Give My Love to Rose (5 page)

“
What am I going to do…?”
Rose whispered to no one in particular as she remained lost in her
own thoughts. Langston was dead. How? She had just received a
letter from him just a couple weeks before saying that he had been
released and he would be coming home to her and Langley. What was
she going to do without him? She couldn’t go on supporting her and
her son alone.. she was barely hanging on as it was.

Rose knew it was cold-hearted to be thinking
of money at a time like this, but it seemed money was all she’d
been able to think of for a long time. It was all that mattered
when your cupboards were empty, your son’s clothes were falling
apart and there were debtors breathing down your neck.

Rose and Langston had never been in love,
but she had had tremendous fondness and respect for the man who had
saved her life and given her son a name by marrying her eleven
years ago. This was not how their life had been supposed to go!
Langston had had to go get himself tossed into prison and then get
himself shot. Now she was alone with her son and she was fresh out
of hope.

“
What am I going to do?”
she whispered again, desperate for an answer, pleading for
guidance.

“
You’re going to come on
over and eat some damn taters is what you’re going to do,” the
stranger grumbled as he plopped a plate full of them on the
table.

Rose forced herself to swallow down her own
fears and uncertainties. She had to be strong for her son. Slowly
she stood and made her way on stiff legs to the table.

“
Thank you for cooking for
us,” she said politely as she met the stranger’s golden eyes. She
couldn’t’ get over how handsome he was even with that thick beard
blocking most of his face from view. But there was something in his
eyes—a coldness that unsettled her. She sensed a sadness within him
and wondered what caused it.

Then Rose scolded herself. She had just lost
her husband and should not be looking at another man let alone
wondering how she could help him. Langston had been her saviour,
her hope and now she would never see him again. That knowledge had
new tears filling her eyes.

Marston saw that tear hovering on her lashes
and he waited for it to roll down her full pink cheek. Then he
shook his head. “Don’t worry about thanking me, ma’am. Just sit
down and eat and we’ll call it even.”

“
Won’t you sit and eat
with us?” Rose asked, gesturing toward an empty chair.

“
No, I don’t think so,”
Marston quickly denied. “I gotta get going. I left the sack of
money over there.”

Rose glanced toward the small table beside
the door and saw the leather sack sitting there. “Money?”

“
Yeah the money from…”
Marston’s eyes went to Langley who was watching them closely. He
turned back to Rose. “The money from Langston. His horse is out in
the barn and settled in.”

Rose nodded as her stomach rolled and she
picked at her potatoes without eating them. She was afraid if she
took a single bite she would be sick.

“
Why does Marston have
pa’s money and horse?” Langley asked. “Where’s pa?”

“
I’ll be going now,”
Marston stated, reaching for the door.

“
Marston?” Rose called out
and Marston found himself unable to do anything but turn back
around and look into those big blue eyes.

“
Yes, ma’am?”

“
Thank you for everything.
Thank you for bringing my husband’s belonging back to us. You could
have very easily kept them for yourself.” Marston was about to
respond when she wiped a tear from her eyes and rendered him
speechless with her next comment. “Thank God for you,
Marston.”

Marston didn’t know what to say. Why did
these damn people keep thanking God for him like he was some kind
of good man? It unnerved him and made his stomach burn and
ache.

He couldn’t come up with any kind of
response so he simply tipped his hat and quickly slipped out the
door as Langley demanded once again to know where his pa was.
Marston had no urge to be there when the boy learned that the man
was dead. He didn’t envy the news that Rose would have to break to
him.

Rose…A beautiful woman who confused him
greatly.

Was she that talented at hiding her lack of
morals behind wide blue eyes and polite words? Or was it possible
that she really had loved that old man he’d found on the road? No,
surely not. A woman that beautiful didn’t waste her time on an old
man. There had to have been some other reason she had married the
man and judging by the running water in that cabin and the sack of
money Langston had had—money had been it. Clearly Langston being
sent to prison had disrupted the woman’s plans.

Marston hoisted himself up onto the gray and
pointed its nose toward town. It was late and the temptation of a
hotel bed was too strong to ignore. He’d been spending too much
time lately sleeping on bedrolls and the hard ground.

***

Rose fell into bed that night exhausted
beyond belief. Langley had taken the news about Langston fairly
well but, then again, the boy had never met the man who had given
him his name. The law had come and carted Langston off to prison
for past crimes mere days after Langley had been born, leaving Rose
alone to raise the boy.

The money Langston had left them had lasted
a while thanks to Rose’s frugality, but it had eventually run out.
Rose had taken odd jobs sewing and doing laundry and she had sold
off everything of value in the cabin but still it hadn’t been
enough.

She had been forced to take a loan against
the cabin just to survive. A loan which she was now unable to repay
and the banker was breathing down her neck and demanding payment
while threatening to take her son’s home if he didn’t get it.

“
Damn you, Langston. You
made me promises.. promises you didn’t keep,” she whispered into
the darkness.

It wasn’t his fault and she knew that. His
intentions had been true and pure when he had asked her to marry
him all those years ago and if he hadn’t come along when he had
then she would very likely no longer be alive.

Rose thought about that three hundred
dollars in the sack that Marston had given them. She had no idea
where Langston had gotten that money and she was afraid to think
too deeply about it. She was too desperate to worry about the right
and wrong of it. With that money she could make a payment to the
banker, pay off the credit at the store and the blacksmith, refill
their food supplies, buy feed and tackle for the horses and buy
some fabric to make a few new outfits for Langley.

She was hopeful she could do all that and
still have enough to do a bit of repairs to the cabin and have a
bit of money set back to fall on should she need it later.

