"Matthew saw you," someone spoke suddenly. I looked up from where I had been crafting a letter at my desk to find Benthem storming into my office nostrils flaring, teeth bared, eyes glaring.

"Excuse me?" I asked in utter confusion.

"You went to her house, Victor. Matthew saw you."

I sat back in my seat.

"Did Matthew happen to see why?" I queried, trying not to let the accusation in my old friend's tone get to me. Benthem still glared at me but his shoulders relaxed slightly as he began to realize he didn't have the whole story when he'd come stomping in here in a fit of rage. "I spoke to my mother. She informed me that I needed closure. That it was the only way to start this thing off with Ella honestly. She knows, by the way, Ella. She knows about all of it. My uncle, Gwendolyn, the other women. She knows it all. I told her."

Benthem said nothing but I saw his anger deflate somewhat.

"I went to confront Gwen," I told him. "Something that you're well aware I've been avoiding since the incident that started this whole thing. I told her to stay away from Ella, to get over me, to let us be happy. I told her that things between us were over, well and truly over, and she would be a fool not to believe it. That was why I was at her house. But I suppose Matthew didn't inform you of that."

I looked away from him, back down to my letter, and dipped my pen again before continuing to write. Benthem didn't leave, not immediately. He stood in front of my desk for a time as if trying to determine how to interpret the news I'd just given him.

"Good," he said finally. "Your mother was right. It's about time you confront Gwendolyn. I'm pleased to hear you have. And that this whole thing with Ella is... more than it has been in the past for you."

I nodded, waiting.

"I'm sorry," Benthem said a moment later and then I looked back up at him. "I shouldn't have doubted your sincerity but it's Ella and-"

"Yes, you should have," I told him. "I'm glad she has so many people looking out for her best interests. And you were right to question my motives given my past. I just hope you can believe me now when I assert that she means more to me than the others, that I'm serious about this courtship between us, that I think there may be a future there. If she will have me."

Benthem's lips spread into a slow smile then and I finally had the reaction I'd always hoped to get from my old friend.

"I believe you," he promised. "I'm sorry I didn't before."

"It's in the past," I said, waving a hand as if to say forget about it.

"Still, I'd like to make it up to you. Is there anything I can do?"

I glanced at the clock on the wall across from me.

"As a matter of fact, I'm supposed to meet Ella in the park and we don't have a chaperone to-"

"Done."

Benthem smiled wide as I stood from my desk, buttoning my coat and heading for the door. He slapped me cheerfully on the back as I approached and then we walked through together on our way to the foyer where Ella was waiting in a beautiful yellow day dress that I had to peel my eyes away from a few moments after I saw her.

The three of us took a carriage into the city, to the park that I had promised to show her a few days prior. Couples were already walking about, mothers stood in groups with parasols as their children ran about in the grass. A few men walked pedigreed dogs along the paths. Ella and I set off on a walk of our own, yards ahead of Benthem who followed from a distance.

"Courtship seems to be a lot of walking," Ella said after a few minutes of silence and I barked a laugh at her joke. She smiled up at the sound and I realized my step was a bit lighter, a bit bouncier than it had been before.

"That it does," I agreed after recovering from my hilarity. "They do say love can be exhausting. I just didn't realize they'd meant it literally."

She snorted and I watched, smiling like a fool.

"I know a woman back home who married a man she claimed to be head over heels in love with," Ella told me. "A few weeks into the marriage, we saw her walking in the park every day. When we asked her why, she said it was the only time she ever got away from him."

I laughed at that again and she beamed at the sound.

"Are you concerned about getting time away from me, Ella?" I asked.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Are you hiding any secret annoying habits that I'm unaware of?"

"Oh, I'm quite certain I am."

"Tell me," she said and I wasn't sure if she was being serious but I looked down to find her staring up at me, eyes twinkling with amusement and something else, a desire to know more about me, perhaps? Even if it was only little irritating idiosyncracies of mine.

"Well," I started, considering the request she'd laid before me. "Benthem says I read too much. I can become quite unaware of my surroundings when I read. I get so lost in the words on the page that I don't even hear the words people are speaking to me in reality. Benthem swears he's actually screamed my name four times before I've answered a few times."

She chuckled at that.

"That's not so bad," she assured me. "Madison says I bite my lip too much. She says she can always tell when I'm thinking hard on something because I'll bite my lip. And apparently, I'm thinking quite often."

It was my turn to laugh at that.

"That sounds adorable," I told her. "Not annoying in the slightest. How about this? I've got an entire drawer full of ties that I never wear but I refuse to get rid of."

"Sometimes I wear dresses three seasons after I bought them."

"I'm allergic to cats."

"I hate heels."

"I snore."

"I sleep nude."

I stopped walking.

I cleared my throat and tried to focus on a dog running to catch a stick in the distance.

"Victor?" she asked from behind me, concern plain in her tone. "I shouldn't have-"

I turned to see her face, having turned completely red at the realization of what she'd disclosed to me.

"That last thing," I said slowly, clearing my throat again. "Won't be a problem, I can assure you. But I do believe we're done with this game at any rate."

She bit her lip just then to keep from giggling and I couldn't help but smile as I started walking again. She fell in beside me and I spent the rest of the afternoon listening to her talk excitedly about her sister's wedding while trying my hardest not to imagine Ella Harrington's nighttime routine.