“They both died within the same year, and home was taken. Gone. I’ve not been back since. Couldn’t bear it, I think, to see others living in our places. It was such a wrench. To be ripped away. To scramble for earth and air. To find some of that sense in a person only to lose it again. I— I can’t bear it, Mr. Pierce. Can’t bear to think of it. The pain of losing home. And so, knowing the acute sense of loss, how can I take this man’s home? However horrible he may be. However undeserving of mercy. Do you understand?”
Emma is a bigger person than I am. I would kick Archibald out on his ear. Still… her father did love him for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out there are some mysteries hidden behind that locked library door of his. Perhaps her own books that she sold to pay for her tuition may have been bought by Archibald on the sly and hidden in the library. Either that or I’m completely wrong and what’s hiding behind the locked library door is an empty room because Archibald sold his inherited books for money to buy clothes?
