"You never told me where you live," Ellie spoke one night.

Byron looked at her, mind reeling with questions. What was she planning now?

"It is not far," was all he could say.

"Would you ever take me there?"

He smiled. "Would you dare?"

She wrapped her arms around him. "With you, I would."

-Above and Below

*****

"You are serious," Samuel slowly said, looking Emma in the eyes.

"I am," she replied, breathless and anxious.

Samuel was looking quite stupefied and then, slowly, Emma saw the disbelief and doubt begin to appear. And suddenly, the realization.

He blinked and asked, "How—how did you find out?"

Emma swallowed and cleared her throat. She had thought this through the entire night and she knew he would ask this question if he were to believe her.

"He has always been acting odd."

"He is always odd."

"And during the times you have been asking him to send me gifts, I have caught him unguarded on several occasions."

Samuel nodded. "And curious that you are, you began to observe him more closely."

"I even followed him."

His eyes rounded in surprises. "You did what?"

"A few times, actually," she admitted further.

"Emma, if he is who you say he is, then it would have been—"

"I was being careful, Sam."

Samuel sighed. "What else did you find out? Surely you know that there ought to be more."

Emma moistened her lips. "We have gotten quite close, if I must say."

She saw something flash in his eyes but he closed them and collected himself before he asked, "How close?"

"We formed a bond of... friendship?"

He stared at her. "You are not certain about the friendship?"

"No, because it also involved quite a lot of banters."

"Bloody hell..." he said, running his fingers through his hair. "The bastard took advantage of my incompetence and neglect and if he is up to something—"

"It is quite true that you were quite neglectful for a time, Sam, but I do not hold that against you. You have been preoccupied of late."

"Still, the bastard—" he stopped himself and looked at Emma. "Very well, go on. Tell me how you found out."

Emma shifted her weight on her other foot. "Well, as I have said, I followed him a few times." When Samuel merely waited with patience, she continued, "I learned that he is the secret writer of the gossip section."

His brow shot high. "Of the Herald."

"Of the Town Herald, yes," she said. "He confirmed it."

His jaw tightened. "Bloody tarnation."

"I became even more curious and followed him one day outside of Wickhurst." When she saw his violent reaction, she held up her hand to stop his words. "And I found out that he—" she stopped for a moment, considering Wynne's desire for privacy. But this was Samuel she was facing. He would not repeat her words. "He is the writer and director of Above and Below."

The very moment the words rolled out of her tongue, she regretted it. But her mind told her she was doing the right thing.

He is a Trilby. He kept it from you. Why? Because he and his family are planning something.

The look on Samuel's face was as she had expected. It was one of shock and betrayal.

"And I attended a few of their rehearsals while the family was away in Kenward because I admit that I was fascinated by it. I still am, as a matter-of-fact. I know you hate it, Sam, but you are also aware that I have a different opinion," she continued. "And then, one day, I decided I ought to stop as I knew it was not right of me to be sneaking out of Wickhurst. And just as I was leaving, I came across a man I have not seen before in the theatre. I later found out that the man was Wynne's uncle." She noted the look of interest grow on Samuel's face now. "And at the Seymour ball, I learned that the man was none other but the Lord of Thorne."

The silence around her study was almost deafening.

Emma held her breath as she waited for Samuel to speak.

Yet he did not.

He simply jumped to his feet and turned around to walk to the door.

"You are not going out to gather your pistol, are you?"

He opened the door and looked at her. "No, I have a better place to go to. And if you are quite ready, you might wish to come."

"Where are we going?" she asked, already walking toward him.

"Research, love," he said with a small smile. "We are going to do proper research."

*****

Emma was surprised that Samuel had access to the Town Registry.

"That man adores my articles," he whispered to her as they walked down the long aisle of records.

"You have been coming her often?"

"Yes," he replied. "With fruitless results, of course," he added, smiling at her. "But now, with what you shared, I now know where to start."

Emma followed Samuel down the hall, now more curious and excited.

"Wynne Hastings," Samuel uttered, thinking deeply. "I do not precisely know where, but the Hastings estate is near Cromwell."

"You truly do not know where he came from?"

"No, not precisely. He does not talk very much."

"And you have never been curious?"

Samuel stopped suddenly and studied the registry books before him. Emma realized they were in the estate section. "Of course, but I simply thought he did not wish to talk about his family. I assumed he was not in speaking terms with his parents as he never mentioned them." He carefully inched to the right as he read each spine. Finally, he pulled out one and fished through the pages. "We must hurry before the superior arrives."

Emma joined him. "What are we looking for?"

"This is the list of all estates starting with the letter H." He ran his finger down each estate name until he reached the long list of Hastings. "And now, we look for the one near Cromwell."

"The village near Easton?"

