“It is nothing,” Rosa assured them and turned to Kase. He was staring down at his folded hands.
Friend
? Had he not told his parents that they were to be married?
As if he sensed the mounting tension, Caleb Storm stepped away from his wife and moved toward the door. “I’m sure you two would like to visit without us old folks standing around. See if you can get him to eat something, Miss Audi”—he nodded toward the tray—“before it all gets cold.”
Analisa stopped beside the chair and extended an invitation for Rosa to join her later for tea downstairs. Rosa watched the woman go, the soft rustle of Analisa’s Scotch plaid dress the only sound in the room as she swept past her husband. Caleb paused in the doorway as if he was about to say more, then turned and walked away.
Rosa wasted no time in moving to sit beside Kase. She reached out for his hands and leaned forward to kiss him. He did not protest, but neither did he respond when she pressed her lips against his. Rosa pulled back, pretending not to have noticed his lack of interest, but an overwhelming sadness swept through her.
Unable to meet his eyes, she reached for the tray and carefully balanced it until he took it from her and set it on his lap. She removed a plate that covered a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup, unwrapped a hunk of warm bread, and poured him a glass of milk from an earthenware pitcher.
Today, instead of his usual request that she share his meal, he said nothing as he began with the soup. Kase paused to blow on each spoonful to cool it while Rosa related the events of the past two days. There was not much to tell. G.W. was down with a cough and so had not pestered her for two days. Rosa missed the child sorely. Al-Ray’s was now selling Christmas candies, and even though the holiday was still a month away, Flossie had decided to have a gala party.
“I have promised to make bagna calda,” Rosa informed him and went on to tell him in detail about the traditional Piedmontese dish consisting of raw vegetables dipped in a sauce made of anchovies and garlic. “By then you will be better and we will go together.”
The moment the words had been issued, Rosa knew she had made a grave error. Kase put down his spoon and looked at her. His eyes were shadowed with anger as he frowned.
With a hard edge to his tone he said, “Look, Rose, it’s been two weeks and my wound is healing
nicely,
as the doctor puts it, but I still haven’t recovered any movement in my legs. I couldn’t get out of this bed if I had to, so I wish you’d quit talking as if it’s a possibility.”
“But the doctor said there is no reason why you cannot walk. There is no reason why you will not get better.”
“Don’t you think that if I could, I would?” He no longer tried to hide his simmering anger.
Nor did she hide hers.
“Sì,
but I think you maybe give up.”
He hit the bed with his fist and nearly upset the tray. Rosa reached out to keep it from overturning. “I’m not giving up, I’m trying to be realistic.”
It was her turn to frown. “I do not understand.”
He sighed and looked away, his attention focused on the wintry scene outside the window. “I think it would be better if you stopped coming out here, Rose.”
She felt her heart skip a beat and thought surely she had mistaken the meaning of his words. When he failed to look at her, she knew she had not. Hadn’t they pledged their love to each other? Didn’t the fact that they were to marry mean that no matter what the future held, they would face it together?
“Better for who?” She held her trembling fingers together in her lap.
“Better for both of us.”
“You did not tell them about us.” She nodded toward the door.
“No.”
Her intuition had been correct. He had not told his parents of their engagement. Now she understood why.
“You do not love me.”
His reaction to her words was swift. His eyes blazed as he stared back. He started to speak, then stopped. She saw his shoulders slump as he let out a long, slow breath. The passionate anger in his eyes dimmed. Kase shook his head and, without voicing the word “no,” said, “I think it’s best we forget about getting married.”
Rosa blinked back her tears. As always, whenever she felt her temper snap, hot tears of anger betrayed her. She leaned close to Kase, afraid she might forget herself and begin shouting, afraid her voice would carry through the open door and down the stairs. “I think you are crazy, Kase Storm. I think it is not fair that you sit here and decide what is better for Rosa. It is
better
not to come here. It is
better
not to marry. You do not know what is better for me.”
He answered with cold finality. “I know what’s best for me. My parents are here now. They can see to whatever I need. They want to take me back to Boston to see a specialist, and under the circumstances, I can’t very well argue, can I?”
