William Wakefield was already waiting for them, in all his rakish and handsome glory, by the time the equally infuriating dance was over. His friend's blue eyes had never left Tori, and it took Levi one glance to know what the cad was thinking.

And he could not permit it.

"Go over to Margaret," he whispered to Tori, but Wakefield was as fast as one of his mother's stallions.

"Levi!" Wakefield was all smiles as he approached, but his eyes were on his target. He felt Tori go still beside him. "I am afraid I cannot wait for an introduction from you, so let me do it myself." He turned his lean form to face Tori and bowed, "William Hayward, Lord of Wakefield. It will be my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Victoria."

"You know me?"

Levi gritted his teeth at Tori's obvious happy ignorance. Of course, the bloody bastard knew her name. Levi would wager Wakefield had learned it not ten minutes ago.

"Ah, yes," he said, smiling at Wakefield. "Tori, meet William Wakefield, the biggest rakehell in town."

Wakefield's eyes snapped toward him before he focused his attention back on Tori. "That is the common misconception of my poor, innocent reputation, my lady."

"Tori, I see Margaret is looking for you," Levi said through his teeth, eyes on Wakefield, filled with warning.

"What do you mean? She is talking to the twins and Ralph," Tori replied, looking around with an innocent frown.

He gave her a tiny push, which she finally took as a sign that her presence was no longer wanted. She gave Wakefield a shy curtsy before sauntering away.

Wakefield glared at Levi. "We meet again after many months. Or is it years? When was the last time we saw each other? Was it when we went hunting down south? But no matter. What I mean to say is that after a long time of not seeing each other, the first thing you do is deprive me of the company of a beautiful woman. Where are your manners?"

There was a playful glint in Wakefield's blue eyes. Levi could never blame the many women who had cried for the bastard. He was handsome, his blond hair perfect for his rough features. His blue eyes appeared gentle under thick eyebrows, giving him an overall confident mien. He was also a dandy, always dressed in naught but the latest fashionable articles.

If wealth was to be considered, William Wakefield was a perfect candidate. But he would never be a good husband. He saw women as a passing fancy. Should they ever give anything to him, they must expect nothing in return but his time in bed. Levi never saw the man keeping a mistress for more than a year.

"You stay away from her, Wakefield," Levi warned.

Wakefield's brows cocked high. "Are you by chance planning to offer for her? Or is she already yours? Has my mother neglected to share more Everard gossips?"

Levi's eyes narrowed. "No, but she is looking for a husband, not a lover."

"A husband..." Wakefield said, his voice trailing in consideration. "I wonder why? She has remained unmarried for years, has she not?"

"And you know so much about her now because?"

Wakefield laughed and gave him a friendly slap. "I knew of Victoria Ashdown for years, Levi. She is amongst the list of women I vowed never to touch, but the said list has also been put aside for future consideration. I am afraid my mother is now amongst those who pester."

"Do not do anything that would cause you our friendship, Wakefield. Stay away from Victoria."

Wakefield looked over Levi's shoulder to where Tori was, eyes filled with longing and disappointment. He sighed and stared back at Levi. "Very well. For now."

"Forever."

"For now, my friend. Now, tell me why you never answered my letters. Never saw you at any Theobald Ball either. Are you hiding some macabre things in Standbury? If not for your brother's scandal, I am certain you would not have come home."

"I enjoy Standbury."

"When do I get to visit? I have been asking your brothers. They refuse to give me the direction to your lair."

"You are not welcome there, Wakefield. Do not even try."

Wakefield blinked. "Why?"

Because there are demons there, he replied in his mind before saying aloud, "It is not a place for your weekend parties and scandalous activities."

Wakefield laughed. "You must have been away for too long then," he said, shaking his head, "I have not been as rakish as I was three years ago, my friend. I am a changed man."

"I highly doubt that," Levi replied, remembering all the years he witnessed Wakefield go around town with different women. Often, he and some of their other friends had to wonder how many bastards Wakefield all over the Town itself.

"But I have. You ask my dear mother and she would vow that I am a changed man."

Levi scoffed. "Your mother still believes you drink milk before bedtime, you bastard."

Wakefield feigned a dramatic sigh. "I am afraid so. She still believes to this day that compared to my brother, I am an angel."

"You mean the one sent down from heaven to hell," he retorted. "Where is the gaming room?"

His friend's face lit up. "Now, that is the right question. Come, my old friend, your throne in the gaming room has been waiting. Should we go to Grey's instead? I'm certain your brothers are also there. Well, at least Nick and Maxwell will be."

Ah, Grey's. His forever home before Standbury. "Perhaps later," he murmured.

