When we arrived at Bakewell. It was around midnight.

"Are you sure we can go to your parents' house just like this?" I asked as we left the train station. "For starters, it's quite late."

"Don't worry about hours, my dad is a night owl, awake in the evening, goes to sleep in the morning. He works at these hours. We'll need to get to the fields."

She and her family had a quite large garden, you may say, where they grew vegetables. Her father worked at night and her mother sold the goods in daytime.

"Hey daddy-o!" she called way too loud considering the late hour.

"Pumpkin?" The middle aged man's eyes widened. I never understood why pumpkin was such a cute nickname.

"I'm home," I could hear the smile in her words.

"I must be dreaming," he rubbed his eyes.

"I'm here. For real." After a moment she added, "This is my friend, Lucy. I met her in London."

"We were sick worried about you!" he suddenly got angry. "One day you disappeared, leaving a lousy letter! We haven't heard from you ever since!"

"It was too painful to stay," she also raised her voice, which was mixed with a sob "It was too painful to remember…"

I hugged her. Her father stood in his place. It was hard to see his expression clearly from the oil lamp's light, but he looked bothered.

"Child… he didn't marry Linda."

"What…?"

"Linda got married just a few days ago to some a doctor named Thomas in London. He never loved her that way."

"So, who is he married to?" her voice broke.

"No one. The only way for his parents to prevent him from harming himself was to stop pushing to marry. He vowed to never marry another."

"But I don't understand. He loved her. I heard him say that…"

"Of course, he loves her, she's his half-sister."

"She's his half… what?"

He sighed.

"It is not very well known, but she is the result of cheating out of marriage. That's why the father took her under his wings after her mom's death. They hid from his mother that they met even before. Even from you, his beloved one, so it seems."

Did I imagine she became red or it was a light trick?

"Go inside, child, your friend can sleep in your sister's old bed. I'm sure you're both tired."

"My, what a story," I said when we were in her new-old room. "You never told me anything."

"I loved Edward," she said shyly, "he's always been so gentle. We are childhood friends. When I was old enough to get married, I just waited for him to purpose, I knew he would. But then I found him kissing her on the cheek. I thought it meant he loved her. So… I ran away, without talking to him. What a fool."

"He's also a fool to wait for you even if you ask me," I said. Despite the dark, I noticed her glare "Come on, you would advise me to wait for Dr. Jekyll if that was the case, would you?"

"I guess…"

"Don't worry, tomorrow, your foolish haste will be forgotten."