Catching Kent (8 page)

Once he was on his feet, he waited
until he was alone with Harriett to speak. “I need to apologize for
the way I talked to you earlier,” he softly began.

She stopped collecting the dishes and
looked in his direction.

“
I thought you were Rose.
She won’t leave me alone. She’s been,” he shrugged, “for lack of a
better term, annoying me ever since I came here. She seems to think
I’m going to marry her.”

Harriett relaxed and smiled. “Yes,
she’s mentioned that.”

Good grief. Was there no one she
didn’t talk to about her delusions?

“
Just to me,” she
clarified. “You’ll have to forgive her. She means well, but she
tends to have all sorts of romantic notions. I think when you came
here, wounded and all, she couldn’t resist making you a romantic
interest.”

Great, he sarcastically thought. It’s
just my luck.

“
She’ll grow tired of it in
a couple days.”

“
You think so?” Did he dare
hope?

“
Sure,” she replied and
resumed her task. “She has a hard time focusing on one thing for
long.” With a giggle, she added, “Before we found out you came here
from Ireland and was heading to California, she thought you might
be a prince who came here to hide from someone.”

“
A prince who came here to
hide? With my injuries?”

“
She thought it was
romantic you were injured,” she said and picked up the plates. “No
one else in this house thinks you being hurt is romantic. It’s just
the way Rose thinks. She’s a daydreamer.”

“
I hope she gives up on the
notion of marrying me.” He adjusted his crutch so it was more
comfortable under his arm. “I really am sorry for the way I treated
you. Can we start over?”

She nodded. “Of course. And thank
you.” After a moment, she added, “It’s only fair I forgive you
since you’re going to be my brother-in-law.” She chuckled. “I’m
sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

Despite his frustration with Rose, he
laughed then carefully made his way to the parlor.

Chapter Seven

From where Rose sat in the parlor, she
had a good view of the staircase. She didn’t know what delayed
Kent, but he’d been in the dining room for about five minutes. She
hoped he didn’t plan to go to his bedroom. She really wanted to be
with him for a little longer today.

“
I wouldn’t blame him if he
went upstairs,” Adam said from where he was carving into a thick
branch he found in the yard earlier that day.

“
He has to be exhausted,”
her father agreed, flipping through one of the newspapers he’d
collected last time he was in town. “I remember how tired I was
when I was stuck with that crutch.”

Rose hid her disappointment the best
she could. She didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to see Kent
again. “Maybe we bored him at supper. We should’ve asked him more
about himself. People love to talk about themselves.”

“
I don’t think so,” her
father replied. “I get the feeling he doesn’t want to talk about
himself.” After a moment, he shot her a pointed look. “And I hope
you respect that.”

Adam snorted as he threw a piece of
bark into the pail in front of him. “I doubt it. She can’t stop
asking him about his life.”

Her cheeks warmed. “Is it wrong that
I’m interested in knowing who he is?”

“
If he doesn’t want to tell
you, then yes,” her father said. “Rose, some people don’t want to
tell you everything about their past.”

“
It’s because she rambles
on,” Adam added. “Sometimes I don’t think she can help
it.”

“
I’m trying to be nice,”
she replied, crossing her arms and slouching in her
chair.

As Eli ran his fingers along the piano
keys, her father turned his tender gaze to her. “I know. You want
him to feel welcome here.”

She nodded.

“
Let him volunteer some
information next time, alright?” he softly asked.

Despite her reluctance, she said,
“I’ll try.”

“
She won’t last longer than
five minutes,” Eli replied with a snicker.

“
Eli!” she
protested.

“
Enough,” her father said.
“Let’s have a pleasant evening.”

He turned back to the piano, something
she was grateful for. As he played the C major scale, she saw Kent
carefully enter the parlor. She fought the urge to run over to help
him. She’d already endured enough from her brothers without giving
them another reason to tease her.

Her father set the newspaper down and
moved the ottoman in front of an empty chair. “You want to sit
here?”

Kent glanced at the piano, and she
caught the longing in his eyes.

“
Do you play the piano?”
she asked him.

“
Rose,” her father kindly
admonished.

“
Actually,” Kent began,
still standing, “I love playing. It’s been a long time since I’ve
had the pleasure of doing so.”

“
In that case, you’re more
than welcome to play on ours,” her father offered. “Eli, let Kent
play some songs.”

Eli’s shoulders slumped but he obliged
so Kent could hobble over to the piano bench. Once he settled down,
he set the crutch near him and looked at Eli. “You any good at
this?”

“
I’m still learning,” Eli
replied.

“
I can teach you,” Kent
offered.

“
Are you any good?” Adam
asked, intrigued.

“
I love playing,” Kent
began, tracing the keys, “and I think the love of doing something
inspires excellence.”

Her father returned to his seat and
folded the newspaper so he could return it to the stack beside him.
“Well said. I couldn’t agree more.” Rose’s mother and sister came
into the parlor, and he gestured for them to sit. “Kent’s about to
play the piano for us.”

“
Really?” Rose’s mother
smiled as she sat by her father. “I’d love to hear some
music.”

“
Especially if the music
isn’t off-key,” Adam teased, glancing at Eli who huffed.

“
Alright, everyone,” her
mother said, “let’s not argue while a guest is in the
room.”

Harriett sat in the empty chair and
smiled at Rose.

Rose wondered what the smile was
about. Harriett had some time to speak to Kent. Did they talk about
her?

