Note: Hey guys! Thanks for giving this a view. Just a quick reminder that I don't have a beta yet and am perfectly fine if you correct any errors I may have missed. :)

Before she knew it, she was back inside her lavish home but she couldn't let her guard down yet. Most of the people who had attended the funeral had come to their estate with them. She sat down by herself, taking a break, as her brothers continued to mill about, graciously accepting the many condolences offered to them. It seemed like she had only enjoyed a few seconds of peaceful solitude before another obstruction forced its way into her grieving. This particular deterrent came in the form of black frills and clacking heels. "Jane!" her Aunt Maren greeted, a smile plastered onto her drooping face that had reminded Jane of a bulldog ever since childhood. Jane was hoisted out of her comfortable seat and pulled into the bulldog's large arms. Aunt Maren hugged her too tightly, to the point where she was certain bones that weren't meant to touch were rubbing against one another. Her aunt smelled like mothballs masked with cheap perfume. Jane was about to quickly thank her for attending the service so she could escape this interaction, but suddenly remembered that her aunt had not been at her brother-in-law's funeral and gently pulled herself out of her aunt's grip in disgust. She had only bothered to come to the reception! Her aunt squeezed one of her cheeks and made a comment on her apparent plumpness. "Really dear, it wouldn't hurt to get out and walk more! Men these days like their wives trim!" She hadn't seen her Aunt Maren in years as the woman had only come around when she was in dire need of financial help from Jane's father, who had only ever given her half the amount she would initially ask for. Jane pulled away once again and was about to make a biting comment about her aunt's varicose veins in her arms when Hugh sidled up next to her. He pulled a hand on one of Jane's shoulders and gave a comforting squeeze.

"Hello, Aunt Maren. How nice of you to come pay respect to our father," Hugh gave her a sickly smile, he had not liked his aunt since the time she had spanked Wilhelm for teething on a pair of her heels.

Aunt Maren let out a screeching giggle that made the room quiet for a moment before everyone returned once again to their hushed conversations. "Of course, dearie! Your father was such a good man," she clutched at her heart and her face transformed into an expression of exaggerated anguish. Her demeanor became giddy in just a moment though, "And of course, I had to arrive in order to take the children home with me."

Hugh's face was stricken and Jane's ribs suddenly turned into daggers that were slowly piercing her lungs. "What? What do you mean?" Hugh's iron grip on her shoulder made her wince.

The woman seemed to bounce with girly energy. "I am you and your siblings' closest family member after all! Children need a mother," she patted Hugh's cheek condescendingly and pouted her bright orange painted lips. Jane's mouth fell open at the woman's audacity.

Hugh grimaced at her hand coming into contact with his cheek. Jane felt disgusted just looking at it. It took a moment for her words to completely sink into Jane's understanding. Aunt Maren meant for them to come live with her! She fought against the urge to curl her lip at the thought of living with her aunt.

Hugh rose to his full height and now towered greatly over both Jane and her aunt. Jane felt a deep smugness at the way Aunt Maren's eyes widened at the tall and broad form that was her brother. His imposing stature had deterred many of Jane's potential suitors from asking for her hand. "You forget that as of last year, I became a legal adult under British law. I am nineteen. My brothers and sister shall stay with me and I will assume the role of their legal guardian," Hugh pushed his sister halfway behind him as if trying to shield her from Aunt Maren's plump and frilly form. The daggers that were her ribs gently receded. She hadn't had any idea that this was what Hugh had planned to do, though she hadn't really thought about how they would go about in the aftermath of their father's death. Aunt Maren audibly gasped and raised her hand to hover over her heart. When she got no reaction out of her dramatics, her hands balled into fists and she somehow managed to sneer in a sweet, childlike way.

"You? Raise children? We both know that's absurd! They need a motherly influence!" Her voice raised to a fervor pitch and a few bystanders nervously glanced in her direction.

