Connie’s Courage

Ellie shook her head and looked at Gideon. Connie had not been on the list of survivors posted by the White Star Shipping Line and published in the national papers, and nor had Kieron Connolly.

‘Well, if you want my opinion Ellie, it’s probably all for the best,’ Amelia Gibson was continuing virtuously.

‘All for the best!’ Ellie’s whole body trembled as she stopped her. ‘Aunt, Connie is probably dead. How can that be for the best!’ Tears welled in Ellie’s eyes.

Immediately Amelia bristled and fixed Ellie with an angry glare.

‘I shouldn’t have thought it was necessary to explain my words to you. I refuse to sully my lips by discussing any of your sister’s disgraceful behaviour. She has brought shame on herself and shame on our family as well. If my poor sister had lived to see –‘

‘If Mama had lived, then none of this would have happened,’ Ellie couldn’t stop herself from bursting out.

Ignoring her, Amelia continued grimly, ‘When I think of what she made your poor Aunt Jane suffer with her wilful ways. She and your Uncle Simpkins did their best for her, taking her in and giving her a good home, just as your Aunt Parkes did for you, and we all know how Connie repaid their generosity.’ Her thin lips folded in a forbidding line. She was a disgrace to our family. She could never have returned to live amongst decent respectable people!’ Amelia went on. ‘And, in my opinion, she is better off dead!’

‘Aunt, I won’t have you speak of her like that,’ Ellie protested immediately. ‘How can you say such things about her?’

‘I say them because they are true, Ellie! When a woman behaves as Connie has done and loses her reputation, she loses everything, and there can be no purpose to her continuing to live. Had Connie ever dared come to my door, I would not have let her in, and neither would any of my sisters. Indeed, I would not have spoken to her if I had seen her in the street. She was already as good as dead so far as I was concerned. I cannot understand why you waste your tears on her, Ellie, for she certainly did not deserve them.’

After they had gone, Ellie wept in Gideon’s arms.

‘Oh poor Connie, Gideon … How could my aunt speak so, and be so cruel!’

Gideon held her tightly.

‘I know that Connie did wrong, but …’

‘You would forgive her and take her in, I know that, Ellie, but there would be many people like your aunt who would not forgive or forget what she did, and who would shun her for it.’

Ellie knew that what he was saying was true. But she knew she would have forgiven her sister had she done a hundred times worse, if only she could have her back alive and safe!

There was a sudden commotion in the hallway, and her younger brother John came bursting in.

The moment she saw John, Henrietta – Ellie’s stepdaughter, the child of her late husband and his Japanese lover – ran eagerly toward him. After her first husband had committed suicide, Ellie had made herself responsible for the frail Japanese woman who had travelled all the way from Japan with her young daughter to find the man she loved. But Ellie’s compassion and care had not been enough to heal Minaco’s broken heart. After Minaco’s death, and Ellie’s own subsequent marriage to Gideon, Ellie had insisted that they adopt the orphaned little girl, knowing herself how hard it was to grow up without loving parents.

Henrietta was both pretty and sweet-natured, and Ellie and Gideon loved her as though she were their own child.

‘And how’s my beautiful girl, today?’ John asked Henrietta mock-severely as he set her on his shoulders. ‘Have you been good and learned your lessons?’

As Henrietta giggled at his teasing, Ellie said quietly, ‘John, there is bad news about Connie.’

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