I sipped cold water from my tea cup as I watched Rosemary aim her arrow at the target fifteen feet away. She had her hair tied up in a braid so that it would stay out of her way. I was letting her do this for now, but she would soon have to learn how do deal with distractions. Hair being one of them. She evened out hear breathing and let the arrow loose. The reason Rosemary was excited to have tea with me was because she wanted to secretly learn how to use this weapon. Her parent's wouldn't let her and she knew mine didn't care if I learned or not so she thought this would be the perfect chance. Her mother was excited about us getting closer so that she could be closer to my mother. It worked out for both of them, albeit one was a secret.

“Very good!” I clapped when the arrow hit the bullseye. She smiled at me, pride clear in her eyes. I was truly impressed with her abilities with the bow and arrow. With just a few instructions the first day she was able to properly aim and shoot. And in truth, I was now having to practice a lot more to be able to stay ahead of her so that I could teach her well. I had use this weapon in my reruns, but not much. I watched as she went to collect her arrows with a wide grin. Surprisingly Rosemary and I have been friends for almost a year now. Liam and I were now nine and were going to be celebrating Rosemary's ninth birthday soon.

“You'll be having to deal with moving targets next.” I informed her as she plopped down on the chair next to mine and drank some of the cool raspberry tea. I had just perfected this move and knew that I was probably going to be outmatched by her in no time. Since I was teaching her, I had her borrowing some of my clothes. The white shirt, brown pants, and high boots suited her. Working out in a dress was too much right now. Yes, she would have to do so in the future, but right now, basics only.

It was my turn to shoot and Master handed me my weapon, the one Grandfather gave me. I only used the simple arrows, having learned from before. My target was a bit further away and I had practiced shooting it with him earlier. This is not cheating. This is making sure I can still be a good teacher. Speaking of which, I had asked her once why she didn't want Master to teach her (since he teaches and helps me). She gave me a shy smile and told me about how she saw me use this once before.

She informed me that at one of the royal tea parties that was held in one of the royal gardens, she was with some other young nobles when she spotted me with Braxton. She couldn't hear what we were saying, but could see my look of disinterest and Braxton's wide grin. She said that she saw him hand me a bow and arrow and pointed to a tree. I had accepted them, but seemed to be arguing about having to do so. She saw me throw my head back in exasperation, slump my shoulder and mouth “FINE”.

She watched Braxton step back as I placed the arrow, grumbling. She said that she watched me straighten out my posture and raise the bow. She was captivated by the movement of me pulling the arrow back with how regal I looked. She said it was like everything was in slow motion as she watched me blink, steady my breathing and let the arrow fly. My hair swooshed with the pressure from the wind and glistened in the sun light. With flushed cheeks and bright orange eyes, she informed me that she thought that I had looked like the goddess Artemis and wanted to be like that. I had felt my face heat up at the sudden compliment and looked at the ground.

This was why she didn't want Master to teach her. Remembering this, I had to fan myself to get rid of the embarrassment of being called as beautiful as a goddess. It was a very nice, but I wasn't sure how to handle it. After letting a few arrows go, and spectacularly (thankfully) hitting the marks, I went to collect them. When I was done, I turned to find my Grandfather's Knight Captain making his way towards us. Tsk. Grandfather wasn't here was he? I jogged to get to the clearing with the table and chairs before him so he wouldn't have to wait for me.

“Greetings young miss and Lady Berkshire.” Captain Rhodes clicked his heals and gave a small bow in respect. I returned his greeting with a warm smile. Rosemary politely waved and offered him some tea. He declined the offer and turned towards me, or more to the person behind me. “Master, may I have a moment of your time?” He asked. I turned to look at Master. He looked a bit hesitant about leaving me alone, but nodded and followed after the Captain.

“I wonder what they are going to talk about?” Rosemary pondered aloud. I shrugged and sipped some more water. I had a bit of an inkling. Since the incident with the Browns, Grandfather had been going out of his way to try and have us be around each other. He thought it was utterly ridiculous for a Aderlyn and/or Whelan to be afraid of anyone. The plan to stir clear of the Browns was horribly dashed within moments. I had my suspicions that Master knew that this would happen, but every time I would ask, he would just smile.

