As Baines paced the Castilla front room, I tried very hard not to feel like a delinquent child standing in the principal's office.

"I ask again, Imelda. Where is Lincoln Castilla?"

I looked up at him with a patronising glance. "Lord Baines, I don't think it's customary for an unmarried man to address an unmarried lady by her first name."

Baines let out a strangled sound. "Miss Danbury, I am trying to help you avoid being deceived by low-life predators such as that newspaper lackey-"

"But it is alright to be deceived by high-life predators?"

He glared at me. "I'm going to assume you didn't say that."

I shook my head. "I'd rather have you remember. Maybe it would make you rethink your choice of pursuing me."

He stared at me in silence for a moment before beginning to advance slowly. "Miss Danbury, I understand that you're upset that I haven't returned your affections all the while you pursued me. I had things I was preparing for-"

I slapped away his hand that touched my face. "Lord Baines, I have given you permission to talk to me, nothing else."

He grasped my chin tightly in his fingers. "Do you think I need your permission to touch or have you as I wish?"

I grabbed his hand, digging my nails into his wrist till the point they drew blood. "You need my permission to do anything to me or there will be consequences."

He scoffed. "And what do you know about consequences?"

I smiled. "How about we do it this way? If you touch me, you bleed. If you kiss me, you bleed. If you force me into your bed, you forgo your chances of children. How does that sound?"

A stinging pain erupted on my cheek. Only then did I notice that he had slapped me. I touched the sore spot and felt a sticky liquid.

Blood.

His smile turned predatory. By my speechlessness, he thought he had silenced me. "Good. That is how silent you need to be. I would send you the best doctor in town to treat your-"

I punched him in the nose, so hard that I felt a few of my bones creak. "If you touch me, you bleed."

I watched with unhealthy glee as blood gushed down his nose.

"Miss Danbury, you dare assault a marquess. You shall suffer the consequences," he cried.

I smirked. "I would like to hear you say that a woman drew your blood with her bare hands. You don't have the guts. If you dare to frame anyone else for it, three other witnesses in this house would be very quick to say the truth."

I guess the look of insanity in my eyes had an effect as he stepped back. I started to walk to the kitchen. "Lord Baines, I suggest you let yourself out before we both do things that we would regret."

"Miss Danbury, you fail to understand that you are coming with me. Your mother has made me your honorary guardian-"

"A role you are to assume in the absence of my brothers, right?" When he didn't respond, I turned around. "Louis, please come."

"Coming, Immy," Louis yelled from upstairs. Soon, my fourth brother joined Baines and me in the front room.

"As you can see, Lord Baines. Your honorary services are not needed here. If you force me any longer, it will be considered harassment, and trust me when I say that I can scream so loud that everyone on the street would hear me."

"Miss Danbury, you are making a mistake," Baines said.

I shrugged. "By choosing to be with my family? I can't see how. No matter what you wish to do, my reputation is already ruined. Yours, on the other hand, could largely suffer from a few well-timed rumors. Lord Baines, pursuing me is a mistake. There are many other girls that would be honoured to have you."

"I will make you mine," he hissed.

"I'll never be yours."

"I will marry you."

I scoffed. "Sure. Go ahead. Marrying me wouldn't give you the satisfaction of attaining your prize because I'll never be yours, marriage or not." I curtsied. "I would like to request that you do not visit the Castilla house again. If you wish to meet with me, send an official invitation to my brother Harry's house. Please, see yourself out."

Baines stormed out the door, muttering something about my utter disrespect.

I laughed. "Don't hit yourself with your carriage door. It could cause more harm to your nose."

When I could no longer hear the sound of his carriage riding away, all the bravado evaporated from my body.

That was my biggest flaw. I could never remain strong for too long and always needed to cry or recuperate after any emotionally stressful encounter.

Louis held me up as I struggled to walk up the stairs. "Immy, what's wrong?"

I shook my head with as much strength as I could. "Just get me to Lincoln."

My whisper jolted Louis into action as he immediately lifted me and ran up the stairs into Lincoln's room.

"What's wrong with her? Her entire body's shaking," Louis said panicked. His loud voice made me want to clutch my head.

"Give me her," Lincoln said, his soft voice sounding far away.

I could feel myself being transferred into a familiar pair of arms. I snuggled deeper into Lincoln's embrace as he stroked my hair.

When my breathing finally slowed, Lincoln pulled back and looked at me. "Are you alright?"

I nodded once. "Only because you're the best emotional support human in the entire world."

Lincoln grinned, teeth and all. "That might be a bit of a stretch."

"Okay. The best on the continent," I said, leaning close to him.

He glanced down at my lips and then at my eyes. "That sounds about right."

"Don't you think you shouldn't flirt with my sister in front of me?" Louis said with an eye roll.

My head dropped to Lincoln's shoulder.

Way to ruin the moment, Louis.

"I think you just ruined the moment, Louis," Bella said.

Louis looked at Bella in confusion. "What moment?"

"Never mind," I said. "Now, we just need to figure out a way for me to completely avoid Baines."

"You gave him an opportunity to invite you to his home. You know that if he does, you have to go," Lincoln said.

