Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Author:Gail Carson Levine [Levine, Gail Carson]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

My guest’s name was known to me. He was Edmund, Earl of Wolleck, uncle of Hattie’s friend Blossom, the uncle whose marriage she feared because it might cause her disinheritance. I suppose I should have been amused, but I was too lost in worry that the uncle would be as unpleasant as the niece.

I waited for him in the study, a half-finished square of embroidery spread across my lap. I had barely seated myself when Father opened the door.

“This is my daughter, Eleanor,” he said.

The earl bowed. I stood and curtsied.

He was older than Father, with shoulder-length curled gray hair. His face was as thin as a greyhound’s, with a long nose above a drooping mustache. He had a hound’s sad eyes too—brown with white showing above the lower lid and bags of skin below.

I sat again and he bent over my handiwork. “Your stitches are neat and so tiny. My mother made the smallest stitches too. You could barely see them.”

When he spoke, I saw teeth as small as a baby’s, as though he’d never gotten a second set. I could picture the toddler earl, peeking into his mother’s lap and flashing those wee pearls at her exquisite embroidery. When we married, I would try to imagine that he was almost as young as his teeth.

Leaving my side, he turned eagerly to Father.

“You could not hold such a position as I heard you express yesterday, my friend,” the earl said. “I hope you will explain yourself more fully.”

They were discussing punishments for bandits. The earl thought they should be shown mercy. Father believed they should be treated harshly, put to death even, as an example.

“If a bandit came here and made off with these valuables”—Father waved his hands at the things he was in the process of selling—“I’d be unnatural if I weren’t enraged. And unnatural if I didn’t act on my rage.”

“Perhaps you couldn’t help being angry,” the earl answered, “but you could certainly stop yourself from repaying one offense with another.”

I agreed with the earl and thought of an argument tailor-made for Father. “Suppose the thief didn’t steal outright,” I said. “Suppose he robbed you through deception. Would that thief deserve the same punishment as a bandit?”

“A different case entirely,” Father answered. “If I allowed a rogue to cheat me, I would deserve my fate. The knave would deserve some punishment perhaps, but not a severe one. I would have been a gullible fool and not worthy of my wealth.”

The earl nodded at me. “The cases are not so different,” he said. “If an armed bandit made off with your possessions, you might be at fault for failing to protect your home. You might then also not be worthy of your wealth. Why should a robber sacrifice his life for your carelessness?”

“Your logic is irrefutable, although its foundation isn’t sound.” Father smiled. “Two opponents are more than I can defend against. You have much in common with my daughter, Wolleck. You are both soft hearted.”

Neatly done, Father.

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