Margaret was miserable with this confinement. She was glad that her mother had insisted she attend the party when she had her last pregnancy. But that just led to Robert's birth. She wasn't going to chance an embarrassing thing like that happening again to her. So she had convinced Lowell to let her endure confinement in their mansion. She hadn't wanted to go to London, nothing but stuffy old memories of times before when her parents were still alive. Not a place for one to be giving birth to a child. Besides, Dr. Havershim had been a faithful practitioner and had taken her carefully through her carrying and birthing of Robert.

No doubt Alice would be going into her own confinement in a couple of months, mostly because of her stupidity. She loved her sister but was growing annoyed with these childish games. She couldn't just go about freely with a man, giving away her virtue like she had. Their mother would have been devastated. Margaret wished she knew how to respond to Alice returning in the first place with a man. It just wasn't proper. No doubt Lowell suspected the two were sleeping together and had separated them both. As much as she found his habits in London to be undesirable he at least could hide what he did and give the family a decent name. It wasn't like she loved Lowell anyways; the whores just made her loath him in her own silent way. Perhaps that was why Alice thought she could marry into a lower class. Or perhaps she thought she could whore her body away, it was becoming an infection of the aristocratic girls that could never get themselves married.

Margaret crossed herself and banished the thought. No, Alice would not be whoring her body away like a ladybird. She was foolish and impulsive but she wasn't immoral. No doubt it was her endless curiosity and her inability to be patient that led her into this big mess. She didn't dare think that Tarrant took advantage of his sister; she was too headstrong and he cared too much for her. She saw it in his eyes as she looked at her from across the table, in his body language as her young sister passed him. She could sense the bond these two had and it was electrifying. Some days, when Margaret wasn't keeping her emotions in perfect order, she found herself jealous of the relationship they had. But marriage wasn't about bodily gratification or being all filled with warm feelings. It was about producing beautiful children. Like Robert, like the little one she was carrying. Her stomach fluttered now as the baby moved slightly. This pregnancy was easier on her than her last, praise the Lord. Robert had given her insides quite the fuss.

A servant came in the room and interrupted Margaret's thoughts.

"My Lady," He bowed. "Lord Lowell has arrived back at the Estate with Lady Alice and Mr. Hightopp. They also have brought a young lad." He said. Margaret cursed herself but she stood up. Confinement be damned. Something was amiss if they had come back a week early. She motioned for the servant to lead her to her mishmash of family.

She quickly moved down the stairs and smiled as she saw the three in the foyer. Her smile dissipated upon further inspection. The three all looked as if they had been brought through a war and had just come off the battlefield. Tarrant looked tired; the reddish color beneath his eyes was more visible in his fatigue. His hair was a wild mess under his trademark hat. He looked more ruffled and mismatched than usual as his left arm wrapped around Alice's waist. She clung to his body, sweaty and disoriented. She was clearly weakened by something, she had dark circles underneath her eyes and her hair dropped. She hung onto Tarrant like a rag doll and as Margaret came closer she could smell vomit. It had to be from Alice.

Next Margaret looked to her husband. He looked almost as drained as the other two but another emotion marked his features. It was guilt. Lowell looked guilty about something. In his arms was a small boy a little beyond his toddler years. His dusty brown hair swept about his head and pieces fell into his chocolate colored eyes. His round face looked about in wonder and he clutched to Lowell's coat.

"Wha' is this place? 'Evan?" He asked with a thick Cockney accent. It was the speech of the ill educated underclass of London's trenches.

"Welcome back, I wasn't expecting everyone to be back this early." She said, placing a hand on her rounded belly.

"Plans changed." Lowell said without emotion. Alice looked at her with half open eyes, clutching her stomach.

"Who is this?" Margaret asked motioning to the little boy.

"We can talk about this later." Lowell said.

"No, we can all talk about it now. And why may I ask does it look like Alice has been dragged through a sewage pile."

"She' sick," Tarrant said, pulling her close to his body. "We don't know what's wrong."

"Who is the boy?" She asked again.

"It's my son." Lowell said with a heavy sigh. The room became silent and thickly filled with tension. Tarrant held tightly to Alice whose head fell to rest on his shoulder. Lowell shifted uncomfortably with the boy in his arms.

"Are yew me new mum?" The young child finally spoke up. A weak smile passed Alice's lips.

"What?" She looked first to Lowell, then Tarrant.

"Margaret," Lowell stepped forward, his free hand reaching out to her.

"What is going on?" She took a step back.

"Margaret, it's alright." Alice whispered. "Hear him out. Pretend it's me who has gotten herself into trouble all over again and just needs someone to love me and listen." Margaret looked to her sister. She looked very ill.

"Lowell?" Margaret placed her feet on even level, bracing to hear where this child came from.

"Lenore, Lenore was the woman that I loved." He said his voice filled with emotion. "But she was a servant, you see. It was long before I met you, Margaret. Another girl's servant at another time. We loved…we loved each other but we couldn't have gotten married. I was destined to be a Lord and she was given the lot of servant girl. It just would never be." He shook his head. "No, no it could have been had I the tenacity of my brother, Tarrant." He placed a hand on the milliner's shoulder.

