She had to think. She took a deep breath, hoping to slow the furious beating of her heart.
“Sit down, George. You, too, Salty. Now tell me what this is all about. You can’t have changed your mind so fast.”
“But I have. I spent nearly the whole trip thinking about it.”
Rose’s mutinous heart thumped crazily in her chest. Her breath felt shallow, her eyesight dim, but she struggled to hold back her elation.
George never changed his mind.
“George, I’d love to believe that my entrancing smile or my delightful sense of humor, even my cooking or the way I wash your shirts, had caused you to come begging to marry me, but I know you. You don’t do anything without a reason.”
“I’ve told you. I realized I wanted to marry you.”
Rose felt the hope building inside. She didn’t know how long she could hold it down.
“Why is Salty here?”
“I don’t understand.”
“If you just wanted to tell me you realized you wanted to marry me, you wouldn’t have marched me in from the street like I was about to be put in handcuffs. And you wouldn’t have brought Salty with you.”
“It hit me all of a sudden. I guess not seeing you, knowing I might never see you again, made me see some things I’d never seen before.” George pulled up a chair, sat down directly in front of Rose, and took her hands into his. “I missed you already. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before today, but I didn’t. I want you to marry me. I’ve got it all arranged.”
That was another false note. George would never have arranged a wedding. Men never did. Rose felt her hope begin to fade. Whatever the explanation, she was certain it had nothing to do with love. She disengaged her hand from George’s grasp.
“Something happened. I know it did. You might as well tell me, because I’m not agreeing to anything until you do.”
“You might as well tell her,” Salty said.
George looked up at Salty, disgust written all over his face. “Remind me to be on hand when you propose.”
Salty looked abashed.
“I didn’t want to tell you because it really has nothing to do with this except that it made me so mad I decided to marry you. That’s when I realized I wanted to marry you. That I’d been wanting to all along without realizing it.”
“Tell me.” Rose felt her control start to go again. He had to get to the truth soon.
“Salty heard that Dottie wouldn’t give you your job and that no one would rent you a room.”
“That’s true,” Rose said.
“Well, it made me furious that anyone should say shameful things about you.”
“What things?”
“I don’t know,” George lied, “but they must have thought something or they’d have been happy to have you back. That’s when I got mad and decided to show them all by marrying you. Only I realized I wasn’t interested in showing anybody. I wanted to marry you.”
“Is that the truth?” Rose demanded, turning to Salty.
“As God is my witness,” Salty swore. He looked ready to swear to anything Rose wanted.
“Are you sure?” Rose asked, turning back to George. “Are you absolutely, positively sure?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you didn’t want to marry me.”
“I do,” Rose said, feeling the warmth of happiness rising in her heart, “but I never thought you’d ask me. For weeks I’ve been conditioning myself against the day you would leave and I’d never see you again.”
“Then let’s be glad I woke up in time.”
George kissed her. The kiss felt wrong. She knew it would.
“Now I imagine you have some shopping you’d like to do. I don’t know much about these things, but I always understood women had to have bride clothes.”
“Yes,” Rose said, thinking of the fabricated enthusiasm in George’s voice rather than the hours she could spend shopping.
“Here’s some money…”
“I have all I need.”
“Are you sure?”
“You paid me more than enough.”
“Okay. I have some things I need to do, like get the license. Don’t be gone too long.”
“I won’t,” Rose assured him.
After the door closed, Rose sank back into the chair. She didn’t kid herself. She wanted to believe that her dream had come true, that her knight had finally come to her rescue, that she would live happily ever after, but she knew better. George didn’t love her. He never used the word at all.
She couldn’t understand why she didn’t feel sick at heart. Her world had just come crashing down around her.