Rose's Story

by Thomas Kinkade

  They passed through fields in a blur of green and brown. They had gone almost as far as Cranberry before Rose turned back.

  They were cantering through another meadow when she saw the hedge in the distance. Would Star jump? Everything seemed possible on this miraculous afternoon. She’d take the risk. She couldn’t resist trying.

  They continued toward the hedge at a steady canter. Rose was in half-seat, arching her back and letting her heels drop down with each stride. She felt the proper lock between her upper calves and the horse. She aimed Star straight for the center of the hedge. Three strides before the hedge, they picked up speed—too late to change her mind—and then the crescendo into the jump.

  Star raised the front of his body and pushed off with his hind legs as she rose out of the saddle and moved forward to follow the horse. They sailed over the hedge in one fluid movement. This was as close to flying as riding could get! Star landed on the other side with perfect follow-through in three fast strides.

  “Beautiful, Star!” His form was flawless; he must have been taken over hundreds of jumps before. “You wonderful, wonderful horse!”

  When they came close to Clayton Stables, Rose slowed him to a cool-down trot. How sweetly he followed her slightest command! Then a walk on a loose rein around the paddock.

  “Rose!” Kat was sitting on the top rail of the fence. “I couldn’t find you and Star anywhere.”

  “We had the most thrilling ride!” Rose dismounted and led Star to his stall. “The perfect ride. He’s a brand-new horse. Aren’t you, Star?” Rose glowed with pride in him.

  Kat followed. “When did that happen? I missed everything, didn’t I?”

  “Just now, this afternoon,” Rose said.

  “Do you think kindness just finally reached him?”

  “Something like that,” Rose said. She couldn’t describe what had passed between her and Star.

  “That’s the best news!” Kat said. “And you’re wearing your riding skirt. I like it!”

  Rose smiled at Kat, then ran her hands along Star’s body. Slightly damp with sweat…

  “I scrubbed out the water bucket and filled it,” Kat said. “Thank you.”

  “I didn’t mean to break my promise to you,” Kat said, “about helping. I had an order to finish and—”

  “I’m not holding you to a promise.” Rose rubbed him with a dry towel. “Come only if you want to, Kat.”

  “Well…do you want me to?”

  “Yes, I do.” Rose took a breath and plunged in. “Amanda told me what you’ve been thinking. Kat, you’re wrong. I can’t talk about the reason now, but if…if I act strange sometimes, it has nothing to do with you or our fathers. Nothing.”

  Kat looked at Rose, listening carefully.

  “Whatever else is wrong with my mother, she’s not a snob. She’s not like that at all, I swear to you.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “I can’t tell you.” Rose swallowed. “I can’t.” Kat would know her secret, along with everyone else in town, if Mrs. Cornell and Mrs. Lancaster started talking. But maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t. She had to hope they wouldn’t. “But it’s not about you. Honestly.”

  Rose used the hoof pick, starting with Star’s left foreleg. She kept her eyes on the clump of grass and mud wedged into his shoe. “I felt…well, especially close to you, I guess.” She couldn’t quite face Kat. She was asking Kat to put up with a lot, no questions asked. “I want nothing more than to stay good friends.” Then the right foreleg. “I don’t know how you feel about that.”

  “It’s all right,” Kat said.

  Rose could finally look up at her.

  “I was wondering, though, when you were so upset about jailbirds…” Kat leaned closer, excitement in her eyes. “Rose, are you hiding an escaped prisoner? And bringing him food in a hideout?”

  “No, of course not. I’m sorry, Kat, I can’t talk about it.”

  “I said, it’s all right.”

  “Is it?” Rose asked.

  Kat nodded. “Maybe someday you’ll trust me.”

  Kat reached out to pet Star’s muzzle. He shifted away from her and raised his head out of reach.

  “I guess he’s a one-girl horse,” Kat said.

  Rose couldn’t help being pleased. There was something special just between Star and her and no one else! But then she bit her lip as a new realization took away all the happiness of the afternoon.

  “Kat, nothing has changed after all,” Rose said slowly. “I don’t think Star could handle the riding school. Strangers. New riders yanking at him or making mistakes would set him right back to where he was. Uncle Ned will see that in a minute. Kat, there’s still no place for him at Clayton Stables.”

  “Oh, Rose.”

  “I’ve done him no good at all.”

  “Yes you have! Didn’t your Uncle Ned say he’d have a better chance if you socialized him? Well, he’s socialized, isn’t he? Sort of.”

  “Sort of,” Rose said. She thought of how he’d nuzzled her and their sweet communion.

  “And now he has a much better chance to get a nice buyer at the horse fair. That’s helping him, Rose.”

