"I can't help it," Blanche admitted with a shrug, "I like him."

She was sitting on her huge four poster bed. They both were, legs tucked under their nightgowns as they faced each other and talked late into the night. There was a candle on the nightstand beside the bed, casting them in long shadows, and Blanche had stolen a plate of glazed orange candies from the kitchens and settled it between them to serve as a midnight snack.

"Mr Southill, really?" Nicola leaned back on her hands and considered her friend curiously. In comparison to Nathaniel, Blanche was, well, tiny. Nathaniel Southill was all brawn and muscle, slightly unkempt. There was an untameable quality about him. In that light, she supposed they both matched, but where Blanche was light, Nathaniel had a quality of darkness about him and that worried Nicola.

"I know, it's peculiar," she admitted thoughtfully. "I have not been able to get the intrusive man out of my thoughts since... well since the picnic."

"He is unconventional," Nicola agreed, though she wasn't sure that was a good thing in this particular case.

"He's different." Blanche sighed dreamily before popping an orange candy in her mouth and then sighed for an entirely different reason altogether.

"Well, you have never set your cap for anybody before, so why not for him? I'll admit though, your mother might have a fit when she founds out."

Blanche gave her a wicked smile and laughed. "She has her hands full with Jason at the moment." Her brow lifted archly. "And you."

Nicola fiddled with one of the candies, her fingers sticking with the congealed sugar coating the rinds. "It is not sitting well with me presently, Bee. I do not like being the cause of discord in your family."

"Wilhelmina is the only discord in this family," Blanche muttered. "Jason should really send her off to Bath or Hampshire, somewhere where she can't get to us as quickly."

"She's still your grandmother. She's your family."

Blanche waved a hand in the air. "She visits us only when she wants something from us, or to complain. Honestly, you're here more than her and everybody loves you."

Nicola couldn't meet her eye, not right then. It had been on her mind since that morning, after the confrontation, and even though she had spent the day with Blanche and her mother, and it had been a great day with each of them going great lengths to not bring up the topic of Wilhelmina again. However, it still remained in Nicola's mind that she could be the cause of strife in the Blackwood household. Even if their grandmother was a cantankerous bigot, her issue lay with Nicola herself, not the rest of the family. If she could not somehow resolve the friction, then she would have to make a very difficult decision.

It would appear the third and final event of Jason's secret mission to discover his admirer was turning into a bigger cumulative spectacle than Nicola could ever imagine. On that thought, she wondered just how she was supposed to continue contriving names for him when the entire attention of the ton would be on her that evening? Now that was a miserable feeling indeed should he happen to favour one of those girls present while her entire existence was in jeopardy.

Her misery must have been visible for Blanche leaned over and grasped her shoulder, sticky fingers and all. "Nicki, you mustn't worry," she urged, trying in vain to be cheerful. "Everything will work out well. Jason may be a useless ass at times, but he will not let anyone hurt you, not even his own grandmother. Nor will any of us."

"I am not worried about me, Bee. What about you all? Your family is also being put through this. Can you imagine if I cannot visit any of you anymore?"

"No, I can't. It is unthinkable." She suddenly dove over the bed and the plate of sweets and wrapped her arms around Nicola. "You underestimate our family, Nicola. Perhaps you have been apart of it for so long you can't see us as an outsider, but no one would dare cross one of us, even if they favoured Wilhelmina. Honestly, you need to understand some of the friend's Jason keeps. I am talking about dukes, Nicki." She leaned back and grinned. "Oh, you must enjoy yourself tomorrow and do not let anybody see how affected you are by their stares. We will all be by your side, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Why do you make it sound like we are marching into war?" she grumbled, but she was smiling now. They hadn't shared secrets like this in a long time when before it had been common practise for one of them to sneak into the other's room, Blanche always with a plate of midnight treats, and talk, gossip and giggle until the sun would begin to rise.

Her eyes that matched her brother's were twinkling, stormy and bright steel. "Perhaps we are," she answered thoughtfully, "but it is one that we shall win, don't you think? Who else would be able to withstand the force of our family?"

Our family, she had said, and Nicola smiled. "You are a treasure, Bee."

"I know. But I can't believe you like my brother."

Nicola sighed miserably. Blanche could be like a bloodhound when she cottoned on to an idea or piece of information she wanted to know more about, and it seemed like she wasn't prepared to drop the idea that Nicola harboured feelings for Jason. True, but how could she outright admit it to her? "I thought I told you it was just a misunderstanding."

Her best friend ignored her and began to pick pieces of candy that had fallen from the plate onto the sheets of her bed and return them. "You do remember how he put frogs in my bed once, don't you?" Blanche muttered testily.

"Bee, we were six years old and had spent the entire day collecting crickets from the garden and keeping them in jars. Then, as I recall, we opened them in his chamber. How do you think he would retaliate?"

"Oh, that was funny!"

"Yes," Nicola drawled, "but not so funny when we were on the receiving end of the joke."

"Pah." Blanche waved her hand and gave a dramatic shudder. "Still, my point is, you like my repugnant tormentor. I feel betrayed."

"He is not repugnant," Nicola grouched.

Blanche giggled wildly, tossing a pillow at her. "You do like him!"

"And you like a man who is probably descended from a bear!" She threw the pillow back, hitting her squarely in the face. Blanche made a comical face, her eyes squinting at the image of Nathaniel in her mind.

"He is rather large," she admitted. "I shall never have to reach for anything again if I were to marry him!"