Dearest William,

I dream of becoming a singer but sadly I do not have the talent for music.

You ought to hear my pianoforte skills.

You might never want to use your ears again.

Your friend,

Lady Weis

*****

"Let go of her arms and take a step back," Nicholas carefully gritted through his teeth.

Wakefield did not do as was told but Ysabella pushed him away to escape.

"Step further away, Wakefield," Ralph added.

"Just a bit more," Maxwell droned.

Wakefield was rooted on the ground.

"Now, Ysa," said Nicholas, "come here."

Wakefield opened his mouth to speak but Emma had stepped forward and over the quiet whispers of the crowd behind them, she reached for Ysabella.

Ysabella started forward but Wakefield grabbed her hand. He could not let her go. Not now, please, his mind begged. He feared that if she left he would never see her again.

"Let go of her, Wakefield," Ralph warned.

"It is best if you take her home," was Aurora's concerned voice.

Emma stiffened and whirled to face Aurora with fury. "No one was talking to you, Aurora."

"But—"

"Do not pretend as though you are still our friend," Emma gritted through her teeth, her entire form nearly on the edge of exploding.

"Emma, please, this is not the time," Ysabella begged, tugging free from Wakefield's hold but he held on.

He was confused, utterly so, but he did not want to let her go.

"Whatever do you mean, Emma?" Aurora asked with a shaky laugh. Everyone was now looking at her.

Emma narrowed her eyes at Aurora. "Would you like to tell the truth now, Aurora? Mayhap it is for the better, while everyone is here because the Herald would obviously not be late on the morrow and we would not want them to have the wrong impression of this night, do we?"

Aurora frowned. "I do not know what you are talking about."

"Tell Lord Wakefield what you did to the letters."

"What letters?"

Wakefield felt Ysabella stiffen. "Em, please—"

"You got hold of the letters Lord Wakefield sent Lady Weis so you he will never find her again. Is that true, Aurora?" Emma asked, turning to face Aurora.

Aurora went scarlet before she looked around at the crowd in disbelief and horror. "It seems that you have been cooking quite a different story, Emma. Have you not been listening to the whispered gossip inside the ballroom tonight?" Ysabella and Emma frowned, as did Wakefield and the rest of the Everards. "Lord Wakefield, as it may seem, has already found Lady Weis. And she is but a mere servant."

Wakefield stiffened. He did not like this. Not one tiny bit.

Aurora sighed and gave Ysabella a pitiful look. "You are not her, Ysa. Not one of us is her," Aurora said to Ysabella. "You may think you can get away from this little game you play simply because you're an Everard, then do reconsider for we are no fools."

Ysabella finally managed to escape Wakefield's grasp with an unbelievable strength. "I treated you like a sister!" she cried out. Wakefield saw the hurt in Ysabella's eyes as she shook with grief. "You have proven yourself to be naught but the cunning devil herself!"

Aurora gasped, horrified. Her expression was mirrored by the crowd behind her. Wakefield felt the fury start to build in the pit of his stomach when he realized the subject of their scandalized looks was Ysabella.

Aurora took a step forward. "Ysa, I am merely concerned that you have gone too far—"

"Miss Randolph, enough!" Wakefield shouted with rage. He started to move forward but Ysabella had already moved.

Aurora frowned at him, confused as to why he was protecting Ysabella, surprised by his outburst. "But, my lord—" she started to say but he growled, "Dare not speak more, Miss Randolph." The look he gave her was filled with meaning and her eyes registered alarm.

"Yes, stop talking, Miss Randolph," Nicholas ordered, stepping toward Ysabella. With a gentle voice, he said, "Ysa, let us go home."

Wakefield panicked.

He came forward, saying, "Ysabella—" over Emma's loud words of, "I believe the ballroom is inside!" directed at the crowd.

Aurora was standing stunned, Margaret beside her, whispering something in her ear.

His mind was muddled, but he knew only one thing—he needed more time with Ysabella. But she was now walking toward her brothers.

"Ysa," he started, going after her, but Nicholas warned, "Step away, Wakefield." Ralph grabbed Ysabella's hand to pull her away.

