Chapter 17 – Rosalie – A Betrayal

I ran a brush slowly through the long ends of my hair. It seemed to be growing faster than normal during the pregnancy, and was thicker and more glorious than ever. I finished brushing and twisted it into a knot at the nape of my neck, and was just adding the last pins when there was a knock at the door and Dr Cullen came in.

"Good morning Rosalie," he greeted me warmly.

"Good morning Dr Cullen," I smiled back. During the ten days I'd spent in hospital I had grown to like the quiet, serious doctor.

He picked up my chart, although he didn't look at it as he said to me, "How would you feel about going home today?"

"Yes, please!"

He laughed at my eagerness. "Tired of the hospital, are we?"

I ducked my face and laughed too. "A little bit," I admitted. "Everyone has been so kind and taken such good care of me, but I'd rather be at home."

"Well, there's no reason to keep you here any longer," Dr Cullen said. "We don't know what caused the bleed, but you've had no further issues and the baby's heartbeat continues to be strong and healthy."

"Will you listen again today?"

"Of course, if you'd like me to."

"Yes please." I gained a great deal of security out of the daily ritual of Dr Cullen placing the cold fetoscope on my belly and reassuring me that he could still hear the heartbeat, strong and steady.

Dr Cullen sat on the bedside chair. "If I may…" he murmured, folding back the blankets and lifting my nightgown over the growing swell of my belly. His cool fingers gently probed the shape of my uterus and then he placed the cold metal of the fetoscope against the skin, almost immediately smiling at me.

"There it is…you've got a strong, healthy baby in there Rosalie. Whatever the bleed was, I don't think it's had any effect on his or her development. Sometimes these things just happen." His fingers began to beat a tattoo on my bare hip. "That's the heartbeat, that's the rhythm of it."

A smile crept over my face. So fast! "I'm so glad the baby is okay." There were no words for the terror I had felt when I had awoken in the hospital after all that bleeding, not knowing what had happened to the baby.

"I wanted to talk to you though Rosalie." Dr Cullen pulled down my nightgown and raised the blankets back over my thighs, patting them into place. "You and the baby both seem in fine shape, and I'm happy for you to go home. You must rest, take it very easy and of course, at the slightest hint of pain or bleeding you must come straight back. But hopefully this incident was just one of those things, and you'll be fine from now on."

I nodded. Lying in bed was boring, but if it was what the baby needed then I would stay there for months if it came to that.

"But I saw the bruises when you came in, and I can't say nothing," Dr Cullen said to me gently, watching me with his peculiar golden eyes.

I shook my head. "Please don't," I said wretchedly.

"It's important Rosalie. Violence within marriage is never acceptable, but while you're pregnant it's more dangerous than ever. I know that he has hurt you…"

"Royce will never hurt the baby," I said with conviction. "He wants this child, and he will do nothing that puts that in jeopardy."

"But any time he hurts you he does put the baby at risk," Dr Cullen countered.

I shook my head again. "I understand what you're saying, but you must understand my position too…he's my husband and this is the way it is. His father has the city lawmakers in his back pocket and probably half the police force too. There are expectations, Dr Cullen, and when I married Royce I agreed to live up to them. The occasional…unpleasantness…is apparently part of the deal."

Dr Cullen's voice was soft. "But he's not living up to his end of the bargain if he hurts you."

I sighed, suddenly exhausted. "Maybe. But there isn't anything I can do. And it's better now that I'm pregnant. He won't do anything that might harm the baby, and now that you've said we can't…sleep together, because of the bleeding, well that will make things better too. It's going to be fine Dr Cullen, really it is. I don't want to discuss it any further."

He didn't look happy, but thankfully he didn't press the issue. "Very well Rosalie. I'd like to see you quite frequently in any case, simply to keep an eye on things. But as long as you rest and take care of yourself, I think we can hope for an uneventful few months and a healthy baby at the end of it."

I nodded. "That's all I want."

Dr Cullen left to continue on his rounds, and I called for a nurse to help me arrange my discharge from the hospital. I was more than ready to leave when Royce appeared, smiling charmingly as he took me in his arms and kissed me.

"Hello darling! It will be wonderful to have you home again," he exclaimed.