Marston…

For some reason, that man and his golden
eyes kept creeping into her mind. She wondered what kind of man he
was. His eyes said he was a cold man—a sad man. Maybe even a
dangerous one. But his actions said something different. He could
have easily kept that money and horse for himself. And she had been
unconscious most of the time he had spent at their cabin. He’d had
plenty of chances to harm them and hadn’t—instead he’d cared for
them and even cooked supper.

Rose couldn’t help but wonder what he
thought of her. She knew what most people thought of her. A
twenty-seven-year-old woman married to such an old man—a man in
prison. Everyone judged her and looked down upon her. If only they
knew the truth…. But Rose would rather them believe their own
assumptions than have the truth get out. The truth was too
painful.

The terror of her life before Langston was
something she didn’t want to relive, even in conversation. The
terrifying events that had led to Langston buying her out of the
back of that wagon and the horrific truth that had led to Langston
offering to marry her and give her son his name were shameful
things that she didn’t want anyone knowing.

Rose clung to her pillow and sobbed, wishing
things could be different but thanking God for the blessing He had
given her when Marston had come riding in with that money. At least
now Rose could feed her son a little longer.

Chapter Five

Marston wondered what kind of damn town he’d
wound up in! No, saloon? What kind of town didn’t have a saloon?
Apparently a town just like Harper Louisiana. Damn, he needed some
whiskey.

All of these people thanking God for him and
treating him like a good person had his head hurting and his
stomach churning. Clearly the whole damn family had a few screws
loose. A lot of people had accused Marston of being a lot of things
in his life.

Worthless.

Bastard.

Monster.

But never Godsend. So why had Rose called
him one?

Rose. Rose. Rose. Why were his thoughts
constantly going back to that woman? Why was he seeing that red
hair and those blue eyes every time he closed his eyes?

‘
Because you liked her.’
That nagging voice in his head informed him.

“
Well she was a beauty,”
Marston replied with a shrug.

‘
It was more than that.’
The voice insisted.

“
You don’t know a damn
thing,” Marston growled, wondering why he was even listening to
that damnable voice. “I don’t want or need anyone,” he
added.

Rose had simply been different than what
he’d been expecting to see as Langston’s wife and so Marston had
been surprised and couldn’t seem to get that off his mind—that
problem was nothing a little whiskey wouldn’t fix.

Marston slipped into his duster coat and
headed out the door determined to find whiskey. The conversations
Marston was having with that damn voice were getting ridiculous. It
was starting to feel like maybe he was growing a conscience and
that was a bad habit Marston was going to have to nip in the bud
right here and now.

He walked out of the hotel and onto the
muddy road. Whiskey. Whiskey. Where could a man find some whiskey?
Marston thought he remembered seeing some when he’d been at the
H&H Mercantile. No doubt any whiskey they had would taste like
rot gut and leave his head throbbing in the morning, but beggars
couldn’t afford to be picky.

The H&H Mercantile was currently closed
and locked up for the night but a place being closed had never
stopped Marston from taking what he’d wanted before. He wouldn’t
let it stop him now.

He smiled as he slipped through an unlocked
window and realized that voice in his head was remaining silent.
Apparently his newly found conscience didn’t see wrong with
breaking and entering—at least as long as there was whiskey
involved.

***

Rose stood from the bed the next morning
after a virtually sleepless night. She pulled on her nicest blue
skirt and white long sleeved blouse—both beginning to fray and wear
at the seams. She slid her brown leather belt around her waist and
yanked her worn hole-filled ankle boots onto her feet.

Maybe she could get a new pair of shoes
today.

She took the time to place her long red hair
into a braid and then twisted the braid upon itself and secured it
to the back of her head. She grabbed her bonnet off the bedside
table and walked out into the main room of the cabin.

Langley was awake and already had a fire
going in the cookstove and water heated for Rose’s morning tea.
“Thank you,” she said as she kissed his red hair and headed toward
the cupboard. Her face fell when she saw the tiny amount of oats
left in the jar. It looked like she would be going without
breakfast today.

Rose grabbed up the oats and a jar that was
a quarter full of peaches. She went about cooking and heard Langley
pull on his boots and head out the door. She opened the shutters so
she could watch him walk to the barn. Rose knew he would be feeding
the animals what little bit of food they had left for them.

Rose refused to worry. Today she would be
able to refill the food supplies for everyone. She simply wished
that her son could be more of a child. He worked as hard as a grown
man because, the truth was, Rose needed him to. She depended on him
and all he did.

Rose was just setting his bowl of oatmeal
and peaches on the table when Langley stepped back into the house.
He glanced at the single place set at the table and frowned.
“Aren’t you gonna eat, mama?”

Rose laid her hand over her stomach and
shook her head. “I’m feeling a little green today,” she lied.
Langley studied her hard a moment but then seemed to accept her
response and sat down to eat. “When you’re done I need you to go
clean up and get ready so we can head into town and get some
supplies.”

“
With that money pa sent
us?”

Rose nodded as she busied herself wiping
down the counter. She knew that money had not been honestly earned
and everything in her rebelled against using it but what choice did
she have? None. She had no choice.

Rose left the house and went out to the
barn. She took the brown mare from the stall and looked her over.
It was a nice horse. Strong and healthy. Rose went about hitching
her to their tiny cart.

The rain clouds were gone and the sky was
bright blue and perfectly clear. The sun was shining strong. It was
going to be a hot one. Rose sighed as she walked back inside and
then smiled when Langley came out of the water closet. His hair was
damp, but he had on his best clothes and he was smiling
proudly.

“
How do I look? I look
nice don’t I, mama? Do I look like my pa?”

Rose felt those horrible memories attempting
to creep into her mind and she quickly pushed them back and smiled
at her son. “You are the handsomest man in the world.” She thought
of Langston. “Your pa would have been very proud.”