Rosa was usually very accommodating to Joshua’s moods…a man had the right to be as he wanted in his home, after all…even when her pregnancy started playing havoc with her own emotions. One night though she was out of sorts and his sullen mood irked to the point that she made a barbed comment about it.
Joshua’s hand had come around so fast that it startled both of them. Joshua had sworn to himself that he would never treat Rosa the way he had seen his father treat his mother…he had sworn to himself that he would never raise a hand to his woman...and yet in that terrible moment he had done just that. As Rosa yelped and tumbled gracelessly to the floor, Joshua felt his heart shatter.
Rosa broke her fall with her arms and slid against the wall relatively unharmed. Furious, she spat curses at her husband in Spanish and then crumbled into a ball, crying hot bitter tears.
Joshua had wanted to pick her up…to just reach out for her…but he could not make his body move at first. And then he found his ability to move and he bent down to help his wife up.
Rosa brushed away his arm and scrambled to her feet without his help. She wiped her face and fixed a hard glare on him. Rosa could see the regret in his eyes…in the tears that had welled up there…but it was not something that she was ready to acknowledge. Rosa rubbed her cheek at the spot where he had hit her but, gradually (and just a bit grudgingly), she felt the anger seep from her. Joshua was, she knew in her heart, a good man…a man who loved her…and she was his wife. She had promised to love, honor, and obey him and, while she would not stand for being beaten, a glancing, unthinking slap was not nearly enough for her to forget her love for him.
Joshua started to apologize but Rosa stayed him with a wave her hand, not being a woman who wanted a man to show weakness on her behalf, and slowly moved close to him. Joshua reached out and lifted her off her feet into a tight hug. Joshua closed his eyes tight…not wanting tears to fall from them…and told her that he loved her in a husky, heartbreaking whisper.
Rosa put her arms around her husband’s thick leathery neck and said nothing, the tender tears running down her cheek eloquent testimony to what her heart was feeling.
They never spoke of the incident again. And Joshua never raised his hand to his wife again…he had promised to love, honor, and protect Rosa and that was an oath he took more seriously than anything else in his life.
As Rosa’s pregnancy progressed Joshua began to spend more time close to home. By that time he had trained a couple of hands and they were able to take care of the simpler tasks that came into the shop leaving Joshua with more time to work on the house and the barn. With some advice from a couple of his customers he was even able to sow a small patch of land into a viable vegetable garden that Rosa tended displaying a greener thumb than Joshua himself possessed.
Joshua turned a large portion of his barn into a workshop where he could work on some his customers’ equipment while not being far away from his wife.
Rosa kept telling him not to fret…reminded him that women had babies every day…but she was in fact very pleased that Joshua was worried about her and about their child. Rosa had helped deliver four of her mother’s children so she knew childbirth intimately but even so she was just a bit worried about enduring the experience itself.
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