Bryon was face to face with the very people he considered friends.

Only now they were not facing each other across a gaming table.

He was on a stand while they were on the other side of the room, waiting for him to be judged.

If the League was waiting for the perfect time to save him, it had long passed.

He was simply a pawn they could not save, for if they did, the entire League might be in jeopardy.

Today was his last day in the Courts.

He would finally be judged.

-Above and Below

*****

Her heart hammered against her chest as her mind tried to find a good enough reason why she was in her breeches, untethering her horse in the middle of the night.

But this was Maxwell she was facing.

No one could lie to Maxwell, no matter how convincing they were.

Her brother's long hair curtained the sides of his unreadable face as he pushed away from the wall.

"How did your meeting with Samuel go?" he nonchalantly asked, walking over to her horse, caressing its mane with one hand whilst his eyes were fixed on Emma.

"As expected," she replied matter-of-factly. "As you may already guess, the engagement is off."

Maxwell's face did not even change, not an inch of a frown or a sign of anything. Nothing. He simply looked at her as thoughtful as always.

Emma sighed. "I confronted him with the things he neglected to share with us."

Her brother's brows rose. "Such us?"

"Why he never told any of us that Wynne saved him."

Maxwell slowly nodded, quietly accepting the information.

"Mayhap you must also know that Wynne saved the girls from the fire that night. He must have realized what his family was planning and arrived just in time."

Again, Maxwell merely nodded.

Emma was starting to lose all hope. If she could not convince Maxwell, who else on their right mind would ever consider Wynne innocent?

"And he was beaten by his own family after he was taken from the Everard manor. I believe as punishment for intruding with their plans."

Maxwell nodded.

Emma was getting frustrated. Could she at least convince her brother to allow her to leave?

But she had to wait. She had to be very careful with her next words.

"And when will you get to the point where you tell me you are going against the odds for the man, Emma?"

Emma's eyes rounded. Panic was the first to rise, but she immediately cleared her throat to say, "Well, I was waiting for the perfect timing."

Maxwell blinked. "It is not wise to be with the man."

"Max, I am yet to find out. You cannot tell me so," she said, lifting her chin.

Maxwell started shaking his head.

"What would you have done if Maxine was with the Trilbys when you realized you were in love with her?" she asked.

Maxwell chuckled dryly. "Do not even attempt to go that route, Emma. You know such tactics would not work on me."

"Still, answer the question, Max."

Maxwell looked at her for a long time before saying through clenched teeth, "I would have dragged her out of that bloody family."

Emma nodded. "Precisely. Now I hope you understand why I am leaving tonight."

She started to climb her horse but Maxwell stopped her, pulling the reins.

"Max, I never stopped any of you from doing what you wanted," she said as calmly as she could.

"I am not stopping you, Emma," Maxwell said. "I am simply about to suggest that you do not have to go now. It is dangerous and stupid to be riding out of Wickhurst on your own."

Emma glared at him.

"You can do so on the morrow," Maxwell said, voice filled with authority. "After you have considered every possible scenario your actions might bring upon us."

Emma moistened her lips, considering his words.

"You need not ask my approval. You are an Everard. You will always do what you want. Of course, I am not speaking for the other brothers who might take different courses of action should they find out."

"You are not going to tell them until I even try, Max," Emma said, starting to panic once more. Maxwell was Maxwell, and her other brothers were... well, themselves. There was a big difference.

"I may give you a little bit of a head start. A few hours, a day—you will never know. I might also change my mind and tell them this very evening."

"You dare and I will never forgive you."

Maxwell shrugged. "Very well, a day or two. I will give you a day or two to humiliate yourself in front of a Trilby and yourself."

Emma glared at Maxwell, but she was thankful all the same.

"But there is another thing I insist that you do before you ride out of Wickhurst on the morrow with your stupidity."

"What is it?"

Maxwell shrugged. "The mother ought to know."

Her brother turned and walked back to the direction of the side entrance. "Max! Are you insane! She will have a faint!"

He looked over his shoulder. "Then choose, Emma—the other Everard brothers or their mother?"

"I hate you."

