Wolf’s Princess (25 page)

“I can help you with dishes,” she offered, directing her words at the girl’s back.

Katelyn didn’t acknowledge her. Rose set the dishes on the counter and rapped her knuckles on the Formica to get Katelyn’s attention. Katelyn still ignored her. Rose frowned. She rapped again, more loudly. The maid of all work didn’t even look around. Rose hesitated, not wanting to disturb Ms. Mary and the men still at the table, and then raised her voice to a shout. “
Katelyn
!”

Rose’s suspicions were confirmed when Katelyn took no notice. She reached out and touched the other girls arm. Katelyn jumped with a splash of soapy water. She turned eerily green eyes on Rose.

“Oh, Rose, I didn’t see you.”

“You didn’t hear me either, did you?”

A look like that of a hunted rabbit crossed Katelyn’s face. “Sorry. I was…uh, thinking.” It was obvious that the smile she slapped on was forced. Her words were slightly slurred, and Rose realized that her voice was always slurred. Katelyn’s gaze darted around the kitchen and her shoulders relaxed when she saw they were alone. “What can I do for you?”

“Katelyn, can you hear me?”

Rose saw how the green eyes dropped and then came up again to stare at her lips. Katelyn had a habit of fixing her attention on people’s mouths. Now Rose knew why.

“Of course.”

It was a lie. Rose knew it was a lie. The last thing she wanted to do was frighten Katelyn or make her uncomfortable, but she wanted to help the other woman. “No, you can’t. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Katelyn’s breathing increased in tempo until she was nearly sobbing. “No! No!”

Rose moved to block Katelyn’s flight. “Don’t be afraid. It’s okay.” She gripped Katelyn’s wet hands and gave them a little shake. “Really, it’s okay. Look at my mouth so you can understand what I’m saying. You read lips, right? Good. Listen to me. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

A noise came from the dining room door. Rose looked around to see Paint standing there. Katelyn must have followed her gaze. The maid’s struggles, which had calmed, became nearly violent and an off-key wail came from her mouth.

Paint leapt to them with a protective snarl. His gaze swept fiercely through the kitchen, in a search for what had so frightened Katelyn. The wail escalated to a grating shriek of panic. Rose managed to maintain her grip on Katelyn’s hands and squeezed them.

“Katelyn! Katelyn, look at me. It’s okay. Paint would never hurt you. He just wants to protect you from whatever is scaring you.”

The maid had backed herself into a corner of the kitchen, her back against the edge of the counter. The wail subsided into noisy pants. Paint’s one eye was wide with horror. He lifted his hands in a sign of peace.

“What’s wrong?” He looked at Rose with desperation. “What’s happened?”

Rose squeezed Katelyn’s hands again and looked directly into her face. “Katelyn, I’m going to tell him.”

“No!” She jerked her hands free, shaking her head violently.

Rose lifted her shoulders in helpless confusion edged with protectiveness. “Why are you so afraid? Katelyn, did someone hurt you because of this?”

Paint came closer, growling. “Did someone hurt you?” he demanded.

Katelyn’s eyes rolled from Rose to Paint. “Damaged. I’m damaged!” She waved down to indicate the foot in the special shoe. “Born crippled. Deaf from the age of twelve when I was sick. Damaged women are no good. If anyone knew I was deaf as well as crippled I would be killed.”

“What?”

Rose gasped the word as Paint yelled it. Katelyn couldn’t hear them but their faces must have been frightening because she cowered. Rose glanced at Paint and saw sudden understanding under his rage.

“No one will hurt you,” he ground out.

Katelyn straightened cautiously, staring at his mouth. “Yes, they will. The City Guard will take me away and execute me if they knew I was deaf. Mr. Benson told me so. Please, please, don’t tell anyone.”

Gabe Benson? Wasn’t he one of Sky’s competitors? Rose said militantly, “I’d like to see them try to take you away from this house.”

Paint said even more militantly, “Anyone who tries to take you away or hurts you in any way will die. I will protect you.”

A faint flicker of hope crossed Katelyn’s face, before it died. “You can’t. If you try to stop the City Guard, they will kill
you
. Please keep my secret. Promise me!”

Paint crossed his arms over his chest. Rose thought he did it to keep himself from reaching out to her. “Does Sky know?”

“Maybe.” The maid considered, and then shook her head. “No.”

Paint glanced at Rose and then turned his attention back to Katelyn. “I can’t promise to keep your secrets from Sky, but we will not tell anyone else. Right, Rose?”

