Did he want her and the child? Would he tell her he loved her? Would he many her, take her to his ranch, and give her a dozen more children?
Her chest tightened in anticipation of what he would next say.
“Judging by the look on your face,” Roman growled, “I don’t think you understand. Let me put it to you straight.I want my baby, Theodosia!”
She stared at him so hard that everything else in the room disappeared from her vision. He said he wanted thebaby.
He had not said that he wantedher.
She’d never known such heartache could exist. No longer could she resist her tears; they streamed down her cheeks and quickly dampened the front of her dress.
“Your tears don’t move me,” Roman snapped. “If giving a baby to your precious sister means that much to you, then you can get with child again after you’ve given me my baby. Hell, you can have a dozen kids for Lillian, but the one you carry now ismine!”
He spun on his heel and strode to the door. “We’re staying right here in Willow Patch until my baby is born,” he continued vehemently. “After the birth, you can go to Brazil and study beetle spit for the rest of your life for all I care, but you are leaving my baby with me!”
Yanking the door open, he continued to glare at her. “I’m going to find a place where we can live for the next eight or nine months, or however long it is before the baby comes. I’m also going to see the town doctor and find out when he can see you. Nothing’s going to happen to my child, got that? I’m going to watch you every second until I have my baby in my arms. After that, you’re free to do whatever the hell it is you want to do.”
He stepped into the corridor, then turned to face her again. “If you leave this room, I’ll hunt you down, Theodosia,” he warned. “No matter where you go, I’ll find you.”
He slammed the door.
Theodosia’s knees buckled. She fell to the bed behind her. For a moment she sat frozen, then began to shiver uncontrollably. As if someone were stabbing at her skin with sharp icicles.
Her hands felt so cold as she cupped them over her face. Not even her hot tears warmed them.
Why do you not love me, Roman?
She didn’t know what to do.
Yes, she did know what to do.
She wanted to stay with Roman. In the house he found for them in Willow Patch. And during the coming months, she realized, her love for him would deepen and fill her with the greatest of joy.
No, she would leave Willow Patch, now, while he was gone, before her love for him deepened and filled her with the deepest of sorrow.
He didn’t want her.
Where would she go?
Anywhere, and when she got there, she would decide where to go. What to do.
On trembling legs, she stood and shuffled to the window. There in the street below she saw Roman lead Secret out of the livery stable. Even from where she stood at the window, she could see his terrible frown. He mounted, urged his stallion forward, and galloped out of town.
Dust and speed and rage swirled all down the street.
He’d be back.
“I love you,” she whispered.
The breath of her farewell left a large foggy circle on the windowpane. With the tip of her finger, she wrote Roman’s name in the mist. Sunlight burst through the humid letters, then dried them.
And right before Theodosia’s eyes, Roman’s name disappeared.
Roman stalkedinto the WillowPatch mercantile and ordered provisions for traveling.
“Goin’ on a trip?” the shop owner asked while gathering the articles of his customer’s order.
Roman didn’t feel like being friendly. He gave a stiff nod, then turned his back on the man.