I smiled at him. "It will be so nice to be home!" I nodded at the suitcases packed and waiting ready by the door. "If you could carry those, I'll manage the flowers."

"McCarty!" Royce called, snapping his fingers at the suitcases as McCarty appeared in the room. "If you could carry Mrs King's things, please."

McCarty murmured his assent, but he wasn't looking at Royce. I saw the quick glance he threw my way, the naked relief on his face that I was okay, and then the shadow of concern. More concern than Royce had ever shown about me, and not the baby…

I pushed the thought away as I took Royce's arm and the two of us followed McCarty's broad back down the hallways and out of the hospital. Ten days in bed had left me feeling weak and wobbly, and I was relieved when we reached the car.

"Straight to bed?" Royce asked as we drew up at home.

I shook my head with a light laugh. "I don't have to stay in bed. I need to rest and be careful, but Dr Cullen said he's sure it's going to be fine."

"Well, you need to take care of my son," Royce said teasingly, rubbing his hand along the curve of my belly. "He's certainly growing in there…you're getting quite fat."

I pouted, but the truth was I didn't mind the way pregnancy was changing my body. I loved the growing roundness of my belly, and my hair had never been so thick and shiny or my skin so soft and glowing. "I'll be a lot fatter before it's over," I said ruefully.

"I'll have to trade you in for a lovely, slender girl," Royce joked, and I giggled and swatted at him.

"You'd better not!" I couldn't help but notice the rigid set of McCarty's shoulders as I glanced at the front of the car, and I thought perhaps he was embarrassed to be witness to this. I patted Royce on the chest and sat back in the seat for the rest of the journey.

I settled on resting on the chaise in the conservatory. It was comfortable, and I liked the sun and the plants, and being able to see McCarty working outside and the comings and goings from the kitchen. Royce saw me settled in and then went back to the office, and Ellen fussed around making me tea and tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

"It's like I'm a complete invalid," I said to McCarty, unable to the hide the note of exasperation in my voice.

McCarty deposited the bunches of flowers that filled his arms on to the table beside me. "I got these from the car…and you really want to be careful ma'am." His blue eyes were serious. "You need to take care of yourself and the baby."

I blushed a little. "I know. But Dr Cullen said it's healthy to do what I can."

McCarty looked doubtful. "It was a lot of blood."

I went even redder. "You saw?"

"I took you to the hospital." McCarty rumpled his hair, looking awkward. "You were so…I wouldn't like to think…I'm just glad that you're okay," he mumbled. "You and the baby both."

My eyes suddenly burned with tears that I frantically blinked back before they could fall. This man, my driver, had just shown more genuine concern and feeling for me in one mumbled sentence than my husband had in the whole ten days since my life had been in danger. Oh, Royce always sounded like he was saying the right things, but there was an edge of insincerity to it that I had never really noticed until I was faced with the rock solid honesty of McCarty's deep voice and steady blue eyes.

"Oh no, sweetheart, don't cry. I didn't mean to make you cry…aww Rosa…" McCarty went down onto his knees beside the chaise, fumbling in his pockets to withdraw a clean, crumpled handkerchief that he used to tenderly wipe my cheeks. "You can't cry…you're meant to be taking it easy! It's all right Rosalie, it's all right now…"

I took the handkerchief from him and pressed it over my eyes with shaking hands. I could hardly breathe. He was so close to me, and all I could think about was my own wild, desperate longing to reach out and touch him. I remembered suddenly the way it had felt, all those weeks ago, when he had held me while I sobbed on the floor in front of the fire. I knew I could not let him do it again. If he touched me like that, if I let myself go in front of him…I didn't want to think about what might happen after that.

Taking a deep breath I wiped my eyes and gripped the handkerchief tightly as I looked at McCarty. "Thank you," I said, and my voice was steady. "I'm fine. Just a little emotional…you know."

"Oh, I know." McCarty sat back on his heels for a moment and smiled at me humorously. "My Ma had five babies after me, as well as the loss, so for an unmarried man I've seen a lot of a woman in the family way and how emotional it can all get!"

I couldn't help laughing. "You're very kind to me," I said, with a faint note of surprise.

"Ahh, nothing more than you deserve ma'am," McCarty said lightly, rising to his feet and rumpling his hair again. His eyes sparkled as he smiled at me. "I ought to be getting back to work now."

