Elise squeezed her eyes shut. She’d promised her mother that she’d look after Adelaide, that she wouldn’t let any harm come to her, and she’d barely managed a year of keeping her safe. “So what do we do, then?” she eventually asked.

“Honestly? I don’t have the answer to that, but if you’re thinking of forbidding her from seeing him, I wouldn’t. Imagine how quickly his affections could change if she turned him down?”

Elise groaned. “I should never have let her go today, should I?”

“Maybe not, but what’s done is done. And I don’t see that you really had a choice in the matter.” Cate sighed. “It doesn’t exactly make it easy with Harry encouraging her, either.”

“I just don’t like being this person, telling her what she can and can’t do, being the one in charge when—”

“You feel like you don’t even know what you’re doing, and yet you have to figure out how to manage someone else as well.”

Elise stared at her. “That’s exactly how I feel. Like I’m suddenly the head of the family, even though I never wanted to be and I don’t have any training for the job.”

Cate nodded. “It’s how I felt when I started nursing. There were so many expectations, so much I was responsible for even though I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning.”

“So how did you get through it?”

“I think we all just do the best we can, the only way we know how,” Cate said wistfully. “Somehow, in the end, we figure it out along the way. And I can tell you’ll be just fine, you’re already the head of this family whether you want to be or not.”

“I suppose I feel sorry for Addy in a way, it’s like she’s been robbed of those fun years, meeting boys and having fun with friends her own age. So much has been going on and my parents became very protective of her as soon as there was even a whisper of war.”

“What are you two gossiping about in here?” Adelaide’s warm, sweet voice put an end to their conversation, and Elise turned and took the dishes her sister was carrying. That was one thing she had to give her sister credit for; she never held grudges, and was always perfectly happy to move on and forget any harsh words that had been said.

“Nothing important,” Elise replied, wishing she could bundle Addy in a big hug and keep her safe from the world forever.