***

Thinking with his head clouded with spirit was utterly impossible, much more so when he was thinking of names of every bloody bastard that might willingly take Victoria Ashdown for a wife.

His brothers spent the night with him, drinking in their mother's parlor after a long night at Grey's with Wakefield. Benedict had retired after Agatha found them endlessly laughing over a fallen book. Ralph was too foxed he fell asleep on the carpet. Nicholas and Maxwell rolled him out of the parlor like a log before they hauled him up the stairs.

None came back, leaving Levi to think of Tori and how she looked gloriously wonderful earlier. He had never really told her, never felt the need to give praises, but now that he was foxed he wished he did.

That light blue gown was not the best in the room, but it hugged the right places. In fact, it was too simple that one was forced to look up and find the beauty wearing it.

But he never told the twins or Margaret they looked glorious in their gowns. Why would he treat Tori otherwise?

Now, back to the list. He needed to make one.

He groaned, eyes shut tight. Who would take a beautiful woman with a streak of dry humor—one often left unappreciated—for a wife? Not to add that she was eight and twenty, and very much a virgin. No man older would want to bother with a virgin. Unless he found Tori a well-bred, righteous gentleman if they were ever around.

Mayhap he needed sleep, he thought. Total darkness and sleep crept in fast.

He would make the dratted list on the morrow.

***

"What happened to all of you?" asked Tori when she saw the five Everard brothers drinking tea in the parlor. Their eyes looked tired, their faces puffy and pale with a look of someone who had just been served mild poison.

"They almost emptied their father's entire collection of brandy bottles last night," Benedict's wife, Agatha, said in a disapproving tone. Wearing a pair of spectacles, she was sitting beside Margaret and the pair appeared to have been having a word with the brothers when Tori came in.

"I am fine," Benedict said, straightening in his seat with a soft grunt. No, he did not appear fine. His scarred face looked like it could use a few extra hours in bed.

"Well, of course, you are. Agatha dragged you out of the parlor before you drowned yourself," Margaret snapped. "Mother will have a fit once she found out about the brandies."

Ralph scoffed. "Maggie, half of the bottles in that collection are just pure water."

The two ladies gasped in horror. Margaret threw her book in the general direction of her brothers. Two or three of them lifted their legs to dodge it.

Tori looked past Nicholas, Maxwell, and Ralph to assess Levi's state. Apart from the swollen eyes, he seemed mildly fine.

"You finish your tea and do not let mother see all of you before supper," Margaret ordered. "Levi, get off your arse. Tori is here."

"And?" Levi asked, his voice croaky.

"And I believe you have something I need." Her tone was filled with meaning.

Levi groaned, rubbing his face with his hands as he leaned back in his chair. "It is currently in my head."

"And?"

"I have not gotten to the dreadful task of writing it down."

"If you did not sleep in the parlor, you might have found a pen," Margaret said.

"Write what down?" Maxwell asked, opening one eye.

"Get up," Margaret said, pulling Levi off his chair. "And write the bloody list down."

"What list?" Ralph asked.

"Not your bloody business," Levi muttered, wobbly walking closer to Tori. "Upstairs," he told her, dragging his feet out of the parlor without another word.

They encountered the twins upstairs, walking toward them with their black cat, Mrs Beagle. "Where is everybody?" Emma asked.

"Parlor," said Levi, pulling Tori along with him.

The twins looked at their hands. Even Mrs Beagle turned her head in Ysabella's arms to stare. "And where are you going with Tori?" Ysabella asked.

"Not your bloody business," Levi snapped at his sisters.

"We have business to discuss," she said in a milder tone, throwing the twins a smile of apology for their obviously vexed and slightly foxed brother. The twins shrugged and went on their way. "You are angry," she said to Levi as he opened a door and led her inside. She looked around and gasped. "And we are in your bedchamber."

The last she remembered being here was when she and Margaret were ten or eleven, playing hide and seek. Levi and Nicholas ended up locking them inside until Lady Alice found them howling in tears.

Levi did not answer and went straight to a small table by the bed and picked up a dipping pen.

Tori swallowed and closed the door. The list ought to be kept private, she reasoned. Walking closer to where he was, she began, "Do make certain they are eligible. And your handwriting legible."

"Do not talk for a while, Tori. My head is quite ready to explode as we speak," he murmured wryly, tone laced with annoyance.

"You drank that much?" she asked, sitting on his bed, feeling comfortable. His head was bent over the paper as he wrote, his black hair falling over his forehead, and her heart started to hammer.

The anticipation for the list was apparently a serious matter. Or mayhap it was the fact that she was in his bedchamber and he was here—Levi Everard, home in Wickhurst. In his bedchamber. With her.

