It's a surprise, an actual surprise, to suddenly be hugged. He doesn't know if he's ever been hugged quite this way before. Part of him tries to feel offended, because he doesn't want her pity, but he knows that it isn't pity, it's compassion, and it's Caroline, so he hushes that part of him, and gets over his surprise to hug her back, like it isn't a completely foreign thing to him, being hugged so genuinely. A few seconds more, and he turns his head slightly so that he's breathing against her neck, smelling the smell that is just her because there's no perfume for her to put on, here, and he kisses her neck softly, thankfully, because he can't put any of it into words, or he won't.

Then she pulls back and kisses him, and nods, and he nods back, because he knows that she knows, her father, his brother, and they go back to dancing, and he still has no words to say.