“Be that as it may, I’d still like to know why.”
“Who the hell knows?”
“But surely there must be a reason.”
“I just feel like it! God, why does there have to be a reason for everything, Theodosia? Can’t you just accept things the way they are without picking them apart?”
“You don’t have to shout, Roman.”
He felt immediately contrite. She couldn’t help her inquisitiveness. It was as much a part of her as his hot temper was of him. “I shouted so you could see my uvula,” he said, hoping to soothe her with a bit of teasing. “Don’t you like the look of my uvula?”
“You—”
“I’ll have you know that I have the sexiest uvula in all of Texas, Theodosia. Maybe in all the country. Hell, probably in the entire world.”
“Roman, you are—”
“Handsome?”
She stared at him blankly for a moment before recovering from the surprise his question caused. “Yes, you are very handsome, but you are also—”
“What do you think is handsome about me? My face?” He turned his face so she could see his profile. “My muscles?” He flexed his arm muscles for her.
“Everything about you is handsome, Roman, but you would do well to know that you are incorrigible. Unmanageable, if you will.”
“Is that a compliment?”
She couldn’t resist laying her hand on his chest. His heart beat steadily beneath her palm, and she loved the feeling.
If Roman behaved any way other than the way he behaved, she mused, he would not be the Roman with whom she was so taken. “Yes, Roman, your being incorrigible is a compliment.”
Smiling smugly, he took her leaf from her fingers and folded it. Holding it to his mouth, he blew into it.
His action created a loud whistle that so startled Theodosia, she almost fell off the limb.
Roman steadied her instantly. “Want to try?” He folded another leaf and handed it to her.
Blowing into a leaf was the farthest thing from her mind, but she tried it anyway.
Roman laughed when the noise she produced sounded more like a snorting hog than a sharp clear whistle.
“I have not had the practice you have, Roman,” she said. “Perhaps if I had spent youthful days hiding in trees and eating raisin sandwiches, I would be as proficient at leaf-whistling as you are.”
He slid his knife from the sheath tied around his leg and used it to scratch into the limb.
Bits of bark flying into her lap, Theodosia waited for Roman to begin his story. She sensed his need to ponder his memories for a while and so summoned all the patience she possessed.
Her silence had a sound to Roman. Strange as it was, he could hear her understanding, her very real interest in him.
He felt as though he were hearing a song he’d never heard before. A beautiful song whose melody and lyrics had been written especially for him. And he knew then that sharing his past with the beautiful composer of that song would bring him a peace he’d longed to feel for years.
“Flora was her name,” he murmured. “She was my stepmother for thirteen of the longest years time has ever made. And then there was Cordelia. And Veronica. They were her daughters, my stepsisters. Cordelia was eight when they came to live on the farm, and Veronica was nine. I was five.”
He dug his knife into the tree limb for a while before continuing. “My mother died soon after I was born. I don’t know how my father met Flora, but I know he died about a year or so after he married her. Unlike you, I didn’t have any blood relatives to go to, so I had to stay with Flora and her daughters.”
Just the sound of Roman’s voice convinced Theodosia that his memories were going to be as sad to her as they were to him. She swallowed, trying to prepare herself.
“I don’t remember a whole lot about those early years, but one thing I recall well is that Flora and her daughters cried all the time. God, they never stopped.” Roman paused and ran his fingers over the marks he’d scratched into the limb. “Whenever something didn’t go their way, they cried. Flora didn’t make any sound when she cried, but Cordelia and Veronica wailed so loud that sometimes I thought they were in horrible pain. I guess I used to cry when I was little, but after I met Flora and her girls, I never cried again.”
