She remembered feeling loved.
A tear escaped his eye and began to run down his cheek, and he reached out and wiped a tear off hers.
When had she started crying?
“We never stopped looking for you,” he said.
The door opened again behind him, and the duchess, Colette, and Celeste appeared in a flurry of skirts.
“You—you’re our sister?” Celeste yelled as she came running up, the first of the three to reach them.
Colette and Duchess Vaughn were not far behind, as Beatrice and Dietrich appeared in the doorway.
Ella immediately felt more settled at the sight of Dietrich, even though he was much too far away.
The duke looked between his daughters. “You’ve met?”
“She was at our picnic,” Colette explained.
The duke’s head swiveled around to look at Beatrice, who looked sheepish, and then at Dietrich.
“You and I are going to have a talk later,” the duke called to Dietrich, who simply nodded.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Ella exclaimed. “I wasn’t ready. And then they surprised me at the picnic, and I didn’t know. But please, do not blame him.”
“How long have you known?” the duke asked, looking down at her.
“A few days,” she admitted.
“And you didn’t come right away?” he asked gently.
“I needed to be sure,” Ella said. Even though she’d never met him, at least, as far as she remembered, she knew somehow that he would understand. “I needed to be sure that I was your daughter, and I needed to know that I could be your daughter before I came and gave you false hope.”
“You don’t have to do anything to be my daughter,” the duke said, pulling her into another hug. “You already are.”
And then he pulled back again. “What do you mean you had to be sure?”
“I... I only...” Ella faltered. “I didn’t know if Dietrich thought I was your daughter because he wanted me to be your daughter or because I actually was. If I had been just another blonde girl with blue eyes who he found and decided that I was the missing girl because he wanted me to be...” Her voice trailed off before she continued. “But after hearing from more than one or two people that it was possible, and after meeting your daughters and seeing our resemblance, and after this—”
She pulled the pumpkin out of her pocket and handed it to the duke, who inspected it. Another tear rolled down his cheek, and his wife reached over to brush it away.
When had she come to stand by his side?
“Dietrich gave this to you,” the duke said, his voice breaking as he rolled the pumpkin around in his hand. “You wouldn’t stop showing it to everyone. You thought it was the best thing you’d ever seen—you didn’t even want to play with your toys for three days after. You just wanted to throw the pumpkin back and forth.”
She let out a chuckle.
“Your mother thought it was the cutest thing in the world. She thought everything you did was... she loved you, you know,” he said suddenly, his eyes staring into hers. “You do know that, right?”
“I think... I remember that.” Ella hesitated. “It’s not much, but I remember that she smelled good, and she had beautiful hair, and she was kind.”
The duchess started to cry, too, and they all turned to look at her. “I am so glad you have that memory of her,” she said through her tears.
Ella looked down at her sisters, who were edging in front of their father with hearts in their eyes.
“Hello,” she said to them, unsure of what to say. What did one say to sisters who weren’t determined to hate you?
“You knew at the picnic, and you didn’t tell us?” Celeste demanded. “That’s not very nice. We’re not supposed to keep secrets, you know.”