"And I love you too, you idiot," Maxwell said with a grin.

Emma looked about as her brother walked away.

"Return the horse or find yourself bound to a bloody chair in the middle of the parlor."

Emma growled and led her horse back into the stable.

*****

Emma settled in the settee beside her mother as the woman read the recent scandals on the Town Herald.

"The Haverstons are once more the star of the today's paper," Lady Alice informed Emma. "Belinda and Cressida got into a bit of scandal."

"Truly? How?" Emma asked.

"One lady claimed Belinda deliberately locked her inside a closet during a ball."

"She did?" Emma asked, snorting.

"But Cressida swore Belinda did no such thing," Lady Alice said as she read aloud, "Lady Easton then inquired why Lady Harp would be inside a closet in the first place."

"Oh, you know Cressida, Mother," Emma said, waving her hand to brush off the topic off. "She could be telling the truth, or she could be lacing it with a lie, most often in a very hilarious way."

Lady Alice folded the paper and set it aside. "Oh well, I am certain she and Belinda locked Lady Harp in the closet for good reasons."

Emma chuckled, shaking her head.

As her laughter died down, she continued to stare at her mother who sensed it and smiled at her.

"Did you happen to find me at such time when I am alone to confess that you have broken your engagement with Samuel?"

Emma's eyes rounded in surprise.

"Oh, Rachel told me. Samuel told her and Lord Theobald that they ought not to expect a marriage."

Emma's sighed. "Are you disappointed?" she asked, hesitantly looking her mother in the eye.

"Of course, I am!" Lady Alice exclaimed. "But then, I am not the one to wed the man, Emma. It is you. And if you do not wish to, then you must have very good reasons." Her mother closed her last statement matter-of-factly, but Emma saw the question in her eyes.

"I am in love with someone else," Emma confirmed.

Her mother suddenly fanned her face with her hands in a dramatic way, one Ysabella would sometimes do. "Oh Lord, I am sensing you are about to tell me you are in love with someone I should not approve of."

Emma bit her lips to contain her smile. "Experience tells you so, mother?"

"Goodness gracious! Yes!" Lady Alice said, waving her arm dramatically. "Ben married your governess! Levi coveted someone else's fiancée! Margaret married the man who scarred Benedict! Ysabella courted a man for years! Maxwell married a bastard, Nick a woman of color! And Ralph... instead of imprisoning a bandit, he slipped a ring around her finger!"

Emma grimaced. "Hearing you say those things, Mother, I can merely imagine how you feel."

"Oh, no, of course, you cannot, dear," Lady Alice replied. "You cannot imagine the joy of seeing my children happy with someone they truly love."

Emma's eyes immediately filled with tears as her heart swelled with the intense feeling of love for her mother and the pain of the longing to want to have the same love her siblings had—to be able to claim it for herself as well.

"So go on, Emma," Lady Alice urged, lifting one brow. "Do tell me."

"I am in love—"

"Yes, yes, you have already said so. Tell me who this man is."

Emma moistened her lips and squared her shoulders. "Wynne."

She saw her mother freeze.

"Wynne Hastings."

There was no reply. Her mother simply stared at her.

"He is a Trilby."

"I know," her mother snapped.

Emma felt uneasy all of a sudden. "But he is not like the rest of them, Mother."

"Your brothers think otherwise."

"That is because they do not know him and what he has done," Emma countered. "Mother, he saved the girls from the fire. He saved Samuel."

Lady Alice frowned. "I did not know that."

"No one else knows," Emma whispered. "And because of what he did, he was punished for it by his family."

"What?"

"The last I saw him, he was confined in bed. He was beaten by the Trilbys." Emma shifted in her seat to fully face her mother. "Mother, he is not like them. He is artistic and smart. He wrote Above and Below. He directed the play."

"He did?"

"But you cannot tell anyone, please. He would hate me if the secret gets out."

Lady Alice merely nodded.

"He is also funny and he can be quite charming. He understands me, Mother. He knows Emma Everard in more ways than any man ever did. And although he made it hard, I am proud to say I understand his whole person. I had always seen his true color. I have known he was a Trilby for a time and yet I was never afraid of him. He was an odd comfort—his very presence makes me want to do things I have always been apprehensive of. He is wonderful in my eyes, Mother." Emma felt a tear roll down her face. "And I wish for no one else."