Rose nodded and waited until Katelyn looked at her to speak. “I promise.”

Katelyn nibbled her lip glancing from Rose to Paint. “You would help me? Why?”

“Because I like you,” Paint said simply. “I would like to court you.”

Katelyn’s mouth fell open. “Court me?” She pointed a finger at her chest. “Me? I’m damaged! I’m ugly, I’m crippled, I’m deaf, I might not be able to have children. No man wants a woman like me.”

“You’re wrong.” Paint stepped closer and took one of Katelyn’s hands. “I want you. Maybe you don’t want me. I’m ugly, I’m scarred, I have only one eye. But even with only one eye I can see that you’re beautiful. Your hair is thick and shiny, and I’ve never seen eyes as beautiful as yours.”

“Witch’s eyes,” Katelyn said. “A curse.”

“Beautiful eyes,” Paint countered. “Let me court you. Can’t we learn to love one another?”

Amazement filled Katelyn’s face. A smile trembled on her lips and her eyes, already so brightly green, practically glowed under a sheen of tears. She swallowed, staring up at Paint’s face with hesitant wonder. She nodded. “You can court me,” she whispered.

Quietly jubilant, Rose slipped out of the kitchen.

* * * *

At five minutes to eleven o’clock, she stood in the front hall, ready to walk to the hospital to meet Sara. Stone joined her and together they left the house. Rose noticed he seemed relaxed.

“How are you and Sara getting along?”

He walked for half a block in silence. She didn’t think he was ignoring her, just considering how to answer. “I think we’re getting along fine,” he said cautiously.

“That’s good.” What she really wanted to know was whether or not Stone and Sara would remain married. It wasn’t something she could come straight out and ask, so she tried to come at it from an oblique angle. “What do you talk about? I mean, you do talk, don’t you?”

“Some. She tells me about her work in the hospital, and she asks about Amanda and Sand. Stuff like that.”

Oblique wasn’t getting her the answers she wanted. “Do you talk about how you feel about each other?”

He slanted a glance down at her then looked ahead again. “Not yet.”

Flushed with her success in putting Zoe and Tanya in their place, and helping Paint and Katelyn come together, Rose was sure she could help Stone and Sara work out their relationship too. Aware of Stone’s expressionless face, Rose decided to keep that to herself. She wanted Stone to be happy. He was so good with Taye and Carla’s children, it would be a shame if he never had any of his own. Sara was the only mate he would ever have, so if they didn’t work things out, he would never have children.

The hospital was a large brick building that must have been built in the early twentieth century. Instead of going up to the front door, Stone led her around to the back. They entered a small door and walked down a narrow corridor to a stairwell. They climbed a flight of stairs and Rose was struck by memories of being in this type of stairwell in her mom’s office building in downtown Minneapolis. The stairs were cement outlined with rough reflective tape that caught the dim, wavering light. It even smelled like the stairwell in her mom’s office building. It was strange, how a scent could bring back memories. She had known for eight years that her mother was lost to her forever, but for just a split second the grief was new and raw.

She shook it off and followed Stone out of the stairwell to a wide hallway. Like stairwells, hospitals smelled the same whether in the year 2014 or 2072. What was missing was the beeps and hum of machines. Halfway down the wide hallway, Stone opened a door and waved Rose into a cafeteria.

The room was crowded with long tables down the center, and booths lined two walls. There were probably two dozen people eating at the tables, mostly men in scrubs, but a few women were there. More people pushed trays along the rail at the serving windows, lifting plates to have food slopped onto them. Stone’s honey-brown eyes looked around and stopped on one of the booths. Rose examined the single occupant with curiosity. It was a woman, or actually, a girl. Her shoulder-length hair was wavy and brown, but glinted with golden highlights.

She saw Stone and stood up. Her welcoming smile faltered when she saw Rose. “Hi, Stone. Who’s this?”

Stone jerked his head at Rose. “Sky’s mate. Wife, I mean. Rose, this is Sara.”

Rose extended a hand. “I invited myself to lunch,” she said with an apologetic smile. “I’ve been dying to meet you.”

Sara’s handshake was unenthusiastic. “Yeah, I’ve wanted to meet you too.” She turned stiffly to Stone. “We better get in line before it’s gone.”

