Haunted Hearts

2

When Roderick delivered the news that both her fiancé and his mount were killed instantly in the accident, Elphi didn't cry or speak a word.

She couldn't.

The words formed within her brain, but they ended up wedged tightly between the lump of emotions, and her heart-stricken scream lodged in her throat, incapable of wiggling themselves free.

She excused herself to her room, locked the door, and stayed there, thinking—and not for the first time—it was unfortunate heartache only maimed its victim when it should kill.

Meals were brought to her room but remained untouched over the first three days. Then, on the fourth day, when Roderick was informed her breakfast tray was returned to the kitchen without a morsel taken, he marched from his study up the grand staircase to her room and hammered his fists against her bedroom door as he shouted, "MELPHIA?"

Several maids, footmen, their butler Mr. Tucker and even Mrs. Hare, their housekeeper, warily approached, attempting to appear busy while congregating at strategic intervals along the corridor.

Elphi lay on her bed, wearing the same nightgown she'd worn for the past four days, and stared at the crushed green velvet canopy of her four-poster bed, wondering if the door or Roderick's fist would give up first.

Most likely his fist.

"Go away," she said, barely able to dredge up enough energy to ensure he could hear her through the door.

Thump, thump. "MELPHIA GEORGIANA MATSON," thump, "open this door immediately, or so help me, I will break it down."

Elphi grunted at him for using her full name. He probably did it on purpose, hoping she'd open the door to give him an earful just as she had in years gone by.

But just as quickly as the tiny bubble of irritation bloomed, it disappeared, swallowed up by the pervading emptiness that had consumed her since Percy died, which hadn't even allowed her to cry.

Roderick's fist struck her door again three times in quick succession, and she rolled onto her side, giving the door her back as she muttered, "It's solid mahogany, you dunderhead."

A few more blows ricocheted, echoing into her room and reverberating through her skull before the noise faded, then stopped altogether. Elphi sighed and closed her eyes, feeling like she could sleep for years.

She didn't know how long she lay there. Hours. Days. Millenia. One moment she was sound asleep, far away from anything close to the inescapable and all-consuming heartache, and the next, Elphi was startled awake when her bedroom door slammed to the ground with a heavy thwunk.

Elphi bolted upright and pushed her tangled auburn hair from her face as Roderick entered, handing several tools to Mr. Tucker and one of the footmen before marching across the fallen door and into the center of the room. "You're alive, I see, despite not eating for days."

"I drank the tea... I just wasn't hungry," Elphi absently said, looking between her brother, her door on the floor, and the hole in the wall where it used to reside. "What did you do to my door?"

Roderick followed her gaze to the empty doorway, shrugged, then turned and gave her his full attention. "I opened it."

Elphi arched a brow and folded her arms across her chest, "Not in the traditional method."

"There's more than one way to skin a cat, Elphi," he quipped with a negligent shrug of his shoulders and a lopsided grin that didn't reach his eyes. "You know the rules. No locked doors in this house."

Elphi scoffed, "That is a ridiculous rule that died years ago along with Father." She reached behind and grabbed a pillow, wadding it up and tossing it at him when he dared continue to approach her bed, "I wish to be alone. Get out."