Robert hadn't visited Pearl yet, since he had been conveniently busy with his studies and with pretending his entire family didn't exist. But when the incendiary article had forced itself under his eyes by means of a concerned (read: gossip-hungry) friend from back in Whitby, Robert could no longer pretend not to know what was going on at home. Or rather, outside of the home, which was exactly the problem. 

He had taken the first train home, had spent some time trying to figure out in which part of the bloody slum (that was, Whitby town) Pearl lived, and when he had found it, he rapped his knuckles on the door with such force that they bruised. He held the newspaper in the other hand.

Tilly opened up the door and admitted him in, looking perturbed at the way he had knocked like there was a fire. Tilly knew him, of course, because she had been a maid at the manor. She announced him to Pearl, who came out of the kitchen soon after, pulling off a flour-dusted apron. The smell of cooking pastry clung to the air cloyingly. "Robert! What are you doing here? How are you?!" She threw her arms around her brother in a hug because she hadn't seen him in a while. "It's so nice to see you."

She pulled away and noticed the paper in his hands, but didn't know yet what it was about so she didn't comment.

He scowled when he saw her apron. Couldn't she invest her time in something lady-like, such as brushing up on her piano skills or French? Why was she in the kitchen like some shopkeeper's daughter? He reluctantly underwent the hug, scowl still in place when she pulled back. "How am I? Deeply disturbed. Read this!" He opened the newspaper, pointed at a certain article and handed it to her.

She frowned and took the paper, then began to read it. Her heart sank further and further with each word. She would never get away from this kidnapping thing, would she? Heat filled her cheeks and she sighed sharply. "This happened some time ago. And the man who wrote this... well... he certainly stretched the story into something it really isn't." She set the paper down and pulled off the apron. With another sigh, she hung the thing on a peg and then began to pace. She had a few choice words for the man who embellished her story. Why, he hadn't even had the nerve to ask her for himself!

"Of course he would stretch it! You have given him reason to!" Robert began to pace up and down as well. "This will affect all of us, I tell you! Imagine what you are doing to all of us! This has gone on for far too long!"

He suddenly stopped pacing and turned to face Pearl with a jerk. "Father and mother have clearly lost their minds; Magnus has his -" 'cock in too many prostitutes to know what's happening around him' was what he had wanted to say, but at the last moment he remembered that he was not at school, but talking to a lady (or something that was supposed to pass for a lady), "own projects; your sisters are feebleminded; and Darius never had a mind to begin with." He conveniently forgot that Roger and Roderick even existed. "It's high time someone takes charge of you, before you can do any more damage. You will end this foolish experiment today. Tilly! Go pack your mistress' things."

"I did no such thing! I ought not to have been out and about that night without Tilly, but I was having a think. I needed to be alone with my thoughts! I didn't know there would be a man on the beach and I certainly didn't invite him to drag me into that cave." And then he was turning on her maid and ordering her to pack Pearl's things. She shook her head vehemently and stepped between him and the maid.

"Tilly will do no such thing!" Pearl crossed her arms over her breasts and said, "Papa knows how I feel and maybe it is time you learned too. I do not wish to be married and I have no wish to live at home either. Between one sister being selfish and spoiled and the other crying constantly about her missing fiance, added to that the antics of Magnus and whatever trouble HE is getting into, I cannot bear it! I am perfectly content working for my place in the world as long as it is away from all the madness."

[Content warning: Victim blaming; swearing]

"You put yourself in that situation! And you keep doing it!" he shouted. His anger had been building up all the while he had been searching for the address, and now that he was here and she refused to listen to him, to reason, he exploded. "You... selfish...!" he balled his fists and waved his arms while he searched for words. But he suddenly stopped pacing again and looked at her. There was venom in his suddenly very quiet voice: "I don't know how you have managed to manipulate our dear father into this ridiculous scheme of yours, but I promise you, I will talk him out of it! I don't care what's going on at home. If it bothers you, go back to school! Christ! You need it! The madness is right here!" he pointed at the floor. "This-," and suddenly he stopped and his eyes lit up. He looked at her as if in a new light.

"How do you know what I do? It's not like you cared until now!" she shouted back. Tilly backed into the kitchen and closed the door. This had not been the first brother she'd had a fight with over her living situation. Magnus had not been kind. Then she said with clenched teeth, "I would rather die a thousand deaths than to spend time in that... that... wretched school ever again. And don't call me selfish. This is the first I ever asked anything of papa and he agreed with me! He said it would give me character to have a job and my own house."

[Content warning: sexism]

Robert just stared at her, as if he saw her for the first time. A frown slowly appeared between his eyebrows as she talked, as if what he saw concerned him deeply. "You're mad...." he barely more than whispered. And then louder: "You're mad! That's it! Can't you see? Men build character. Women..." He inhaled. "Do women things! You've lost your mind!"

"Tutoring young ladies is a woman's work," she said, frowning. "Why are you so against this? Didn't you know that papa doesn't like the way you all act as if money comes from thin air?" She then grabbed the paper and growled, crumpling it up in anger and then chucking it toward her brother. She then flailed her arms and cried out, "You and Magnus can both go to the devil if you think to take my freedom from me!" She picked up another missile, a pillow this time, and launched it, "I will not be told how to live my life by you or anyone else. I am not a cow for you to put on a lead, not some piece of property!"