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‘Help? How?’
‘With money. I have…some funds of my own.’
‘Do you, now?’ He stared at me for a moment, as if trying to penetrate my secrets. Finally, he asked, ‘Is that all?’
I thought hard for a moment. Wasn’t that enough? I had done my very best. What else could I do? What on earth could convince him that this was the best, the only choice for Ella?
Finally, inspiration hit.
‘I also,’ I added, with a big smile, ‘would like to make you a small present of, um…ten shillings to thank you for being such a kind, considerate uncle who always thinks of his nieces before himself.’
He cocked his head. ‘Ten?’
‘Err…fifteen?’
‘Thirty.’
‘Twenty-five. My last offer.’
‘Done.’ Uncle Bufford nodded. ‘I do love being a kind, considerate uncle.’
Not betraying a hint of how my heart was hammering in my chest, I stepped toward the door with a little curtsey. Done. I had done it! I had saved my little sister. And for half as much as I’d expected to pay. Mr Ambrose would be proud.
‘A pleasure doing business with you, Uncle.’
Turning, I slipped outside, closed the door behind me and walked until I was out of hearing distance—then I leapt up and punched the air. ‘Yay! I did it! I did it!’
Leaning against the corridor a bit farther down, I noticed a picture of misery that was quite a convincing portrait of my little sister.
‘Cheer up!’ I told her, thumping her on the back.
‘Lill!’ She sent me an accusing gaze. ‘How can you smile at a time like this?’
‘The question is, how can you not?’ My grin broadened. ‘Or don’t you want to marry your piano-tuner anymore?’
Ella blinked. ‘Marry? Marry Edmund? But Uncle Bufford said….’
‘He changed his mind.’
‘But how…?’
‘I appealed to his generous nature.’
It told you a lot about my little sister, practically everything you needed to know, that she swallowed this lie hook, line and sinker. A beatific smile spread across her face, and the tears on her face sparkled like diamonds, making her only look more beautiful than ever.
‘His generous nature? Oh, that dear, dear old man. I’ve got to thank him! I could weep at his feet in gratitude all day!’
‘Don’t,’ I advised. ‘We don’t want him to change his mind again.’
‘But Lill—’
‘Besides,’ I added, ‘shouldn’t you go tell Edmund? He’s probably languishing in horrible heartache or something silly like that right now.’
‘Oh my goodness, you’re right!’ Clapping her hand over her mouth, Ella whirled and rushed towards the stairs. ‘I must go to him at once! Oh, poor, poor Edmund!’
I had a feeling poor, poor Edmund wasn’t going to feel so poor anymore in a few minutes. Smiling, I gazed after Ella as she rushed off to meet her future. Now it was time for me to go find mine.
*~*~**~*~*