  “That’s betraying him. We don’t know who’s nice. Kat, I can’t do that to him. I can’t let Uncle Ned sell him!”

  twelve

  The front parlor was freshly painted a pale yellow. The dark velvet drapes had come down, replaced by white linen. Their home looked light and cheerful now, but that was misleading. Rose and Momma were hardly speaking to each other. Poppa was still gone, and the house felt chilly and too big for the two of them. Of course, there was Edna, the new cook, and Momma had hired a cleaning girl. Goodness only knows what Momma’s telling them, Rose thought. Rose escaped to the stables every chance she had. She wished she could have her meals there, too. Eating with Star would be a lot more comfortable than sitting silently across the table from Momma and seeing the disappointment in her eyes.

  Whenever Rose arrived at the paddock, Star would trot directly to her at the fence, happy to see her, whinnying his greeting. No matter how bad everything else was, riding Star was a joy for both of them. A joy, Rose knew, that was coming to a painful end. April eleventh, April thirteenth, April sixteenth…The horse fair in North Menasha was less than two weeks away. And then an idea came to her. Not perfect, but it might protect Star…

  Rose found the parts for an X-jump under some horse blankets in a corner of the tack room. Amanda and Kat helped her carry the upright end poles and the horizontal poles to the pasture. Even Lizabeth helped to set them up when Rose showed her how.

  “See, the poles rest on the cups,” Rose explained. “That way, if the horse hits the poles, they’ll just fall down.”

  “It still doesn’t look safe to me,” Lizabeth said.

  Rose had to see how Star would handle the X-jump. They cantered toward it. She adjusted his stride, put him in the correct spot to take off—and Star traced a perfect, smooth arch over the top! Star made her look better than she was, Rose thought. Whatever she lacked in experience, Star made up in willingness and intuition. Or maybe he’d even been used in steeplechase races. She’d never know. He was magnificent! She had to make sure that everyone would see that.

  She slowed down in a big circle and they came to a stop in front of the girls.

  Kat was impressed. “You have to show your uncle. That has to change his mind about Star.”

  Rose dismounted. “One jump won’t make a difference to him. I don’t want him or Aunt Norma to know what I’m doing. Not yet. I’m afraid they’d make me stop. They might say it’s dangerous—and I can’t stop, I have to practice!”

  “Practice?” Amanda asked.

  Rose stroked Star’s soft muzzle. “If I can’t keep him, I want whoever buys him to know how wonderful he is. So that if he’s difficult or skittish, they’ll be patient with him. And treat him well.” Her voice began to crack. “They have to see Star at his best, so they’ll remember what he can do. And I’m going
to show them.”

  “How?” Kat asked.

  “Uncle Ned said the horsemanship events come before the auction,” Rose said. “I’m going to be in the jumping event with Star so I can show him off to everyone at North Menasha.”

  Amanda, Lizabeth, and Kat didn’t respond. Rose was disappointed. It was a good idea, she thought. Anyway, it was the only one she had.

  “I’ll have to wear this”—Rose indicated her divided skirt—“in public and it’s going to be so embarrassing, but there’s no other way. And maybe there’s a tiny chance if we win—suppose the blue ribbon—maybe Uncle Ned will agree that Star is much too special to sell.” That bit of hope allowed Rose to smile a little. “Well, what do you think?”

  Lizabeth shook her head.

  The divided skirt was bothering Lizabeth, Rose thought, and it was bothering her, too, but embarrassment was nothing compared to her love for Star. Awful as it would be, she’d wear it in public for him. But why was Kat shaking her head, too? Kat didn’t care anything about what was proper.

  “Kat?” Rose asked.

  “It’s a good idea,” Kat said slowly, “but there’s a big problem.”

  “A problem?”

  “All the events, dressage and jumping, all of them, are for boys and men only. That’s the way it’s always been.”

  “But…but that’s not right!” Rose sputtered. “I can jump as well as a boy. And if I can’t, I should at least have the right to try! Well, shouldn’t I?”

  “I know; it’s not fair,” Kat agreed, “but they’ll never let a girl register.”

  Rose led Star back to his stall and the other girls followed.

  “But it’s the only way I can help Star! And Star is a good jumper. This is his chance to shine! What difference does it make if a boy or a girl is in the saddle?”

  “Maybe they have to protect women from danger,” Amanda said.

  “I can decide if I want to take a risk, can’t I? I don’t want to be protected!” Rose knew she was going on and on, but she was too upset to stop. “I’m sorry, but I’m furious. A completely stupid rule is stealing Star’s best chance and I can’t let that happen! What does being a girl have to do with riding—or anything?”

  An unwelcome thought crept into her mind: What does it have to do with voting? Maybe this fury I’m feeling is what makes Momma behave the way she does, Rose thought. Of course, the horse show is an entirely different situation. Momma isn’t saving anyone. She’s selfishly doing whatever she wants without caring how it affects me!

  That evening, in the midst of the dinnertime silence between Rose and Momma, the front door creaked open.

  “Poppa!” Rose got up from the table and flew into his arms.

  He put one arm around Rose’s shoulders and the other around Momma as he walked them back into the dining room. “How are my girls? I missed you.”

