in civil terms.”

This time she did laugh out loud. “Then I suppose we must be content with this very odd and improper conversation.”

“Indeed we must, Mariah.”

Again a little shiver rippled over her skin at the way he said her name. “How did you know who I am?” she asked on impulse. “It’s unfair that you know far more about me than I know about you.”

“It is.”

Hope rose. “May I light my candle, then?”

“Please don’t.”

She exhaled in frustration. “Why do you come to see me if you can’t actually see me?”

“Who said I can’t see you?”

“I can’t see you!”