“But I can take care for you. I have the restaurant.” She watched his lips curve into a mocking half-smile.
“You plan to slave over that oven day and night to make enough to support both of us? I have money of my own, Rose, and plenty of it. I didn’t need the damned job as marshal of Busted Heel, and if I’d had any sense, I’d never have come here at all.”
He might as well have hit her. “And so you would not have met me, either,” she added.
“Look, you’re too much of a woman to waste your life with half a man. I had my doubts about asking you to marry me, and things were a lot different then.”
“Doubts?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“Yeah, doubts. I should never have asked you to marry me. Things would have been hard enough on you, married to a half-breed, without this—”
“Don’t say such things.”
“I won’t have you married to a cripple, too. I’m sorry, Rose, but the wedding’s off.”
“But I do not care that you don’t walk. I still love you.” She tried to accept the fact that his expression had closed down. He was staring at her as coldly as if she were a stranger. His frosty glare reminded her of the way he had looked when they first met.
His voice was low, barely audible, when he turned to stare out the window. “I’d like you to leave now, Rose. If you think about what I’ve said, you’ll realize I’m right.”
“I did not know you were a coward.” Slowly, with as much dignity as she could muster, Rosa stood. She balled her fists and hid them in the folds of her skirt as she stood staring down at him, trembling from head to toe. He would not look at her.
Furious, too angry to cry in front of him, she turned away and stalked toward the door. Before she stepped into the hall, she paused to look back. It was hard to imagine that the strong, finely honed body that nearly filled the wide bed was disabled in any way. She could not bear to go without trying again.
“I am going because you say to, but you are a fool, Kase Storm. When you change your mind, I will come again.”
As she stared at his profile, he continued to ignore her.
Unable to bear any more, she turned on her heel and left the room, but not without slamming the door behind her. Halfway down the stairs, Rosa felt her strength give way and she crumpled where she stood, lowering herself with one hand on the banister. Cradling her head in her arms, she sobbed against her knees.
“Rosa?”
Rosa did not have to look up to know when Analisa Storm sat beside her. The woman did not hesitate to wrap her arm around Rosa’s heaving shoulders and draw her near. Rosa was thankful that Analisa allowed her to sob out her sorrow and frustration without asking any questions as she held her close.
When the soft, ragged sound of Rosa’s sobs reached him, Kase damned himself for the harsh way he had dealt with her. He set the tray on the bed beside him and threw back the covers, intent on going to her, before reality came crashing down around him and he remembered he could not walk.
When his own eyes misted, he cursed his weakness and stared out at the snowscape.
He had to let her go.
For a solid week he had sought an alternative, but he had been unable to come up with one. There was no easy way, except to tell her good-bye. He had had hours to come to his decision and he hoped that once Rose was over the shock and rejection, his practical girl would understand the reason behind his rejection. By then he would be back in Boston and out of her life forever.
His Rose. Would he ever learn not to think of her as
his
Rose?
As he listened to the sound of her hollow sobs and shared her pain, he wished he could have been gentler—but he was certain that had he shown the least vulnerability, she would never have left him. What kind of life would she have had with a cripple? Certainly not the life she deserved, not after all she had already been through.
He leaned back against the headboard and stared up at the patterned ceiling, willing himself not to hear the muffled sound of her crying in the stairwell, cursing the tears that dampened his own cheeks.
“What’s all the caterwaulin’ for?” Zach asked from the foot of the stairs.
Rosa sniffed and looked up, then rapidly palmed the tears from her cheeks. What had she been thinking of to let go and show such weakness before these people?
“Are you all right now?” Analisa asked softly.
The concern in her voice was nearly Rosa’s undoing,
“Sì.
I am good.”
“Well?” Zach stood firm and stared up at them, his good eye nearly squinted shut as he frowned.
“Rose is a little upset, Zach,” Analisa explained. “We will have a strong cup of tea and she will be better.”
“Looks to me like she needs a hell of a lot more’n a cup of tea. What’s wrong with Kase?”
