AN: Well, ya girl finally finished writing this fic and I have decided to actually write a sequel instead of just continuing this story. You can thank me having to quarantine for finally getting things done. So needless to say, there will be lots more coming to you from this little au that seems to have taken on a life of its own. For now, I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Dearest gentle reader, I must send felicitations to the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Basset. While Daphne has been a part of the King's Organization it is now her chance to shine in helping Mr. Basset with business dealings. But before they truly start making their mark as a couple in the organization, I would like to send them congratulations and stamina as they embark on the most exhilarating time in a young couple's life. I am of course talking about the honeymoon. Is there a more romantic notion? To leave society together finally leaving watchful eyes behind. While this author along with the rest of the underground will certainly miss its most remarked upon couple back in London perhaps we might find solace in the promise of the Bassets returning to us with a surprise.

But fear not dear reader, there is still plenty of excitement it seems to be had the rest of the season. It seems like the other favored debutante has gotten mixed up with a young captain. While this author isn't entirely sure what happened but it seems as though Miss Gibbs and Mister Bridgerton had a bit of fun themselves during the celebration of the season. Could romance finally be bubbling between the two?

~ LW

Katherine rolled her eyes as she tucked her phone into her pocket. When Genieve had shown her that feature in her latest dress, she had been thrilled. The latest event, a garden party thrown by one of the families that were deemed soldiers for the organization, was going well. She had arrived with her parents and soon Anthony had brought over a drink for her, requesting her to join him and Benedict with the woman vying for his younger brother's attention. Katherine couldn't quite read her father's reaction but her mother seemed to be thrilled.

Colin clinking his glass soon interrupted their light conversation. "Can I have everyone's attention?" He asked waiting for all eyes to turn on him. "I would like to make a small but rather important announcement." He continued once he had everyone's attention. "I have happy news to share. I have asked Miss Marina Thompson to be my wife, and she has accepted."

Katherine's eyes widened as she shared a look with the two brothers. Benedict looked confused at her and Anthony's reaction. He was happy for his brother after all, even if it seemed to be a bit sudden and not what he had expected out of his younger brother.

"Did you know about this?" Anthony asked Katherine.

She shook her head and as if sharing one brain cell they moved together to speak with Violet. Sticking an arm out to stop the two, Violet still kept a smile on her face. "People are watching, dears. Congratulate the happy couple. And Kitty," she turned to look at the younger woman, "don't you now have some business to tend to?"

Katherine gave a firm nod and plastered on a smile before leaving their side to go speak with the Featheringtons. The business negotiations had to begin and knowing the standing of the other family, it was not going to be great.

She remained off to the side, waiting for the crowd to disappear from around the couple before she made her way in. Portia noticed and stepped next to Marina but Katherine ignored the other woman completely. "Are you two sure you want to do this? Especially you, Marina?" She asked, turning to focus completely on the young woman.

"Kitty, I know she wasn't raised in the family but everything will be fine, I promise. I'm not even a big player in the organization." Colin answered.

"I just wanted to make sure that this decision wasn't made lightly. Because you are still a soldier for this organization. You are still a Bridgerton which makes life more dangerous than what most people are used to."

"I've made my decision, Kitty. We talked about it before he even proposed. I think I'll be a good addition to the family." Marina said.

Katherine sighed. "Very well," she then smiled at the couple, "congratulations. I'll be speaking with you both soon to draw up the paperwork."

As she made her way back to her family, Portia followed. "You just can't let me and my family have something nice, can you?" She whispered.

Katherine whirled around to face the other woman. "Mrs. Featherington, may I remind you of the situation you and your family are in. I will not have someone that was raised outside of this organization thrown into the lion's den because you want to get a leg back up in our world. Unless your husband is working towards fixing his little problem, no amount of money will help you. I will see to it that they are both taken care of but I will also be protecting Colin and the rest of his family. Instead of worrying about me, worry about paying off your family's debts."

With that, she stormed off. It seemed as though she would need to take over her father's home office. Except Violet was there speaking with her father and with one simple request, Katherine went home with the Bridgertons to start on all of the work there.

"I would have much preferred to hear of your and Anthony's engagement today." Violet groaned, covering her face in her hands in the parlor where she and Katherine sat together to look over the paperwork.

Katherine laughed, shaking her head. "I think you'll be waiting a long time on that."

"Oh, don't treat me like a fool, Kitty. I've noticed the shift between you two. I don't need this LW to point things out to me." She looked over at the younger woman with only a look a mother could give.

She shrugged, focusing back on her phone. "Perhaps we were all caught up in Daphne's relationship that we didn't notice the romance blooming between Colin and Marina."

"I appreciate your optimism but I don't think that's it. We barely know the girl. You're the only one here that knows more about her than we do. Do you think he made a good decision?"

