Twas the weekend. Eli did not have rehearsal today. It pleased Mary to know her husband would be with her during the entire day, but so far - right before luncheon - she had not seen him a lot. He was there when she woke up, and when they had breakfast together. After that, he seemed to have disappeared.

So when she was annoyed because she did not see him as much as she thought she would, she walked to the butler - who also served as footman.

"Owen, do you know the whereabouts of my husband?"

The man nodded his head and told her: "he is in his study."

She thanked him with a grateful smile, then made her way through the hallway and entered Eli's study.

"What are you doing?" she asked severely, crossing her arms over her chest.

Eli looked up from the papers he held in his hand. "Working," he said as if it was the most obvious thing. Which it was, of course, though it was not obvious why he was doing that.

"You said you would be home today," she said disappointed.

"I am home," he argued while opening his arms, motioning at the study around him.

Mary sighed. "But you are working. I thought you would be home to spend time with me and the children."

"I will," he promised her. "I will. But not now yet."

"After luncheon?" she asked hopeful.

"I- Maybe. I will see."

She sighed again, disappointed of her husband's absence despite his presence. Twas not because someone's body was here, that his mind was paying attention.

With a nod, she turned around and left him to work. He had made her a promise, and she would not allow him to back down on it. But when she and the children went down for luncheon, he was not there. Not even during luncheon he showed, and when they exited the room, there was still no sight of him.

After luncheon, he had promised. So she waited a few more hours. But it was almost four and she still had not seen Eli, she got angry and stormed inside his study.

"What now, Eli?" she asked angrily, throwing her arms open. "You are still working? Or mayhap you just do not want to spend time with me."

Startled, he looked up, shock obviously on his face. "What?" he asked, as if he had not heard her words.

She sighed and dropped her arms in defeat. "What indeed. What are you doing, Eli? What is your excuse this time?"

"Excuse?" he asked confused, but he also seemed a bit offended. Mary was not bother by it, though, for she had had enough of forgiving him just to keep the peace.

"Yes, Eli. What is your excuse this time for not really being here?"

"Mary, you are speaking in riddles. I do not know what you mean."

She walked closer to his desk and leaned on it. "Then tell me when was the last time we truly had a conversation? Twas not last night, for then I fell asleep alone. Neither was it this morning, for you were kissing me to avoid all conversation. But twas also not yesterday either, for you were not home all day. And the same thing happened the day before and the day before that. There is always something, Eli! And you are never with me."

Eli pursed his lips and his eyes bore into hers. He seemed uneasy, and he took a deep breath. But Mary was not going to comfort him. Not now. She was too angry at his constant absence to make him feel comfortable, so she just gave him a challenging look.

"Mary, tis not that easy," he said softly. He took a paper of his desk and turned it around so that she could read it. "We do not have a lot of money anymore."

She looked down at the paper filled with letters and numbers, but she did not understand anything of it. So she took his word for it and looked back up at him. "So?"

"So, I will have to work more."

"What?" Mary asked. Then said: "No!"

"We have no other choice, darling," Eli said. "We need more money, and we can only do that if I work more."

Tis true that as the adult man of their family, he was the only person who could work and earn them money. "But you already work so much!" she argued.

"And tis not enough," he explained. "The plays are not pleasing enough for the people, and they are not successful enough for us to earn our money back."

They had invested money in the play so that it could launch, but Mary did not think it what extremely much. Yet now it seemed that mayhap it was a mistake. Mayhap they had invested too much money, and it came back to haunt them now. Was the unsuccess of the play the reason they were out of money now?

"Eli, darling, please," she begged. "Do not work more. You already barely here. I miss you. And I fear the children will soon forget who you are."

He chuckled softly and said: "they will not forget their own father that quickly."

"No, but they will be disappointed when I have to tell them - again - that you are not home." He looked down with a sigh and shook his head softly. "I too miss you," Mary admitted.

"It will change," Eli promised. "Everything will change when the next play is a success and we can earn back what we deserve."

Mary shook her head. "Do not promise me things you might not be able to accomplish. Do not give me hope on money, Eli. Promise me that you will come home to me every night, and that I can fall asleep next to you every night."

He stood up and took her face in his hands. "Of course I will come home every day. And I could not stand it to let you sleep alone. I promise you that every morning I will wake you up with a kiss on your beautiful lips. And then I will go and conquer the world."

"Conquer the world," she repeated with a smile. It sounded both good and frightening. Good because it would mean his play was loved and successful, and they had money to feed their children. But frightening because a leader had many responsibilities.

And so little time.

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Eli could not come with Mary to Elizabeth's house.

He had to work.

