The Treasure Box by Penelope Stokes

didn’t lose your first love—at least not for a very long time. I know you miss Papa, but you had twenty wonderful years together.” Rachel peered intently into her mother’s eyes.
    â€œUnless Papa wasn’t your first love.”
    Mam patted Rachel’s hand and gazed out over the rushing water. “Your father and I were well suited for one another,” she said. “Sometimes we want something so much that we truly believe we might die if we don’t get it. And then when we get something else instead, we’re glad that life didn’t give us what we wished for.”
    â€œSo there was someone before Papa?” Rachel whispered.
    â€œWho?”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter. What matters is that your Papa was exactly the right man for me. I grew to love him with all my heart.”
    Rachel shook her head. “I don’t think I could marry someone I wasn’t already in love with.”
    â€œLove takes different forms, child. Passion is only one aspect of it. In rare cases, you find someone who draws out all that you are—heart, soul, mind, and body. Someone whose very presence in your life helps you become a better person, nobler, truer, more faithful, more of the person you were created to be. But that kind of love is highly uncommon, and nurturing it is the work of a lifetime.”
    Silence stretched between them, broken only by the splashing of water against rock.
    â€œAnd what about your young squire, the handsome Mr. Derrick Knight?” Mam said after a while. “Do you love him?”
    â€œYes.” Rachel paused. “At least, I think I do. What little I’ve experienced of romance has mostly come from books and poems—or the bawdy ballads some of the fellows in the tavern sing. But of course I love Derrick. He’s a strong man and very determined. He knows exactly what he wants out of life.”
    â€œAnd he wants you.”
    â€œSo it seems.” Rachel fingered the locket that hung at her throat. “It’s probably the first time in the history of the civilized world that a man has chosen the homely sister over the pretty one.”
    Her mother frowned. “It pains me to hear you talk of yourself that way, Rachel. It’s true, your sister has had more than her share of masculine attentions, but she flaunts herself disgracefully. You’re not homely, not in the least—you’re a lovely girl, in your own quiet way. Isn’t it possible that Derrick has seen beyond the surface and discovered your inner beauty?”
    Rachel smiled and ducked her head. “I’d like to believe so.”
    â€œBut you’re not certain?” Mam gazed out over the rapids.
    â€œBeing the object of adoration can weave a powerful enchantment around a soul. Especially when a girl hasn’t been adored nearly enough in her life.”
    â€œHe’s good to me, Mam. Maybe that should be enough.”
    â€œMaybe.” Mam sighed. “Only your heart can tell you.”
    â€œThe only thing my heart is telling me right now is that I wish Sophie were here.” Rachel got to her feet and went to sit on the fallen log. “I want to talk to her, to hear what she has to say.
    I can’t imagine getting married without her there. And every time I come here, I think back to that day ten years ago when— because of my fight with Cathleen—Sophie went into the river and died of pneumonia.”
    â€œIt wasn’t your fault.”
    â€œI know that, Mam. And although I have tried to blame her, I suppose it wasn’t really Cathleen’s fault, either. It was just a stupid, childish argument that ended up in tragedy. Still, I can hardly help feeling responsible.”
    â€œYou loved Sophie, didn’t you?”
    â€œCertainly.”
    â€œYou went into the river to get the Treasure Box, because you knew it was precious to her?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAnd she went in the river to help you.