Rose (Suitors of Seattle) (11 page)

“Steven Johnson had so much debt your dowry barely would have made a dent in it.  He’s already left town to escape his debtors.  Your aunt had already crossed him off the list.”  Mary watched Rose’s reaction over her tea cup.

Rose stared at her mother in shock.  “He only wanted Papa’s money?”

Mary nodded.  “Yes, he only wanted your papa’s money.  There were only five men on your list who weren’t after something.  Your aunt never would have let you marry Steven Johnson.  Aren’t you glad you decided to marry Shawn now?”

Rose wasn’t certain about that.  She was glad she hadn’t married Steven Johnson, though.  What was wrong with the men in this world that they would marry for so many reasons other than love?

Shawn left work an hour early, because he had no patients scheduled, and drove out to the lumber camp where Max worked.  He needed to talk to someone who knew Rose well, and he didn’t want to have the discussion with her father.  He hadn’t meant to make her hate him or mess up her life beyond all recognition.  He just wanted to be happy, and she’d seemed more than willing to marry him.  How was he supposed to know she’d assume he loved her?

He parked his buggy in front of the mess hall and walked in, asking for Max.  There was a young man there cleaning the tables to set them up for dinner.  “Have you seen Max Farmer?” he asked.

The boy nodded.  “He’s out chopping trees.  Finished his paperwork early and said he needed to use his muscles for a change.”  He pointed back behind the mess hall.  “He went that way.”

Shawn nodded and set out in the direction the boy had pointed.  He could hear the sounds of chopping all around him.  He walked for a minute or two before calling for Max.  A large man in a plaid shirt saw him and stepped out.  “He’s that way.”  He pointed in another direction, and Shawn followed the path he’d indicated.

He found the man stripped to the waist using an axe on a huge tree.  “Max!”  Finally, he found the man.  Why didn’t he let his men do the physical work?

Max turned and saw Shawn, setting his axe down beside his foot for a minute.  “If it isn’t the newlywed.  What can I do for you, Shawn?”
  He took a bandana from his pocket and wiped the sweat from his brow.

Shawn sighed.  “You can give me advice for how to make my wife stop hating me
, for starters.”

Max grinned.  “Marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be at first, is it?  I mean, there’s the good times in bed, but there’s so much more to it than that.”  He looked at the notch he’d put into the tree.  “What’s the problem?”  He leaned back against the tree and took a swig of water from a small flask.  “Just water, so don’t go running to my wife, now.”

Shawn smiled.  “I’m not running to anyone’s wife.”  He made a face.  “I married Rose because there’s a shortage of women around here, and she was interested.  She’s pretty enough, and I like her fine, but I’m not in love with her.”  He said the words defensively as if he expected Max to be shocked at the words.

Max shrugged.  “I’m not altogether surprised by that.  Harriett didn’t think you were in love with her, and she’s pretty good at figuring things like that out.” He watched Shawn for a minute.  “Rose thought you loved her?”

Shawn nodded.  “She assumed I loved her.  I didn’t tell her I did.  I wouldn’t lie to her, which is part of the problem.  She thinks I should tell her I love her.  She thinks I
should
love her, because everyone else did?”  He shook his head.  “She wanted to marry me because I wasn’t like all the other men, but is mad because I don’t love her like they all did.”

Max watched the younger man and the confusion on his face for a minute before his chuckles started.  After a moment, they grew into a full blown laugh.  He laughed so hard, he had to catch his weight by putting his hands on his knees and he finally just collapsed on the ground, still laughing.

Shawn watched Max and wondered what was wrong with him.  Why were his marital troubles so amusing to Rose’s uncle?  Did he have some mental troubles?  Finally, after what seemed like an hour of watching the other man laugh, he said, “I can see I’m going to get no help from you.”  He turned to go, disgusted with himself for asking for help to start with.

Max struggled to catch his breath.  “No.  Wait.”  He calmed down as best he could, but the amusement was still obvious on his face.  He took another deep drink of water, fighting the laughter.  “Sit with me, and we’ll talk.”

Shawn collapsed on the ground beside him, wishing he had some idea what the other man found so funny.  “Okay, talk.”

“When Rose turned fourteen, her parents let her start being courted by boys.  From that day on, their house was filled with young men.  They told her she had to wait until she was sixteen to marry, but she could work on choosing the boy she wanted until then.”  He drank again, swallowing hard.  “I would go visit
, and there would be four or more young men there at the same time vying for Rose’s attention.”

Shawn stared at him in surprise.  “Her parents allowed that?”
  He could picture the scene.  Rose in the middle and all the young men sitting on the floor at her feet as if she were a princess.

“They didn’t know how to put a stop to it.  She was so happy to be surrounded by boys.  They sat at her feet and composed love poems to her.  Very bad love poems
, usually.  They all brought her roses of every color.  One boy brought her a lily once, and she threw it back in his face, telling him that if he liked lilies he should court her sister, not her.  They all put up with everything she did, because they all wanted to marry her.”  Max watched the younger man as he told the story.  “I got married two years ago when Rose was sixteen.  My wife talked her parents into putting a stop to the endless parade of men.  She talked to them about how she would be willing to investigate each man interested in courting Rose, but she needed to wait until she was eighteen if they wanted her help.  She had run a mail order bride agency, so they believed her and took her advice.  They agreed that one month before Rose turned eighteen, she should supply Harriett with a list of twenty young men she was interested in.  Harriett would investigate the men on her list and choose the best three, and then Rose could choose from those three.” 

“Was I on the list?” Shawn asked in surprise.
  He couldn’t imagine how he could have been, because he hadn’t known Rose for a full month before she turned eighteen.

