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He hesitated, though he never used to around Millie. There was so much at stake with admitting his true feelings aloud. He might actually be forced to confront them.

“What is it?” she pressed.

Finally, Oliver relented. “When I say I may as well be ill, it is because I feel ill. As I...I believe I have fallen in love.”

Millie’s eyes rounded like tea saucers, then squinted as she smiled, barely restraining a squeal. “Have you really?”

“I do not know for certain, as I have never been in love before. But I do not know what else it could be. My heart aches when I’m apart from her, my soul yearns to be near her always, and my desire to be with anyone else has dissipated faster than snow on a warm day. So you see? I am either in love or ill in my head.”

Millie pulled her hands to her lips, her eyes glistening.

“Oh, please, do not cry here,” Oliver groaned. “You’ll draw too much attention to us.”

But Millie obviously did not care. “Oh, Oliver, I’m so pleased. I never thought I’d see the day. No one did. Who is she?”

“I do not know if I should speak her name aloud, as there are...complications.”

“What sort of complications?”

“Matters of status.”

“Oh, is she poor? Her family?”

“Quite.”

“Well, does that matter to you?”

“Not even the slightest degree.”

“Then why is that a complication?”

He glanced around him. “It is what Society will think.”

“Well, would your parents approve of her? Your sisters? Myself?” She ended the final question with a playful wink.

Oliver had thought for days about those very questions and already knew the answer. “You would all love her.”

“Then, I’m sorry, Oliver, but it sounds like you’re making excuses.”

“What excuses?”

“It sounds like you are simply afraid to commit after so long of not committing. To anything. In your entire life.”

“Thank you, Millie,” he said sarcastically.

She grinned. “You cannot say it is not true.”

“You’re right. I cannot. That is precisely what is wrong. How can I, after all these years, suddenly decide after nearly a fortnight that I want to be with someone for the rest of my life?”

Millie’s eyes softened as she smiled. “That is exactly when you know it is what you want. When it is something you never wanted before, and suddenly, that life sounds more appealing than anything.” Her eyes took on a faraway look as she continued. “Many say love is not possible in so short a time. I am here to say it is more possible than either of us might believe.”

Oliver could see the heavy thought behind her words. Was she speaking of her own personal experience in that regard? Had she fallen for someone at the house party, as well?

Before he could ask, she blinked, coming out of her stupor. “In the end, no one can decide what another feels. One must decipher his or her own feelings alone.”

“And how, pray tell, does one decipher such a strange phenomenon?”

“There is no way to know for certain.”