Sweet Forever (17 page)

“Did you get the loan?” Rosaleen asked, stepping from the dining room into the hallway.

“Yes.” Jacob touched his chest where his heart raced beneath the folded document in his vest pocket. Lately, he found himself studying Rosaleen with a sense of urgency. Every curve of her face. The way the afternoon sun revealed glints of copper in her wavy, auburn hair. It seemed imperative that he commit each detail to memory.

“I’m glad.” Her gaze dropped to the carpet when his lingered on her face.

“It’s a blessing that Sophie was so adamant about getting married in the new church,” he said in an attempt to prolong their conversation. The afternoon sun shafting down through the second-story window wreathed her in a golden glow. If he could keep her here at the foot of the stairs for a few moments longer, he might burn the image indelibly into his mind.

“This time I’m taking no chances.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the insurance papers he’d had drawn up. “Roscoe insisted that the church be insured.” Rosaleen smiled and nodded, but the fact that she wouldn’t meet his gaze hurt.

Jacob wished Mr. Blackmore down at the Delaware Mutual Insurance Company issued policies insuring against broken hearts
.

Maybe if he could convince her to stay in Madison a little longer. . . “Sophie mentioned to me last Sunday how happy she is that you’ve agreed to play for her engagement ball. She confessed that she hopes to entice you to remain for the wedding.” Jacob’s hope faded when Rosaleen glanced away.

“I—I don’t know. Sophie’s wedding is set for mid-October, and I’d like to travel while the weather is still warm.”

“On the whole, the weather should remain very clement through October.” She’d loved him once. If she allowed him time to show her he was completely repentant, perhaps she could love him again.
“Please consider it, Rosaleen. It would mean so much—to Sophie.”

His heart nearly stopped when she raised her face. Her beautiful blue-green eyes glistened as her gaze seemed to search his. “If it means that much—to Sophie—then I will consider it. I will give her a definite answer at her engagement ball.”

As he watched her ascend the stairs, Jacob’s heart crawled to the mercy seat of his Lord. He, too, had been invited to Sophie and Edwin’s engagement ball next week. Something he’d seen in Rosaleen’s eyes rekindled within him a tiny spark of hope, and his heart refused to concede defeat.

I know I don’t deserve her, Lord, but I may have one last chance—just one. Please guide me. Don’t let me mess this one up as well.

Resting against the black velvet upholstery of the carriage, Rosaleen felt like a grand lady. Yet a sadness wrapped around her heart as the matched pair of dappled grays clopped along Mulberry Street, transporting them through the summer evening.

Glancing at her handsome companion caused an ache deep within her. How painful to be given a glimpse of what her life might have been like here in Madison with Jacob, yet to know it would never be.

They turned onto High Street, and she looked to her left. A block away, the red and gold August sunset spilled across the surface of the Ohio River, painting the water with its vivid hues.

What a hauntingly beautiful place.

Her heart clenched. She’d come to love the town almost as much as she loved the man sitting opposite her in the carriage. When she left, she’d be leaving a very large part of her heart in Madison, Indiana.

When they reached the front of the Stinnett house, the driver let down the steps of the carriage with a rattle. Jacob climbed from the carriage first then helped her down.

At the front door, a young housemaid with an Irish accent took her shawl and Jacob’s white beaver hat. She ushered them into a large double parlor. There, a crystal chandelier tinkled above them with the movement of the milling guests. It cast a golden glow over the expanse of the bare wood floor, polished to a high gloss. The room had been emptied of all furniture except for some seating around the walls and the piano in the corner.

Rosaleen searched the room for familiar faces. Besides the Stinnetts, she recognized the Applegates and Dr. and Mrs. Morgan. Jacob’s sister, clinging to the arm of her tall, handsome husband, looked stunning in a lilac taffeta gown.

Sophie’s azure silk skirt whispered as she fairly skipped toward them, a tall, bespectacled young man in tow. “Oh Rosaleen,” she squealed, “you look lovely! I just knew that color would be perfect for you.”

“Thank you again for the dress—”

“Oh, fiddle-dee-dee!” Sophie swept aside her expression of gratitude with a giggle and a shake of her blond curls. “I don’t believe you’ve been formally introduced to my fiancé, Edwin Applegate.” She lifted an adoring smile to the shy visage of the young man beside her.

“Mr. Applegate, I do remember seeing you with your sister at worship services,” Rosaleen said, offering him her hand.

“Mrs. Archer,” Edwin murmured, dipping a quick nod of his reddish-blond head over her hand. He brushed his lips across the top of her fingers, and then his chocolate-brown gaze drifted back to his diminutive fiancée.

Sophie grinned at Jacob. “Everything is perfect. Edith is prepared, just as planned.”

Before Rosaleen could ponder the girl’s cryptic comment to Jacob, Sophie whisked her toward the piano with instructions concerning the order in which the tunes were to be played.

“I hope this evening will be as wonderful for you as it is for me.” Sophie gave her a quick squeeze then skipped away to join Edwin and Jacob.

Unable to guess what Sophie had meant by her statement, Rosaleen dismissed it as a manifestation of the girl simply being “hypo” about her engagement ball.

She’d played only two quadrilles when Jacob appeared beside the piano with Edwin’s sister, Edith.

“I’d like very much to speak with you.”

The seriousness of his expression both puzzled and troubled Rosaleen.