I shrugged. "I would go just so I can rip the invitation and throw it in his face. That is if we are in private. If his family happens to be there, I would tell his parents that I have zero interest in their son."

Bella laughed. "I really wish I had your confidence."

"My confidence comes at a cost. What if he begins to target you guys to force me to give in to him? I wouldn't put it past him."

"Baines cannot marry you. His family wouldn't let him. They don't even plan on considering the daughters of barons and viscounts. Only two earl families made the list," Bella said.

"How do you know that?" Lincoln asked, sounding every bit as puzzled as I was.

"I'm designing her summer ball dress. When I visited her manor last week, I heard a few things about Baines' marriage prospects. I assumed that all the meetings he had scheduled with these women were the reason he had not bothered you all this while so I didn't bother to speak about it."

"Then what is Immy's place in all of this?" Louis asked.

"He wants her as some form of hidden concubine," Lincoln said, readjusting me so that I was sitting properly on the bed instead of in his arms.

"A side chick?" Bella turned to me with an excited expression. "I got it right, didn't I?"

I smiled at her enthusiasm. "Bella, that's not really a good thing, is it?"

Her shoulders drooped. "I know. I've just been looking for an opportunity to use the words you taught me."

"You did use it right. Well done, young padawan. I'll teach you more tomorrow."

Bella dropped to one knee with her hands in front of her and bowed. "I am indebted to you, Master Yoda."

"Just what exactly are you teaching my sister?" Lincoln asked.

I made a tsk sound. "If you wish to know, you must call me Yoda as well."

Lincoln lay down on his bed. "You sound like the leader of a fanatical religious group."

I gasped comically. "The blasphemy!"

Bella's lips twitched. "Forgive him, Master. He is ignorant. I do think you can make him into one of us by showing him" —her voice dropped to a low whisper— "the box."

"What box?" Louis whispered.

"The very essence of our association's purpose. Bella, bring forth the box."

Lincoln's eyes followed Bella with a flare as she left the room. "There had better not be anything illegal in that box."

I groaned. "Can you stop being a downer for a second?"

"Immy, you've changed," Louis said, staring at me from his seat on the floor with a smile. Panic flared up in me for a moment but I stamped it down.

Why was I panicking? If I told Louis that I was from the future, he wouldn't even believe me. The reason Bella even considered the idea was the fact that Lincoln believed me.

"I have? Is that a good thing?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes, it's very good. Our brothers like you better now too."

His eyes that were darting all around my face soon stopped and narrowed, zeroing in on my left cheek. "That's true. The bastard slapped you."

Lincoln sat up immediately and gently touched my cheek. "He really slapped you? And I thought I heard wrong."

Now that they mentioned it, my face was throbbing. Lincoln walked to the windows to raise his thick black curtains. I shielded my eyes as they slowly adjusted to the afternoon sun.

"Take your hand away from your face, Andrea," Lincoln said. When I did, his jaw tightened.

Did it look that bad?

Lincoln swore and walked to a desk in his room, hurriedly pulling open the drawers. "How could you not say you were bleeding?"

I flushed. "I wasn't thinking about it."

Lincoln returned with a cloth, a small bottle, and some water in a bowl that he got from a bucket in the corner. "Stay still. This will hurt."

"As bossy as ever." Without warning, Lincoln pressed the wet cloth to my cheek. "Could you give a girl a warning, you-"

Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "Do you think it's advisable to insult someone who's cleaning your wound?"

"I-It doesn't have to be you," I said. "Louis can do it."

Louis raised his hands immediately. "You don't want me doing that. Even Harry and Henry would rather keep bleeding till they get home than let me near their wounds."

"Bella-"

"-feels faint at the sight of blood," Lincoln said, cutting off my intended statement.

I glanced at Lincoln from the side of my eye. He had a smug look on his face that made me want to light him on fire.

I huffed. "You do it then if you're so good."

"That's not very polite, Miss Danbury."

"This is the most you're getting out of me." I looked at the door. "Where is Bella? Bella!"

I heard a squeak, and then she replied. "I'm coming. I'm coming."

When she entered the room, my eyes narrowed. "Why are you blushing?"

Her rosy cheeks deepened in colour. "I'm not. It must be the draft in my room."

I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed with her excuse. "Right. A draft. So did the marquess finally glance at you?"

"I told you. Lord Danbury isn't the marquess yet and..."

Her eyes widened when she realised that she had just revealed her Friday afternoon secret—how she watched Lord Anthony Danbury pass under her window in his carriage on his way to the market district.

"Lord Danbury?" Lincoln asked with his focus solely on my face.

"I...It's n-nothing more than a harmless admiration. I won't pursue him or anything," Bella muttered, wringing her fingers. "I know how you feel about high society. Heck, I feel the same way. That's why I can promise I won't ever try to meet Lord Danbury."

From Lincoln's facial expression, I could tell he was calculating how long it would take for him and Bella to switch rooms.

"Hey!" Lincoln's eyes snapped to mine. "Women aren't really allowed to do anything here. Are you going to take away her right to look? The least you could do is let us have our eye candy...er...viewing activities. Right, Bella?"

