"How the hell should I know?" Benjamin said, not liking the doubtful looks he now received from those in the room. Emmaline was trying to divide them, something he refused to let her do.

"Come, come now. No need to be modest. You trained your wife well. I was quite impressed by her stoic nature when taking in the sight of my dead husband. Has he told you how many of us he has killed, Clara? Has he told you anything about his past?

When Clara did not respond, Emmaline chuckled, "Guess that would be a no. You should know your husband has been killing innocent people in the name of Prinny, the overstuffed soon to be Prince Regent, for over a year now. Is that not so, Sergeant? What do you believe your lady love would think of you, knowing you kill poor innocent weavers and textile workers, all because he commands it so?"

"You Luddites are far from innocent. And they plan to make the death penalty legal for your actions," Benjamin said, not liking the confused look on Clara's face.

"Luddites?" Juliana questioned.

"Servants of General Ludd, although we do not think him a real person but a myth. Weavers and textile workers who fear the end of their trade and will do anything to stop the machines from taking their jobs, including taking lives and setting fires," Benjamin supplied.

"My home," Juliana said in a hushed whisper.

"Piecing it together, dear?" Emmaline asked, her smile more of a sneer.

"You killed them! My father! My mother! You set the fire!"

Richard heard the click before he had seen the gun materialize in Juliana's hands, pointed right at Emmaline's heart. His pistol, at this distance, would be a killing blow.

"I gave him a chance," Emmaline told her, seemingly unconcerned by the gun. "He threw me out."

"You were a servant in his home who threw herself at him. He wanted nothing to do with you!"

Emmaline shrugged. "If it makes you feel better to think that... I loved him you know, but he gave Lord Bentley a hefty sum to convert the factory to powered looms. My family already struggled with our rundown conditions, thanks to the absentee landlord Charles Bentley had turned out to be. Choosing to lavish Catherine with your father's goods instead of making repairs and caring for his tenants."

Richard thought of the large deposit made six months prior to the Wadsworth name disappearing from the ledger. That was what the funds were intended for.

"You kill without question, without care, you are a monster! A monster who deserves to die!" Juliana vehemently declared, pulling the safety from the gun.

Richard slowly approached her, not caring for the look in her eyes. "Juliana, lower your weapon. She is unarmed."

Juliana just stared ahead, holding her stance. "She killed my family, Richard. I am uncertain how many others perished in that fire. Good, loyal people who served my family. All gone, because of her."

"You were not the only one who lost a parent," Emmaline said, showing for the first time any real emotion. "I set the fire, but my Father was the leader of the Luddites, then. Turns out he did not approve of my methods. Even though he killed the guard at the factory, and smashed all of the looms. He tried to get your father out but a part of the roof had collapsed on him and he perished."

By the hatred in her voice, Richard could tell she held Juliana and her family accountable for the act.

"You expect me to feel sorry for you?" Juliana asked with complete disbelief. "You act as if your hands are clean but they are drenched in blood, My Father's, My Mother's, Marcus, your husband, even your own daughter and grandchild, you sick, warped..."

"Juliana!" Richard hollered wanting her to look at him, acknowledge him in some way. He placed his hand on her shoulder trying to pull her away.

"No, Richard!" Juliana said shrugging him off.

"Yes, let us see what the little mouse plans to do?" Emmaline laughed again, the sound chilling. She was actually enjoying this.

"Please, Juliana," Richard begged, not knowing how he would stand knowing as she does, he too would want retribution, but fearing the price she would have to pay.

Juliana's hands shook but she refused to lower the gun. All she could think of was her Father's face as he wrapped her in water-soaked sheets, the heat of the flames as they spread to the second floor. The three of them were trapped. The flames were consuming all in sight. The air had become thick with smoke.

She remembered her Mother's face as she stroked her father's cheek. "I love you!" she told him and they kissed. They knew it would be their last.

"And I you," he told her.

He had thrown her mother from the building first, and then turned to her, "Do not be afraid, princess. All will be as it should be. We will be together again."

"Promise?" Juliana said through a veil of tears.

He kissed the top of her head and then her cheek. "Promise." And then he covered her face, gathered her in his arms and threw her from the window.

She remembered her body hitting the ground, she could feel her bones break, and as she struggled to get free a portion of the house collapsed on top of her trapping her a smoldering cave, with no way out. The smoke and pain overcame her and she blacked out before knowing what happened to her Mother or Father.

"Juliana? Love? You need to back away. You need to let Benjamin handle this. Please," Richard pleaded further, she seemed miles away.

Juliana thought of Marcus how twisted he became. How lost he had looked. She remembered how distraught he felt, knowing Cecelia was gone forever, the pain reflected in his eyes. His renewed hope to live shot down by his own father, for a crime he did not commit.

Benjamin feared the look in Juliana's eyes. She walked a very fine line and anything could put her over. Richard must have recognized the same, as he physically placed his body between her gun and Emmaline.

"Enough, Juliana. Let Benjamin handle this. Let him do his job," Richard said, her stare was blank, her position unchanged.

"My parents, my home, my life..." Juliana said a tear fell from her lashes.

"She will pay," Benjamin said inching closer towards them.

"It could never be enough," Juliana said her heartbreaking all over again. The emotions she kept buried so deep threatening to undo her.