A good thing came out of this though! Mother and Father protested that it was too cruel of him to do this to me, even my brothers... all of them, had asked him to stop trying to force me to be around the Brown Family. Sadly, the old man was stubborn and kept trying. This made it easier and easier for me to dislike him more. As one might've guessed, all my brothers had forgiven my outrageous act. Father seemed to convince them that it might've been because of something that happened that I couldn't talk to them about yet.

I remember Julius, who is more hard headed than most, telling me that if I ever wanted to talk, he was there for me. Brought tears to my eyes. That it did. I had even received two letters from my cousins, Amelia and Emily, (mother side of the family) telling me that they would be weary of the Brown Family for my sake. Amelia was now attending school and had some classes with Daniel Brown. Emily was going to be going to school next year and would probably have to see him as well. The both informed me that they wanted to beat him up for scaring me. I adored my cousins, they were just too cute!

“The color brown?” I asked Master when he returned. He was nodding his head, pushing his lips together. Rosemary looked between us with a raised eyebrow. “When do we owe the honor?”

“Next month after the lady's birthday,” he gestured towards Rosemary, “There will be a small gathering at your Grandfathers estate.”

“Oh! My family and I were invited to that as well and will be going!” Rosemary chimed in. I smiled at her. If anything, I could just teeter around her the whole time. I didn't want to hang out with Count Brown anymore than I was being forced to. Daniel, who had entered the academy the same year as Amelia, was a dormitory student so he was not going to be able to attend... thankfully.

“Why did Captain Rhodes want to talk to you about it though?” I asked Master. It was odd of him to do so. Usually he would talk to my parents.

“Well, you're parents were angry that your Grandfather was trying to do this and were refusing to go. He sent the Captain to talk to me about it secretly since I get along well with him.” Excuse me, what now?

“You're telling me that my parents don't know I've been invited?”

“Hmmm...” He paused and tilted his head a little, “Sounds like they were just informed.” He closed his eyes and stepped back, hands clasped behind his back. I saw my Mother stomping her way towards us with a frightening face. I immediately sat up straight in my chair and put my hands in my lap. Even Rosemary quickly put down her tea cup and sat perfectly still. I don't know why, but I realized I was about to be yelled at. I couldn't think of anything, lately, that I had done wrong. When Mother finally reached me, she towered over me with a face of death and blazing eyes. I started to shrink back and prepared myself for what was about to come.

“Master...” she literally growled, taking her horrendous eyes off me and looking towards him. I had to bite back my sigh of relief. “A word... please...?” I sneaked a glance at the one her anger was directed and saw him simply smiling. He nodded his head and then looked at me and Rosemary.

“You should take one last lap around the field before Lady Rosemary needs to leave.” He calmly told me. I couldn't figure out what had gotten into him lately, but he was starting to act odd. Every time I tried to question him about it, he would brush it off. I felt my heart tighten, but nodded and grabbed Rosemary. We rather quickly ran away from the storm that was brewing and made our final lap around the field.

I bade Rosemary farewell after we got changed and went to the tea room. Liam met me half way. He shifted from one foot to another, trying to gather up his courage it seemed. I held out my hand to him, which he grabbed with a grin, and we walked together. When he finally spoke to me, he asked if I had met with Captain Rhodes. At my casual nod, he sighed deeply. This charming twin of mine was trying his best to help me avoid the Brown Family and was disappointed in himself for not knowing that this is what had happened.

We made it to the tea room and were greeted by Lydia and Henrietta. Lydia was my personal maid, which was granted to me again and Henrietta was Liams. Lydia and Henrietta had prepared us some cookies and turkey sandwiches. They had placed them on the table, along with some drinks. Since the triplets were currently with Grandfather and mother was with Master, I wondered where Father was. It was lunch time after all.

