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When she saw him, the sun rose on her face. “André!” Caroline had grown beyond the pretty young girl he had fallen in love with -- she was still as beautiful, but more filled out, taller, more self-assured.

He’d seen her briefly several times since his return to France, but he hadn’t yet grown accustomed to how much she had blossomed. Instead of the barely contained rebellion that had always shown in her blue eyes, Caroline now carried a hard business sense, a sharp intelligence, and a resolve that had not been there before. She had fought hard to reach her place here, and she would not let anything budge her from her position.

“I am so glad to see you.” She came forward, stopping close to him.

“Bonjour, Madame Hatteras,” he said, though it hurt him to remind her of her husband, who still hadn’t returned from his polar voyage, even after four years. Nemo longed to kiss her, but instead forced himself to maintain his honor and his distance. After a brief, awkward pause, they shook hands like two business associates.

After taking over her father’s shipping offices, Caroline had dispensed with the flowery colors and frills she’d worn as a young woman. Now she wore a gray woolen suit and a broad hoop skirt; she had more important things to do than bow to social niceties and expectations. Since her marriage to Captain Hatteras, Caroline had used her time and her intelligence well, carving her world into the shape she preferred, rather than the other way around. Nemo was proud of her.

“Shall we go, André?” She slid her arm through his and allowed him to escort her out of the merchant offices. He felt a cold sweat break out down his back. “I’m sure Jules is already at the café waiting for us.” She turned a hard gaze to the clerks, who still seemed disconcerted at having a strong, independent woman as their boss. “The employees can do without me for a short while. They know who pays their salaries.”

Caroline’s father had died in 1849, mere weeks after a terrible altercation with his office manager. At the height of the argument, Monsieur Aronnax had fired the man on the spot; thereafter, indignant, he proceeded to work himself to the bone, refusing to hire a replacement.

Without revealing that she had secretly studied the workings of the shipping business for years, Caroline stepped in to assist her father as a surrogate office manager. Monsieur Aronnax brooded over how his supposed successor had betrayed him, while inadvertently continuing his daughter’s training. When he’d died suddenly, the master merchant had appointed no official replacement, which left the business operations in turmoil.

Caroline, bearing the name and fortune of Captain Hatteras, stepped in to take over the business. The daughter of Monsieur Aronnax marched into the offices with a vengeance, sat at her father’s big mahogany desk as if marking her territory, and began issuing orders. This had scandalized the conservative clerks, and she released two of them at once when they refused to follow her orders.

The former office manager, who had been discharged by her father, fought Caroline, insisting that a married daughter with an absent husband was not fit to run a great shipping company. He attempted to buy “Aronnax, Merchant” at a low price that would have devastated the family.

Caroline’s bereaved mother understood nothing of the work, had never bothered even to know the names or trade routes of the Aronnax ships. After a long, tear-filled evening Caroline had convinced her mother not to sell, and suggested that she herself should acquire the rights to the company, ostensibly in the name of Captain Hatteras. But there would still be a legal fight.

Because of her long friendship with Jules Verne, Caroline had gone to his father as an attorney to challenge the contested ownership. Instead, the dour man with bushy gray sideburns had shaken his head. “I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do, Madame Hatteras. A woman cannot run a business. You must sell.”

Frustrated, she realized that Monsieur