"Marina's green but she's smart. She has much to learn but I think she'll be okay."

"Well, I'm glad someone agrees," Colin said, entering the room.

"Just because I think she can do it, doesn't mean that I agree with it. You two did this awfully quick. So unless you had some correspondence while she was away for nearly a month, I don't think that either of you knows each other well enough to make the decision to spend the rest of your lives together." Katherine gave him a pointed look.

"What was it you always said, mum, when you know, you know? Well, I know and I am sorry that I sprung this on everyone, we just were too excited to wait until the end of the season but I won't apologize for following my heart."

Violet sighed. She couldn't argue with that. It's what she and Edmund taught all of their children. "It's just happening so quickly, Colin. First Daphne, and now you? How well do you know Marina, truly?"

"I've been courting her all season, mum. I should have brought her around to introduce her but I do believe that you will love her just as much as you love your own daughters."

She motioned for him to join her on the couch before she wrapped him up in her arms. "I just didn't expect to have another one of you leave the nest so soon."

Colin hugged his mother back. "You'll still have your hands full, especially with Eloise."

Violet chuckled. "I suppose you're right."

Colin then sat up looking over at Katherine. "And I'm sorry for springing extra work for you to do while you're dealing with your own season."

She waved off his apology. "I'd rather be working than worrying about that. I will need to schedule a meeting between the both of you soon though. I'll reach out when I have everything together."

"Of course, whatever you need."

She burrowed under her covers when she heard her phone ring. It felt far too early for anyone to be calling her. If it was important they could leave a message and she would call them back once she's had her coffee. Except, instead of leaving a message, they called back again. Katherine popped her head up from under her blankets and noticed that it was nearly 7 a.m. With a groan, she pulled her phone towards her from her nightstand and answered it.

"Don't kill me. I know it's early but something is really wrong and I need your help." Simon said once she answered.

"Is Daphne alright?" Katherine asked, sitting up in a slight panic.

"Yes, we're both fine. It's actually work-related..." He trailed off.

"Why the hell are you working on your honeymoon?"

"Because the bookkeeper here brought it to my attention. The amounts aren't adding up and delivery took a pay cut. Your dad has not been taking care of things as I thought he would have."

"Shit." Katherine sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I have to go over for the stupid calling hours so I'll see what I can get out of him there. Try to see if you can't find where the money is going on your end and in between working some paperwork up for Colin and Marina, I'll try to look for things on my end."

"Colin and Marina?"

"I don't have the brain capacity to tell you about that curveball we were thrown but I'd check in with Daph, everyone has mixed feelings about their engagement announcement."

Simon started laughing in disbelief. "We're not even gone two days."

"Oh, I know. So do yourself a favor and don't come back till the season ends because apparently, it's just drama-filled."

She dressed for battle. If her father wasn't performing for the Bassets then who else was he scamming. If he did it to the wrong family, he would be painting a target on his back. While they didn't get along, she didn't want him dead. It was time for her to take over the company.

Arriving earlier than her usual calling hours, she marched right to her father's home office. Shutting the door behind her, she turned to face him, hands on her hips. "Father, we have some business to discuss."

"Have you finally found a husband?" He asked, barely looking up from his paperwork.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "No. I – "

"Then we have no business to discuss." He cut her off.

"Actually, we have a lot." She said, stepping forward. "You've cut wages on the mules for the Hastings account and their books are not adding up. I think it's time that I take over before it comes out that you've been meddling and people want you dead."

"I've only had to do that because of you, dearest."

Her brow furrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest. What was he talking about? Why would she have anything to do with this? Oh no. Has he found out? "What are you talking about?" She finally asked, trying to keep her tone indignant.

"I know, Katherine." He said as he took his reading glasses off and folded them up. "I know about you. I know about Luca and the child and how Simon helped you give the child up for adoption. I've been taking that money and paying child support because the family that adopted your child was the cousin to the child's father."

She lowered her arms, gripping the back of the chair to keep her upright. "How do you know?"

"I've met the young chap. He reached out to me and told me everything. I know he's not a part of the organization but that did not mean that you had to abandon your child."

"Did he tell you why I decided to give her up?" She gritted out. "Did he tell you that he was the one to abandon us before she was even born? Or did he leave that part out? Make up some excuse? Because if it hadn't been for Simon," and Anthony but she was going to keep him out of it as long as she could. If her father had done this to Simon's company in retaliation, she wasn't sure what he would do to Anthony since she was now the Bridgerton account manager. "I might not be here."

"That doesn't matter now." He ignored her. "He wants to talk to you, he wants to reunite his family and you will do so if you don't find a husband soon."

