Andrew walked up to the big house on the edge of London's centre. The estate stood quite lonely, but the road nearby was used often as it was the only one leading to the many cities nearby. Twas a house big enough for ten families to live in.

Yet Andrew's sister, Elizabeth, and Hawthorne were the only ones constantly enjoying the beauty the estate hid. They had purchased the house when they married, selling Hawthorne's old estate outside London. They seemed to enjoy their lives here, but were spotted inside London quite often as well.

The butler opened the door and guided Andrew to the parlor, leaving him there to fetch his master and mistress. Not much later, the door opened and Elizabeth sauntered inside the room. He could not help but look at her pale yellow dress. Did she always wear such vague colours?

"Andrew," she said with a smile, and walked up to him to give him a hug.

"Good afternoon, Elizabeth. May I say you look great today."

"She always does, Duncan," Hawthorne's voice said from behind them as he entered the room.

Elizabeth looked at her brother with her mouth open. "You are so cheerful today," she said surprised.

"You seem shocked over my happiness," Andrew stated, but could not hold back his smile. He was happy indeed.

"I have not seen you this happy for a long time, tis all."

He looked at Hawthorne, who was standing just a few paces away. "My sister thinks I'm a bore."

"That's not what I said!" Elizabeth said with a slap on his arm, at the same time as Hawthorne said "she is correct."

Elizabeth turned around to look at her husband, her mouth hanging open once again. "Did you just agree with me?" she asked incredible.

Hawthorne ignored her and motioned with his hand that they should all take a seat. "Whatever made you this cheerful, Duncan?"

"Can I not be happy for no reason?" Andrew asked as he sat down.

"You can, but it has never happened to you."

"O my, you two really seem to believe in me," Andrew said in jesting offence.

Elizabeth and Hawthorne laughed, but quickly their eyes turned serious. "Your letter said you had a request for us."

"Not for the both of you," Andrew corrected, "only for you, Elizabeth."

"Whatever could you need me for?" Elizabeth asked, already weary of what was yet to come.

Hawthorne chuckled. "He does not trust me anymore since I went behind his back to fulfil your mother's request of asking about the rumour."

Andrew nodded in agreement. "But you would also not be the right person, Hawthorne. You are too male."

"Thank you," he simply said.

"Now, tell me," Elizabeth urged, "what is it you want me to do."

Andrew smiled at his sister. "You would make me very happy if you did it," he pleaded, trying to convince her to say yes before she knew what she was accepting.

"Even more happy than you already are?" Hawthorne asked in jest.

Elizabeth could not supress a smile as she said: "I do really wish to know what made you this happy."

"Or who," Hawthorne added.

"I had a nice day yesterday, tis all," Andrew said, shrugging with one shoulder.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "What did you do? Beat up some men in a pub?"

"No, darling," Hawthorne jested, "he would never be happy with such failure."

Elizabeth laughed and Andrew simply rolled his eyes. "No," he answered Elizabeth's question. "I spend some time with lady Victoria."

"Lady Victoria?" Elizabeth asked.

"The lady living in the Jones House," Andrew clarified.

She still did not seem to know who this lady was, until Hawthorne said: "Lady Blackburn, darling."

Elizabeth's eyes went wide. "Lady Blackburn?! Are you so chummy with her that you call her lady Blackburn no more?"

Hawthorne laughed and Andrew rolled his eyed - again. That was certainly not the reaction he expected from his sister. He had expected to be fired at with questions as to what he was doing at the lady's house, and why he would be there. But no, his sister wondered why he did not call her formally anymore.

"Have you become chummy with her?" Elizabeth asked when she realized Andrew would not react to her previous question.

"No, I have not," he responding, shaking his head in the process. "But I have spent some time with her and gained the privilege to call her lady Victoria."

"This is the woman who is a bore at balls, no?" Elizabeth asked, still not certain they were speaking of the same woman. "Who is in the midst of a rumour alongside you?"

"Yes, Elizabeth, it is her." He stopped himself from rolling his eyes again. Instead of asking for his request, Elizabeth was now establishing lady Victoria's life story. "Speaking of lady Victoria and balls, that is where my request lies."

"Ah, yes," Elizabeth said, "my husband has told me of your silly idea."

Andrew supressed a sigh. "Tis not a silly idea, Elizabeth. Tis a genius plan."

"A genius plan to befriend a woman who does not seem to want friends?"

Andrew raised an eyebrow as he watched his sister. "I did not think you would be so shallow, Elizabeth."

His sister sighed and looked Andrew straight in the eye, certainty displayed all over her. "I do not condemn the lady for wanting to be alone, for I understand it. And when I ask to be alone, I do not want any of my siblings - or my husband - to come knocking on my door. So do not think that I would invite a stranger to do the same."

"But Elizabeth, you are good with people," he begged. "Surely you can find a way into the lady's heart."

"Why do you suddenly care for the lady's heart?" Hawthorne asked serious.

Andrew sighed and admitted: "I feel guilty for making her the topic of every Londoner's whispers."