Wakefield continued, eyes on Ysabella but he had breached quite more than fair warnings and Nicholas punched him and he stumbled back.

"Bloody hell!" Wakefield shouted in frustration, whirling back to face the Everards. "I just want—"

"Bloody persistent bastard," he heard Maxwell utter with a groan before Nicholas pushed him away.

"Move one inch and we shall settle this in the middle of a field," Ralph said.

Ysabella pulled free from Ralph and whirled to face Wakefield, her eyes filled with hurt. "I no longer want this, my lord—none of it." She turned to Aurora and said, "Do not worry, Aurora. I have laid down all my cards now and claim defeat."

Nothing would have stopped him, but Ysabella's words had left him stunned, horrified. It seemed as though the ground above them had come crashing down on him.

No, no, not now, his mind cried out.

Wakefield stormed past Aurora who said, "My lord!"

Whirling back to stand close to her so she could hear his furious words, Wakefield uttered, "Do not make me regret helping you, Aurora. Go home. We shall need to talk. By then, prepare to explain yourself."

She paled, her lips quivering.

Without another glance, he ran after the Everards.

******

Ysabella heard Wakefield shouting for her name as her brothers escorted her inside the carriage.

"Not tonight, dear sister," Maxwell told her, taking her hand to help her settle inside. "He shall grovel, but not tonight."

Ralph and Nicholas followed. From the open window she saw Cole blocking Wakefield's path, Margaret and Emma standing close by.

The view disappeared as Ralph roughly pulled the curtain closed.

Ysabella searched for Maxwell's eyes in the dimness of the carriage. "Thank you. You did not say anything."

"He is a stupid bastard to not have realized who you truly are, Ysa. I would not dream of making it easy for him."

Nicholas stared at the two of them with confusion, but it was Ralph who asked, "What the bloody hell are you two talking about?"

Ysabella winced.

"Tell them who you are, Ysa, before they find out the truth from someone else," Maxwell said.

She heard Nicholas gasp beside her. "You are Lady Weis?" he uttered in disbelief before she could say it.

Ysabella scoffed.

Maxwell did the same.

"Bloody hell, Ysabella," Ralph said, mouth hanging open. "Bloody hell. This is far more complicated than I have thought!"

"Dare not reveal the truth to anyone. I do not wish for it," she warned. "And do not lecture me for being a fool. I already believe I am."

Her brothers fell silent until they reached their estate.

She did not cry for she found she had no tears to spare.

*****

The three Everard men were already crowded in front of the window, watching Wakefield begging Jefferson to let him in.

"Should we kick the bastard out?" Ralph asked.

"Ben will arrive by the morrow," Maxwell offered. "Perhaps big brother would want to deal with him."

Nicholas shook his head. "Ben will merely make things easier. Look how he handled Devitt."

"I heard that," Cole said from the corner of the parlour where he was sitting with his wife.

"Beating the man would not change the fact that our sister is in love with him," Margaret pointedly said.

"And where is she?" asked Maxwell.

"Upstairs with Emma. She must now be aware of Wakefield's presence outside."

"And mother?"

"At our estate with the children," Cole said.

"Good enough then," Nicholas uttered, jumping to this feet to storm out of the parlour.

"No murder, my lords," Cole warned as Maxwell and Ralph followed close behind. "I would not defend you in the courts!"

They ignored their brother-in-law's warning.

Soon, the three of them were striding out of the front doors.

"You can go back inside, Jefferson," Nicholas said.

The man sighed with relief and stiffly disappeared back into the manor, leaving the three Everard men and Wakefield to stand in the middle of the driveway.

"You do realize that our family does not have a good memory in that Seymour garden, do you, Wakefield?" asked Ralph, reminding the man of the incident that happened with Levi's wife and their sister-in-law's estranged stepmother years ago. "And you simply have to add another trauma, do you not?"

When Wakefield simply stared, his jaws tight and expression ready for battle, the brothers stopped merely two paces away.

"From what we have witnessed earlier in the same garden, Wakefield," Nicholas started, standing at ease with his hands inside his pockets, "You have not been doing so well keeping away from our sister."

"I need to talk to her," Wakefield said, voice desperate.