Katherine pushed away from the chair, hands gripped into fists as she tried to hold herself together. "I'm so glad to know that you're willing to trust a complete stranger over your own daughter."

"Go clean up. It's about time for the suitors to start calling." He dismissed her.

She glared at him a moment longer before storming out of his office, slamming the door behind her. As the sound of the door closing reverberated throughout the house, Katherine's mind began to race. How was she going to tell Simon? How was she going to tell Anthony? How was she even going to make it through these next few hours sitting in the same room as him? Her feet seemed to know the answer for her.

She took off running and nearly made it to the door when her mother called out her name from the drawing room. Sighing, she turned back around and walked to where her mother was. "Yes, mum?"

"Where are you running off to? It's almost time for any potential suitors to start showing up."

Sighing, she propped herself up with a chair. "Can't you just make appointments for them if they do show up? I'm not feeling great and I've got to get this contract done for the Bridgertons and the Featheringtons."

"You're not feeling well?" Anthony asked, glancing over her to figure out if there were any physical symptoms he could see.

"Anthony," Elizabeth fawned over the young man, excited that he had shown up during calling hours. She hoped that he would be able to keep Katherine there despite her previous reservations about him. Seeing them together again reminded her of how her daughter was at the top of her game whenever he was around.

"Hello, Mrs. Gibbs." He greeted with a small smile but he couldn't get much more out before Katherine was shoving him out of the room and tugging him out the door as she shouted about working on the contract.

"Is everything okay?" He asked once they were by her car.

She let out a huff, biting back tears because no matter how desperately she felt like crying she couldn't. Not in front of Anthony. Not in front of him when she didn't know how to tell him what she now knew. "Yeah, my dad is being a fucking twat." She then noticed the lack of another vehicle. "Did you walk here?"

"You know you don't live that far from us."

She shook her head with a small smile. "So what was so urgent that you walked here?"

"The Featheringtons have invited my mother and me to have dinner with them and the new happy couple. Mother and I would prefer to have you there."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "Violet really said that?"

Anthony rolled his eyes. "No, but she agreed with my idea to bring you along."

"Fine," she agreed with a slight chuckle. "I can't believe they already called for a dinner. That's usually done once the contract has been fully drafted, which I still have a few things to add, and then it'll be done, by the way."

"Well, you know they've always put their own spin on our rules."

"So I'm really needed for this thing even though the contract isn't complete?" She asked as she opened her car door. She was grateful for the distraction and thankfully she was already dressed well enough for this impromptu meal.

"Yes, you're really needed. I need you there and mum's under the impression you can keep me in line."

"Ah, so this is more for personal reasons instead of business ones."

"Well, when you put it that way."

"It means you should have just texted instead of shown up. Besides, weren't you supposed to bring me chocolate when you came to call on me next?"

"Oh, you mean," he pulled out a Carmello bar, her favorite, "this chocolate?"

"Now I feel like you're trying to bribe me into going to this disaster of an evening." She teased as she reached for the chocolate bar.

Before she could pull it away, Anthony tugged her closer. "If I were trying to bribe you, I would have thrown this," he leaned in and kissed her deeply, "in there as well."

Katherine pulled back with a roll of her eyes, taking the candy bar with her. "Get in the car, you dork." She nudged his shoulder with a small laugh before going around to the driver's side of the car.

She had been absolutely correct. Dinner had barely even started and it was already tense. The conversation was a bit forced and Archie's focus was a bit more on Katherine than on getting to know Colin better. Katherine could tell that her presence gave mixed signals. Violet, Anthony, and Penelope seemed thrilled that she was there while Portia, Archie, Marina, and Colin weren't overly excited. The other Featherington daughters didn't seem to have an opinion either way.

Katherine nearly choked on her wine when Portia suggested that they make the most of the great weather they were having this season and marry sooner rather than later. She sat her cup back down and waved off the mostly concerned looks.

"Colin is still very young. I believe a lengthier engagement would be better, excellent weather notwithstanding." Anthony commented as he rubbed Katherine's back to make sure that she was truly alright. With that kind of reaction, he knew that she must know something and he'd ask her about it later. He knew that his brother could make his own decisions but this seemed to come too out of the blue for his liking.

Colin sighed and changed the subject, trying to show that Marina truly was going to be okay in their world.

After dinner, they all moved to the drawing room where Prudence and Phillipa treated them to a horrendous recital of what they were planning to perform at the casino. With the first note, Katherine wanted to tell them to just stop, that it would not help them bring business to their casino at all. Prudence ruined the vocals of the Miley Cyrus song while Phillipa clunked along behind her on the piano.

She could feel Anthony's eyes on her but she knew the moment they locked eyes, they would burst into a fit of laughter. She slowly shook her head as she watched Colin leave. Anthony leaned closer to her. "Is this supposed to make us want to join families even more?"