Rose followed them to the stack of trays, studying Sara’s back. She wore a loose, unattractive dress of gray cotton that reached almost to her ankles. The sleeves went all the way down to her wrists and the neckline had a small white collar. Rose couldn’t imagine why she was wearing such an ugly outfit. Then she remembered something that someone had said. Sara was a novice in the Sisters of Mercy, a nursing order of nuns.

Rose wasn’t sure exactly what it was that had been plopped on her plate, but it seemed to be a particularly unappetizing casserole made of ground meat mixed with watery mashed potatoes and peas that looked like they wanted desperately to be green, but couldn’t quite do it. She took it back to the booth where Sara sat on one side of the table and Stone on the other. She didn’t want to sit next to Sara, and Sara probably didn’t want her sitting next to Stone. Rose glared pointedly at Stone. He gazed innocently back.

“Stone, you should sit next to your mate.”

After giving her a sullen glare, he obediently switched sides. Sara gave her a startled glance, looking almost grateful.

The food tasted as bland as it looked. “What is this?” she asked, letting a blob of it drop from her fork to splat on her plate.

“Saturday Surprise,” Sara answered with an impish grin. “It’s better not to ask what’s in it. Nobody actually knows, and we figure it’s better that way.”

Stone’s mate was very pretty when she smiled. Her brown eyes narrowed in the smile, her round cheeks creased with good humor. It was hard to decipher her figure under that hideous dress, but she appeared fashionably plump. How could Stone not be enchanted?

“Have you forgiven me for interrupting your time with Stone?” Rose asked.

Sara looked down at her fork twirling in the Saturday Surprise. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“I don’t blame you. You don’t get to see him all the time and you don’t want to share what time you do have.”

Sara’s shoulders hunched. “That’s part of it,” she said to her plate. “But mostly I was afraid that you would judge me.” Her voice trailed off as color rose in her cheeks. “I hate that. You’ve heard about what happened at the ranch two years ago, I suppose.”

Rose had gotten the story from Mel, and from Paint, and from Stone. None of them had much good to say about Sara. “I have heard about it, but I haven’t heard your side.”

Rose noticed Stone stiffened a little. “This isn’t the right time or place to talk about it,” he said.

Sara’s knuckles turned white as she clenched her fork in her hand. “When will be the right time?”

“I’d like to hear Sara’s side of the story,” Rose persisted mildly.

Stone met her gaze challengingly, but when she simply stared him down, he looked down at his plate and went back to eating with a scowl pulling his brows together. Amazing, wasn’t it, how yanking on a twit’s ear could raise a girl’s status. Rose smiled at Sara. “Go ahead, Sara, tell me the story.”

Sara glanced first at Stone, who ignored her, and then at Rose. “I suppose everyone told you how stupid I am. And I was stupid. Almost as soon as I did it I was ashamed of myself. I can’t change it now. I would if I could.” She looked again at Stone. “I would,” she told his downturned face earnestly.

When he continued to ignore her, her nose turned pink with impending tears. Rose hurried to divert her. “Okay. Go ahead and tell me your story.”

Sara put down her fork and folded her hands on the table. “We were all at Mel’s place down in Kansas. Stone and Mel and Snake all left to go find Mel’s mom. I was left behind at the ranch.” She swallowed and fixed her attention on her fingers, which twisted around each other like agitated snakes. “I wanted to go with them, but they made me stay behind. It made me really mad. Mel’s brother Mordecai had a crush on me. I pretended I didn’t notice. I treated him like a friend until the day Stone and the others came back.”

Tears welled up and spilled. She went on in a voice thickened by those tears. “It was childish and selfish of me, I know that now, but at the time I wanted to make Stone sorry that he had made me stay behind without him. I asked Mord to meet me in the tack room out back. I knew Stone and the others would go there to unsaddle the horses. So I teased Mord and kissed him.”

A high squealing noise was almost hidden under the cafeteria chatter, but Rose caught it. Stone’s cheap metal fork was bent double in his brown fist. His face was as hard and still as that of a wooden Indian in an antique shop. Sara reached for his arm but didn’t seem to dare to touch him; she dropped her hand to the table top. She licked her lips and went on with her story.

“I knew Stone would see us. I counted on it. In my mind I was punishing him for leaving me.” She lifted her gaze to Rose’s face. Rose could see the pain and the appeal in her eyes. “I was a selfish, sixteen-year-old only child whose mother had died when she was a baby. My dad gave me anything I wanted. I’m not trying to excuse myself, I’m just trying to help you see why I was the way I was.”