Pearl got brave then, remembering that she had faced Anne Carrington many times and come out the victor, if wounded every time. Lottie and William Blacke might be tough, but they didn't seem to be ones to make one gird your loins. She took a deep breath and said softly, "If you're going to be angry, please be angry at me. The elopement was my idea, though he had asked me to marry him. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, least of all your family or my father... But you see, I... I love him. And my brother dying, I..." She looked upward, clearly fighting tears. "We couldn't marry under normal circumstances regardless of that either... Joe is the only person in my life that treats me as an equal."