Violet smiled wistfully, then reached up and touched her daughter’s cheekbone, right near the corner of her eye. The skin was still slightly discolored, but the purple had faded through blue and green to a rather sickly (but certainly less unsightly) shade of yellow. “Are you certain you’ll be happy?” she asked.
Eloise smiled ruefully. “It’s a little late to wonder, don’t you think?”
“It might be too late to do anything about it, but it’s never too late to wonder.”
“I think I’ll be happy,” Eloise said.I hope so,she added, but just in her mind.
“He seems a nice man.”
“He’s a very nice man.”
“Honorable.”
“He is that.”
Violet nodded. “I think you’ll be happy. It might take time until you realize it, and you might doubt yourself at first, but you’ll be happy. Just remember—” She stopped, chewing on her lip.
“What, Mother?”
“Just remember,” she said slowly, as if she were choosing each word with great care, “that it takes time. That’s all.”
What takes time?Eloise wanted to scream.
But her mother had already stood up and was briskly smoothing her skirts. “I expect I shall have to usher the family out, or they will never leave.” She fiddled with a bow on her dress as she turned slightly away. One of her hands reached up to her face, and Eloise tried not to notice that she was brushing aside a tear.
“You’re very impatient,” Violet said, facing the door. “You always have been.”
“I know,” Eloise said, wondering if this was a scolding, and if so,whywas her mother choosing to do it now?
“I always loved that about you,” Violet said. “I always loved everything about you, of course, but for some reason I always found your impatience especially charming. It was never because you wantedmore,it was because you wanted everything.”
Eloise wasn’t so sure that sounded like such a good trait.
“You wanted everything for everyone, and you wanted to know it all and learn it all, and ...”
For a moment Eloise thought her mother might be done, but then Violet turned around and added, “You’ve never been satisfied with second-best, and that’s good, Eloise. I’m glad you never married any of those men who proposed in London. None of them would have made you happy. Content, maybe, but not happy.”
Eloise felt her eyes widen with surprise.
“But don’t let your impatience become all that you are,” Violet said softly. “Because it isn’t, you know. There’s a great deal more to you, but I think sometimes you forget that.” She smiled, the gentle, wise smile of a mother saying goodbye to her daughter. “Give it time, Eloise. Be gentle. Don’t push too hard.”
Eloise opened her mouth but found herself entirely incapable of speech.
“Be patient,” Violet said. “Don’t push.”
“I ...” Eloise had meant to sayI won’t,but her words fell away, and all she could do was stare at her mother’s face, only now realizing what it truly meant that she was married. She’d been thinking so much about Phillip that she hadn’t thought of her family.
She was leaving them. She would always have them in all the ways that mattered, but still, she was leaving.
And she hadn’t realized until that very moment how often she sat down with her mother and just talked. Or how very precious those moments were. Violet always seemed to know just what her children needed, which was remarkable, really, since there were eight of them—eight very different souls, each with unique hopes and dreams.
Even Violet’s letter—the one she’d written and asked Anthony to give to her at Romney Hall—it was exactly right, precisely what Eloise had needed to hear. Violet could have scolded, she could have hurled accusations; she would have been perfectly within her rights to do either—or more.
But all she’d written was, “I hope you are well. Please remember that you are my daughter and you will always be my daughter. I love you.”
Eloise had bawled. Thank goodness she’d forgotten to read it until late in the night, when she was able to do so in the privacy of her room at Benedict’s house.
Violet Bridgerton had never wanted for anything, but her true wealth lay in her wisdom and her love, and it occurred to Eloise, as she watched Violet turn back to the door, that she was more than just her mother—she was everything that Eloise aspired to be.