"And instead of leaving her alone, you visit her and push your sister toward her?" Elizabeth asked.

"I have a plan for that, dear sister. She will not have the feeling that I am pushing you toward her."

"Truly? You have a plan? And it will be subtle?"

"Yes, dear Elizabeth." O yes, he was aware of the compliments he threw at her. He only hoped he did not sound as desperate as he thought he did. "I want you to teach her how to dance."

While Hawthorne laughed at his words, Elizabeth raised an eyebrow - again - incredible. "Teach her how to dance? I am fairly certain those services are not needed, Andrew. Every woman knows how to dance."

"But not lady Victoria," Andrew said, silencing his brother-in-law.

"She cannot dance?" he asked, seemingly not believing his own words. "Certainly you must be mistaken there, Duncan. She is a lady, and like you said at the Birmingham ball, she is probably too insecure to show it."

Andrew shook his head. "No," he said self-assured, "she is not too insecure. And she cannot dance. She told me so herself."

"She truly cannot dance? Or she was giving you an excuse so that she does not need to dance with you?"

While Hawthorne's question insulted him, his sister's question surprised him.

"She told you herself?" The room was instantly quiet as the couple looked at Andrew. He looked back at them, uncertain why they were so surprised at that.

Though it should not surprise him. While lady Victoria was very secluded and a mystery to many, Andrew was not the man to talk to and about women. He mostly kept to himself and - like he told lady Victoria - he had only five friends. Whatever made him beg his sister to befriend a woman who did not want to be connected to the Bromptons because of an impending rumour with one of them?

"You are quite chummy, then," Elizabeth noted, breaking Andrew's chain of thought.

"Call it what you want, Elizabeth. I merely want to help her." Hawthorne raised an eyebrow at him, but before he could say anything, Andrew added: "and I have no secret agenda. I truly want to help so that my guilt can be erased. Why is that so hard to believe?!"

Elizabeth and Hawthorne leaned their heads closer to each other so that they could talk without Andrew hearing them. He kept his gaze on them, waiting for them to finish their silent conversation, when he heard Hawthorne whisper: "no, I believe he does not know yet he has a secret agenda."

Elizabeth gasped, looking at her husband with her eyes wide. Before she could say anything to whoever she would address her next words, Andrew stood up and cleared his throat.

"I feel like I am too much here now, so I will take my leave now. Elizabeth, I hope you do the proper thing and teach lady Victoria to dance. And if you befriend her along the way, I will only be happier."

He turned around on his heels and left the room. Whatever husband and wife would talk about once he had left, would remain a mystery to him.

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

Later that day, while all the Bromptons living in the estate were dining, lady Anne asked Andrew about his day.

"I have not seen you all day long," she exclaimed.

"That is because you have not been looking in the right places, Mother."

"As far as I know, Mother," Thomas said, "you have not been looking at all. You have been using your personal spy, Mary."

"I am no spy!" Mary shouted at her one year older brother. "You are merely jealous that mother confides in me, and not in you."

"If you call reporting our whereabouts to her confiding in someone, then I do not miss out on anything."

Before Mary could give a response that would only make the discussion rage on harder, lady Anne interrupted her children. "We are going off topic, Mary."

Mary moved her gaze from Thomas to her mother and transformed it to a happy but naughty one. "Yes. Andrew, where have you gone to today?"

"I visited Elizabeth. Why do you ask?" He tried to be nonchalant about it, but it did not pay off.

"Again? That is the third day now!" his mother said.

Andrew nodded. He ought to find a better excuse before Mother suspected anything.

"Well," his mother asked, "what did she say?"

"Nothing much," Andrew simply answered, then quickly put food in his mouth so that his mother would not be inclined to ask another question.

"Are you certain you were with Elizabeth, and not with William in a pub?" Mary asked like a know it all.

Andrew through her a mean look. "Yes, I am certain I was not in a pub."

"I would have known if he was," Thomas added. That got him a surprised look from their mother. He quickly cleared his throat and quickly said: "of course, I was not there all day, so I cannot truly tell."

Lady Anne merely sighed and shook her head. What else was she to expect of men the age of her sons, Andrew thought. Thomas would be rather odd if he did not frequent pubs like other lords did. He would be looked at like Andrew got looked at. But the difference was that Andrew did not mind, while Thomas would.

Andrew knew he was different from most lords, and that he did not do the things that were expected of him – like marriage – but he truly did not care. He could not quite understand why other men would want to get married. Was it true that love was so blinding, that men forget their manliness? Or were women so complete that a man need no further prove of that manliness?

And what of a bad marriage? What if a man and woman who did not complete each other marry and promise their lives to each other? Would that not be an all-consuming choice that one would regret forever? Or would one learn to live with his or her decision?

Was this the reason why Andrew had not yet found the woman of his dreams, like Hawthorne had found his sister? Or was it because he was not accepted into the ton that he had not yet found her? Or was there a very different reason?

Whatever it was, the look his mother gave him from across the table was one in which he could easily read her hope for him to marry.