“This is my money,” Rose said with quiet dignity. “If he backs out, I’ve only bought things I need.”
“You won’t be needing all these nightclothes,” Mrs. Dobie said, malice shining in her eyes. “Nice girls don’t go parading about dressed like this, not even after they’re married.”
“I don’t intend to parade about.”
“Think you’ll keep him faithful that way?”
Rose had tried to keep a civil tongue in her head. She had tried to remember she had been raised a lady. She’d tried to remember her father’s warning not to let other people pull her down to their level. But now she wanted to get down on their level. She wanted to give them a taste of what they had done to her all those years.
“The ladies of Austin have proved to me it isn’t necessary to keep a husband faithful to keep him,” Rose answered.
Mrs. Dobie swelled up so much Rose could hardly keep from laughing. She knew she shouldn’t feel such pleasure at being able to return a dig, but she did, and she wasn’t sorry.
“If women like you didn’t go about enticing decent men—”
“I never enticed a man in my whole life, married or not,” Rose declared, too angry to care whether people in the store heard her. “I only wanted to be left alone. But all of you made it plain you wanted me to leave. Well, I left. You said I ought to get married. Well, I’m getting married. You ought to be happy.”
“Every decent woman will sleep better for knowing you’re married and gone,” Hetty LeBlanc announced, coming up behind Rose.
“You’ll sleep alone regardless of how well you sleep,” Rose snapped. “Horace will simply find a new skirt to chase.”
Oblivious of Hetty’s crimson face or Mrs. Dobie’s furious displeasure, Rose continued with her purchases. “I want some of your rose water…no, the large bottle…and three cakes of your violet-scented soap. And I want that dress off your model up front.”
The women had been incensed by Rose’s profligate purchases of what they considered luxury items, but her mention of the dress stunned them.
“Do you mean the white dress?” Mrs. Dobie asked.
“It costs fifteen dollars,” Hetty LeBlanc exclaimed.
“I know.”
“What could you possibly want with such a dress on a cow ranch?” Hetty demanded. “You’d ruin it the first time you put it on.”
Rose slapped her money down on the table as if she spent fifty-four dollars every day. “It won’t matter if I do. George has promised to buy me new clothes every year and give me money to spend as I like.”
Neither Mrs. Dobie nor Hetty had a response for that. Texas men weren’t in the habit of giving their wives money to spend on themselves. As for buying clothes, well, they were more likely to tell them to make their own.
Rose didn’t bother to tell them this was part of her contract. George had made no promises to her as his wife.
“Wrap everything up very securely,” Rose instructed Mrs. Dobie. “It will have to stand a long trip.”
“What about the white dress?” It still remained on the model.
“I’ll take it with me. Put it in some wrapping paper.”
While Mrs. Dobie busied herself wrapping up her purchases, Rose continued to look around, acting as though she might buy something more. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Mrs. Dobie take the white dress off the model.
“Fold it very carefully. I don’t want it wrinkled.”
Mrs. Dobie scowled more than ever, but she exercised care with the dress.
“Have someone send the package around to Bullock’s Hotel,” Rose said when she accepted her change. “I’m in room seven.”
“Hussy!” Hetty exclaimed even before the door closed behind Rose.
Rose could hardly suppress a smile of happiness as she walked back to the hotel. And it had nothing to do with her momentary pleasure at being able to return a fraction of the unkindness that had been heaped on her for so long. She had just decided the white dress would be the first shot in her campaign to get her husband to unbend toward her. George Washington Randolph might not realize it, but Rose intended to invade every corner of his heart and mind. And that included the dark secrets he still held hidden somewhere within himself.
George hadn’t given any thought to who might attend the wedding, but if he had, he never would have expected so many people to attempt to pack themselves into the hotel lobby. Not even Bullock’s could hold everybody who came. It seemed the whole town was trying to crowd inside. And the women weren’t shy about jostling with the men for position. Several forced their way to the front even though they arrived after all the spaces were filled. Dottie sat in the front row.