In the morning, long after he should have been out attending to business, Ferguson walked soundlessly down the carpeted hall outside his bedroom toward the front stairs. It was a technique he had perfected years earlier to escape the house without being harangued by his father, and the creaks in the floorboards were mercifully unchanged. His odd, swerving dance attracted a shocked stare from a passing chambermaid who momentarily forgot her place (and then blushed crimson as she bobbed a curtsy), but at least none of his sisters emerged from their rooms to accost him.

It was actually nice to spend time with them. After he promised not to force them into matches they didn't want, the twins regularly joined him for meals. Even Ellie dropped by occasionally, still brittle and guarded, but showing signs that she might someday forgive him.

But he didn't want to see them this morning, and he exhaled in relief as he reached the top of the steps unnoticed. The previous night had been dark and endless, as he lay in the bed he had never wanted to inherit and thought about the ruin that threatened to come down on all of them. He did not see a way to put the rumors to rest - other than the obvious solution Madeleine proposed. He didn't want to consider it, didn't want her to endanger herself when she was so close to being safe.

What was worse, though - her obvious panic when she first heard that Ferguson was suspected of murder? Or the slow condemnation that settled in her eyes when she thought he might abandon London? That condemnation had turned to anger when he offered to protect her by breaking the engagement - not that he could really bear the idea, and had already discarded it as he said the words. Besides, he suspected she would reveal herself if it came to that, whether he wanted her to or not.

He was so engrossed in thought, so focused on his feet, that he didn't realize he was being watched until he hopped over the last three steps of the main staircase and landed with a soft thud on the marble floor of the foyer. He looked up, expecting his butler. Ellie stood just inside the doorway, her arms crossed as she surveyed him with a knowing gleam in her blue eyes. Kate and Maria sat on a bench beside her, their soft lavender morning gowns an odd contrast to the lush royal blue of Ellie's riding habit. The twins each clutched a valise, and a neat pile of bandboxes sat on the floor beside them. From the way they both gaped at him, they had seen every step of his erratic descent.

"The servants will be sure of your madness if you always take the stairs like that," Ellie drawled.

He bowed, only slightly ironically. "I did not expect the pleasure of your company this morning, or I would have put away my madness for another day."

She smiled swiftly, and just as swiftly lapsed into a frown. "It isn't funny in the slightest. What I am hearing from the people who are brave or stupid enough to tell me will have us all cast out within a fortnight if you cannot sway public opinion."

"Is that why you're collecting the twins?" he asked, gesturing at their luggage. "They are safer with your reputation than mine?"

Ellie laughed. "You will have to do far worse than murder to saddle me with their guardianship." The twins both grinned; their relationship with Ellie had improved over the last few weeks as well, and they took no offense at Ellie's jest.

"Ellie said you will disappear again if the scandal grows," Kate said, sounding determined. "Maria and I have already packed what we care to bring in case you try to sneak away without us. We do not intend to let you go into exile alone."

He could tell them apart now - Kate had a slight quirk to her mouth when she smiled, and Maria had a small scar on her chin where she had accidentally banged it against her harp. Knowing who spoke did not comfort him, but knowing who they were made the words more personal. "So Ellie believes I shall run away?"

"Sneaking down those infernal steps was not an attempt to leave the house without alerting anyone?" Ellie asked.

"It is my house now. Surely I can leave however I wish."

"You could also have the steps fixed, but it doesn't signify. What matters is whether you are indeed running off to Scotland without so much as a farewell."

Ellie was no longer in good humor. Now that he saw the tension in her shoulders, the stiff way she crossed her arms as though trying to keep herself from falling apart, he realized that she expected him to abandon them again. "I am not leaving. Even at my most desperate, I wouldn't run off in a morning coat without a change of clothes," he pointed out. "And if I leave, I will invite you to come along, just as I did last time."

Her eyes turned cold. "There is no need to say your farewells in person. I'm sure a note shall suffice if you can spare a moment to write one."

"What else would you have me do?" he asked, impatient despite her pain. "I cannot disprove a rumor without any evidence for or against it."

"Will you at least take us to Scotland with you?" Maria pleaded. "London will not be the same with only Sophronia to chaperone us."

He looked at the twins. They were eager for an adventure - more excited than he had ever seen them while discussing their debuts. But they were also young, and beautiful, and long overdue for the social whirl. With his fortune, he could give them dowries large enough to buy out at least some suitors' concerns about his family's sanity.

"You would be bored to bits in Scotland," he said. "The nearest neighbor is miles away. There is barely any light in the winter, and far too much in the summer, particularly when you have nothing to do to occupy the days. And the clan tolerates me for my mother's sake and because my grandfather had no sons, but as a rule they do not like the English. You'd be begging to come back to London before the horses even cooled."

Kate and Maria exchanged one of their glances that encompassed an entire silent conversation. "Sounds rather like how we've lived until now," Kate said. "We would have more fun if you and Lady Madeleine were in residence."

She was so direct about the dim, narrow little lives they had lived that Ferguson's heart ached for them - they had no real idea what they had missed. "It's out of the question, my dears - you have so much more to live for here if you give it a chance."

"And you do not?" Ellie interjected, a hard edge to her voice.

"I had my chance, Ellie. If London has no use for me, I've no use for it."

He brushed past her for the door, needing to leave, to see Madeleine and believe they could muddle through this. A footman came out of his little alcove by the entrance to open the door, but Ellie placed her palm flat against the wood. Her glare sent the footman scurrying back like one who believed the rumors of madness.

"They would have a use for you if they knew you weren't a murderer," Ellie said urgently, refusing to back down even though he tried to give her his most quelling look. "If Marguerite would only return..."

She trailed off, mindful of the servants, and gave a sidelong glance at the twins. They were barely breathing, as though hoping to be taken into their older siblings' confidences but expecting to be sent off at any moment.

Then Ellie whispered, "I have an idea, if you would consider it?"

She held her breath too, but he saw no hope in her eyes - she steeled herself against the likelihood that he would choose to carry on without them.

He stared at the door above her head and remembered walking out of it in disgrace ten years earlier. It hadn't felt like disgrace, of course - it had felt like freedom. He actually whistled as he walked toward the carriage waiting to carry him to Scotland - a merry drinking tune that would have given his father fits if the old man had bothered to see him off.

But freedom wasn't all he imagined it to be. And if the twins would be out of place in Scotland, how would Madeleine - the real Madeleine, the lively, laughing temptress beneath her prim society façade - manage to survive the boredom?

He sighed. Ellie heard something in that sound that made her slump against the door in relief. "Very well. Into the library, all of you. I would rather not spend the whole morning here, if it pleases you."

It did please them - particularly the twins, who looked like they had been told they might accompany him to the moon. As he followed them to the library, he looked at his watch and sighed again. He needed to see Madeleine.

He didn't want to run. But could he let Madeleine risk herself for him when all he had to offer in return was a life she didn't seem to want?