Laura and Almanzo once again put Rose and Gillette on a stagecoach so they could return home. Rose hugged both of her parents before she got on the stage.
"Take care of yourself, sweetheart." Laura said in her daughter's embrace.
"I will Mama." Rose smiled. "And I'll come back before you learn how to get on without me." She giggled, copying her mother's little saying.
"I love you." Laura said, kissing her daughter on the forehead.
"I love you too, Mama." Rose said. She went and hugged her father, and Laura approached her son-in-law. She wrapped Gillette up in a hug.
"I want you to know, Gillette..." Laura whispered. "That I think that Rose has found herself a wonderful man..."
"Thank you, Mama Beth." Gillette said, and Laura released him. He went on over and shook his father-in-law's hand, helped Rose into the stage and got in himself. As the stage rolled away from Walnut Grove, Rose and Gillette waved goodbye, and Laura and Almanzo waved back.
Five years later...In the year 1915.
Rose got home late one night after getting some information for one of her stories she was writing for the Bulletin. She hung up her coat. Rose saw that the sitting room was dark, and it smelled mostly of cigar smoke and whiskey...Tears ran down Rose's face..."He can't be doing this again...Not again." She thought. She braced herself and entered the room. "I'm so sorry I got home so late Gillette, I had to get some more information for the Art Smith story..."
"Yeah, whatever." He says, taking another swallow of his whiskey.
"Here honey...I'll go make you some supper...and then we can..." She started to say, but he cut her off...
"No need...made myself a sandwich..." He said, angerly.
"But sweetheart...that isn't alot...Look Gillette, it's no trouble at all. I can make you something."
"I said I don't want nothin'." He said harshly, taking another stiff drink of his whiskey.
"Honey, why are you doing this again?...You said you'd stop!..." Tears run down Rose's face. "Gillette, sweetheart...if you keep this up, this stuff will ruin you body!"
"What goes in my body is my own darn business!" He yells.
"Gillette why are you acting like this tonight?" Rose asks, her voice choked. "Talk to me please."
"You know why." He said, coldly.
"Today's the day Eben passed away." Rose said, tears come to her eyes. Remembering again today, that horrible morning she woke up to find her baby dead in his cradle.
Gillette springs from his chair and pins Rose against the wall. "You stupid broad!...It's not only that!...I'm a loser! A stupid, good-for-nothing LOSER!" He yells at her. "I'm worthless!...I can't even keep down a regular job!...Why would you even stay married to man like me?"
Rose starts to cry. "Because I love you Gillette...Stop putting yourself down like this!"
"I'm only telling the truth!" He says, gruffly.
"No you're not!" She yells. "...You're so drunk you don't know what you're saying...Snap out of it Gillette!" Rose yells and slaps him across the face. She pulls her hand back, not believing what she just did. She starts crying again. Gillette, being in his drunken stupor, rears back and strikes Rose across the face as well. Blood gushes out of her nose and onto her crisp, white blouse. He pins her against the floor and his grip on her wrists tighten. "You try that again, and it'll be the last thing you ever do." He says through clenched teeth.
"Gillette, please... let go of me!...You're going to break my wrists." Rose says, in tears. There was a look a fear on her face.
His grip tightens even more. "I'll let go when I feel like it!" He says and shoves her away on the wooden floor. Rose lays there, just sobbing.
"I'm going to bed!" He announces angrily, and leaves Rose exactly where she is. She lays there, sobbing a few minutes and then finally picks herself up off the floor, she goes to the washroom to try to clean herself up, changing into a light blue blouse that matched the dark blue skirt she was already wearing and tried to make herself look half-way presentable, she knew her mother would be arriving either late tonight or early morning...She had gotten so sick of how she was living with Gillette, and she was quite homesick so she wrote a long letter to her parents, her mother in particular, to come out to San Fransisco for a few months. Though, Rose never told her parents how rotten Gillette was treating her...Almanzo, knowing that he had the farm to tend to, and himself being not much of a traveller, insisted that Laura should make the trip...Rose entered her and Gillette's room, and saw that Gillette was out cold, laying on the bed, she then grabbed a blanket and left. She knew she'd probably pay physically for it later, but Rose locked their bedroom door on her way out. Just in case Gillette awoke late in the night and got hostile with her again. She went back to the sitting room, sat down in the overstuffed chair, the blanket covering her knees, and waited up for her mother awhile, in case she came that night. Rose fell asleep after a few hours.
The next morning, Rose awoke to hear Gillette vomiting in the washroom, as sick as a dog. Of course, because of all the drinking he did the previous day. She went in to help him, and cleaned him up. Rose helped him back into bed. She knew how bad his hangovers were usually. Gillette's eyes and ears were sensitive to the light and sound, so she closed the bedroom curtains and door to let him rest. Rose brushes her hair and puts it back up, dresses in her dark brown skirt and yellow blouse. She starts to clean up a little for her mother's visit, and she notices Gillette's empty whiskey bottles. She disposes of them and contiues with the rest of her housework.