A Rose Revealed (22 page)

“I’m sorry, Harry. I’m sorry.”

“A lot of good that does,” he groused in a tone of voice that was, for him, positively incendiary. “I lost twenty years off my life, and I can’t afford that at my age. And I’m still two nights short on sleep.”

“The police asked her to do it, Harry.” Jake had come up beside me and rested his hand on my waist again. “She had no choice.”

“Who’s he?” Harry asked me, looking at Jake.

“I’m Jake Zook.” He offered his hand. “I’m a friend of Rose’s. She’s been staying at our family farm.”

Harry looked at him suspiciously, like this whole misunderstanding was somehow Jake’s fault.

“The police have been trying to keep her alive by letting the bomber think he killed her,” Jake said. “I’ve been more than willing to help.”

Harry grunted.

“So who did he kill if it wasn’t you?” Alice asked. I could see the collar of a pair of pink pajamas peeking out from under the collar of her uniform. I bet there was a pair of pink pj bottoms under the navy pants she had on. “Or wasn’t it anyone at all? Was it all a line the police fed us to keep you safe?”

“There was definitely a body,” I said, “but they don’t know for sure whose yet. Or maybe I should say, at least they haven’t told me. It was probably my landlord.”

“Whose idea was it to let everyone think it was you?” Harry asked, his anger draining away.

“Lem Huber of the Lancaster City police.”

Harry nodded. He knew Lem.

Nancy approached us. “Would you mind moving to the waiting room?” she asked. “There’s another victim of the car fire arriving.”

We just started in that direction when the door flew open again and the other accident victim was wheeled in. Another flurry of “Rose! You’re dead!” echoed through the emergency room, blending with the groans of the survivors. None of us even noticed the TV crew until a microphone was shoved in my face and WGAL’s Patty Carlson asked, “Rose Martin, what’s it like to return from the dead?”

I took a deep breath and told myself not to panic. My secret was already blown. What did it matter if all of Lancaster County would be privy to my resurrection, not just my friends and coworkers?

It mattered. I didn’t dare hope that my enemy wouldn’t watch TV or read the paper during the next few days.

I turned to smile sweetly at Patty. “Do you realize that my death was announced to keep me alive? If you put this report on the air, I could once again become the bomber’s target. Do you want that on your conscience?”

She yelled, “Cut!” The TV crew put their camera down and she grinned at me. “What a great interview,” she said. “Right to the point. Thanks! We’ll just cut the conscience crack.” And they disappeared.

I stifled a groan and turned to find the whole Bird-in-Hand ambulance crew waiting for me plus a couple of our firemen who’d come in to get minor burns treated. They hugged me and patted me on the back and yee-hawed loudly enough to cause Nancy to send us packing again. Out in the parking lot they crowded around me once more.

Suddenly Alice said, “The diner, everybody. We can’t stand here forever. Besides, I’m hungry. I need a good burger.”

“Right,” Harry said. “We need a celebratory cup of coffee to toast our Rose.”

“Only coffee?” someone yelled. I think it was one of the Amish firemen.

“Coffee,” Alice said. “This is our sweet Rose we’re celebrating, not a deadbeat like you, Amos.”

And everybody laughed.

We sat around several tables pushed together at the diner. Half the crowd had breakfast, the other half had hamburgers. I had breakfast with my eggs over easy and lots of hot tea. I held Jake’s hand under the table.

“Did you know we were planning a memorial service for you?” Harry asked as he poured syrup over his pancakes until even his eggs were floating in the sweet liquid. He sat directly across from me and seemed to have trouble taking his eyes off me.

“He was in charge.” Ben Zuckerman pointed to Harry. “He was pulling out all the stops, let me tell you. And Alice was going to sing.”

“I was already practicing,” she said. She gave a few la-la-la’s and was booed by the rest of the crew.

“Harry even asked the mayor to come and give the eulogy,” Ben said.

“The mayor!” I couldn’t believe it. “He doesn’t have the faintest idea who I am.”

“I know.” Harry grinned. “But you deserved all the stops pulled out, and he loves photo ops.”

“You guys are wonderful,” I said, loving them all. “I’m sorry for what I put you through, especially you, Harry. And I can’t thank you enough for caring so much.”

