“Cass told me.”
“How did Cass know?” Mrs. Thurgood asked, hands still cradling her face.
Abby leaned in and lowered her voice. “Cass was delivering rubbers, and—”
“Stop!” Rose cried, and silence fell in the crowded parlor. “Yes, there was something between us, but—I don’t know how to explain it.” She swallowed against the fist that had curled around her throat, the cookie suddenly tasting sour. “We burned brightly for a short time, but then it—” She dropped onto the sofa next to Abby, wincing as a pin dug into her side. “I thought it could be more.”
“How could it be more?” Abby asked, wrapping her arm around Rose’s shoulder. “You’re leaving in three weeks to getmarried.”
“Less than three weeks.” Rose’s voice sounded hollow to her own ears. “I don’t want to burden you any more, and I’m only delaying the inevitable by staying. My time has run out, and I must go to Boston and speak to Fern. I can’t go on pretending as though she doesn’t exist.”
“You’re not a burden,” Abby said, squeezing her hand. “You’re family.” Mrs. Fuller nodded in agreement, as though she had inserted herself into the Waverly genealogical tree.
Rose scoffed. “But I don’t belong here. If you were still living with your parents, perhaps I could find a place, but here, in Brooklyn… I don’t fit, and I never could.”
“I thought the same thing,” Abby said, “but Cass stood by me and helped me, and now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. The Upper West Side was where I lived, but this is where I’mhome.”
Tears pressed against her eyes, and Rose released a shaky breath. “But you had Cass. You loved her and she loved you. You gave up everything for each other. Ben—”
Ben would rather mourn the life he lost than be with me.
“I left Dusseldorf with nothing but a bag of clothing and my son to escape my husband,” Mrs. Fuller said, sitting on Rose’s other side. “I knew no one and had to build a new life for myself in this country, and I did.” She set her jaw and took Rose’s hand and squeezed. “Let no man decide what you are worth or where you belong. You want to be a part of this place?” Rose bobbed her head as a tear escaped. “You are, then.”
“Hear, hear,” Abby cried, her eyes watering as she grinned. “You’re one of us, Rose, whether or not you wish to be.”
Mrs. Fuller stood and clapped her hands twice. “Now stand up. Let’s see what I can do with this bosom of yours.”
Harvey had become more creative in his ghostly methods of terrorizing Ben. A rainstorm moved in overnight and deluged the Heights in a cleansing rain that he normally would have appreciated. However, when he discovered a dislodged birdnest had blocked a downspout and created a waterfall over the front door of the building, he became far less charitable.
Ben was grateful for the distraction, despite his grumbling as he set up his ladder and climbed to the second floor, then slid his feet along a wide ledge to the blockage. The early-autumn air nipped at his bare neck and shivered down his spine, reminding him of how cold his bed had been the last few nights. He was strangely lonely without Rose, his mattress lumpy and uncomfortable, as if it too protested her loss. Knowing she was sleeping a few floors above him drove him mad; he tossed and turned until he finally threw off the blankets and wrote a series of scathing letters that he never intended on mailing.
Rose would not have approved of them, after all.
He dug his hand into the mess, grabbing a clump of wet twigs and leaves and tossing them to the sidewalk below. Focused on his work, he ignored thepingof something hard hitting the window beside him.
The next assault struck on the back of his head and he shouted an oath, turning to glare at the street below him while gripping the downspout. Cass stood there, one hand planted on her hip, glowering.
“What are you doing?” he cried.
“Talking to you.” She pulled something from her pocket and let loose again, hitting him square in his chest.
Ben caught the object before it fell. “A cookie?”
“Abby made them yesterday and they’re terrible.” Ben’s jaw gaped at her blasphemy. “She said so herself, and I thought I could make good use of them.” She threw another and Ben ducked, gripping the downspout hard to keep himself on the ledge.
“Have you lost your mind?” Ben shuffled sideways towards the ladder, but Cass was too quick as she grabbed it, pulling escape out of his reach. A shimmer of panic spread through him. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not letting you avoid this conversation. It involvesfeelings, and we all know what you do when you’re forced to admit you have them.”
“Right now I’mfeelingirritated. I’m going to fall!”
“No, you won’t, but you will listen.” She pointed a finger at him. “What did you do to Rose?”
Ben stiffened and averted his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A hard piece of cookie struck him directly in the temple. The woman missed her calling as a ballplayer. “You absolutely know what I’m talking about. She has been moping around our apartment forthree daysand driving me up the wall. Lots of sighing and staring out the window.”
Guilt pressed against his insides. “She didn’t need to stay with me anymore, now that I fixed the ceiling.”
