A/N: You might detect some influences from the new mini-series in this one; it made me think about some aspects of the story of Emma which I'd never considered before. But I think the series was very faithful to the book, maybe not in preserving all the dialogue verbatim, but by preserving the spirit and essence of the novel and its characters.
Please review, and tell me what you think!
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At the funeral, her sister was sobbing and her father's eyes were filled with tears, but she was silent and her eyes were dry. Some might have thought that she was too young to understand what was happening, but he knew better. Looking into those hazel eyes, huge and dark with sorrow, he saw something more than the vulnerability of a lost child. He saw the little soul, who, wise beyond her four years, had realised that her life would never be the same again.
He thought of other Highbury children whose fates had suddenly changed; he thought of young Frank Weston, sent away to Yorkshire two years ago right after his mother's death; he thought of little Jane Fairfax whose aunt and grandmother had only recently been forced to send her away when they could no longer afford to keep her; he thought of his little motherless Emma and his throat constricted in fear.
After the funeral was over she came up to him and wordlessly lifted up her arms in a silent entreaty to be carried. As she settled her cold little nose on his neck and wrapped her icy fingers in his hair, he made a silent promise never to let her go.
If the girls needed a female to bring them up, they could move to Donwell. His own mother would do just as well as any distant aunt living hundreds of miles away. Blood or no, Emma and Isabella were his sisters and if need be, he would move heaven and earth to allow them to remain.
He could not imagine Highbury without Emma. But then he was a partial old friend.
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