"Silence!" Magnus cut his hand through the air, "You forget yourself, son. And if she hit you, I wasn't there to see it. Sorry." The older man had no sympathy whatsoever, for he was starting to seeth with his grief and the misbehavior of most of his entire damned brood. For the moment, he stared the way only a father bear could. "I just lost one son tonight over stupidity and greed, and I am ending it now. Magnus had killed and was killed, and I am beyond SICK with all of this... shit you lot are putting me through! Pearl included! But at least she isn't greedy and complacent like most of the rest of my brood. Look at you... wielding your power to ruin lives. Is that what I have taught you? Or did you learn it from your shrew of a mother?"

Joe lost the battle with his facial expression and a thin grimace formed as he watched a privileged Whitby family fall into the same messy drama as others less fortunate.

Robert too grimaced, but at his father's shouting and lack of decorum. Wait! Who was dead? Had to be Darius. Darwinism at its finest. Oh. Not Darius. The message hardly registered. Magnus killed, was he? Robert disliked his asshole of a brother so much, that that made little impact. His father's tantrum however was absolutely appalling, especially in front of this street urchin.

He took a deep breath, and calmly stated: "I can see you are overcome with grief and not yourself, father. I shall give you some peace, and we shall speak when you have regained your composure." He turned to leave.

Joe was through being polite

"I wouldn't leave just yet little boy, yer father's got more to say." he called out.

"No. You will sit down now, or you will lose your portion of the inheritance. Do you wish to be cut out completely from my will? Because, boy, I will be heard!" He was enraged now. None of them had ever witnessed him so genuinely pissed off as a parent. He slammed his fists down on the desk and leaned forward, then pointed a shaking finger at his son, "You have been given everything you have ever asked for in life but you forget that I worked for every blasted penny I have made, boy. Your luxury rides on the back of MY enterprise, and I will do as I see fit to make sure it is protected. I will not have it.... squandered away by you and your siblings. As it is now, your sister, if she proves herself fit, will be my heiress and young Joseph will be groomed to take over my business when I die. I wouldn't have to worry that he is greedy because he knows what it is like to work for the money... but you... you and your brothers and sisters... What do you do?"

He paused and filled a glass with brandy until it was almost overflowing. "I have a son who is more interested in his dead friend, another son who... for all I know, rips wings off of butterflies just for the sadism of it," he was staring pointedly at Robert... "And your identical brothers, I wonder the same. I could keep going through every single one of you." The man tossed back the drink.

He shuddered and then he threw the glass into the fireplace, the shattering object laying in a glistening pile in the fire. "God damn it all!"

Robert glared at Joe and opened his mouth, but before he could reply, his father spoke, and Robert turned paler than he usually was (except for that handprint). He sat down like he was told. His father had lost his mind! Clearly lost his mind! Robert listened to the man raging, watched the man acting like a drunk, and flinched when his father actually threw a glass across the room. That was it! He was mad, just like Pearl! They had both lost their minds!

And still Robert chose his words carefully, for he did not want to lose the inheritance. "Father..." he started carefully, a light tremor in his voice. "You forget that I am in university, studying to be a lawyer and working hard for it." But of course he was just a bad kid in his father's eyes. Nobody could ever meet father's standards! The bastard.

The elder Carrington's outburst didn't phase Joe in the slightest. Along Osway Street, down on the harbour, in the Yards of the Cragg such vibrant displays of emotion and frustration were as common as Tuesdays. Instead Joe stood there silently, and confidently buoyed by the presence of Pearl and the support of Magnus as the example of how a man should act. He defiantly returned Robert's glower.

Just try something, anything. Go on...

"I forget nothing. You say you are studying to be a lawyer, yet here you are writing letters unauthorized by myself to be sent in the first place, to a railroad company, overreacting because your sister happened to hold a young man's hand. A young man who was doing nothing but trying to comfort a stranger. Think about where they were, boy. They were in full view. Do you think your sister would have allowed him up her blasted skirts in public, in broad daylight? There is being protective, and then there is being ridiculous. Did he kiss your sister? Did he molest her? She says not and I tend to believe her, because other than a boy or two, she is usually honest with me." He scoffed, "And what made you think you had the right to go as far as writing a letter that caused this young man to be fired from his job over something I am sure you do plenty of? I see no problem with his lack of wealth, I ate from refuse bins as a boy!"

Then he turned to Pearl and Joe, "Pearl, leave us please." Pearl nodded, then, as she was leaving, gave that Mona Lisa Smile and mentally flipping her brother off at the same time. That smirk of victory that said she was just as cunning as the rest of the brood when she wanted to be. Could she be blamed for that? She did, after all, have to defend herself against a bunch of bratty ingrates.

"Now then," he said and looked to Joe, "Tell me what you think I should do as a fitting punishment to my son, hmm?"

Robert grit his teeth together as his father lectured him. How he had come to hate this ma. And did he have to remind them, in the presence of this streetsweeper, of the humiliating origins they had?! "I only did what I thought was right, given the scandal Pearl had caused before," he muttered while his father was still speaking. "I-, What? You ask him! You are being unfair!"

Robert's juvenile tone irritated Joe "Grow up man! Yer Father's made his decision, live with it." he paused "welcome to the workin' class." he said with a humourless smile.