There was a problem, even to the idyllic life that I felt I had finally begun to lead. I may have been 17 and a girl (though I did like to believe I was a woman), but my brother Bryn was not. Though he had come with me to Whitford, I should have known that it was not to stay. He was a year older than I, not to mention my only completely blood-brother. Bryn had always been my guardian and protector and when I returned from my picnic, if not a bit winded then better for the exercise, I knew something was wrong.

"I'm leaving." His words were clipped and short. It took me some time to come to the conclusion as to what was happening.

"You are going home?" The minute I said it, I knew where he was going. I most likely had all along.

"Ariane, I'm signing with the cavalry. I can not remain here in good faith, you know that. I'm leaving right now. The horse is saddled and ready to go."

I understood what he was saying. He had known for a while, but thought that by delaying telling me until the day of his departure he would be making it easy on me. But, the hour of his departure? That, I felt was a bit extreme.

"You are going home first?" I insisted. I thought Father perhaps would like to know, but Bryn laughed.

"I will be foregoing that pleasure."

Mariah looked confused, "No you must stop at home first. Your father will worry. He will not know. And when he hears of your death he will think Ariane is to blame."

"WHAT?" The words came from Rowan and I could not help but laugh with Bryn.

"I assure you, dear sister, that I do not plan on dying. But perhaps to be safe I will stop at home first," he added, leaning in to plant a kiss on my cheek from a top the horse he had just mounted.

And with that any semblance of normality that remained after last night rode out of my life.

A few days later, a letter arrived for me. I was unsure as to its contents, but it was easy to see who it was from. My brother Bryn's handwriting scrawled across the front of the page and as I sat on the chaise unfolding it I found myself hoping that he wrote to say that he had changed his mind. But the contents of the letter proved quite more astonishing.

I read it through once and, in shock, read it once more. Rowan, who sat with Slone at the chess table, looked up.

"By God, what is the matter with you?"

Mariah had already reached me and plucked the letter out of my hands. I did not provide her much resistance. The information in the letter could hardly be kept from anyone in the house.

It read as follows:

Dearest Ariane,

I write to you deeply concerned. I know myself to be in a deep state of shock as to what occurred before I left between you and Tally, but I find this information… well I will leave you to decide what it is for yourself.

I arrived to the main house and it was in a state of complete disarray. Patience and Moira were to leave with Father in a week. But something completely unexpected took place. Moira disappeared the day before I left Whitford. No one was completely sure where she went, but that situation was solved only yesterday with the arrival of a letter (it seems that letters will never cease to amaze their readers).

Ariane I must be blunt with you about this. Moira has left the house with Tally, though it is known that they married. It seems that there has been a long standing attachment between them. When Tally found that you had been, in a way, disinherited by Father and stripped of your property, he had no incentive to choose you above Moira (though I could list pages of reasons to prove his decision faulty). This also secured the couple a safe passage into Maryland, where they are living now with Patience's parents. What it did not succeed in was convincing Father to leave the South. He remains here at the main house contemplating what exactly he did to you, and regretting it if I may say so myself.

I know no other way to tell you this. If I could have held the information from you, or perhaps told it in person, the weight I feel in my heart would have been eased a bit. But, I am not sure if you were exactly attached to Tally. I know you felt a good deal of affection for him. But is that the same as love?

I trust this finds you and the rest of the family in good health. Do not linger on Tally, though I doubt you will. But I am sure I do not know the particulars between the two of you. I must be leaving.

Your Brother,

Bryn

And this time instead of tears, I laughed.

That night as I lay in bed, I called out to Mabs.

"Mabs, I need your help. I must tell you something," I whispered quietly across the room, so that she would hear if she was awake, but would not awake if she was not.

"What now?" Although Mabs voice was toned with frustration, I knew for certain she would aid me.

"Come sit, there is something I must tell you." She came and sat at the edge of the bed, as she had when we were young.

"Mabs, I have done something very bad," I could tell already she was becoming impatient and wished for me to get to the point. "That night that Tally left. I married Tally that night. We went to the chapel and woke the priest. He married us, look I have the papers here. I need to get to Maryland."

"What? Are you mad? Do you have a fever?" Her hand went to my forehead and her eyes were concerned, "You know that boy went off and eloped with Moira. How can you be married?"

I showed her the papers and her eyes grew wide, but her face set quickly and I could see her thinking quickly as to how we could fix this situation.

"Why were you laughing about this before? This situation," Mabs began to mutter under her breath. "Well, there's only one way we can fix it. We have to find that boy and make him denounce it. It was not consummated was it?"

Her last question was asked so quickly and breathily that I did not comprehend it at first.

"My God, no! Neither of us was sure what this war would bring. And I had thought that there would be time for that later. When I left with him," I added as an after thought. I was supposed to be the one running away with him to Maryland. I felt an inexplicable anger. Not that he had left with the one person whom I could possible harbor horrible feelings towards, but that he had used me so ill.

"You knew you were both leaving, but you did not know he would leave without you. That was why you were so shocked about that note. That was why you were not as bereft as I thought that you would be!" Mabs was finally beginning to see what my plan had been. We would be married and then leave for the North; I had no lands here anymore. Whitford was Patience's. Once in the North, we could both start again. I had figured that when he left, he left to begin to pave the way for me to follow. Not that he had left to go with my step-sister.

"But you don't love him," Mabs said. And I looked at her as though our situations had reversed and she was the one who was acting mad. "You liked him well enough. He could provide you with a warm bed and a happy life, a good Southern gentleman. But you don't love him. You never could. You loved the life that he offered you. Nothing would have had to change. But no one can offer you that now. So it is for the best. Now you can find someone to take his place—hopefully someone that you truly do love."

"Mabs! That is the most awful thing I have ever heard anyone say."

"But it is a truth and you do not attempt to deny it."

"No, you are right I do not," I sighed. "But what do I do?"

"We go find him. We get an annulment."

Of course, that could be the only course of action. I was not free to marry until then—and neither was he no matter what he said about being married to Moira.

"I'll go saddle the horses, you pack some bags. And put on the clothes-- you know which ones," I left her with those orders and climbed out the window.