“Hey,” shouted Alice, checking her watch. “I’ve got to get going. I need to have time to get beautiful for my students.” She sighed. “This won’t be one of my better days as a teacher, I don’t think.”

“Count it a success if you stay awake,” Harry said. “Now, me. I’m going home to sleep, at least as long as the wife lets me. It’s the chief perk of retirement.”

I felt like the guest of honor at a shower as everyone came by my chair and gave me a hug. Several of the men looked hard at Jake. He glared right back.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Harry spoke along with his stare, “she’s special.”

“You’ll get no argument from me,” Jake said as he smiled at me.

Harry looked from one of us to the other and grunted. He lumbered off calling after Alice, “Don’t worry about the reports! I’ll do them. Go home and get a good hot shower. At least it’ll help you stay awake through first period.”

Finally we headed for the farm, and adrenaline shutdown struck. I was so wiped out I could hardly sit up straight.

“Sleep, Tiger. Even the few minutes from here to home will help.”

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, but I couldn’t sleep. I felt emotionally torn apart. On one hand, my mind kept pulling up images of the first part of the night: Becky weeping with her head in Annie’s lap. Annie rocking Trevor. Trevor lying on the gurney. Dr. Braeborn’s anger. Sam’s tears.

Then I’d see a beaming Harry and a singing Alice and a tissue-toting Nancy. I’d see a table full of people rejoicing that the report of my demise was premature.

“Oh, Jake.” My voice shook more than I meant it to.

“Hang on, Tiger. We’re almost home. You can make it.”

“I don’t know what Lem’s going to say when he hears the news,” I mumbled.

“That doesn’t worry me near as much as what the bomber’s going to do.”

I shivered. “He still doesn’t know where I am.”

“And it better stay that way.”

When we got back to the farm, it was almost 5 a.m. Soon the men would be up and heading for the barn if they weren’t already. Soon Esther’s new employer would be coming to collect her. Soon I would collapse in my bed and sleep.

I stumbled from the passenger seat and waited for Jake to round the van from his side.

“Rose?”

“Jake?” I started around the van. “Are you okay?”

“Come here.”

I hurried to him and found him sitting in the shadows. He reached for my hand and pulled me onto his lap.

“Are you going to be all right?” He searched my face as he pushed my tousled hair out of my face. “You’ve been from the depths of sorrow to the heights of reunions. That’s a lot to deal with.”

I was moved by his concern, this man who refused to love me. Tears pricked my eyes.

“I’ll be okay,” I said as I fingered the dark lock that always fell across his forehead. “I’m liable to burst into tears at random moments for the next few days, but I’ll be fine.”

He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me, the first time he’d initiated such a move. I lowered my head and rested it on his shoulder, my arms about his neck. We sat there quietly for several minutes. I let out a deep sigh, grateful beyond words for his comfort and presence.

“You’re wonderful, Jake.” I sat up and looked at him. “I can’t thank you enough for being my tower of strength these last few days. I don’t know how I would have survived without you.”

He looked acutely embarrassed but pleased. I leaned over to give him a gentle thank-you peck on the cheek, but he turned his head and suddenly we were kissing and my heart was pounding. I clutched at him, holding tight as my head spun like a mad top and my insides melted as under a summer’s desert sun.

Jake pulled back to gasp for air. “There’s this woman,” he mumbled against my lips.

“I know.” I ran my finger down his jaw. “You won’t love her.”

“I won’t.” And he kissed me again.

But she’ll love you
, I thought.
Always and forever
.

And I knew that no matter what Jake said or did, I wasn’t being merely poetic or romantic. I would love him always and forever.

The headlights from my car spotlighted us as Sam turned into the drive. We pulled apart reluctantly. Jake held me in the chair as Sam walked over to us. The first light of dawn showed a face full of fatigue and grief beyond words.

“Thanks, you guys.” He smiled wanly at us. “You were so great.”

“Is Becky at home?” I asked.

Sam nodded. “She made me leave her there. She wouldn’t let me go in. She said she needed to talk to people about me before I came to the house.”

I took his hand. “She’s right, Sam. Hard as it is for both of you, she’s right.”

