"A newsboy?" Evie's mother threw up her arms in a rare loss of her always-perfect composure. "Of all things, Evelyn, did you have to get involved with him?" She leaned her arms against the table, burying her face in her hands. "If you wanted to rebel, couldn't you have done something simple?"

"I wasn't 'rebelling,'" Evie shot back, glowering. "This isn't about getting back at the two of you for anything. It's not some ploy for attention. I lo--"

"Evelyn Patricia, if you dare say you love this... this street-rat, so help me, I will beat you into oblivion." Patrick Pulitzer slammed his snifter of brandy down on the table, nearly cracking the crystal. Evie's grandfather, ever present, just sat back and watched the show, smirking. "Whatever this game is that you're playing, it is over. Consider yourself defeated."

Evie opened her mouth to argue, but her father only raised his voice. "Do not argue with me! It's time you learned to be a lady, and a lady does not speak back to a man, especially not her father." He sighed a took a long drink of his brandy, color from the fiery liquid flooding his cheeks. "I expect you to have this affair out of your system by your wedding night."

"And how do you propose I do that?" Evie sat back in her chair, sulking. "God knows William Post has nothing to offer me but more money for you and my grandfather."

"Get up," her father snapped, rising from his chair. She stood, hands clenched at her side, glaring at him defiantly. "You are a married woman, Evelyn, show some respect for your husband and your family!"

"I'm not married yet!" Evie's temper boiled inside her, and she felt her blood rising to her head. "And how am I to show respect when I'm practically being sold to a man I don't even know, just so you can make money?"

Her father strode over to her, his eyes burning. Without a word, he raised his hand, the back of it striking Evie's cheek with such a force that it knocked her over. As her head cracked loudly against the table, a pair of servants rushed in to find out what the commotion was.

Patrick lowered himself back into his seat, taking another deep drink of brandy. "Get her out of here," he said to the servants with a cool wave of the hand. "I don't want to see her face again today."

A/N: I'm aware this is the shortest chapter in the history of mankind, but it's very important. I couldn't just move on from this event to something else. It needed to be by itself. I know you can all understand why. Please R&R, and I hope you like it. -Layne