The Richest Heart

Chapter 15

She focused her eyes on the blurred letters and picked out these bitter words, "You who cared nothing for our family. How is it fair that you have inherited our father's land? Can it be said that you are my elder when we are twin brothers? Injustice. If our father had been alive, he would have—"

The rest of the sentence was missing. The only other words Emiline could pick out were at the very bottom of the page. They read, "your brother, Mortimer."

The girl looked away, her face white, her heart full of sorrow. What a dreadful letter. For a moment, she looked all around at the property. It was so small, so common, and yet it had caused so much misery. But how had the fight ended? She grabbed the next letter with eager fingers and started to read again. This piece of parchment was just as ruined as the first.

"My brother, William,

You seem to think I am being unreasonable, but I am not. How can I help but fight for the thing which is rightfully mine? How can I help but feel cheated after spending so many years..."

She sorted through a line of smudged letters until she found the next readable sentence.

"This is not the way I wanted it. If I could have, I would have dearly liked to live at peace with you. But your carelessness causes too much grief. It always has. The prodigal son returned to his father, but you never did. Not until he was dead. Now you have stolen the land which Father meant for me to own. When will you become the man he wanted you to be?"

The sad letters went on and on. Emma could only gather bits and pieces of them, but she could see the whole story as plain as day: the two quarreling brothers, their lives torn apart by sorrow and loss. She could imagine how broken Mortimer's heart had been when his brother had taken that tiny farm. It had probably been his home for years. So many memories lived there; but they had been lost now, burned by the flames of time and forgetfulness.

Once again, she looked at the charred remnants of home and comfort. Everything the brothers had fought for was gone. There was nothing worth owning now.

But did they ever forgive each other? Emma wondered frantically. Surely they couldn't have held a grudge forever! Surely they couldn't have... Or had they? Had they argued their time away until William's time had run out? Could it be that the fire had deepened the gap between the two by stealing both Mortimer's land and brother from him?

It's just like Romeo and Juliet, she thought, with tears brimming in her eyes. Their families didn't forgive each other until Romeo and Juliet had died.

It was too horrible for Emiline to think about. She hoped beyond hope that the two brothers had made up before the tragedy had happened. A person's life is worth so much more than anything on this earth. It would be a pity to hold a grudge against someone all of your life over something so small. Once a loved one passes away, the silly things we argued about in the past don't matter anymore.

With quivering lips and quiet sobs, she slipped the papers back into the desk and shut them up carefully. Then she rose to her feet and took one more glance at the house's things. There really wasn't anything significant: an old chair, a broken table, pieces of shattered plates... But there was something strange that caught Emma's attention as she made her way out of the broken house. In the worst part of the wreckage, where the fire had done the most damage, a child's night cap sat, weathered and stained but not burnt. It was as if it had been set there after the fire had been put out. But by who?

Emiline shuddered. "Peter, are you finished yet?" she asked nervously.

"Are you kiddin'?" the boy asked. "I've just barely started. I found barrels full of nails, some fishing tackle, there's some old pennies in here too!"