Once Alexander had put me down and led me back into the house, we had all taken our seats in the parlor. Elena sat next to me, holding my hand, tears in her eyes as she was so happy to see me again. She had embraced me the moment her brother had let go, squeezing me tighter than anyone ever had and whispering how much she'd missed me. Nathaniel Harrison had given me a solemn nod and I'd been wondering how to interpret that when I saw Jake and Ada grinning from ear to ear at Alexander's reaction to my homecoming. Ada had hugged me as well, a rare show of affection from the tough cowgirl, and Jake had pat me on the back and welcomed me home with a tone full of meaning that I was too overwhelmed to grasp.

Now I sat on the loveseat with Elena, all eyes on me. Jake and Ada lounged on a couch nearby while Alexander leaned against the mantle, watching me closely, and Nathaniel stood off to Elena's side, arms crossed and face unreadable.

"How are you here?" I finally squeaked out when it was clear that no one else was going to be the first to speak up. Alexander's eyes flicked to Mr. Harrison.

"Nathaniel wrote to me the moment you moved in with the Keene's," Alexander spoke and the room fell eerily quiet at the culmination of his sentence. Jake and Ada looked down at their hands. Even Elena looked away from me. I looked slowly to Mr. Harrison, unsure yet of whether I felt angry or grateful.

"I won't apologize," he spoke up before I could decide. "Those people were dangerous and, though I understood what you were doing, I couldn't allow you to destroy yourself in the process. Edward agreed. You'd taken it too far. We decided Alexander should know."

Everyone waited with baited breath to see how I would take this betrayal. I wasn't sure myself. I had trusted Mr. Harrison with my secret. He had promised to keep it. But if he hadn't written to Alexander, I wouldn't be sitting here now. This all may not have been over.

"You did the right thing," I told him and the group released a collected sigh of relief. "I was in too deep. Living with them granted me knowledge that I otherwise would not have gotten and therefore the arrangement was necessary but I feared for my life every day within those walls. I'm grateful you've gotten me out of them."

For the first time since my arrival, Nathaniel Harrison smiled. He relaxed his shoulders as well and I realized he had been worried I would be angry with him, that I would not forgive him for what he had done. But how could I not? I was here now, back with all of them, and that may not have been the case had anything played out any differently than it had.

"When I got the letter," Alexander started again, slowly. His eyes were only on me as he spoke but I noticed the way Jake shifted in his seat. "I didn't know what was going on. Here I thought you were working for my father, living with my parents, and caring for your family while I was away. Then all of a sudden I get a letter from Nathaniel claiming you had moved in with the most dangerous family in the city. I... may not have composed myself very well upon hearing the news."

Jake snorted at the wording and Alexander's gaze snapped to him.

"Perhaps if I had been given some warning," Alexander chided.

"I made a promise to a friend, Alex," Jake said lowly. "You know how seriously I take those."

"Your friend was in danger, Jake. She put herself in danger. And you let her."

"I didn't give him a choice," I broke in and they both turned to look at me. "You know how I am when I put my mind to something, Alexander."

My utterance of his name softened him somewhat but he remained frowning at Jake.

"You should have seen the two of them," Ada said then, a huge grin on her face. "Fightin' in the dirt like a couple of hoodlums."

"Fighting?" Elena gasped, her hand shooting up to cover her open mouth. "Alexander!"

"Thank you, Ada," Alexander responded with a scowl. Ada just chuckled and sat back. "As I said, I did not compose myself well when I heard the news. Jake knew something. I was sure of it. He wasn't telling me what it was and I was desperate for information so we... got into an altercation. He still wouldn't tell me. Not until I shoved Nathaniel's letter in his face and he understood how much danger you were in."

"So we got on the next boat," Jake interrupted, seeing that Alexander was getting angry again. "I filled him in on all the details on the way. He was... furious, to say the least."

"When we got here, Nathaniel met us at the docks. Elena was with him. I guess he told her everything too," Ada continued and I turned to Elena who gave a slight nod and a sad smile before she pat me on the knee encouragingly. "He told us he'd just dropped off some evidence to the Chief Detective, said he thought they were fixin' to knock down Keene's door. We went straight on to the police station."

"What was the evidence?" Alexander asked then, leaning forward in interest. At least, he hadn't lost his love of investigation. I smiled and settled in. I told them all of it. The list that Ryland had compiled of men suspected to be underneath the Keene family thumb, the gossip I had overheard from the complicit wives, the letters Mr. Campbell had given me which had served as the final nail in the Keene's coffin. I told them about Higgins and about the space underneath the loose floorboard where I hid all of my proof. But I kept my account purely about the evidence. I did not tell them much more of the time I spent in the Keene manor. I would sooner forget it if I could.