He put his other hand on top of mine and patted it. “I know. But that doesn’t make it any easier. I want to be there with her, holding her, comforting her.” He sighed. “But we did things out of order, and we have to pay the price.”

We watched him walk disconsolately to the house.

“I guess we’d better go in, too,” I said.

Jake nodded. “Are you mad at God about Trevor? Do you think He took him to punish Becky and Sam?”

I shook my head. “Becky said she gave Trevor to God. She promised God she’d love Trevor as long as she had him, but how long was up to God.”

I pictured her sitting there, her dead child in her arms as she talked about how gracious God was. “She said that if it weren’t for Trevor, she and Sam wouldn’t have come to Christ.” I shook my head. “She has the most wonderful faith.”

“Yours isn’t too shabby either, sweetheart.” And he shifted to let me know it was time for me to stand up.

As I stood, one side of Jake’s jacket fell open and hit the side of his chair with a heavy clunk.

“What have you got in your pocket?” I asked absently.

He looked at me and smiled but said nothing.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Jake!” I reached for the pocket.

He caught my wrist and said, “Don’t touch.”

“It’s a gun,” I whispered, appalled.

“It’s a gun.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the weapon. It sat heavily in his hand.

I shivered. “I hate guns. I absolutely hate them. One night we picked up a little boy suffering from a gunshot wound his nine-year-old brother had given him. The father had the gun in his night table in case of intruders. The boys found it. The seven-year-old died.”

I stared at the gun and thought about causing death. “I know how the nine-year-old feels.”

“And the father,” Jake said.

I shook my head. “Somehow I don’t seem to have much pity for him. He was old enough to know better.”

Jake released the clip from the gun and put both pieces back in his pocket. He took my hand. “It’s okay, Rose.”

I didn’t ask what he meant by
it
and he didn’t say. We approached the front steps, then paused.

“See you for a late breakfast,” Jake said, taking my hand. “About noon.”

“Sounds wonderful.” I placed my other hand on his shoulder.

He reached up and pulled my head down so that our lips met. The sweet, gentle kiss moved me deeply.

“Good night, Tiger.” He smiled with his heart and wheeled away.

I stood for a minute, bemused. Then I floated up the stairs and inside.

“Esther!” I was startled to see her in her robe and gown, her hair in a braid hanging down her back. “What are you doing up so early?”

“I heard you leave.” She looked at her hands. “I was having trouble sleeping, and so I heard you. I stayed in bed as long as I could stand it. I finally got up to have some tea ready for you when you got home.”

“Oh, my dear,” I said, moved by her kindness. “How long have you been waiting?”

She shrugged as if it didn’t matter. To her it probably didn’t. She wouldn’t have slept anyway.

I sank into a chair at the table. “Join me. It might be our last chance to drink together.”

“I saw you and Jake come back.”

I was suddenly glad he had kissed me on the far side of the van. Then I thought of the kiss by the front porch and blushed.

“Things are better between you,” she said.

I nodded. “I think.”

“You love each other.”

“He’ll never agree,” I said, sighing.

She looked at me and gave me a shadow of her former smile. “But you will.”

“I will.”

“Men,” she said with more than a touch of anger.

I nodded. “Men.”

She put a pot of tea on the table and a plate of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. I looked at them and thought ruefully of my breakfast at the diner. But a gift is a gift, no matter how full the stomach. I slipped a roll onto my plate and began working my way through it. After the first bite, it was no great effort.

“These are wonderful,” I said. “You are definitely a gifted cook. If you ever want to go into business, either with a restaurant or a bakery, let me know. I want to invest.”

She smiled wanly. “All I want to do is cook for my husband and children.” Her slumped shoulders said she had no hope of that in the near future or maybe ever.

Elam! The guy was throwing away the greatest potential blessing of his life, not to mention a marvelous cook. And over what? A misbegotten and unrequited love.

Esther took a fortifying sip of tea. “All right,” she said as she set the mug on the table. She squared her shoulders. “Tell me.”

I sighed. I recognized that we had been stalling, and I cast about for some other topic to hold the real subject of our early morning tea at bay. I could think of nothing.

Esther was more forthright than I. “Was it Trevor?”

I nodded. “Becky called. I went down right away.”