Left alone I slept a little, and then had Ellen carry the record player in to the conservatory so I could listen to music. Even that palled a little after a time, especially since I couldn't dance, and when I remembered a book I'd bought but not started to read, I rose to my feet and slowly climbed the stairs to the bedroom to look for it.

I found the book on my dresser, next to the china tray where I kept a random assortment of hairpins and earrings. Someone had tidied it while I was in the hospital, and I looked at the neat pairs of shiny things before I stopped, my heart thudding.

They're not mine.

For a moment I thought I had to be mistaken. Why would there be unfamiliar earrings on my tray? If Royce had bought them as a gift he would never just leave them like this for me to find, he would have presented them to me with a flourish for the praise and thanks. Besides, I thought as I picked them up with a shaking hand, these were made of cheap glass stones, nothing that Royce would ever buy for me…

"Ellen!" I shouted. "Ellen!"

She appeared in a moment, her face frightened, and for a moment I felt guilty. "It's not the baby," I hurried to say. "I'm fine…I just wanted to know about these earrings."

Ellen's face was instantly wary. "Ma'am?"

"Do you know how they got here?" I asked impatiently. I picked them up and showed them to her. "They're not mine. Where did they come from?"

"I can't be sure. Perhaps one of the girls dropped them while they were cleaning in here?" Ellen's eyes blinked rapidly.

I knew she was lying, and there was only one reason for her to do so. At some point, while I had been gone, there had been another woman in my room. It could have as simple an explanation as one of the cleaning girls dropping her earrings, but Ellen's obvious discomfort with my line of questioning indicated otherwise.

I turned away from her and stood at the window, staring out into the immaculate front yard. "Will you ask Royce to come up when he gets in, please?" I said tightly.

Jane did as I asked and, instead of going into the sitting room for a whiskey first thing, Royce came home and bounded straight up the stairs to our room. "Rosalie?"

"Would you care to explain this?" I snapped, showing him the earrings.

"Explain what?"

"How these earrings, which are not mine, came to be in my bedroom?"

Royce blinked at me innocently. "I don't know. Ellen? Maybe she had some extra help in to do the cleaning?"

"You liar!" I shouted. Viciously I threw the earrings across the room at him, where they hit him in the chest and then fell to the floor. "Do you think I'm an idiot? You had someone here, in my house…in my room!"

Royce groaned and threw up his hands. "Gosh Rosalie, there's no need to get so upset!"

I stared at him, aghast. "No need to…Royce, you've cheated on me! I was in hospital, having complications with your baby, and you thought bringing some other woman to MY home was a good idea!"

"Well, I didn't think it was a good idea," Royce said with a sigh. "I didn't really think a great deal at all, to be honest, I was rather drunk…"

"I can't believe you're taking this so casually!" I was incensed.

"Well really, Rosalie, what do you want me to do?" Royce sounded irritated. "I admit that bringing her here was unwise, and I won't do that again but…"

"But nothing!" I shouted. "You won't do it again at all, here or elsewhere!"

Royce was glaring at me now. "Calm down Rosalie. Dr Cullen was very clear with me that you're off limits until the baby is born, and that's still four months away. You can't really expect me to…"

I was burning with rage. "You cannot justify cheating on me. The sheer disrespect of bringing another woman into my house is outrageous! I can't believe you would do that to me…" Unbidden, my voice broke and tears came to my eyes.

Why don't you love me like I want you to love me?

"Oh Rose," Royce sighed, coming over and trying to put his arms around me. "Why does it matter? You're my wife, you're carrying my son…what does it matter what I do with those whores?"

"Because it matters!" I shoved him hard in the ribs, pushing him away from me. "Because if you loved me you would care what I thought! Because we should be becoming a family, now that we're having the baby, not…not…"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Royce said in disgust. "I'm not staying here to be shouted at by some hysterical woman! Rosalie…either I have sex with you or I have sex with someone else, and quite frankly it's not up to you to dictate. I don't appreciate coming home to these accusations and criticisms either."

"I hate you," I muttered through gritted teeth. "I hate you so much!"

Royce patted my head condescendingly. "You'll get over it."