Max shook his head.  “You weren’t put on the list until later.  My wife had just finished investigating and was about to narrow it down to the final three when Rose met you in the park and declared you were the only man she wanted to marry.  She said to throw out the other list.”  His eyes met Shawn’s.  “She had you investigated just like the others.  She even sent telegrams to your dental college.”

Shawn’s eyes widened.  “I had no idea.”  He wasn’t sure if he should be impressed at the thorough way they’d investigated him or offended that they’d felt the need to do so.

Max shrugged.  “You weren’t meant to.  Anyway, Harriett couldn’t find any reason for you to be kept away from Rose, except for a gut feeling that you didn’t care for her.  She knew you weren’t madly in love with Rose as all the other men claimed to be right away.  And she told Rose that in no uncertain terms.  She also told Fred, Rose’s father.  Both Fred and Harriett warned Rose that you didn’t love her.  Both told her she should choose one of the men who fell at her feet.  She chose you.”

Shawn stared at him for a minute.  “So what was so funny?” He still couldn’t understand why Max had laughed so hard.

Max shook his head.  “I’ve spent years watching that girl toy with boys’ emotions, certain that every man she met would
fall in love with her.  And now you’re married to her, and you flat out told her you don’t love her?  It’s funny.”

“What do I do now?  She’s moved to another bedroom.”  Shawn shook his head.  “I really have no idea what to do to make her less angry with me.”
  And have her back in his bed where she belonged.  He was a newly-wed with none of the benefits!

“Court her like you should have to start with.  Take her roses.  Take her jewelry.  Treat her like a princess.  Whether you love her or not, she has to believe you do.  She’s your wife and the mother of your future children.  You can’t leave her in doubt of your love.  It’s not fair to her.”  Max should his head.  “Even if she wasn’t already a spoiled pampered little princess, she has the right to believe she’s loved by her husband.”

Shawn thought about that.  “Makes sense.”  He held his hand out to the other man to shake his before getting to his feet.  “I’ll try it.  I’ll stop for roses on the way home.”  He’d do just about anything to get his wife back in bed with him.

“Pink is her favorite color, but she thinks she deserves every red rose in the world.  Get her a bouquet of red with a few pink thrown in for good measure.  She’ll be happy with that.”

“Sounds good.  I’ll try that.”  He looked down at the older man still sitting on the ground.  “Thanks for your help.

Max watched the other man walk out of the forest and as soon as he was out of earshot began chuckling again.  Rose had certainly met her match in that one.

*****

When Shawn got home that evening, he brought her a huge bouquet of red roses with a few pink sprinkled through.  She took the flowers and buried her face in them, thrilled that he was trying to apologize, for surely that’s what he was doing.

“Thank you,” she said, realizing her voice was still a little cold, but as hurt as she was, it was the best she could do.  “Let me get a vase for these.”  She left the room and wandered to the kitchen where she was handed a vase by a very curious-faced maid.  Obviously the maids had realized that she wasn’t sleeping with her new husband, because they could see her things in the room she was using. 

She added water and carefully arranged the flowers in the vase. Taking it into the smallest of the three parlors that she’d decided to claim as her own, she put it on a table beside the sofa.  “Do you like them?”

Rose took a deep breath before turning around to face her husband.  “Yes, they’re beautiful.”  She walked to him and gave him a dutiful kiss on the cheek, determined to at least make an effort like her mother and aunt had suggested. 

He wrapped his arms around her and held her to him, burying his face against her hair.  “I’m so sorry I’ve hurt you.  Can we start again?”

Rose’s eyes met his.  “I’d like to, but I need another day or two.  Is that okay?”  She knew she was going to do her best to make it work, but another day to be angry and sulk would make her feel so much better.  She just needed to be mad for a while.

He nodded, stroking her cheek.  “I never meant to hurt you.”  He could see in her eyes that she had been hurt deeply by his actions.  Max’s story today helped him to understand just the kind of woman he was dealing with.  She hadn’t been vain to expect his love.  It was the circumstances of her upbringing that had caused it.  He had no right to cause her pain in any case.

She nodded and took a step back, not feeling comfortable being so close to him and knowing he didn’t love her. 

He put his hand into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a long black box.  She recognized it immediately for the jewelry box it was, and stared at it. He was obviously doing his best to make their marriage work.
  How could she do any less?

He handed her the box, and she opened it carefully, staring at the beautiful pearl necklace inside.  She’d been given gold and diamonds of every sort, but had never been given pearls.  “Thank you.  It’s beautiful.”
  She ran her fingers over the rough surface of the pearls.

He took the box from her and motioned for her to turn around, draping it around her neck and fastening the small
clasp for her.  Once it was on, he walked around her to see how it looked.  “That’s perfect.  Just like I pictured it on you.”  He wanted to see her in only the necklace, but wisely kept that thought to himself.

She smiled, her fingers going to the necklace.  “I have several dresses this will go perfectly with.  You chose well.”

He breathed a sigh of relief that she genuinely liked the necklace.  Stepping closer to her, he pulled her into his arms, and kissed her gently on the lips, not trying to press her to do more, just enjoying the kiss between them.  His hands stayed on her shoulders, making it clear it was just a gesture of affection and not a ploy to get her into bed with him.  After a moment, he broke off the kiss and took a step back.  “Is dinner ready?”

She nodded.  “It was ready a few minutes before you arrived.” 

He offered his arm and she took it, walking toward the dining room with him.  “How are you getting on with the staff?”  He had known most of the people who worked for him since he was a child.  They were either some of the servants who had worked for his parents or their children.

“Very well, thank you.  Everyone has been exceptionally helpful.  I have no complaints.”  She took the seat to his right this time, instead of seating herself all the way on the other end of the huge table. 

As soon as they were seated, a steaming bowl of vegetable beef soup was served, and she was saved from having to try to make conversation.  After taking a few bites he asked, “What did you do today?”