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From his point of view, he’d offered her everything—his name, his wealth, his family—and in turn, she could give him nothing. And Beatrice didn’t think she could live with herself owing him this much.

Nevertheless, she had no doubt bruised his ego. And for gentlemen, it was, perhaps, the biggest wound.

He handed her into the carriage and sat across from her, staring out of the window. No friendly banter, no more smiles. She wished she could turn back time and go back to the moment she’d decided she wanted to experience passion. If they hadn’t kissed, if they hadn’t spent those blissful moments together, perhaps…

No.

She shook her head. Those were the most cherished moments of her life. And she would never want to wish them away. It made things uncomfortable between Adam and her, but the damage was reparable. They still had the entire night to look forward to.

She cleared her throat. “Do you actually believe your watch is going to be displayed at the auction tonight?”

Adam looked at her under his furrowed brows, then his expression cleared, and he shook his head. “No. I don’t. To tell you the truth, I already made peace with never seeing it again.”

Beatrice grimaced. “I am sorry.”

His smile turned wistful. “Do not be. It’s just an item. The love I felt for my brother and my grandfather is not going to disappear just because I don’t have that watch on me.”

“Still, it meant a lot to you.”

He nodded. “It did. But losing that watch… It created more memories for me to cherish.”

The breath hitched in Beatrice’s lungs, and she was unable to say anything to that. They stared at each other for one long moment before Adam finally broke the contact.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I brought you something.” He dipped his hand into his front coat pocket and took something out, Beatrice couldn’t see what it was in the dimly lit carriage.

“What is it?” She extended her arm.

He placed the object onto her palm, and she brought it closer to her face.

“It’s your mask,” he said.

Beatrice unwrapped the item in awe. It was indeed her white silk mask with golden thread ornaments! “My mask! Where did you find it?”

There was a brief pause as Adam shifted in his seat. He cleared his throat. “I um… You left it in the carriage the night of the masquerade. I found it on my way home.”

“And…” Beatrice wrinkled her brows. “You forgot to give it back?”

Adam crossed his arms over his chest, his knee jerking in a familiar nervous fashion. “At first.”

Something unfurled and shifted in Beatrice’s stomach, and warmth spread all over her body. He’d kept it. On purpose!

He paused the jerking of his knee and pointed at the mask. “I knew you were going to need it tonight, so I made a slight modification to its design.”

Beatrice stared at him. “Modification?”

“Yes, I went to the local seamstress, brought her spectacle frames similar to yours, and asked her to create a couple of loops so it would be easy for you to tie this mask atop your spectacles.” He shifted in his seat nervously as he spoke. It was evident that this confession wasn’t easy for him to share.

Had he done it before the night at the Boodle’s Club or after? Had he taken the care to make her this thoughtful gift despite her rejection of his proposal?

The gesture was too sweet no matter where it came from.

And why had she not thought about that herself? She took off her spectacles to try and loop the mask through the temples, except that without her spectacles, everything was blurry in the darkness of the carriage.

“Here, let me.”

Adam’s warm gloved fingers enveloped her hands, and he gently took both the mask and spectacles from her. After a few moments, he leaned forward and pushed the spectacles back onto the bridge of her nose.

It wasn’t a perfect fit, in the sense that her range of view wasn’t what she was used to—the mask covered parts of the lens—but it was still a lot better than being without her spectacles.