“
Is there any song you’d
like me to play?” Kent asked as he browsed the list of songs in the
thick book.

“
Anything will be fine,”
her father said, slipping his arm around her mother’s shoulders and
grinning at her.

Rose sighed. How she wanted Kent to do
that with her. It was such a sweet and romantic gesture. She
recalled the way it felt to have his arm around her shoulders.
Granted, she was helping him to the dining room, but she enjoyed
every moment he was touching her.

“
If no one has any
requests, there is something I’d like to play,” Kent said, turning
to the pages of the book until he found the one he
wanted.

“
Now I’m curious,” Adam
replied. “Go on.”

With a nod, Kent set the book in front
of him and ran his fingers over the C major scale a couple of
times.

“
That’s it?” Eli asked. “I
could’ve done that.”

Kent chuckled and shook his head. “I
was warming up.” Glancing at her father, he added, “There’s a key
that needs a little tuning. It’s not bad but it could sound better
with some tweaking. Would it be alright if I tuned it
tomorrow?”

“
That would be much
appreciated,” her father replied. “We rarely play the thing. It was
a gift from Rachel’s husband. Rachel is our oldest
daughter.”

“
He loves music,” her
mother added.

“
He has good taste. This is
a nice piano.” Kent straightened on the bench and took a deep
breath before he played the melody.

Rose shifted in her seat,
wondering why he chose something so sad. If it’d been her, she
would have picked something light, maybe something with a good beat
to it. He, however, chose the song he did for a reason, and whether
he was aware of it or not, it told her quite a bit about him. She’d
been right earlier that day. He’d been in love once. He probably
wanted to marry the object of his affection. Judging by the way he
played, she suspected the woman had married someone else, leaving
him heartbroken. She wondered how long ago it happened. Was that
why he left Ireland? Was he leaving
her
behind? Was he trying to start a
new life, to move on?

He finished the song and her mother
dabbed the tears from her eyes. “That was beautiful.”

“
It sure was,” Adam softly
replied, his knife still on the tree branch. “I didn’t think a
piano could make that kind of music.”

“
I want to hear something
fun.” Eli stood up and thumbed through the book. He stopped on one
of the pages and pointed to the song. “This one. It’s my
favorite.”

Smiling, Kent nodded. “It was one of
my favorites at one time, too.”

What did he mean by that? Rose paid
careful attention as he played the upbeat melody. The music made
her think of laughter and hope, probably two things he’d denied
himself for far too long. It was a glimpse into the person he used
to be. A person he was before the woman he used to love came along.
Rose had no doubt that the person he used to be was still inside
him, but it’d been so long since he let that side of him out, he
couldn’t find it anymore. At least, not on his own.

After some urging by her family, he
went on to play a couple more songs before they decided it was time
to go to bed. She caught the reluctant expression on his face. He
didn’t want to stop playing.

“
Pa, can he play tomorrow?”
she asked, thinking she’d get the question answered for him. She
didn’t think he’d have the courage to ask it himself, probably in
fear that he’d overstep his bounds. If there was nothing else she
picked up from watching him, it was how often he repressed his
desires.

“
Of course,” her father
said then looked at Kent. “Feel free to come down here any time you
want to play.”

Excited, Eli asked, “Will you teach me
to play some of those songs?”

She caught Kent’s grateful smile and
was happy for him.

“
I’d be happy to,” he told
Eli, “as long as it’s alright with your father.”

“
As long as you get your
chores done,” her father told Eli.

“
I will,” Eli promised and
turned to Kent. “Can we start tomorrow?”

Kent nodded. “Yes, but we have to make
sure you master the simple songs before we move on to more
complicated ones.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Now that that’s settled,”
her mother began, “we need to get to bed. We have a long day
tomorrow and Joel will be coming out to see how things are
going.”

Since Rose couldn’t help Kent up the
stairs, she left the parlor with her sister. She managed to wait
until they were in their bedroom before she cornered her. “What did
you and Kent talk about in the dining room?”

The corners of her sister’s lips
turned up. “I wondered how long it would take before you
asked.”

With a groan, she followed her sister
to the dresser. “Are you going to tell me or not?”

“
It was nothing. He only
wanted to apologize for being curt with me earlier
today.”

“
When was he
curt?”

“
When he was on the porch.
I gave him a glass of water and he thought I was you.” She removed
the pins from her hair and set them on her side of the dresser.
“Why didn’t you tell him you had a twin sister?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t think it
mattered.”

“
You think I don’t
matter?”

“
I didn’t mean it like
that. I meant that he’s going to marry me, not you, so why would he
care if you’re here?”

Harriett rolled her eyes.
“Thanks.”

“
Oh come on. I didn’t mean
that in a bad way.”

“
Do you assume every young
man who comes our way is going to marry you instead of
me?”

“
No. There’s only one man
I’ve been sure about and it’s Kent. All the others who wanted to
court me weren’t ones I wanted to marry. You don’t want to marry
him, do you? I’d hate for a man to come between us.”

Her sister brushed her hair. “No, I
don’t want to marry him. I don’t even know him.”

She bit her lower lip and studied her
sister’s reflection in the mirror. “You won’t get to know him well
enough to want to marry him, will you?”

To her surprise, Harriett laughed. “I
can’t believe it.”

“
Can’t believe
what?”

“
None of the young men have
ever wanted to be with me. They’ve always wanted to be with you. If
anything, I should worry about you stealing someone from me, not
the other way around.”