"W-what?"

The gun in my hands trembled and nearly slipped from my grip. Judging by the look on Mr Ambrose's face, he'd happily have picked it up to force his sister to retract her words.

Squaring her shoulders, Adaira stepped forward. "I said...I'm going to marry him." She nodded at the vicomte. "Just stop the duel. Please."

"Mon Dieu!" Holstering his pistol, the Saint-Celeste placed a hand on his chest as if he were touched. "You're concerned for me, chérie?"

Maybe he is touched. In the head.

But the way his eyes swept up and down Adaira's figure told me differently. The smile that appeared on his face sent a shiver down my back.

"Just tell me," Adaira squeezed out between clenched teeth. "Do you accept or not?"

"A lady proposing to a man? How very...progressive. Very well, Mademoiselle." Striding forward, Saint-Celeste snatched my sister-in-law's hand and, with a bow, placed a kiss upon her knuckles. "I accept."

"Adaira!" I hissed out of the corner of my mouth. "Don't! We can find another way! We can—"

My voice abruptly cut off when I met her eyes. They were filled with nothing but defeat. All I got in response to my desperate plea was a sad smile and a shake of the head.

"You don't have to do this!" I tried once again, my voice no more than a whisper. "You don't—"

"I do. There's no other way." Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. "Thank you for your undying adoration, Mr Linton. But I am afraid I will have to reject your love."

Under normal circumstances, I would have answered: I would bloody well hope so! But right now? Right now, I could understand this for the secret message it was: It's over, Lilly. Let it be.

Without hesitation, I opened my mouth to reject—only for a picture of Berty to appear in front of my inner eye. I glanced down at the abandoned gun on the ground and didn't find the will within myself to pick it up. My mouth closed again.

"So," the vicomte enquired, gazing up at Adaira from under his eyelashes, "how long before the wedding, chérie?"

"I, um..."

"Best not make it too long," he added. "Lest someone—" He threw a glance my way. "—tries to interfere."

"That will not happen," The marquess's cold voice cut through the air. "I will not allow anyone to besmirch my daughter's honour. Including herself."

Never had I wanted to punch someone in the face so much as in that very moment.

Judging by the fact that he was currently striding towards his father with clenched fists, my dear husband seemed to agree with me. He was already halfway to his goal, fists raised, when his mother noticed and lunged forward to grab hold of him.

"No, Rick! No!"

"Mother?" he squeezed out between clenched teeth. "Let. Go."

"This isn't the way, Rick. Please."

"Where there is a fist, there's a way."

"Um, Rick, dear...I'm not sure that's how the saying goe—"

She was cut off mid-sentence by his icy glare. Shrugging out of her grip with ease, he started towards his father once more—until a slender hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Rick? Stop. Please."

Slowly, he turned to look down at his sister. "Adaira...I..."

"Shh." Reaching up, she silenced him with a finger. The tears at the corners of her eyes belied the smile she tried to give her brother. "It'll be all right, brother. It—"

"That's enough out of you," the marquess, who apparently was really eager to get his face punched in, interrupted her. "We will have to start the preparations for your wedding. Come along. Unless you've changed your mind?"

Adaira stood there for a long moment, fists clenching and unclenching—then turned around and followed her father back towards the manor, her face almost as expressionless as her brother's. Mr Ambrose stretched out a hand after her, only to fall short by a few inches. I opened my mouth to say something, but...what? What exactly could I say to someone whose life had just collapsed? To someone I had failed?

"Come." A gentle hand touched my shoulder. A familiar hand. One that had comforted me so many times when I was still a child and plagued by nightmares. "Let's go."

Slowly, I turned around to see Ella. On her face, there was the saddest smile I had ever seen.

"Where?" I asked, feeling lost.

"Inside, for now," Amy spoke up. "Ye ain't been allowed to 'ave a drink for nine months now, right? I'd say it's about time to break out a bottle of whiskey."

That was the first thing today I wholeheartedly agreed with. I didn't say so out loud in front of Mr Rikkard Ambrose, however. Somehow, I doubted he would appreciate the mother of his newborn son nearly drinking herself into a coma. Although he might approve of utterly raiding his father's whiskey stash.

The seven of us made our way back to the manor in a procession more depressed than the funeral of a hundred press representatives. Once inside, we all wandered off in different directions. Patsy went to punch something. Ella went to the library, probably to find a sappy romance novel to drive away her sorrows. Amy fulfilled her earlier vow and went to raid the marquess's liquor cabinet. I was fairly sure that, by tomorrow, there wouldn't be a single drop of alcohol in the entire manor. Somehow, this didn't fill me with comfort, however.

Right now, could anything?

I didn't think so.

"So...what now?"

Listlessly, I looked up to see who had spoken. It was Eve. Lively, energetic Eve. She didn't look very energetic right now.

"Now? Nothing."

