LOVE IS MORE THAN A FEELING
Chapter Twenty
Rose awoke with a feeling of anticipation.
Snuggling farther under the covers, she looked at Jack, who still slept soundly
beside her. Today was Valentine’s Day. She wasn’t sure what they would be
doing, but Jack had promised that she would enjoy it.
Unable to lie still any longer, Rose slipped
from the bed and hurried into the bathroom. By the time she was done with her
bath, Jack was awake, sitting up and stretching.
Rose stood silently behind him, watching.
"Good morning, Jack," she said, sitting down on the bed beside him.
"Happy Valentine’s Day."
"Good morning, Rose." He kissed
her. "Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too."
"I can’t believe I almost forgot about
Valentine’s Day," Rose commented. "Men are supposed to forget that,
not women."
"Good thing I’m smarter than the average
man, right?" Jack asked her, winking at her.
"Oh, you..." Rose laughed, then
threw her arms around him and kissed him again.
"What are we doing today?" she
asked when the kiss ended.
"Well...I don’t know if I should tell
you, yet," he teased her.
Rose frowned at him, sitting in his lap and
wrapping her arms around his neck. "Tell me."
"Later."
"Now." Rose traced his jaw line
with her fingers.
"You don’t play fair."
"No, I don’t." Rose giggled.
"What are we doing today?"
"Well...I thought that first I’d make
you breakfast in bed, but you’re already up."
"You can still make me breakfast. We’ll
just eat downstairs together."
"All right. And then, I thought we might
go and visit the falls that Chippewa Falls is named after. They’re beautiful in
winter, frozen solid. Then, home for lunch and to warm up. After that, how
about we go ice skating on Lake Wissota?"
"That sounds great. As long as it’s
really frozen solid," Rose added.
"Rose, it’s thirty below. I’m sure it’s
really frozen solid."
"All right. And then?"
"And then we’ll go out to dinner.
There’s a great place on the corner of Main Street, or at least it was great
when I was growing up here."
"It’ll be fun, I’m sure. And then,"
Rose whispered, "we’ll come home, and I’ll give you my own special thank
you."
Jack grinned. "That sounds like the best
idea of all." He kissed her, then gently pushed her off his lap.
"Now, I need to get ready for the day. Just go relax, and I’ll tell you
when breakfast is ready."
*****
After breakfast, Jack and Rose dressed warmly
and walked through the town to the falls. Rose had never been there before, though
Jack had been there many times when he was growing up. Rose was immediately
enthralled.
The falls were frozen solid, just as Jack had
said, the water that would be running free in summer set in a seemingly
permanent icy state. The waterfalls themselves were still present, but frozen
in place, the bitter chill of winter having frozen the water before it could
reach the ground below.
It was a sunny day, the sun glistening off
the ice like a thousand diamonds. Icicles hung from the bare trees, where earlier
thaws had melted the ice a little and then refrozen it when the cold returned.
Snow covered the ground around the falls, but on the ice itself the snow had
been swept away by the wind from the smooth surface. The ground was frozen as
well, the snow lying thick and silent on the banks of the waters. Jack and Rose
walked slowly around the falls, their feet leaving deep imprints in the snow.
When Jack grinned teasingly and dropped a bit
of snow down Rose’s back, she shrieked.
"I’m going to get you for that!"
Jack turned to run from her, but slipped on
the icy ground, landing face first in a snowdrift. Rose was on him in an
instant, scooping up a handful of snow and stuffing it down the back of his
shirt.
Jack squirmed, trying to reach the snow.
"Rose!"
She laughed in delight, throwing her head
back, until he suddenly rolled over and dumped her into the snow, dropping down
on top of her and pinning her to the snowdrift with his weight.
Rose kept laughing, amused at his expression,
which was somewhere between surprise and laughter. Finally, he bent his head
down to kiss her, silencing her giggles.
Rose put her arms around his neck, kissing
him back. She could have stayed with him forever that way, had it not been for
the cold seeping through their clothes from the snow and the icy air.
Jack finally got up, helping Rose to her
feet. "I don’t know about you, but I’m getting cold," he told her.
"What say we go back to the house now?"
Rose shivered, wrapping her arms around
herself. "I think that’s a good idea. One case of hypothermia is enough in
a year, don’t you think?"
Jack laughed, putting an arm around her as
they headed toward home.
*****
As he had promised, Jack took Rose ice
skating on Lake Wissota that afternoon. Rose hadn’t been ice skating in years,
since she was a little girl, but she picked it up quickly enough. Jack only had
to catch her to keep her from falling once, and she soon returned the favor
when one of his skates caught on a rough patch in the ice. Laughing and warm
from the exertion, they made their way farther out on the lake.
