Only the servants occupied his family’s house when he arrived. The great Lady Tenyson was at the docks examining the newest shipment. Was she involved in the coup, or was it his brother’s plan? He shook his head. He didn’t have any proof Edmund had spoken the truth about his family.

Dell didn’t know where his brothers were, but he needed them to stay gone for a while.

He had nothing suitable to wear for a ball, but Reed was about his size. He burst into the dry house, streaking muddy footprints across white tile floors.

One of the maids watched him in disgust, but he couldn’t stop to help clean his own mess. Not when he needed to be there for Len. Would they allow her to attend the ball? Who knew the restrictions mistresses faced in the palace? He just needed to see she was ok. Just a glimpse.

Once her safety was plain, he’d fade back into obscurity. Maybe he’d leave the city altogether. He couldn’t stay. Not as a Tenyson, both hated by his own family and their enemies, alike.

He thought back to the mercenary units and their strange code of honor. Sure, they’d chosen evil over good time and again, depending on who could pay, but there was an appeal in living life with no care for what one did. In the freedom it allowed. The protection it provided. From disappointment. From the kind of heartbreak he’d known too often in his life.

A door slammed shut somewhere in the house and moments later, Reed appeared in his doorway.

“Dell.” He stopped, his eyes scanning Dell from soggy hair to muddy boots. “What are you doing?”

Reed was the least threatening member of the family, but he still followed Ian’s every command.

Dell didn’t have time to play games with either of his brothers. “I’m going to the ball.”

“You…” He glanced back over his shoulder before stepping inside the room and shutting the door. “They won’t let you. You have to know that.”

Dell turned back to the wardrobe where he found the cloak and mantle he’d been searching for.

He stepped toward the door, and Reed blocked his path. “Not this way, Dell.”

“What do you mean ‘not this way’? What other way is there for me to leave? Get out of my way.”

“Ian and mother are downstairs. If you storm down there, stealing clothes from me as you do, they won’t let you out of this house.”

Dell met his brother’s eye. Reed had never given a care for Dell’s wellbeing. Even when they were boys and Dell arrived, mourning his mother and scared, neither brother extended a hand. They’d been nothing but cruel. Yet now, something stirred behind Reed’s eyes. Some conflict.

Voices entered the hall. “Our people are in place,” Ian’s words drifted in to them.