"We already have a mother!" Jane pushed past Hugh, she tried to keep her voice down in order to avoid looks from the people around them. Jane was outraged that this vile woman would have the nerve to defile her mother's memory like that, let alone the fact that she had so brazenly insulted Hugh. "Not to mention the youngest one of us is sixteen, we hardly need raising!"

"What's going on here?" Jane whipped her head around to see John standing right behind her.

Jane opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by her aunt, "I was simply informing your siblings that I shall be taking you all home with me and adopting you as my own. Except Hugh, of course. As he pointed out he is much too old," Aunt Maren spat.

John's eyebrows shot up but he quickly relaxed his expression into the easy smile that so many people, adults especially, for some reason found trustworthy. There had been times when John had been caught doing something he shouldn't have and got out of it by shooting a teacher that smile and telling them he was completely innocent. Jane had told him many times that he should become a politician. "And how do you two feel about that?" he addressed Jane and Hugh.

Once again, Jane was interrupted. "Absolutely not. You will stay with me in the family's estate," Hugh's voice had an air of finality, though Aunt Maren seemed unable to pick up on it.

"Well of course we'll stay here," Aunt Maren looked at Hugh like he was a five-year-old without a grasp on reality. "You'll be the one to leave, dearie," her sweet exterior was now covering her again.

Jane felt her blood run cold. The old bat wanted them for their inheritance and property, how had she not realized that? Aunt Maren was not satisfied with the money her father had lent her when he was alive, so she would forcibly take it from his children as soon as he died. Jane was stunned that a woman could be so terrible. She looked Aunt Maren up and down again, she had curled auburn hair on her head that was pinned up precariously and she knew if she poked it that it would not move with all of the product in it. her face was wrinkled and oily and make up that was a few shades too light was sloppily smeared onto her skin, and she was squeezed into the dress she was wearing and the buttons that ran up the bodice looked as if they would pop any moment. In short, her aunt was not an attractive woman. "You absolute hag," Jane hissed. Her aunt's face distorted into one of pure offense.

"You insolent child! You don't understand the way the world works!" she snarled.

John pulled Jane back by her arm. "We'll be signing our rights over to Hugh, and you will never speak to my sister like that again—that is if you ever get another chance to have privilege of being in her company. Now leave," he had his trademark smile on but his voice was cold and his grey eyes flashed like steel striking flint. Aunt Maren looked between the three of them wildly. She let out a huff and stormed away, but didn't leave before dumping a platter of desert cakes into her purse. Jane didn't relax until she saw the woman exit the front door.

Jane looked around and found that a number of guests were staring at the trio, though most pretended to not have noticed anything. "What a horrible woman," John muttered and shook his head.

"Agreed," Hugh adjusted his black coat though it was in vain because just a moment later Jane launched herself at him and rumpled it once more. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his chest, trying not to cry. The impact had knocked the breath out of him and he let out a soft oof. He exchanged a curious look with John but hugged his sister back regardless. She knew Hugh was glancing around the room nervously, Hugh had never been comfortable with putting his emotions on display, least of all in the form of public affection. He patted her back softly when she didn't let go of him for another few moments. "Jane?"

She looked up at him with her shining blue eyes and met his, which were only a few shades lighter than her own. "Thank you." Her gratefulness for her brother was so great that she felt as if any moment it would fill her up completely and spill over the sides in the form of tears.

"For what?" Hugh looked perplexed and searched her gaze.

She pulled away from him and smiled, "Letting us stay with you, of course," she gestured to John, who nodded his agreement.

"Well, it's not like it was a decision I had to think hard about. The moment father died, I knew it was what would happen," Hugh shrugged.

"Knew what would happen?" Wilhelm joined their small circle. He took a huge bite of the chocolate covered pastry he had in his hand.

"Hugh just saved us from living with Aunt Maren," John elbowed his older brother playfully. Wilhelm cocked a questioning eyebrow at him, unable to speak with his mouth full of desert. "The big old teddy bear is adopting us because technically we're still wee babes." John smiled authentically. It was unlike the one he had used with Aunt Maren, this one was slightly crooked and made his eyes squint.