Her mother simply sat there, looking at her. Finally, she asked, "Tell me what you plan to do, Emma."

"Something drastic, Mother," she confessed. "But I want your blessing."

Lady Alice looked away. For a moment, she merely stared in the air, deep in thought. When her eyes veered back to look at Emma, all she said was, "He is a Trilby, Emma."

Emma nodded. "And for them, Mother, I am an Everard."

"If what I learned from your brothers were true, Emma, then the man has been spying on us!"

"Yet never told them a thing. If he did, the girls would not have been saved. If he did, things would have already been bad for us."

"We are not certain of that," Lady Alice said, fear in her voice.

Emma nodded. "Then I shall stay put," she murmured in resignation.

Her mother frowned. "Why?"

Emma sniffled. "Because you disapprove of him. I surely could never live my life with the man I love when my own mother hates him."

Lady Alice scoffed. "You sound like your father when you are trying to manipulate me."

Emma shook her head. "But I am not. I am not going to him as I planned. I will stay put where you want me to be."

Her mother let out a loud sigh. She reached for Emma's hand and squeezed it. "Darling, he may very well be my least favorite son-in-law, but I shall be able to handle him."

Emma froze as she looked at her mother in surprise. "Are you certain?" she asked in disbelief. "Truly?"

Lady Alice let go of Emma's hand and reached for her tea. "Ah, I will have to convert the young man." Before she took a sip, she murmured with incredulity in her voice, "A Trilby into the family! A Trilby!"

"Maxine is a Trilby."

Swallowing her tea, Lady Alice shook her head. "He is a full-bred, my dear."

Emma grimaced once more. "Yes, I am afraid so."

She set her teacup down and looked at Emma with narrowed eyes. "But he can be tamed, yes?"

Emma jumped to her feet and kissed her mother on the cheek. She straightened with a big grin on her face. "We can try."

As Emma fled to the door, Lady Alice called out, "Dare not ride on horseback! Take the carriage!"

*****

Emma sneaked into Ulric, leaving behind the carriage and the driver on the road. She did not want to alert anyone who had all intentions of throwing her away.

But as she got closer to the giant tent, Emma realized that the place seemed empty. The other smaller tents were now gone as well as the ones where the other entertainers resided.

Her heart started to hammer as she raced into the theatre to find it empty. The stage was almost completely gone. The curtains were down and the chairs she saw from the last time she was here had been cleared.

Emma rushed to Wynne's office and turned the knob. It was locked.

She noticed the silence that followed the movement of the door handle and she realized that someone was inside.

Emma knocked, but not too loud, afraid that Wynne's butler may be around.

"Wynne, open the door," Emma said, knocking once more.

There was no answer.

Emma knocked once more. This time, she heard footsteps walking back and forth inside the room. Was he deliberately ignoring her?

"If you do not open this door, I shall do something drastic, Hastings!" Emma said, knocking on the door. "I will expose you as a Trilby."

There was silence inside the room. And then the footsteps resumed. The door remained closed.

"I will tell everyone you are the Herald's gossip writer."

Emma was still ignored.

"Very well, I am certain the Town will appreciate the real identity of the creator of Above and Below."

Emma waited, holding her breath.

She flinched when she heard the lock turn and the door opened, revealing Stella looking quite amused. "He did not want to open the door but I badly needed to step outside for personal matters," Stella informed Emma, adding in a whisper, "I will lock the door if I were you."

Saying nothing more, Stella walked out and Emma immediately rushed inside, locking the door behind her.

Her heart was racing stronger than before as her eyes landed on Wynne.

He was carrying a heap of clothes from across the room to his bed. He was finally on his feet. His face was still swollen, but he was healing.

The bandage around his hand was still there, but they seemed to be working quite well as he was folding his clothes. At that, Emma swallowed.

Pain and fear laced with panic wormed through her veins as she realized what he was doing.

He was packing.

He was leaving.