"Now, if you don't mind, I should visit my family," I said after some time of conversation, standing to my feet and brushing off my skirts as I did. Alexander took a step forward immediately.

"Charlotte, you should rest. You-"

"I've been missing from their lives for far too long. They deserve the same explanation as you."

I could see the argument in his eyes but he only nodded.

"Let me escort you," he said and I shook my head.

"You have to trust me," I told him carefully, placing a hand gently upon his arm to assure him. "I've kept myself safe this long. I can manage a trek across the city to visit my family as I've done a hundred times before."

He hesitated again but then nodded before instructing me, "Take Harold."

I smiled back at him and went to find the driver. He was near the stables, having just fed the horses. He did not see me when I approached.

"I owe you a gratitude I can never begin to express," I spoke and he turned to me.

"You owe me nothing, Miss Porter," he told me with a smile. "What are friends for?"

I raised a brow at the term he'd used.

"You're in that box now?" I asked in reference to a conversation we'd had so long ago.

"I saw you with Mr. Langley on the walk when you got home," he told me with a smile. "I imagine I've always been in that box."

I took a step forward and kissed him gently on the cheek before whispering, "Thank you, Harold. Truly."

He nodded his head and returned to the business of asking me where I was headed. I told him and, though he frowned in apparent disapproval, he led me off to the carriage all the same.

A bumpy ride and several minutes later found me in the merchant's district of London. But Harold did not stop the carriage on the curb of a familiar butcher's shop. Instead, he pulled up beside a large men's clothiers with a sign in the window that stated it would be closed indefinitely. As I emerged from the carriage, I saw the faint glow of the light within the shop and prepared myself.

"I can come in," Harold whispered as I stepped toward the door. I merely shook my head and twisted the knob.

The bell overhead chimed as I stepped inside. The lights were all off. The far corners of the shop, previously aglow with candlelight washing over the fine fabrics of suits and the glimmering faces of watches, were now so dark their wares could not be seen. The only semblance of light came from the counter in the very center, from one solitary candlestick, dripping wax onto the bare surface as a man leaned against it, staring at the floor while bracing himself on either side of the counter.

"You shouldn't be here," I spoke into the silence and he lifted his head.

"Probably not," he answered when his gaze met mine. Camden Keene looked like a ghost of himself. His face was red and puffy, his hair was a disheveled mess, and he looked more exhausted than I had ever seen him. When he spoke again, it was with a tone of indifference. "I've heard I'm the only one out of my whole family without an official warrant out for my arrest. I'm sure Ryland would snatch me up the first chance he got anyway but it's odd, don't you think?"

He was watching me. I wasn't sure how much he knew about my involvement but his gaze seemed to indicate he held me at least partially responsible for what had happened. I held my head high. I would not deny it because I was not ashamed of it.

"Who are you really?" he asked then, his gaze narrowing so much like his father's that dread began to snake its way through my stomach as it had when I was around the Keene family before. But Camden had never made me feel that way. Not before.

"My name is unimportant," I told him. "All you need to know is that I am one of the people whose lives your father played a great part in ruining. One of us was bound to get our revenge eventually."

His jaw tensed and I saw the way he gripped the counter tighter but he made no move to approach me and I remained by the door.

"That's what this was?" he asked, venom in his tone as he did. "Revenge?"

"No," I answered, shaking my head. "This was justice. You said yourself that your father was an evil man. He hurt people, Camden. You knew that. You watched it. From a young boy onward, you saw how your father hurt people, how he threatened them and their families, their livelihoods. You've seen men beaten half to death and women ordered to pay a deceased husband's fees."

"They're my family," he muttered angrily.

"Yes," I nodded, taking a step forward but halting my progress when his gaze snapped up to me and I saw the fury there. "But that doesn't mean they're right. Sometimes our families... they aren't what's best for us. Sometimes they're wrong."

"He was my father."

"He's still your father. But he has to take responsibility for his actions. He has to make amends and let justice be done for the people he's hurt."

"And I don't?"

"You're different, Camden. You and I both know it. You were prepared to run away with me, to leave it all behind. It bothers you. It always has."

He shook his head and looked away.

"Did you ever love me?" he muttered after a minute. I glanced down at my hands.

"My heart was never mine to give," I confessed.

He said nothing. The silence stretched on between us until I broke it one final time.

"I took a chance on you, Camden Keene," I said, voice cracking. "I believed you when you told me you wanted to be different. I've given you the chance. Don't prove me wrong."

With that, I turned and left the Keene Family Clothier's for the last time.