"They'll be back in time for the officers' ball, of course," she remarked, mostly to join in the conversation. Caleb gave her a look of good-natured warning. "It won't matter whether they are or not. You're saving every dance for me, Miss Chalmers." Lily's cheeks warmed at the intimacy of his tone. One would have thought that Mrs. Tibbet wasn't even there, the way he talked. "I imagine I can dance with whomever I like," she said, to put Caleb in his place. He wouldn't be put. "As long as that whomever is me," he responded. In that moment it seemed to Lily that lightning had crept out of the sunny spring sky to crackle in the room. She didn't speak, because she knew Caleb would have an answer for anything she said. He could be so dreadfully bossy. Just"