Joshua and Rosa: A Love Story (Part 14)

The tension continued for a few days until Rosa, perplexed because she didn’t know what she had done to deserve his silence, decided she’d had enough. As she and Joshua were preparing for bed she demanded to know what had caused his lingering foul mood.

Joshua’s first impulse was to lie and say that nothing was wrong but, wracked by guilt and needing to unburden himself, he found he could not. He sat on the edge of their bed and looked down at the floor as, softly and haltingly, he confessed his intimate encounter with Emma.

Rosa, scalding tears welling in her eyes, started to scream but held herself back for fear of waking the children. Joshua reached up to comfort her but she slapped his proffered hand away hissing whispered invective in both Spanish and English.

Rosa, filled with fury and disappointment, ordered him to get Emma…”that whore”…out of her house that very minute. Joshua started to protest but the hurt in his wife’s eyes made him stop.

Joshua pulled on his shirt and slipped out of the room. Emma, who had understood the gist of the exchange from her room next door, was already packing when Joshua knocked at her door. There were tears streaming down her face as well. Joshua stood silently, his shoulders stooped, in the doorway as Emma gathered her belongings. Joshua carried her bags outside while Emma slipped in to kiss the cheeks of the sleeping children before dashing out of the house.

After hitching one of the horses to the wagon, Joshua helped Emma up. They drove into town not speaking to each other at all.

Rosa saw none of this as she was curled up in a tight ball on their bed sobbing into a pillow so as to muffle the sound and not rouse her babies.

Joshua got Emma a room at the hotel near his shop and then he went to the saloon to have a drink. When the saloon closed up for the night, Joshua briefly considered going home but that didn’t seem like a good idea. Fleetingly, he considered going to Emma’s hotel room, but he dismissed that as being a very bad idea as well. Sighing deeply, Joshua trudged over to his shop and curled up in a corner of the stable area to sleep alone.

In the morning, Joshua went to his bank and withdrew a sum and then he went to check the stagecoach schedule. Afterwards he went to the hotel. Emma, who hadn’t slept much for crying, let him in to her room and pleaded for a chance to go back and make things right with Rosa. Joshua said that that wouldn’t be a good idea…something Emma knew already.

Joshua gave her money and the coach ticket he had bought. He told her she should either go find her husband or go back East and start her life over back there.

Emma stroked his face and told him that she was sorry. Joshua shook off her apology offering one of his own in its stead…he was a man and he was supposed to be strong and true to his vows. They hugged…tentatively but with lingering echoes of desire…and he kissed her cheek…as gallantly and chastely as he could. They spoke no more until they were downstairs in the dining room having breakfast.

After breakfast, Joshua saw her to the morning coach and stood watching as it pulled out taking Emma east…back home where she knew that she belonged.

After working for a while in his shop, Joshua went back to his wagon and spurred the horse on towards his home…where he knew that he belonged.

Rosa was hanging clothes on the line behind the house when he came up. The children were asleep in a playpen on the porch. Rosa refused to even glance up Joshua’s way as he slowly approached her.

Joshua stood in front of his wife waiting for her to acknowledge him and when Rosa looked up, her eyes filled with hurt and lingering anger, he sank down to his knees and put his arms tight around her waist. Joshua closed his eyes tight against the tears he felt ready to spill and silently rested his head against Rosa’s belly.

Rosa held her hands up at first, not knowing how to react, but in time she brought them down on his shoulders. And then she tentatively brought her hands up to his hair and gently stroked it. Rosa closed her own eyes and held her prodigal husband tight. They stayed like that for a seeming eternity until John began to rouse and Rosa, reluctantly but purposefully, disengaged from Joshua’s embrace.