"Yes," he murmured, his attention mainly on the task at hand.

Suddenly a smile broke Samuel's lips. His finger stopped at a name. He looked up at Emma. "Now we have a name."

Emma bent closer and read, Reuben Hastings followed by a word 'deceased' and another name, Peter Wynne Hastings.

Samuel snapped the book closed and took Emma's hand. He guided her down the aisle of books once again and turned to the right in haste. "Now we look into Reuben Hastings and where he bloody came from.

*****

Now that they had a name, Samuel found out that it was not hard to track down the roots of the Hastings.

Being led down a correct direction now, he and Emma easily found the proper books to peruse and what they found was indeed very satisfactory.

George Trilby was the patriarch of the entire Trilby family as far as their search went. He was the lord of both Egerton and Wyndam estates as well as Caddington. He later passed the titles to his three sons, Robert, Francis and George II, leaving him with Whiteford. When Francis passed away, Wyndam was passed on to his eldest son, Leopold. His other two estates, Hastings and Thorne, were given to his other sons Reuben and David respectively. Reuben's name was changed into Hastings from the moment he was born. The name was carried by his only son, Peter. When Reuben Hastings died, his sole heir took over the estate.

"He truly is a Trilby," Samuel uttered with amazement as he looked down at the chart he and Emma came up with.

"Are we looking at the entire Trilby family tree?" she asked with equal amazement.

"You were correct, Em," he said, looking at her with a big smile. "The bastard is nephew to the Lord of Thorne."

"And the Thorne is cousin to Amelia Trilby, the sister of Maxine's mother."

"Maxine only has one mother and that is our mother," he snapped, suddenly irked by the reminder of what Amelia Trilby tried to do to his sister.

"I apologize," Emma said and Samuel felt a sudden rush of guilt.

"No, I apologize." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "You seem to be the frequent receiver of my ire. It is not fair."

Emma looked at him and he realized she was in agreement. "You are under a lot of strain of late," was her comment. "Although I do not appreciate the constant change in the mood, I try to understand."

He nodded. "Thank you. I will make up, I promise."

"Oh, Sam," she said with a snort and a shake of her head. "Please do refrain from making promises."

He narrowed his eyes. "Because I constantly break them?"

She smiled. "You know yourself too well then, eh?"

He scoffed. "And you are the only person I know brave enough to say it so mockingly right to my face."

Her face broke into a proud smile. "Of course."

The smile on his face slowly died down as he studied the chart once again. He did not know exactly how he felt, only that he knew the dominant one was betrayal.

He had invited Wynne to many of their family dinners. The bastard had even once carried his niece in his arms! He became friends with his friends!

Emma, noting his grim look, asked, "Should we tell someone else?"

He shook his head. "If we tell your brothers, they will not think and simply grab the bastard and tie him to a chair."

"Yes, that is precisely what they will do."

"We cannot have that," he told her. "He wants to infiltrate the Everards, I am certain of it. They tried to convince Maxine to do the same in the past."

Emma nodded in agreement. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Samuel shrugged. "We do the same," he said. "We play his game."

Emma nodded, blinking her eyes rapidly now. She was thinking. "We have to know what he knows."

"And we eventually can expose what the Trilbys truly are." He leaned back into his chair with a satisfied sigh. "The Town can be free of them. The power they hold in the Town Leaders will disappear. And we will be the people to thank for it, Em. Simply imagine that!"

Emma was looking at him blankly and he found it hard to read whether she agreed or not.

She will not be here if she doesn't, his mind whispered.

"I agree that we play his game, Sam, but I have boundaries."

"What are they?"

"We do it in a way that we do not turn out worse than them."

"You are saying we cannot play the dirty game."

"The foul game," she nodded. "We have to be rational."

"Of course."

"And if things seem to be getting out of hand, we have to tell Margaret and Ralph."

Samuel was surprised. "You know about Margaret."

"As you do, obviously."

He shrugged. "She has asked for my help on several occasions in the past."

Without more questions, Emma accepted his explanation. He addressed her first statement by saying, "We tell Margaret the moment we feel we have to."

Satisfied, she nodded. "And how do you suppose we do this? Where do we start?"

Samuel clasped his hands together. "Good question."

*****

Emma took a deep breath before she climbed off her horse.

Once done tethering the mammal to the side, she entered the tent and was welcomed by the sound of dancing and music which she did not realize she missed until she heard them.

A dancer she had grown fond of saw her and waved at her before disappearing to the side of the stage to give way for the next act.

Wynne saw the act and whirled around to find Emma walking toward him.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded as she approached.

Emma shrugged. "I changed my mind... and I am on a mission."

He looked her up and down. And then his eyes locked with hers. "What mission?"

"I am considering writing my own play," she said, squaring her shoulders. "I am here to learn from the best."