Wilhelm waited a moment and swallowed politely. "Good on you, brother," he grinned and pushed his shoulder length blond hair behind his ear. "Didn't like that old hag, anyways."

Hugh let out an exasperated sigh, "What is it with this family and calling people hags today?"

Jane blushed. "Who else called someone a hag?" Wilhelm asked laughingly and looked between Jane and John.

"I did. I called Aunt Maren one," Jane raised her hand.

Wilhelm's eyebrows shot up in mirth. "Well good on you too, sister."

"Though in my defense," she looked at Hugh pointedly, "she was trying to take us away from you."

Hugh nodded at his sister's reasoning. "True. We are not the sort of family to separate so easily."

Wilhelm grabbed four drinks off of a waiter's tray as he passed and distributed them amongst his siblings. "To Father," Wilhelm's goofy smiled drooped a bit, "and to never parting!" They echoed his toast and clinked their glasses.

"Wilhelm, I'm sure you're not about to drink that wine—" Hugh started but before he could finish his sentence, Wilhelm had down the red wine in one go.

OoOoOo

After she thanked everyone at the reception for their respect and the crowd slowly dispersed, Jane said a quick goodnight to her brothers and made her way upstairs to her room. The moment she closed the door she leaned against it and sighed. She missed her father. Though she would be forever indebted to Hugh for taking them on as dependents, she would still rather have her father as the head of the house. She crossed her room and sat in front of her white vanity mirror. She lit an oil lantern and looked at herself in the mirror. She was much paler than usual which was saying something. Her grandfather had been an Irish immigrant to the colonies, and one of the ways you could spot an O'Coileain was if they had alabaster skin. The second was the strange red birthmark that almost all of them had on the back of their neck. She ghosted her fingers across the skin that felt completely normal though she knew it was tinted a light pink. She began taking out the pins in her hair and her updo fell down, her curls were now even more voluminous after being confined in that hairstyle. She lifted up a mass of brown hair and huffed, thinking that her hair was taking revenge on her for being constrained for so long. She scrutinized her hair in the mirror and decided for the umpteenth time that it gave away her ancestry and smiled slightly. Her blue eyes were dull and the whites were slightly red. She and Hugh had inherited their blue eyes from their father, though John and Wilhelm had inherited their mother's lovely slate grey eyes. At the thought of her parents, Jane began to cry. She was an orphan! She put her face in her hands and tried to muffle her sobs. The pain that accompanied losing her father was unlike anything she had ever felt. When she had lost her mother, she had been too young to understand the full meaning of the word 'dead' and therefore hadn't realized that she would never see her mother again, and now she wished for that ignorance to envelop her once more. Her grief had been muted at the funeral and reception as she had been distracted by the proceedings and people, but now it hit her full force. She felt detached from the world around her, and the thought of that only made her cry more.

Her father had been a good man, especially during times when men like that were rare and far between. He was a hard worker, building his textile factory from the ground up. His success hadn't made him cruel, if anything it helped contrast with his poor childhood even more and he felt a sense of duty to the people around him that other men of his class did not. He was fair and kind and dead. Someone knocked on her door and she realized she had lost track of time sitting at her vanity. "Goodnight Jane," John said softly and she heard his footsteps recede into his room, which was right across the hall from hers.

She stood up from her vanity sharply and began to shed her black dress. She kicked off her small heels clumsily as she tried to peel the garment off of herself. She was about to give up and sleep in the wretched thing, when it suddenly slid off of her. She untied her corset with deft fingers and threw it aside. She looked at the mess she had made of her room with her clothing in the flickering lamplight and sniffed loudly, swiping at her nose with the back of her hand. She pulled a silk white nightgown out of her closet and slipped it on. After blowing out the small light in her room she jumped into bed and curled up with her childhood stuffed animal and cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, she went out to breakfast with puffy red eyes. Her brothers did not ask why. They were all sporting the same feature.