“Hope,” Ellie repeated with a laugh. “Don’t let your brother hear you say that word.”
Emma giggled. “I am sorry about the despicable way he spoke to you at dinner,” she said. “That was poorly done on his part.”
“Your brother is rather an argumentative sort.”
“Yes, he is,” Emma agreed. “He has been that way since my father died.”
“He must have taken his death hard.”
Emma sighed. “We all did, but Roswell has become a different person.”
“That must be hard for you to watch.”
“He is suffering, but I’m afraid there is nothing I can do to help him,” Emma said. “He has closed himself off from everyone and everything.”
Ellie sat back down on the bed. “Grief is the most peculiar thing. It can have so much control over us if we allow it to.”
Sitting down next to her, Emma said, “I daresay that it has consumed my brother.”
“He will come around.”
Emma’s face softened. “I wish I shared your optimism.”
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about my father,” Ellie said. “He would be furious at the ill treatment Lord Worthington has bestowed upon us.”
“I have no doubt.”
“I hope you never have to meet Lord Worthington.”
“Why is that?”
Ellie brought her hand up to her mouth as she admitted, “He reminds me of a troll.”
“A troll?”
“He has these big ears, round face, and is bald,” she replied. “Furthermore, his temperament is just awful. He uses kind words, but his actions are anything but.”
“How so?”
“After I turned down his first offer of marriage, he made my mother and I move out of the manor and into a dilapidated cottage on the far side of the estate,” she explained. “He let us retain a small staff until I rejected him again. Then, he only let us keep a housekeeper.”
“How horrible.”
“He is not a nice man,” Ellie asserted.
“No, he is not.”
Ellie reached for a pillow and hugged it against her chest. “He wouldn’t even let me take my gowns with me,” she said. “I was only allowed my sturdier cotton dresses.”
“That is awful,” Emma murmured. “I have more than enough gowns, and you are welcome to borrow any of them.”
“That is most kind of you, but I do intend to purchase some gowns in town tomorrow.”
“It still could take days, if not weeks, before those gowns arrive,” Emma said. “Until then, I insist you have full access to my gowns.”
“I don’t know what I did to deserve your kindness.”
“It is not about deserving, Ellie,” Emma said. “I have been fortunate in my life and I am in a position to help you.”