“I—I need to begin the serenades. Sophie expects—”

“Edith will take over.” He clasped Rosaleen’s hand in his, urging her up.

Edwin’s twin sister settled herself in front of the piano, her sage green silk skirt rustling as she arranged it around the stool.

“Are you sure?” Rosaleen asked, bewildered as he led her across the parlor. She glanced back at the piano where Edith had begun playing the serenade “Come, the Moon Plays on the Roses.” She didn’t like thinking she was shirking her duty.

“I’m sure.” He slipped his arm around her waist, guiding her toward the French doors that opened to the back veranda.

The boughs of the giant ash tree swayed in the gentle evening breeze, caressing the veranda with soft shadows. The fragrance of honeysuckle and roses hung heavily on the night air. “Rosaleen,” he whispered her name as he took her hands into his.

Rosaleen’s hammering heart glowed like the pale moon-beams shimmering across the dusky ribbon of the Ohio River.

His lips lifted in that familiar quirk of a smile so dear to her. “As lovely as that gown is, it lacks something.” He reached into his vest pocket.

Flabbergasted, she gazed with widening eyes at the object in his open palm. “My brooch!” she blurted. “But I thought Alistair—”

“I bought it from him.”

“But how?” Her mind spun. Alistair had wanted that brooch for a long time. He wouldn’t have sold it cheaply. Had Jacob taken out a separate loan with Mr. Stinnett?

Suddenly, Rosaleen remembered Jacob’s savings, and she emitted a soft gasp. His face blurred through her tears. “Oh, Jacob, no—not your bell money.”

“This means more to me. You mean more to me than any bell, any building, anything else on the face of this earth.”

Accepting the brooch, she stared at him mutely then caught her breath as he slowly sank to one knee before her.

“I know I don’t deserve you.” He lifted his tear-streaked face to hers. “I’m a wretched, sinful man, who has no right to ask for the love of a heart as pure as yours. Yet I do—I must. I cannot bear to contemplate a life devoid of your presence. I pray you can find it in your sweet heart to forgive my grievous trespasses against you.”

His blue eyes brimmed with remorse, and his voice palpitated with agony. “Nor do I have the right to ask you to give up your dream of traveling to New York. But if you can love me even a little, please say you’ll stay in Madison and be my wife.”

Rosaleen’s heart pulsed with joy. Now she understood Sophie’s peculiar comments. She must have been aware of Jacob’s plans. Happy tears slid down her cheeks.

Oh, thank You, God! Thank You for answering Patsey’s prayers.
Prayers she realized she’d been too afraid to pray for herself.
Oh God, You are so wonderfully good, so loving and merciful.

“I shall kneel here before you in petition until you give me an answer one way or another, or until Roscoe Stinnett throws me off his veranda.”

Rosaleen felt a little laugh shake through a happy sob. Stunned by the unexpected events, she realized she’d left her darling still on his knees, his question unanswered. “Yes, oh yes, Jacob. I’ve never stopped loving you. Never.”

Rising, he pulled her into his arms, smothering her tear-drenched words with his kisses.

The ball passed in a blurred whirl for Rosaleen. Jacob followed Sophie and Edwin’s engagement announcement with his and Rosaleen’s.

He kept Rosaleen from the piano for the remainder of the evening. They danced to quadrilles and serenades between congratulatory handshakes, hugs, and kisses by all present. To Rosaleen’s amazement, even Roscoe Stinnett wished her well and offered her a kiss on the cheek and a belated welcome to Madison.

“Rosaleen, I’m so thrilled to be getting you for a sister.” Becky Morgan gave her an excited hug. “We must make a date to go shopping for material for your wedding dress. Jacob is determined that your wedding be the first in the new church, so time is short.”

Even as her heart soared on the winds of her beautiful dream come true, Rosaleen beat back an intangible fear. No, this time her future was secure. No evil could snatch it away.

❧

It had been the better part of a week since the engagement ball, and Rosaleen still felt as if her feet had not touched ground.

Roscoe Stinnett hired a crew of carpenters to complete the church. However, Jacob, insisting that everything be perfect for their special day, spent every spare moment at the church, adding finishing touches of his own.

They’d agreed to a wedding date three weeks away.
Rosaleen, also feeling the pressure of limited time, was thankful for Becky Morgan’s offer of help.

In the boardinghouse’s front hallway, Rosaleen hesitated at the front door. “Are you sure it’s all right for me to leave this morning, Opal?” Feeling a little guilty, Rosaleen tied the ribbons of her gray silk bonnet beneath her chin. “I hate to leave you shorthanded on washday with two new boarders.”

Opal snorted. “The day Patsey and I can’t handle a washing and two salesmen is the day I shut down the boardinghouse! You run along now and let Mrs. Morgan help you pick out something special for your wedding dress.”

As she neared the Fitch & Williams dry goods store, Rosaleen fingered her brooch pinned at the bodice of the green-sprigged muslin frock. Remembering Jacob’s sacrifice, she felt warmth suffuse her heart. She smiled. Thanks to Edwin Applegate’s persuasion, his father had offered to buy the bell for the church. It was just one more blessing in a bountiful harvest of God’s blessings.

She gazed down Main-Cross Street. Becky Morgan had said she would need to get a widowed neighbor lady to sit with the children and might be a few minutes late.

“Well, well, it seems I’ve found you at last.”

Rosaleen’s heart lurched at the quiet voice behind her. An icy chill shot through her, and she whirled to face her nightmare.