Try as he might, there was no opportunity for Steve to be alone with Jane. She was being chaperoned at all times, given her delicate health. Steve knew she considered herself broken, but that had never been evident until now. There were times when he caught her looking at him, and he longed to soothe her, to wipe away that haunted look, to tell her how magical and wonderful she was.
But he couldn't. Bucky arrived, the noble suitor James Buchanan Barnes, who always wore his gloves, even indoors, even eating. Jane's cousin as starry-eyed over the dark-haired, blue eyed man, a minor noble but a seemingly wealthy one. James was unfailingly polite. He had arrived with a selection of books, chocolates, and flowers to gift.
In the course of a conversation over tea, he let it slip that a childhood friend had always called him 'Bucky'.