AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Never in her life had she thought this would happen.
“Eloise Richards,” Greta breathed. “I have thought about you every single day since I last saw you.”
“It’s Eloise Clemmens, now,” Eloise said with a soft smile.
Greta’s eyes widened. “Eloise Clemmens. My goodness.”
Eloise swallowed the lump in her throat, then filled her mouth with wine. The wine itself was better than any wine she’d ever had, which spoke to Greta’s immaculate taste.
“My husband died,” Eloise said softly. “Three years ago.”
Greta’s eyes darkened. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She said it like she meant it.
“He was a good man. Very kind. Gentle. We wanted children, but they never came. We told each other that we were enough, but I’m not entirely sure if that was true.”
“What was his name?” Greta asked.
“Liam,” Eloise said as her eyes filled with tears. “It’s strange. Since I got back to Nantucket, I’ve mourned Liam more than I’ve mourned him in the three years since he died. It’s like I had to get out of the context of our lives to remember just how dear he was to me.”
“I don’t think grieving is ever meant to be linear,” Greta said.
“I wish I knew what grief was supposed to be,” Eloise said. “I wish someone gave you a blueprint on how it was supposed to go.”
Greta nodded and extended her hand, which Eloise took. “I know you’ve been through a great deal of pain here on your own,” Eloise said.
“I have.” Greta squeezed Eloise’s hand harder. “I wish I had known how to reach out to you. I even looked for you, but I suppose by then, you would have been Eloise Clemmens. And I never would have guessed you’d end up in Indiana, of all places.”
Eloise frowned. “You looked for me?”
“Of course,” Greta said.
Eloise’s eyes filled with tears.Why hadn’t she reached out to Greta?
“What was it like?” Eloise asked quietly. “All those years here at The Copperfield House?”
Greta placed her tongue against the inside of her cheek and considered this for a long moment. “It was terrible,” she answered honestly. “I thought my life was over. The past year has been such a blessing. It all started when Julia decided to come home. And one after another, the rest of our family came back, as well. But they’re all older now. They’ve been through so much. I see the pain in each of my children’s eyes, and it makes me ache for them.”
“I’m sure they ache for you, too,” Eloise said.
Greta shrugged. “It’s not the job of children to ache for their parents.”
“But they do,” Eloise said. “I think they do. I ache for Mother and Father, at least.”
Greta dropped her gaze for a moment. It seemed time for them to talk about the elephant in the room.
Finally, Greta seemed to muster the courage to speak.
“Why did he do it?” she whispered. “Why did he send you away?”
Eloise blinked back tears as the realization struck her. Perhaps Greta had never known.
“I know he was never so nice to you,” Greta continued. “I know that he could be cruel. But what made him so angry that he never wanted to see you again?”
“He never told you?” Eloise breathed. “Neither of them?”
Greta shook her head. “I asked them several times, but they always said… They said that you did something unforgivable. And I hate to confess that, eventually, I just decided to believe them.”
Eloise nodded, trying yet slightly failing to understand Greta’s point of view.