"N-nothing? You can't mean—"

"Yes." I nodded numbly. "We've lost." The realisation was really hard to swallow. But I had to. I had to come to grips with reality. "We've really, truly lost. There's nothing we can do to prevent this from happening, unless a miracle happ—"

Wham!

My head jerked up at the sudden sound of a door crashing against the wall. There in the doorway stood Ella, her hair in wild tangles, a frenzied look in her eyes.

"What the—"

But before I could get more than those two words out, she strode forward and grabbed my wrist.

"Come with me."

"Huh? Why would—?"

Once more, she didn't let me finish my sentence. With surprising strength for such a gentle slip of a girl, she pulled me to my feet and started dragging me over towards the door. "Come with me! Now!"

In a blink, I found myself being pulled up to my feet and dragged towards the door. Stumbling over my feet, I nearly fell over face first while trying to keep up with my little sister, but she didn't stop.

"Ella? What's the matter? What is wrong with you?"

"I was in the library right now, reading this book, and I found...I found...oh, come along! I've got to show you!"

She doubled her pace and I had to break into a run to keep step in step with her. Behind me, the others—or at least those who were sober enough—quickly rose from their seats and rushed after us. I threw a glance over my shoulder and, from their faces, I could tell they were just as confused as I was.

"Show me what? What could be this important now of all times?"

"You'll see when we get there."

Those were the last words she spoke to me before she dragged me into the corridor, and the door slammed shut behind us.

***

"All right, girls, that's it!" The door flew open and Patsy stalked into the room, steel-reinforced parasol clenched in one fist. "I've had enough of this miserable charade, Lilly! We're going to—"

It was only then that she noticed she was alone in the room, with one exception.

"Hick?" the smiling Amy in the corner hiccupped, saluting her with a half-filled bottle in hand.

"Oh. They're all gone."

"Hick."

"So...I've got this brilliant plan."

"Hick?"

"Adaira's father is obviously a massive arsehole."

"Y-you dodledidoo...don't say?"

"Yes. So, to make him less of an arsehole, I am going to find him and kick his arse until it doesn't have a hole anymore."

"A-aye?"

"Yep. So...want to accompany me?"

"S-sounds like a spidledidledy...a spiffing idea!"

"Fantastic! I knew a smart young woman like you would agree with my brilliant idea! Let's go!"

***

"Ella! Oy, Ella! Slow down!"

Ella didn't seem to be in the mood to slow down. Instead, my gentle little sister tightened her grip on me as if she were a professional wrestler and once more sped up her pace. Without glancing back once, she dragged me towards the door of the library, past a startled librarian and into a secluded corner behind some shelves. A corner where someone had clearly suffered from a fit of book addiction. Stacks of tomes were piled up everywhere. Every single one of the titles and covers that peeked out of the piles of books contained words like "love" or "heart" or "passion".

"Ehem." Ella cleared her throat. "I might have been somewhat despondent and gone on a little bit of a reading binge."

I cocked my head. "You don't say."

"But that's not the point! Those books don't matter! What matters is what I discovered. Wait here!"

And with that, she disappeared between the shelves. My brow furrowed, and I exchanged confused glances with my friends. They seemed to be just as puzzled as I was.

"Here you go!"

Those words announced Ella's return. She came waddling around the corner with something massive in her arms. A moment later, she was in front of me, and—

"Here."

Bam!

—with a thunderous sound, a tome thick enough to beat someone to death with landed on the desk before me. I glanced up at her, and she pointed at the book.

"Read this."

I glanced down at the book again. It was a leatherbound volume that seemed to have a permanent patina of dust covering it. On the front cover, faded letters announced:

A Complete Compendium of the Time-Honoured Laws of Inheritance of the Most Noble Houses of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, with an Appendix Detailing the Original Sources

Looking up at Ella, I cocked an eyebrow. "After what happened today, you don't think I'm depressed enough already? Do you actually want me to commit suicide from boredom?"

"Not all of it, you nincompoop! Just read this part, right here!"

Grabbing the book, she opened it at a page she had marked with a dog-ear. I shivered at the sight. If the librarian caught sight of that, I wouldn't have to commit suicide. All of us would be murdered on the spot.

Get it together, Lilly. There are more important things to deal with right now than little details like staying alive.

Ella had stormed into the room with such a frantic look on her face, and then dragged me off to this place immediately. The only reason, the only explanation I could possibly think of, was that...that she had found a way to save...

No! Don't get your hopes up, Lilly! Don't!

But I was unable to resist. Lowering my eyes to the page in front of me, I found the spot Ella was pointing at with her forefinger, and...

My jaw dropped.

-----------------------------------------------

My dear Readers,

I bet you won't be able to guess my solution to the problem. I've been planning this since the beginning of the series, and I must admit, I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

Countdown: Five chapters left! :)

Yours Truly

Sir Rob