Page 72 of The Sea Siren of Broadwater Bottom
“Did you overhear your father’s conversation with Harrington?” Elissa asked.
“I did.”
He fell silent, unsure how to continue, because he was coming to the shameful part.
After a moment, Elissa asked softly, “Was it awful?”
“It wasn’t awful at all,” Edward said in a rush. “When I chanced a glance, Father was smiling at him and they were both laughing. I remember Father mussed Harrington’s hair and told him he was a rapscallion. Then he told him to go to his room, but he was smiling fondly the whole time, and… ”
Elissa said nothing but gave Edward a squeeze.
After a moment he continued, “Then it was my turn. I honestly wasn’t worried about it. I thought it would go more or less the same way for me. But instead—” He drew in a shaky breath, because this was the part of the story that cut him to the quick.
“Instead?” Elissa whispered.
He had to close his eyes. “Father yelled at me for a good ten minutes. He said that he had expected better of me. That as the oldest, it was my responsibility to set an example for Harrington and the others, to keep them out of trouble. And that I had disappointed him. Tremendously.”
He felt Elissa’s hand caressing the side of his face. “Oh, Edward—”
“And so you see,” he said, cutting her off, “I am not the same as the rest of my siblings. There is something about Harrington and all the others that is inherently loveable. But I do not possess whatever quality that is.”
“You do.” Elissa reached up to wipe away a tear that was making its way across her cheek.
He’d gone and made her cry.Perfect.He knew he shouldn’t have burdened her with all of this.
“I promise that you do,” Elissa continued. “You are the most loveable person I’ve ever met. I didn’t stand a chance of not loving you.”
He stroked his hand up and down her arm while she sniffled against his chest.
After a moment, she’d regained enough composure to speak again. “I can understand why you reached that conclusion. Especially because… God, you were eight years old, Edward. But tell me this—did your father have any idea you were spying on his conversation with Harrington?”
“I do not believe so, no.”
She bit her lip. “I have not known your brother for very long. But my impression of him is that he could make a dead man laugh.”
“He could. Harrington has an effervescent personality. He immediately lifts the mood of everyone in the room the second he walks into it. Well—” A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “Excepting Graverley. Graverley despises him. He’s been on the receiving end of too many of Harrington’s pranks.”
“And has Harrington always been that way?” Elissa asked. “Able to make people laugh?”
“Always. Even as a very small child.”
Elissa seemed to be weighing her words carefully. “Please do not mistake me, because the last thing I want to suggest is that your feelings were unreasonable. I think you drew a logical conclusion. But have you ever considered that your father’s intention might have been to give Harrington the same lecture he gave you? But Harrington, being Harrington, spoiled his plans by making him laugh at every turn?”
Edward frowned. Elissa’s suggestion had never occurred to him. On the one hand, he had seen Harrington cut up in an attempt to get out of trouble any number of times.
But still, that couldn’t be right.
He cleared his throat. “I do not think so. After all, Harrington went first. Why would he not have matched my lecture to his?”
“But you said your father didn’t know you had been listening.”
“That… that is true.” Edward was finding it difficult to form counterarguments. His brain felt sluggish and overfull.
She laid her head against his shoulder. “I only ask that you consider it.”
“I… I will.” And he meant it. He would consider everything Elissa had said.
Later.