"You do realize that you will have to introduce me to those gentlemen in the list, yes? Margaret said so last night."

"Hmm," he muttered.

"And you also—"

"Be quiet, Tori," he warned.

Tori bit her lips in anticipation, summoning patience.

***

The twins waited until they heard the sound of the door closing. They shared a look before Emma hurried down the stairs while Ysabella went straight outside Levi's door with Mrs Beagle in her arms.

"Hush, Mrs Beagle," she said to the fat cat when it mewled.

Emma returned not two minutes later, catching her breath with a triumphant smile on her face. She held up her hand to show Ysabella the set of keys.

"Do it," Ysabella ordered.

"I took it. You do it," Emma said.

"I am holding Mrs Beagle!" Ysabella hissed back.

Emma rolled her eyes, pressed her ear against the door for a moment, and looked for the right key, searching through the faded labels. She found the right one and inserted it through the keyhole. Ysabella flinched at the sound, and Emma jumped back in alarm.

Nevertheless, they were successful. They were used to picking locks, and the excitement of doing the opposite was exhilarating.

Ysabella beamed at her sister and buried her face in Mrs Beagle's black furs.

They turned and stopped dead when they bumped against Benedict.

Oh, for the love of all that was holy, why did it have to be the beast!

Benedict's eyes narrowed down at them before they turned to Levi's closed—now locked—door, to the set of keys in Emma's hand and back at them. "You better not be seen with the keys," were his exact words before he walked past between them.

The twins gawked at his back and then at each other. "Oh, praise Agatha for taming the beast!" Ysabella breathed out in relief.

"Or he might still be foxed," said Emma with a chuckle, pulling her sister away and down the stairs. "We have keys to hide, Ysa," she added. "And then perhaps we can join the other siblings in the parlor for tea."

***

Levi finally stopped scribbling. He replaced his dipping pen in its holder and stood up.

When he turned to face Tori, she was sitting on his bed.

His bed.

And she looked as though she belonged there.

The thought horrified him, and he immediately brushed it off with a shake of his head.

Sister. She was a sister. A friend and a sister.

"Well?" she asked, standing to her feet. The lighter streaks in her hair morphed in the light passing through his windows. They now appeared to be white and glowing as she moved.

He blinked and reached out his hand. She took the careful steps toward him.

Good Lord, she looked blinding.

There was something in the picture of Tori walking toward him, his bed behind her, that made his heart leap.

Her fingertips lightly brushed his hand when she reached for the paper.

His eyes studied her face as she began to read.

"Hmm," she said when she was finally done.

"I have spent hours squeezing my brain for that list, Tori, and all I get is a sound not even close to a syllable."

"I do not recognize all, save for two," she said, face blank.

"You do not?" he asked. "Not vaguely, even?"

"Yes," she said, now staring at him dryly. "Save for two."

He shrugged, stepping aside to walk to his bed. Now that it was within reach, he felt tired.

"Levi, why did you include Maxwell and Nicholas!" Tori finally erupted behind him.

"Because they are eligible bachelors," he murmured, falling into the bed. Ah, his head ached. And other parts of him were stirring awake at the thought of Tori in his bedchamber.

No, that was not right. Other parts of him were stirring with the thought of a woman in his bedchamber. There, a better and more acceptable statement.

"We are done here, Tori. Remove yourself from my chamber. We may be friends and you may be considered family here, but you are still a woman and we do not wish for the servants to start wagging their tongues."

"But you included two of your brothers in the list!" she cried out, ignoring his last remark about the servants.

"Feel lucky I did not include myself," he replied dryly.

"Clarence Chattoway, Robert Wittlock, Jordan Archibald, Nathaniel Halbard, Cage Harland, Maxwell Everard, Nicholas Everard..." she read as he buried his face in the pillow. "Have you gone insane? I do not know the first five on this bloody list and those that I know are your brothers!"

"One of those five will do. The last two are merely collaterals." His voice was muffled by the pillow.

"Collaterals? Levi—"

Levi had had enough and rolled on his back to glare at her from the bed. "Was it not you who insisted on that bloody list? Now that you have it, you are complaining. You have not even met the five you claim to not know. And by the by, thank you to me for making that list."

She tightly closed her mouth before speaking. "Then perhaps I should prepare to meet them."

"Meet them?"

"Of course. That is the point of this list. For Margaret and I to target them."

"Target them how?"

"Surely one or two of them will attend," she murmured more to herself than him.

Levi pushed himself up in bed to fix her a narrowed gaze. "Attend what?"

She gave him a half-hearted smile. "The Theobald weekend party."