“The Sir and Madam had something to take of.” A voice to my left informed me. It was the 2^nd butler, Mr. Charles. He, surprisingly, handed me Gerald, the stuffed horse plushie. After so many reruns I finally decided to name it. “They will join you for dinner.” Mr. Charles said before taking a couple of steps back. I looked at my plushie and set it aside. I could feel that Master had just started occupying it. I admit I was hurt by Master's odd ways and ignored him. Through the corner of my eyes, I could see the horsey head tilt a little. I pretended I didn't see it and continued to eat my sandwich.

“It's probably because of what Grandfather did.” Liam mumbled, chewing on a cookie. “Wait... Maybe!” He suddenly jumped up, stuffing the rest of the cookie in his mouth. He grabbed my hand and pulled me off the couch. I squeaked in protest, grabbing another sandwich and Master. Liam race with me in tow towards Father's office. He shushed me and we crouched down next to the door. I finished my sandwich, dusting off crumbs that fell on my dress, as Liam placed his ear to the door. He looked displeased and scooted back.

“Dale, come forth.” He whispered, closing his eyes. A light green mist started to come out of Liam and formed into a bird in front of him. Dale landed softly on the floor, looking up at him, curiously. Dale was a Guinea Turaco, which is a naturally green colored bird, with a feather mohawk and white and red outline black colored eyes. His little mohawk bobbed a little as Dale titled his head. Liam happily smiled at his bird and patted it gently on the head. “I need you to go to Father's office window and let me listen in.” Dale flapped his wings, then quickly took off. Liam was concentrating on his bird so he didn't hear the soft clatter down the hall.

“We were followed.” I informed him, spotting a shiny pointed shoe that quickly retreated behind one of the armored knight statues. It seems we were being tailed by Mr. Charles and most likely Lydia and Henrietta.

“Sssh!” Liam quickly waved me away. After a few minutes of silent waiting, I began to wonder if Dale had ever made it to Father's window. I was impressed with Liam though. At his age he was able to summon his own Aderlyn heritage bird and basically spy with it. Pretty gosh darn good. I paused my praise in my head and side glanced at him. He could very well be a spy in the future. I mused about him and Dale going about the lands gathering information on people and things. It was kind of like his favorite character Dr. Leaf.

“They are just looking over papers.” Liam snapped, making me jump a little. There was a loud rattle down the hall from heavy metal clanging about. It seemed his voice, which was just above a whisper, startled not only me in this once calm silence. Liam clasped a hand over his mouth, grabbing my hand with his other and tugged me up. I snagged Master as he forced me to race with him down the hallway at full sprint.

We passed by the culprits of the loud racket, Mr. Charles, Lydia, and Henrietta. I grinned at them when I heard father open his office door, inquiring about the noise. Liam was harsher than I as he put his finger to his lips, eyes glowing a faint green, essentially telling them to not say a word. We ran away and effectively abandoned them to Father. Cheap move, I know, but some sacrifices are needed.

When we had made it down the stairs and into the library, we were finally able to rest. Dale was fluttering around Liam's head. Liam's glowing eyes earlier were actually just a beckon for Dale to return to him. This meant that my clever brother needed a bit more practice in his spying. Glowing eyes were kind of a dead give away after. I was contemplating converting him from being a doctor to be a spy.

“Maybe you could be Dr. Spy...” I accidentally mumbled aloud.

“What?” Liam raised an brow at my rambling, making me laugh sheepishly.

So!” I clapped, it echoing in the empty library. “What were we trying to accomplish at Fathers office?”

“I was hoping that I could hear that they were able to turn Grandfather down.” He sat down on one of the steps leading further into the library, sighing. Sadly, Grandfather's reign was supreme, even though Father was an archduke and Grandfather was just a duke, he still ruled well over this family. I knew Liam wanted to give me good news, but there was no chance of that happening.

“Thanks for trying brother.” I sat down next to him, staring out the far window in front of us. He nodded his head begrudgingly, mumbling about how gatherings were pointless. I agreed whole heartily. They were boring, needlessly long, and were full of twittering groups of gossipers. Even as a kid there were such groups. Liam usually went to his friends, along with the triplets. I for the most part had to deal with those types of groups. They always felt the need to come find me and try to bother me. I had a slight hope that maybe my brothers would stick around this time. It would be nice, then I would have Rosemary and them...