Author's Note: I'm afraid I'm cheating my loyal readers a bit with this update. The following chapter is a short one, and was originally written as just the first part of a much longer chapter. However, since this bit stands alone and it's going to be at least a few more days until I get the next part finished (major things are in store!), I decided to go ahead and post it separately.
The rain showers continued off and on throughout the day. The rain never fell heavily, yet neither did it cease for long. Kurt felt this crueler than a truly violent storm would have been. Had he been certain that Mr. Anderson would not come, Kurt might have been able to focus his attention on some other task for more than a few minutes. Instead he kept becoming distracted by changes in the rhythm of the rain. Whenever it seemed to slow he would go to the window. Several times Kurt began to hope that the weather would soon clear, but always the rain resumed.
Mr. Hummel was not blind to his son's downcast face, nor deaf to his melancholy sighs. "Kurt, I know you are disappointed, but there is nothing to be done about it."
Kurt turned away from the window. "Why must it rain today? Could it not wait until Sunday?"
"It rains when it will."
Although Kurt did not find this a satisfying answer, he could not argue with it either. Instead he just sighed.
"Come, your life is not so wretched as that," Mr. Hummel said. "Are you not looking forward to the ball on Monday? All of your friends will be there."
"Not all of them," said Kurt. "Not Miss Cohen-Chang."
If ever forced to choose then Kurt would have named Miss Jones as his dearest friend, but in certain moods he found the company of Miss Cohen-Chang to be preferable. Were he to brave the rain and call upon Miss Jones today, she would notice his poor spirits and try to cheer him. She would suggest they sing a merry song or that they work together on some pleasant project like the trimming of a bonnet. Miss Cohen-Chang would sit with him and allow him to be miserable for a while. She would not press him for explanations that he could not give.
Kurt could not have told her, or Miss Jones, or even his father, that he was not merely disappointed about missing a planned outing with a friend. He was disappointed because, though he knew this was the utmost foolishness, he had been unable to keep himself from hoping that it might have been more than that.
"Caroline had a letter from Lima on Thursday," said Mr. Hummel. "She told me that Miss Cohen-Chang is to marry Finley's friend, Michael Chang."
"Yes, I heard the news from Miss Jones."
"Were you much...surprised?" Mr. Hummel asked carefully.
Kurt shook his head. "No, I cannot say that I was. Theirs was not a long courtship, but they are well suited to one another. If their families do not object then there is no reason why they should not marry."
Mr. Hummel looked at him for a long moment. "Kurt, I hope you know that I would not have objected to Miss Cohen-Chang."
At last Kurt understood his father's meaning. He had perhaps sensed the nature of Kurt's disappointment while mistaking the cause. Though Kurt was not eager to explain the full extent of this mistake, he did not wish his father to think ill of his friend. "I have great regard for Miss Cohen-Chang, but I never had any expectations of her hand," he said. "She will be happy with Mr. Chang. She would not have been happy with me."
"Would you have been happy with her?"
"I am not the sort of man who could be happy when his wife was not," said Kurt.
"You will find someone," Mr. Hummel said. "Someone who will make you as happy as you make her. When you do, remember that while I admire a fine matched pair of horses, I do not require that my son and his bride be the same color."
With that, Mr. Hummel left his son to his own thoughts.
