Dear, Miss Violet. ✔

Chapter 47

Violet's breath caught as she entered Richard's room. She held the candle close to her eyes as her hand fidgeted to her nightgown's folds. She'd entered his room after almost 5 years because every time she did so, it ate some part of her.

Even her parents never visited his room much. The servants would clean it twice a week, that too in the absence of Violet's parents. 

Violet knew how much her parents would even hurt just from looking at Richard's bedroom door. Richard was a topic the Greenhills never spoke about- and if by chance they did, one of them would surely burst into tears.

Even after so many years of his death, his presence was so strongly felt in the house that Violet sometimes felt that Richard would come out from somewhere and just surprise her. 

He'd always been a family man. Did almost anything to make sure that everyone was getting along without any problems. He'd been smart too- not terrifyingly so as Simon, but he was quite bright and loved to study. He'd told her once that studying for him was like drinking water- quenching the thirst of knowledge.

Richard had always wanted to be extremely knowledgeable- he wanted to know about everything that existed. He wanted to know about various cultures, art, languages- everything.

Violet smiled wistfully. She'd been too small to understand anything that time. But now each and every word that he'd said to her made sense. 

Violet slowly made her way to his cupboard. She leaned closer and slowly opened his cupboard. A few books were kept in the middle shelf. She took one and brought it closer to her face and the candle.

'Discourse On Bodies In Water- by Galileo Galilei.' 

Violet smiled and smelled the book. It smelled like years of dust. She kept it inside and picked out another one beneath it.

'Hamlet- Play by William Shakespeare.'

Violet kept it inside too and looked around the cupboard. His clothes were kept in the topmost shelf and Violet stood on her toes to pull out something that looked like a black coat. She held the candle a little higher and pulled out black colored breeches and black gloves and a black hat. Violet shook her head smilingly. Richard had always loved black colored clothes. 

She held the coat in front of her moist eyes as she laid the other items on the table beside the cupboard.

Violet dropped a light kiss on it "Ri-Richard ret-return back if it is possible. Nothing- nothing feels right without you here. I-I don't know if I'll ever let you leave my heart. You don't seem to leave from there. You know if you were here today- I would've cried in your arms."

She burst out into tears as she kept the candle into the candelabrum on the table. She hugged the coat and cried even more. There seemed to be so little left now. Violet had no desire to live, she had nothing to be happy from and no one to be happy for. 

Violet leaned against a wall and looked up silently as her tears dampened the coat. She sniffed and sniffed. For quite some time. After finally gaining her composure- she dried her tears and changed into the black clothes. When she was about to close the cupboard, a silver frame at the back of a shelf caught her eye.

She narrowed her eyes and pulled the frame out. 

It was Richard's portrait. He was beaming with pride and happiness. Violet sniffed and smiled. On his last birthday he'd insisted on getting his portrait done from a famous painter of London as a gift.

Violet's eyes connected to the memories in her heart. Somehow Richie's smile told her that everything will be alright. 

She grinned back at the miniature painting of her loving brother and slowly kept the portrait inside. She closed the cupboard.