Bella pressed her lips together to prevent herself from bursting into laughter. "Not in the words I would use but yeah! Give us access to our viewing activities. It's not like we're touching or..."

Bella trailed off when she saw Lincoln's glare. She went for a different approach.

"Brother dearest, please. I'm already staying unmarried for the rest of my poor life." She looked up at him from behind her lashes. "Please. Please. Please. Let me keep loving my handsome marquess from afar."

"Your heart better not break when you see him get married," Lincoln said with a meaningful glance in my direction.

Right. Lord Danbury was one of my marriage prospects.

Bella shook her head frantically. "As I said, it's just a harmless crush. I'm just a little overwhelmed because I think he smiled in my direction when he passed."

I shot up. "Girl, are you serious?"

Bella grasped my hands and nodded. "Maybe I'm being delusional but..."

I squealed. "Forget that. He probably realised that you were staring and looked up but there's no way you'd imagine a smile on the stone marquess."

"So you think he did smile?"

"Duh!"

We jumped around in circles squealing.

"Can you stop with that? There is antiseptic on your face," Lincoln said.

"Your brother is such a spoilsport," I whispered loudly to Bella with a pout.

"I've been telling him that for years. He even refused to believe that he drove away half of my suitors with his glare," Bella whispered back.

"Where's the box, Miss Castilla?" Louis asked like he hadn't been paying any attention to what we had been saying.

"Right." Bella turned around looking for the box, not remembering that she had come in empty-handed.

I pressed my lips together to prevent myself from laughing at the image of a dog chasing its tail that was forming in my mind. "I think it's still in your room, Bella."

Bella hurried out and returned with a tall wooden box, the only attachment to the future that I had been able to build.

"Be prepared, Mr. Castilla," I said with gusto. "Your measly eyes have never seen anything like this yet."

"Hurry, Miss Danbury. I have work to be done for Monday's papers," Lincoln said bored.

"I refuse to be deterred by your lack of enthusiasm," I said and opened the box.

Lincoln stared at it for a few seconds then at me. "You have wasted my time-"

"Oh, hush," I interrupted. "I haven't even switched it on yet."

I put the tackily made batteries in their place and flipped the switch. Immediately, a soft, steady glow filled the room.

"What is that?" Louis asked, leaning closer to the object.

"Light. Electric light. It's not very bright because it's afternoon and the curtains are up but-"

Lincoln ran to close the curtains. The light became more pronounced. Although not as bright as a 21st-century light bulb due to lack of all necessary materials, it was enough to see clearly within the room.

Lincoln inched closer to the lamp trying to look under the white plastic and thin cloth casing covering the bulb. The interest in his eyes made me beam.

"How did you do this?" he whispered.

"Copper, zinc, charcoal, glass, plastic, wood, cloth." I turned to Bella. "Am I missing anything?"

She thought for a while. "Not that I remember."

"It's probably gonna burn out in a few minutes at most though," I added.

Louis looked at me with accusation in his eyes. "I thought you said it wasn't fire."

I smiled like I was talking to a kid. "It isn't. I don't have the necessary materials to make it last longer. At least not yet."

The light flickered and started to dim slowly. When it completely extinguished, Lincoln's room was thrown into darkness, much darker than it was twenty minutes prior.

"It's a little too dark for four," Bella commented.

I walked to the window and lifted the curtains. Dark clouds covered the sky. "Your bipolar European weather has struck again. It's about to rain."

"Guess I'm sleeping here tonight. Gives me more time to talk to Immy about her light," Louis said, making himself comfortable on Lincoln's floor.

Lincoln, on the other hand, just kept staring at the box. After a while, he turned to me with an indecipherable emotion in his eyes.

"Can I join your association-"

I leaned forward, waiting for him to say the final word.

He sighed. "Yoda."

I clapped excitedly. "Ha. Of course. Now, move closer, padawans. Master Yoda has a lot to teach you."

I spoke. A lot. About so many things that by the time I asked for a break, the rain had been pouring for at least an hour.

"Your time sounds even better, the more I hear about it," Bella said as we walked down the staircase hand in hand. "They even allow women to be scientists."

"All that glitters is not gold but I'll admit the future is generally easier to live in."

Bella sighed. "I just think about what-"

A knock sounded on the door. Bella and I looked at each other and then up the stairs where the men were and then at the door.

Who could be that at this hour, and in the rain, no less?

The knock sounded again, more frantic.

"Is it a robber?" I asked.

"Robbers don't knock," Bella whispered.

"So it's a polite robber then."

"It's not a robber," Bella insisted but still reached beside the fireplace to grab the poker. "Maybe someone needs a place to stay to avoid the rain."

Lightning struck at that moment, illuminating the living room. There was a crash and afterward, a yelp of pain.

"A polite robber who is afraid of lightning. What an oddly comforting combination," I said, thinking back to the dirty kid robber who shot me, giving me unwanted trauma.

Bella inched towards the door and put her ear against it. I copied her actions.

"I can hear your footsteps," the man said from outside. "I am Anthony Danbury. May I come in before my hands freeze off?"