"That was probably the intent, yes. Now stop trying to make me laugh, I'm supposed to be a neutral third party."

"Are you being so neutral that you can't tell me what you know?"

"I'm doing everything I can to protect Colin." She said just as Penelope walked by.

"I'm taking that as a yes," Anthony said as he slowly sat back.

Then Marina left and Katherine so badly wanted to follow but instead, Penelope returned and pulled Katherine over to the far corner of the room. "You have to tell him, Kitty." She pleaded.

"This is all out of my hands, Pen. I'm doing everything that I can to protect Colin. I don't like it either but he's so far in, he won't listen to anything that we have to say." Katherine gave Penelope's arm a squeeze.

"He will if you tell him she's pregnant."

"He will think I'm making it up. They have both made their decisions so now we can only support them the best that we can."

Penelope huffed. "I thought you were supposed to be able to do anything."

"I can't make a man see what he doesn't want to see, Pen. No one can. I'm making sure Colin is protected on the off chance that things go south. That's all I can do. Now let's go enjoy your sisters botch whatever this song is supposed to be." She squeezed Penelope's arm once more before returning to her seat.

The end of the night couldn't come quick enough. She wished Colin and Violet good night as she stopped by her car. Anthony stayed behind, wanting to properly send her off and to get some answers from her. There was a lot that she wasn't telling him and he needed to know what was going on. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, he did full-heartedly and with his life. He just knew that she had the tendency to shoulder everything without asking for help.

"You sure you don't want me to call Eddie for you?" He asked, leaning against her car.

A soft smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "No, I'll make it back just fine. Besides, I think he's chauffeuring mum around tonight."

Anthony nodded before turning rather serious. "Kitty, I need you to tell me what you know about Marina."

"You know I have to remain neutral despite my current arrangement with the Featheringtons. I know you've heard about that. Please just trust me that I am protecting Colin as much as I possibly can, based on the knowledge I do have."

Sighing, he pushed away from her car, running his fingers through his hair before turning back to face her. "Are you at least feeling better from earlier?"

She laughed a bit, a twinge of a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. "Yeah, I was just saying that to try to get out of calling hours."

"If you can't tell me about the Featheringtons then at least give me the courtesy of telling me what's actually going on with you." He gave her a pointed look as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

Loosely crossing her arms over herself, she looked down at her feet. She honestly would much rather tell him that Marina was pregnant but she had promised him that she would inform him if she learned of anything dealing with the person who threatened her. "My dad knows."

"He knows?" He stepped forward, concern written all over his face as various scenarios flashed in his mind. "He knows what?"

Katherine looked up at him, her fear showcasing itself as frustration. "What do you think Anthony? He knows about what happened with Luca."

"How did he find out about that? We were careful." Anthony couldn't believe that he was finding out about this at all. When Katherine had told both him and Simon, the two of them had helped Katherine stay far away from the all-seeing eye that was the organization they worked for. They used his family's vacation home and Simon was the one who helped in the adoption affairs since he had the connections.

"Luca contacted my dad saying he wants to get his family back together." She rolled her eyes before continuing to explain what she knew. "Apparently the woman who Simon and the adoption agency found to adopt her was Luca's cousin so now my dad has cut pay for Hastings' mules and has been taking money from the Hastings account to pay child support. Oh and if I don't find anyone during the season I'm to marry him or I won't be given the company anymore. But if I do marry him you know damn well my father will make him the CEO just to spite me."

"We won't let that happen. I'll go see if we can't acquire a certificate." He reached out to take her hands but she pulled them away, shaking her head.

"No, we just started this. You saved me once from him. I'll handle this myself. I don't want a marriage between us to be done out of a necessity."

"It won't be," he argued, "I promised I would always look out for you. You don't have to do this alone, Kit."

She reached up and caressed his cheek. "I'm not. I can't ask you to fight this battle for me too. I just wish I had listened to you when you warned me when Luca and I had first started dating."

Anthony shook his head, gripping her arms in the hopes of keeping her there with him, not letting her run away. "I'm not letting you do this alone." He ordered and yet she still shook her head, denying him.

Gripping the lapels of his suit jacket, her eyes shone; not only from her unshed tears but with the determination he knew that he would never be able to out stubborn to get her to see any sort of reason. "I have to face him alone. Right now, my father only thinks that Simon had a hand in this. If he found out that you also helped there goes me being the account manager. If you fight this battle for me, now that all eyes are truly on us, there goes my chance at ever being fully respected as the chief advisor. We will find a way to make him stay away but I will have to be seen doing this alone to protect everyone."

His hold on her arms loosened as he processed what she was saying. "You need me to find dirt on him." He finally said in realization.

"I need you to find the dirt on Luca."