"What would you tell her?" Ralph asked, brows cocked high. "Pray tell, man, for we do not bloody know what you are planning. You have promised to keep away from her."

"Remember," Maxwell wryly uttered, head tilted to the side, "she is an Everard, one of our own. She is not to be amongst your collection of lovers.

Wakefield's expression turned incredulous. "I do not intend to turn her into one! I intend to do right by her."

The three men stared and scoffed.

"This bloody bastard ought to feel lucky. Devitt did not manage to utter more than he already did before we beat the soul out of him," Nicholas sardonically growled.

"I have expressed my intentions to court her and she is aware of it," Wakefield explained.

That surprised the three of them for Ysabella had not shared that fact. Ah, bloody sisters and their secrets!

"Court her, you say?" Maxwell said, crossing his arms. "Should you not be cleaning up your mess first, Wakefield?"

"What happened at Seymour is clearly a sign that you have things to settle before you bloody go to our estate and demand to talk to our sister!" Nicholas gritted out.

"Or mayhap you want us to do our own cleaning first, eh?" Ralph asked, cracking his knuckles.

"I suggest we wait until he formally announces his intentions before we have our way," Maxwell said.

"But this is the perfect time," Nicholas growled, stepping forward.

"No tonight, brothers," Emma's voice said behind them. They all turned on their heels to find their sister standing in the doorway. She was looking at Wakefield. "Ysabella is waiting for you inside."

Maxwell, Nicholas and Ralph started to protest but Emma held up her hand, eyes filled with warning.

"Not now. You shall have your fill should the time permit it, but for now, I would like Lord Wakefield to present himself in the parlour intact and free of blood. Mother shall not like it should she find drips of blood on her carpet." Emma gave her brothers a wide, fake smile before she turned and disappeared.

Wakefield was already striding to the door.

Nicholas made a move to run after him but Maxwell stopped him. "Let him," he uttered under his breath.

"Keep the door open, Wakefield!" Nicholas shouted at the man's back.

"We shall be waiting for you to come out!" Ralph added.

As Wakefield entered the estate, Nicholas turned to Maxwell.

"You are turning soft, Max," he said with a shake of his head. "You have prepared your pistol when you found out about Cole Devitt and Margaret."

Maxwell remained silent, his eyes following Wakefield.

"What is on your bloody mind?" Ralph asked.

"Do not tell us that you actually want that bastard to be part of the family," Nicholas said. "Simply because he claimed to be in love with Lady Weis and our own sister turns out to be her, does not mean we can welcome him. You bloody know how he had been living his life! We literally live with him at Grey's!"

"Bloody calm down, Nick," said Maxwell, his tone dry. He started to walk up to the front doors.

"Where are you going? Getting a pistol?" Ralph hopefully asked.

"Sleep."

"Bloody hell, Max! What are—"

Maxwell turned to face his brothers.

"There are things that you must realize here, brothers," he started, his face nearly dark, framed by his long hair. "We are Everards."

His brothers frowned. "And?"

He shrugged. "And we are lucky."

Nicholas and Ralph dubiously gaped at him.

When he did not elaborate, Ralph sputtered, "Do bloody explain, Maxwell. We do not have the gift to read your bloody mind."

Maxwell sighed and rolled his eyes.

"We Everards always have each other and we are lucky for it." He motioned with his head. "Do you see him with anyone else?" His eyes looked bored and drooping with sleep as he continued, "He does not even have anyone to tell him what a blind fool he is. He has friends and they could have been us, but that is not possible at the moment, is it? We are choosing to be brothers instead of being his friends. In simple words, my lords, no one is there to tell him how to court a lady with five angry brothers, no one to help him think, and no one to offer him encouragement."

He started walking away. "Him being here is enough for me to think he is quite determined. Confused as he may be, he knows what he wants." When his brothers remained silent, Maxwell loudly yawned. "Now, I suggest you do the same and find your own beds."

Nicholas and Ralph gaped at Maxwell's back.

"Well, the bloody cynic is correct," Nicholas muttered with derision.

"Bullocks! That might probably be the longest commentary I've heard from him!" Ralph added with awe.