A White Room Read Online Free PDF Page A

days. I will do anything to make him happy. Please.”
    Elisa’s mouth froze open.
    Richard lowered his eyes and then brought them back to me.
    “Emeline? I—” Elisa shook her head.
    It was too much to ask, and I knew it. I felt my cheeks flush. “But…I understand. I’m sorry. I should never—I—I—have to leave.” I rushed into the foyer, scrambled for my coat, and fumbled with the double doors.
    “Emeline, wait!” Elisa said, but I could not stop.
    I fled.

    I tried to forget my embarrassment for the next few days but relived the scene over and over until my mother approached me Saturday afternoon. She entered the sitting room timidly while I read next to the warm fire. Her voice trembled and her eyes glistened as she informed me that Elisa and Richard Dorr were calling with their son. Her bottom lip trembled and she clenched her hands, unaware of any courtship, unsure of my sentiments. Then I smiled, and she assumed the rest. I watched her body and mind sink with relief for the first time since my father had died. She reached out, clasped my hands, and pulled me off the sofa. “A wedding, my daughter will have a wedding.”
    I hopped with her in a little circle until she dropped my hands and started pacing. “It will have to be small, in mourning, of course, and soon, within a month.”
    My eyes shot wide open. A month?
    “Oh, and with the holidays, but that’s good. It’s good. Everyone should be happy to come for a Christmas ceremony and to see you before you move so far away.”
    “Far away?”
    “The Dorrs said their son’s job opportunity in Labellum will not wait for any honeymoon, and don’t you worry, I won’t make any problems for you, dear. I won’t say one word. I will make no complaints, even if they don’t want a ceremony at all. I don’t care. You are getting married!” She reached toward me but pulled back and held her hands under her chin, under her growing grin. “Your father would be so proud.”
    I nodded along with her assumptions, but inside I wondered, where’s Labellum?

    After the Dorrs left, I sneaked outside and sat on the front steps of our house. It felt haunted by the lonely feeling of a home that wouldn’t be ours for much longer. We lived in a red brick house with white-framed windows flanking the front double doors. I folded my arms, not having brought a coat. I embraced the bite of the cold as a form of martyrdom. There still wasn’t any snow, but the icy air nipped at my nose and reminded me of days spent playing rosy-cheeked in a white childhood wonderland long ago.
    I heard the door open and close, followed by footsteps. I stiffened and straightened. I felt someone standing next to me.
    “I believe congratulations are in order?” he said.
    “Last rites sound more appropriate.” I looked up at my brother.
    He chuckled.
    “It’s not funny.”
    “I thought it was clever.” He handed me my black coat.
    James wore his black frock coat over gray trousers. He squinted out at the street as a horse and carriage clip-clopped and rattled down the road. “I figured I’d come out here and tell you to stop pouting.”
    “I’m not pouting.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    I sighed. “How did you know?”
    “Emeline, you can fool Mother and Mr. and Mrs. Dorr and him, but you can’t fool me.” He knew me too well.
    “I don’t know what else to do. It’s going to save our family.”
    He grunted and dropped down next to me. “I thought all girls wanted to get married.”
    “Maybe I’m not a girl.”
    “I always thought you were built for railroad work.”
    I squinted one eye at him with annoyed amusement. “I would think I’d be a well-dressed lawyer—like you.” I poked him.
    He laughed at the assault. “Yes, you are probably too weak for hard labor.”
    We chuckled and then simmered down, submitting to the depressed state lingering around our home. The breeze rustled the branches of nearby oak trees, little dead leaves still clinging to them.
    “Did you see