There were a number of people out on the lake
ice fishing, some out in the open and others in tents or temporary shelters set
up on the ice. They skated past them, being careful not to come near to any recently
chopped holes.
Jack gestured to an area to their left.
"That was were I fell through the ice all those years ago. My dad and I
were fishing there, and I’d finally managed to catch a fish big enough to keep.
I went off across the ice to show Mom, who was waiting for us on the shore—she
didn’t like fishing. I didn’t pay attention to where I was going and walked
right over an old hole in the ice, which was much thinner than the rest of the
ice." He shook his head at the memory. "I fell right through. The
last thing I heard before I disappeared under the water was Dad yelling and Mom
screaming. They both rushed to where I’d fallen through to rescue me. Mom was
the one who could get down far enough to grab my coat—the hole wasn’t very big,
and Dad couldn’t get close enough to pull me out. I remember the ice cracking
around them when they finally pulled me out. They got me back to the shore, and
they both pulled off their coats and wrapped me in them. Then they took me
home."
"What happened to the fish?"
"It was still alive when I fell through
the ice, so it took advantage of the unexpected opportunity and swam
away."
"All that, and your fish got away,
too."
"And it was a big fish, two and a half
feet long."
"Is that a big fish story?"
"Well...maybe it was only two feet long,
but it was still a big fish, and it did get away."
"Whatever you say," Rose teased
him. They had circled around the ice fishers and were heading back to shore.
"This day has been so much fun, Jack. I never want it to end."
"It’s not over yet. We’re still going to
dinner tonight. Speaking of which, we should go home and get ready. It’ll be
dark soon, and there’ll be a lot of people wanting to go out to dinner on
Valentine’s Day."
"Let’s go, then," Rose told him,
taking his hand and skating back to the beach.
*****
Dinner was wonderful, just as Jack had
thought it would be. He and Rose arrived early enough that they could get a
table, and didn’t have to wait for it. Because the restaurant served large
meals—larger than either of them could eat—they shared a meal of roast beef,
mashed potatoes, and vegetables. For dessert, there were pieces of rich
chocolate cake.
Rose ate hungrily, thoroughly enjoying the
meal. It was much less formal than what she had been used to when she was a
member of the upper class, but the food was good, and so was the company. The
waitress was polite and efficient but not fawning, unlike many of the upper
class servants who would jump to clean up the tiniest spilled crumb and asked
constantly whether the food met their approval.
Jack remembered coming to the restaurant
several times when he was younger with his parents. This had been their
favorite place to go on their wedding anniversary, and they had usually brought
him along. Those had been good times, and he hoped that he could create a
tradition with Rose of coming here, too.
Rose noticed him looking at her and smiled,
putting her last bite of cake in her mouth.
"Good dinner?" he asked her, seeing
her obvious appreciation.
"Wonderful. The food is as good as when
I was rich, but the company is better. You’re much more fun to eat dinner with
than those shallow, narrow people I used to know."
"Thanks." Jack smiled at her, then
reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, wrapped package. "I have
something for you."
"You do?" Rose took the package,
turning it over in her hands and inspecting it. "What is it?"
"Why don’t you open it and find
out?"
Smiling, Rose opened the small package.
Opening the box inside the wrapping, she gasped in surprise at the sight of a
delicate gold pendant that matched the earrings he had given her perfectly.
"Jack, this is beautiful!" She had
worn the earrings that night, so she carefully took the necklace from the box
and put it on, fastening the chain around her neck. "How does it
look?"
"Beautiful, just like you."
"Jack, I’m sorry...I don’t have a gift
for you."
"That’s all right, Rose. You’re gift
enough."
"Thank you, Jack. I love you." She
paused. "On second thought, I do have a gift of sorts. I got a letter from
Fred and Monica yesterday. They’ll be coming out to see us late in March. I
didn’t have a chance to give you the letter yesterday, and then I forgot about
it—until now."
"That’s a perfect gift. It’ll be good to
see them again. How long has it been—about five weeks since we’ve seen
them?"
"It seems like longer. They’ve been such
good friends to us, Jack."
"Well, we’ll fix up the guest room for
them. There’s no use in them staying in a hotel when we have plenty of
space."
Jack paid the bill and left a tip for the
waitress, then ushered Rose out the door, putting an arm around her to shield
her from the cold.
"Ready to go home?" he asked.
Rose turned and kissed him on the cheek.
"Of course. You haven’t forgotten about my thank you, have you?"
Jack chuckled. "How could I
forget?" he asked, walking down the street in the direction of their
house, Rose snuggled against him. "I love you, Rose."
"I love you, too, Jack."