He had found a second occupation in a nearby bookshop, working like a poor man would. Mary hated it. Not because the Byron name might lose the power their name held, but because Eli did not like it. He did not want to stack other people's imagination that was successful. He wanted to make his own. And he deserved it, only people did not see that.

So while he was in the stupid bookshop, Mary and the three children took the carriage and went to meet her family. Thomas and his family had arrived back in London, and he had arranged for an urgent meeting. What it was about, Mary did not know. But she feared it was nothing good.

Upon arriving at Hawthorne Hall and entering the building, she could feel the uneasy tension straight away. So she looked at Elizabeth and asked: "what is going on?"

Her sister sighed and shook her head. "I do not know the details either. Thomas was quite vague about his reasons for this meeting. But I fear it is about Arthur."

"Arthur?" she asked surprised, but then she gasped. "Please do not tell me he is back."

"I am afraid so," she admitted with a sad look on her face. "But I do not know what drove Thomas to this meeting."

"Then mayhap we must meet him and listen to his words," Mary suggested. She left Phoebe, Nora and Eddie in the play room with Elizabeth's children and their nanny before she went to the parlour of the house.

Everyone was already there. It seemed she was the last one to arrive. And after greeting her three siblings and their spouses, she took a seat next to Elizabeth and watched as Thomas stood up.

"I fear I have bad news," her two year older brother said. "Arthur is back, and I do not think he has anything good on his mind."

"I know he does not have anything good on his mind," Andrew added.

Mary frowned. "How so?"

The oldest Brompton son sighed and gave his wife's hands a squeeze. "He knows of Vicky's illness, and he send a letter to gloat with his knowledge."

"Or to fear us all," William suggested.

"He was here as well," Elizabeth said, nodding to show she agreed with her husband. "He somehow found the teddy bear I had hidden in my wardrobe after he gave it to me the first time. Evan had found it in the play room and wanted to play with it."

"How did he get in?" Madilyn asked.

"I do not know," Elizabeth had to admit. "Not even the servants noticed anything."

"Neither did mine," Victoria said, "and he was living in my attic."

"I do not know how he does it, but he has a great ability for sneaking into places where he should not be," Thomas said. "Like here, Andrew's house and even ours."

"Yours?" Andrew asked surprised. "What did Arthur do in your house?"

"He came to visit," Madilyn said with her eyebrows raised, obviously not liking the fact that her brother-in-law had come unexpectant into their home.

"He burnt many papers I had in my desk," Thomas said while he laid his hand on his wife's knee. Mary watched the little gestures of their siblings - Andrew hand holding Victoria's, Thomas' hand on Madilyn's knee and Elizabeth wrapping her arm around William's - and could only feel alone. They all had someone who supported them, or who they wished to support.

But Mary, she had no one. Her husband was not here to touch her and comfort her. Her husband was not here to whisper in her ear that all will be alright. Eli could not remind her of the time he allowed his brothers to beat Arthur up, she had to remind herself of that story.

So she was not only bothered with the fact that Arthur was present again in their lives, but also that Eli was not.

"Everything I had on him," Thomas continued, "is burnt to ashes." He brought his hands to his hair in a move of despair. "I have to start all over again with everything I have found on him."

"How did he know of the papers?" Mary wondered out loud. "He probably had assumptions that you had papers of him, but how did he know where to find them?"

Thomas sighed. "That is another question I cannot answer. Just like I cannot answer how he knew where to find the bear of who told him of Victoria's illness."

"He must have been inside the house for a while," William guessed. "He must have looked through the entire estate while we were all gone."

"But we have servants here when we are gone," Elizabeth argued.

"Then mayhap he needed more than one day."

"Or mayhap he has been watching us for longer than we think," Victoria guessed. "He can be in our houses without us ever knowing of it."

"Do you think he lives in your attic again?" Elizabeth asked.

Both Victoria and Andrew shook their head. "We have searched the entire house after finding the letter," Andrew said. "There was no evidence of him staying there like he had done before."

"And the servants would notice," Victoria added. "They were so frightened last time, that they doubt everything in the house."

"It could be possible he stays in our houses," Madilyn admitted. "We certainly would not notice with all the noises from the too many people there."

"But mayhap he still lives in Everton," Mary wondered.

Thomas shook his head right away. "The police are waiting for him there. If anyone enters that house, the hiding men will come out of the trees and capture him."

"Mayhap he can just watch through the windows," Elizabeth assumed. "We do not like closing the curtains. Would that be how he knows what happens inside?"

"Tis not possible that he could see the bear through the window," Andrew noted. "And he cannot hear our conversations through it either. Nor can he read Thomas' papers from afar."

"So," Mary concluded eventually. "Arthur has entered each of your houses, but not mine. Does that mean he has something worse in store?"