"Where is Lenore?" Margaret was confused and she wanted to know what Lenore had to do with the boy.

"Lenore was dismissed and she had no other choice but to-" He paused, trying to control his tears.

"She became a prostitute, didn't she?" It was beginning to make sense. How could she have been so stupid? "She became your main Judy."

"Yes, she did. Oh Margaret, I am so sorry. But you never wanted to be with me nor did I want to be with you."

"You're right but I didn't go about sleeping with other men!" Margaret was becoming angry.

"Mags, listen," Alice coaxed her sister to settle. Margaret looked to Alice and sighed. She would listen.

"Lenore became pregnant and had little Solomon here,"

"Appropriate name," She seethed.

"Not long after she contracted syphilis."

"She died," Tarrant said. "Yesterday." It was becoming clear. She couldn't do it, not there was no way she could agree to this!

"Margaret, he needs a mom." Alice said. Margaret shook her head.

"No, no. Alice I can't. I have another baby on the way…"

"What if you died, Mags? Wouldn't you want Lowell, his father, to take care of him?" Alice asked. Her face was extremely pale and she looked as if she were about to lose the contents of her stomach.

"His name is Solomon?" Margaret took a step closer.

"Yes," Lowell said. "He's about four. He has a bad case of accent but he's really rather brilliant."

"He truly is quite the bright one." Tarrant nodded his head eagerly. Margaret looked at the boy.

He looked into her blue eyes with a sadness she had only seen once before. In Alice's eyes after their father had died. It was a grief, knowing that the one person in the world that knew you best was never coming back. It gripped Margaret's heart. She reached out and placed a hand on the boy's head. He smiled at her.

"Ah will be real proper good, Mum." He nodded his head. "Ah'll obey an' ea' all me food and Ah'll be so quiet yeh won' 'ear a peep." He stumbled about his words.

"You have quite the ability of speech for such a young age," She remarked. She placed her hand on the boy's cheek and smiled at him. "Have you ever been out in the country side?" He shook his head in response.

Margaret looked to Alice and her younger sister gave her a faint smile. Margaret took a deep breath and did what she knew she had to. She held her arms out for Lowell to hand the young lad over. He looked at her with astonishment and wordlessly handed the small child over. She sat him awkwardly on her rounded stomach and smiled.

"Ah thin' ye're a very beautiful an' kin' woman." He said with a smile.

"And I think you're a little charmer." She tapped his nose and set him on the ground, taking his small hand in hers. "Let's go meet your younger brother Robert. He is playing with one of the nurses right now." She glanced back to see tears in Alice's already red rimmed eyes and Tarrant beamed in only the way that he could. Margaret felt a tiny spark of respect grow in her heart for Lowell. He had dealt honorably with his problem. Instead of dumping the boy on the street among the squalor and depravity he brought him home and confessed. Margaret was still a bit angry at him for it, but she couldn't imagine finding a man she truly loved. She couldn't blame him, really, for enjoying the short trysts they could together, and mourning her death. He obviously had much love and admiration for Lenore. A small sadness went out from Margaret's heart to the deceased woman.

She owed her, as a mother to another mother, the favor of caring for her child. Margaret would want the same thing to occur if she passed, leaving Robert and this little one. Solomon was now an orphan as well. Reputation could be upheld and lifted as she could explain how Lowell had found the boy starving in an ally and took it upon himself to bring him in.

There was the thought of Lowell again. A thought that was beginning to warm in her mind, perhaps she could find it in her to not only care for the boy but perhaps care for her husband as well. Maybe Alice's bizarre practice of physical affection in her relationship might work to glue the broken pieces of hers back together. Maybe her sister and her husband weren't that mad after all.

Margaret led the boy into the nursery to meet Robert, a smile across her lips. She had been feeling so lonely for so long; confinement had truly made her acknowledge this fact. But now she felt a little less lonely in the world. Her family was coming together. She glanced back to the group that followed them and saw her sick sister. Bandages were wrapped up her arms and Tarrant was practically carrying her now. Her sister needed a man who loved her no matter what from the very beginning, she as nothing but trouble. If it wasn't love and devotion that kept them together she didn't know what could keep a man in want of Alice. She nodded her head in approval at Tarrant. Perhaps all the nonsense that Alice had been muttering about them being married was true. She had mentioned him before she left for that long year…perhaps her Underland was a possibility.

Margaret laughed at her thoughts on what could be. That was what Alice specialized in, not Margaret. She turned her head to look forward once again. She would do nothing more to separate Tarrant and Alice. Lowell even recognized how deeply they loved one another; the bond they shared was something few people possessed. Margaret laughed to herself silently as she realized her thoughts had looped. Maybe it was time to start a bond of her own with Lowell. It was definitely time to start carrying for the little boy she would now call her own.