A heavy sighsounded above her, the bed dipped, and Emma came down beside Ester.
“You have been moping in your room for five days, Ester,” she said softly. “I heard Julia telling Penny only a few minutes ago that she heard you sobbing last night. We are all concerned. What is happening?”
She shook her head, hugging the pillows to her chest. This was not something she wished to speak about, not even to her dearest sisters.
“Ester, please,” Emma said. “Confide in me.”
Silence settled about them, and her sister patiently waited. The wall Ester had been desperately trying to shore up cracked. “Heleft,” she said harshly, hating herself for sounding so broken and pitiful. “And he did not ask me to wait for him. I would have waited.”
There was a pregnant pause, and then Emma said, “Are we talking about Edmond Glendevon? I heard from Ellie that he is leaving for New York and might not be back in England for a few years.”
“Yes,” Ester said, gripping the pillow until her fingers ached. “I speak of Edmond.”
“We all saw the way in which you interacted with each other in Kent. Is there…an attachment between you?”
An attachment?She wanted to laugh. What she felt for him was…should be impossible as no one would endure such desperate emotions for another.
“I did not start out meaning to love him, but I should have known it would have happened,” Ester said into the pillow, hating that tear escaped her eyes. “Now that I do, all those promises I made to myself to not yearn for him I cannot keep. It has only been five days. I am already tormented, Emma.”
Her sister sighed. “Does he love you?”
“If he does, it is not enough for him to stay…or ask me to come with him,” Ester whispered, that pain and loss stabbing her heart with terrible intensity.
“Go with him?” Emma cried. “You would leave us?”
Ester’s heart squeezed. “I would write often, Emma, and I would not be gone forever.”
Emma’s face crumpled, and they stared at each other.
“You could also come with me,” Ester whispered.
Emma brightened at the idea even as she wrinkled her nose. “I would not want to be the third intrusion upon your happiness. It is natural for us to be apart. Ellie is now married and expecting a child. You are also desperately in love with another Glendevon.”
“Yes,” Ester said on a tight swallow, “But he does not plan to marry me.”
Emma reached out and clasped her hand in a comforting squeeze. “Let’s join the family for breakfast. Eating always makes you feel better.”
A watery laughed hiccupped from her, and Ester hurriedly splashed cold water on her face and joined her sister below stairs. Hermina was glowing and eating heartily, the morning sickness that had been plaguing her gone. Her sister-in-law moaned theatrically when she bit into a rasher of bacon. Colin grinned at her enjoyment while everyone, Julia and Penny chuckled. Phoebe and mama were more discreet, but they were also smiling. James and Richard arrived and joined the family. They filled their plates with slices of bacon, scrambled eggs, thinly sliced ham, and toast bread covered with strawberry preserves.
James took a few bites of his toast, then said, “Richard witnessed a most alarming incident on his journey home.”
This arrested their attention, and even Ester paused in slicing her pound cake.
“What incident?” Colin asked after taking a sip of his coffee.
“Richard, please tell them,” James urged, eating a mouthful of eggs.
Richard glared, clearly wanting to concentrate on eating and not conversing. Julia giggled and nudged him with her legs under the table.
“It seemed a man fell overboard a ship bound for New York,” her brother began.
“Fell overboard!” Hermina gasped.
An odd prick of foreboding touched Ester’s spine, and she straightened. “For New York?”
Richard nodded, warming to his retelling.
“The man was well away from the docks andattemptedto swim to shore. Such an incredible feat. The commotion was something to behold, for those watching swore he would not make it. Even I thought he would have surely drowned.”