“Nothing,” Analisa assured him. He instantly looked relieved. “He is tired of being inside, I think.”
“Bored, more’n likely. I’ll go up and bend his ear so’s you two can jaw over that tea.”
“Thank you, Zach.” Analisa stood and helped Rosa rise.
Rosa shook her head. “I want to go home. No tea.”
“Please, stay,” Analisa insisted. “I think we must talk.”
With a heavy, heartfelt sigh, she followed Kase’s mother down the stairs.
“You take some store in makin’ widow women cry?”
There was no mistaking Zach Elliot’s dry tone. Kase was glad he had gotten hold of his emotions before the scout crept up on him unannounced.
“What are you talking about?” Kase feigned ignorance.
“Just what I said. You had that gal spoutin’ like a waterin’ can a minute ago, and even if you don’t think I got a right to it, I want to know the reason why.”
“You’re right. You don’t have a right to it.”
Zach walked to the window and leaned against the sill. He slouched with his hands in his pockets, his hat pushed back onto the crown of his head. “That ain’t good enough.”
Kase stared at him stonily and wished he would leave. “I told her the wedding’s off.”
“Jest like that. You got any particular reason, or are you jest feelin’ ornery?”
“I’ve got a reason.” Kase stared at his legs. “Two of them.” He thought he heard Zach mumble, “Shit.”
“Feelin’ a bit sorry for yourself today, boy?”
“Not as sorry as I have been. I feel as if I finally did something worthwhile.”
“Like lettin’ that gal go away thinkin’ you don’t care anymore.”
Kase shook his head. “No. Like letting her go so she’ll have some chance at happiness with a man who’s whole.”
“Pretty damn noble of ya.”
Kase ignored the cutting tone of Zach’s remark.
“Pretty damn ignorant, too.”
“That all depends on your point of view, I guess,” Kase countered.
“Was a time I thought your word meant somethin’.” Zach frowned and shook his head sadly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You asked that girl to marry you. Ain’t no way you should get out of it unless she decides it ain’t a good idea.”
“Things have changed. I’ve changed my mind.”
“I don’t mean to stick my nose in your business—”
“Nothing ever stopped you before,” Kase reminded him.
“—but did you ever stop to think she might be carryin’ your kid?”
Kase felt the color drain from his face. “Did I ever give you reason to think I slept with her?”
“No. But I been puttin’ two and two together. An’ I ain’t so old as I can’t remember what it feels like to be young and in love. The more I think back on it, the more I realize how careful you was not to let me see who was in your room the mornin’ the Dawsons came to town an’ shot out Miz Rosa’s window.”
“Get out of here.”
“Think about it,” Zach advised.
Kase watched Zach stalk from the room with his familiar carefree stride and wished like hell that he could follow the old man out the door.
“You say Kase asked you to marry him?” Analisa’s eyes were bright with tears as she listened to Rosa talk about her relationship to Kase.
Rosa nodded. “
Sì
. The day before he was hurt. Since then, he has changed. He is no longer in love with me, I think. Today he said he does not want to see me again.”
Analisa sighed and pushed her cup away, the tea now cold and forgotten. It was not like her son to be cruel. She knew that his impatience with her and Caleb over the last three days was only due to his inability to be up and about. She felt herself frown and reached up to rub her forehead with her fingertips.
The girl across the table from her looked as despondent as she herself felt. Back in Boston she could not leave soon enough to be at Kase’s side, but now that she and Caleb were here, Analisa felt at a loss as to how to deal with her son’s paralysis. Seeing Kase and Rosa together, Analisa had known at once he cared more for the diminutive Italian than he had let on.
She was not disappointed with his choice. The girl was obviously in love with Kase, her tortured expression told Analisa more than words could say. As she watched Rosa stare listlessly into space, Analisa could not deny the earthy beauty cloaked in innocence that the girl possessed. She wished she could reassure Rosa that all would be well. Instead, she felt unsure, unwilling to make promises that she could not keep.
“Kase is stubborn. More even than me,” Analisa tried to explain, “and I have a head as hard as a brick, Caleb always says.”