"You do not wish to become the monster you are trying to fight," Benjamin said coming even closer still.

This got Juliana's attention. "Would she become no better?" a fleeting thought quickly replaced by, "One night, and they were all gone, forever."

"They all perished, as they should," Emmaline purred, almost as if reading her thoughts. "You all fell prey to my manipulations, puppets the lot of you. Even now, I have divided you. Look at him Juliana, willing to put his own life at risk to save the one person who took everything from you. He refuses your justice. Does that sound like love to you?"

"Stop it!" Juliana said, "Your words are poison!"

"I speak the truth for there he stands, begging you to walk away," Emmaline retorted.

Benjamin kept moving about the room, slowly. He wished to reach Juliana. Richard's presence was not enough to quell her.

"Look at the Sergeant. He is trying to make his way to you now, in the hopes, I imagine to disarm you," Emmaline said, playing them all.

Juliana's eyes shot up and she noticed how close Benjamin was for the first time.

"She deserves to die," she told them both.

"We do not disagree with you," Benjamin told her. "But look in your husband's eyes, Juliana. You will see fear. That man is a war hero. He had seen enough death to last him several lifetimes and he knows what it does to a person's soul to take a life. He does not want that to happen to you."

Juliana locked eyes with Richard. He looked lost and broken. Wanting to save her yet not knowing how. "Tell me what to do and I will do it," he told her.

Juliana wanted to lower the gun. She wanted to walk away but she just could not bring herself to do it. "Help me!" she implored.

Benjamin reached out and took the gun from her hand and Juliana collapsed into Richard's arms. He held her, so close, trying to physically keep her from falling apart, as the emotions took their toll.

"Spineless. Too bad for you, now you will watch him die," Emmaline pulled a muff pistol from where no one was certain. She raised and fired.

None of them were in the position to react. The bullet pierced Richard's skin and Juliana screamed. A second shot was fired in unison with the first.

Benjamin looked over and watched Emmaline look down at her chest in sick fascination, watching the blood bloom, right before she collapsed to the ground. Standing behind her, gun still smoking, was Clara.

She managed to untie herself during the course of the conversations. All eyes so trained on Emmaline and Juliana that no one had noticed. The gun Benjamin took from her hand was a similar pistol to Emmaline's, small but lethal at close range. He had it custom made for her. She wore it as a garter piece. He had told her never to leave home without it. Now, he could not help but regret that she listened.

"It is over, Clara," Benjamin told her. He tried so hard to keep her from his world. How could he predict his world would find her? Now, he feared she was forever ruined.

"Richard?" she said in a mutter.

"He lives," Benjamin informed her.

Juliana had already begun removing his cloak, waistcoat and trying to halt the flow of blood from his shoulder. The gun's caliber, the distance Richard stood, the thickness of his layered clothing, did not allow for much damage to be done.

Clara's bright eyes had dimmed. Upon seeing it, Benjamin crushed her to him, hating himself for ever putting her in this position. Nothing should have been able to touch her. Nothing should have been able to make her light fade. He loved her too much to let her go and his selfishness has left her in shadow.

"I am so sorry, Clara," he said holding her close and kissing her hair.

"I will live," Clara said bravely. "Now let us get them home," she said looking over at her brother who was nursing a gunshot wound and his wife who just had her entire world crumble before her.

They slowly approached Bentley Manor. The doors swung open and Albert rushed over to them. "Lord Bentley, you are hurt!"

Richard tried to subdue the old man's fears. "Just a scratch really, but perhaps you can get someone to fetch Doctor Donavan."

"Yes, sir!" Albert said, grabbing the first servant he could, he put them to the task and then helped Juliana get him up the stairs.

Benjamin and Clara watched them walk away. "What now?" she asked.

He did not want to say it but he knew what needed to be done. "Clara, I need to resolve this, and I need to do so quickly before the others that worked with Emmaline look for retribution."

Clara just nodded. She knew this would be his answer, but she also knew that meant once again she was alone. "I understand."

He knew that look all too well. She became resigned. "Clara?"

"Go," she said, "I will be here when you return."

"I will pull what resources I can find, so this goes as quickly as possible. I promise not to leave you alone for long. You must know I do not wish to leave you alone at all, " he said stroking her face.

Her eyes were filled with unshed tears, but she did not feel capable of shedding them. She felt... broken.

"Stick close to them," Benjamin said, nodding towards the stairs. "I need to know you are safe, or I will not be able to function out there."

"Your Achilles' heel," Clara said with a half smile, she meant it as a joke but it was all too true. She knew she would be his downfall some day.

"Do not say such things, Clara. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me, but I know I do not deserve you. I want you to have so much more. I am not certain how, but things must change."

"Go," she said again reserved. She has heard it before but it was like asking the sun not to shine for a day. He is who he is and cannot be different no matter how he may wish it, but that was part of the reason she loved him so completely.

Albert returned, coming down the stairs. Benjamin's heart felt shredded. He knew she needed him now more than ever but things had to be resolved or they could get much worse.

He kissed her and she could almost taste his longing, his fears, his wants.

"Albert, I have to leave for a while, keep a close eye on my girl for me?"

"It will be done, sir."