  “And I missed you,” Rose said. “I’m so glad you’re back!” She wanted to tell him how awful Momma had been.

  He sat down at his place at the head of the table. Rose waited until Edna served the crabmeat appetizer and went back to the kitchen. She was about to speak up when she noticed how his shoulders were sagging. It seemed that new lines had been etched in his face. He looked pale and exhausted.

  “It was bad,” he was saying. His voice was hoarse. “All I could do was sit at their bedsides and try to give comfort.”

  “I’m sure you helped, Merrill,” Momma murmured.

  “No, medical science is painfully ineffective against scarlet fever.” His deep sigh was full of discouragement. “Some people recover, others don’t, and all my training makes no difference. There was one beautiful little boy, a three-year-old with black hair and bright, mischievous eyes—until they became hollow and faded with the fever. I had no way to save him, Miranda. I keep hearing his mother’s agonized cries….”

  “You did your best, Poppa.” It shocked Rose to see how haunted his eyes were.

  “My best wasn’t good enough,” he said. He bent his head to say grace. Momma and Rose followed his lead.

  “Thank you, God, for the bounty we are about to receive,” Poppa said. “Thank you for this family, so fortunate to be together tonight and free of illness. Dear God, I pray for more knowledge and advancement in science. Please bless and comfort those who are bereaved tonight. Amen.”

  Rose couldn’t complain about Momma, she decided, not when Poppa was just back from so much tragedy. Rose looked at Momma and their eyes met. Momma extended her hand toward Rose. Almost without meaning to, Rose stretched her arm. Their fingertips touched across the table.

  Rose was grateful they were all healthy and together, but that didn’t make everything all right. She could forgive Momma for being a suffragist and at least there were no jailbird rumors circulating around town. Mrs. Cornell and Mrs. Lancaster hadn’t gossiped. But Momma’s terrible words still smarted. Whenever Rose thought of “huge disappointment,” she wanted to either cry or break something.

  thirteen

  Rose saw signs for the horse fair posted all around the village green. There was one in the barbershop’s window behind the red-and-white pole. She saw another one over the pickle barrel inside the general store/post office when she picked up her family’s mail. She read the sign once again in the bakery shop window. Kat’s words: “They’ll never let a girl register,” echoed in her mind and made even the delicious scent of hot-cross buns seem sickening.

  NORTH MENASHA HORSE FAIR

  Come one, come all!

  Saturday, April 28, 1906—Angel’s Field, North Menasha Dressage, Jumping, Cross-Country Races Noon–3:00 PM Sale and Auction 3:30 PM Registration for riders Monday April 23–Friday, April 27 10:00 AM–6:00 PM, North Menasha Town Hall

  There was more information, about refreshments and pony rides, but Rose’s eyes were fixed on the registration dates. It was already Wednesday, April twenty-fifth! Registration was going on right now—and without her!

  “I’m watching the week of registration slip away,” Rose told Kat, Amanda, and Lizabeth. They had gathered in the lighthouse tower after the stables on Thursday afternoon. “And I’m helpless.”

  Amanda nodded. “And tomorrow’s the last day!”

  “I can’t stand thinking of other horses on the course, horses not as good as Star, only because their riders are boys! I need this chance to show him off!”

  “I don’t remember seeing that many great riders last year,” Kat said. “And the two of you together…”

  “I do believe that seeing Star perform would make someone appreciate him and be kinder to him. If someone doesn’t know any better, he can seem like a difficult horse. What if he’s whipped again? Or traded for slaughter?” Rose turned away to hide her tears. She went to the window and looked at the ocean pounding against the rocks below.

  Rose couldn’t stop imagining Star’s bewilderment and fear, his ears pulled back and his eyes wide and rimmed with white. There had to be something she could do. There had to be something!

  “Listen, everybody, I have an idea!” Kat said. “It may sound a little crazy—all right, a lot crazy—but I don’t see why it can’t work. At least, listen before you say no.”

  “What? What is it, Kat?” Lizabeth asked.

  “What if Rose dresses like a boy?”

  Rose whirled around. “You mean wear trousers?”

  Kat looked at the startled faces. “Well, if you can pass as a boy just long enough to register and be in the jumping event—”

  “I could never do that!” That would be like wearing bloomers! The thought was too horrifying. “That is crazy!”

  “It’s a terrible idea,” Lizabeth said. “Completely unacceptable. If Rose were discovered, she’d be disgraced.”

  “She’d never live it down,” Amanda added. “No decent girl—”

  “But if she’s not discovered,” Kat interrupted, “there she is, taking Star over the jumps! It’s risky but…”

  “I can’t,” Rose said. “I can’
t risk making a spectacle of myself in front of everyone. I’m new here and—I can’t!”

  “You’re right, I guess it was a terrible idea.” Kat shrugged. “Forget it. It would take an awful lot of courage to go that far against the rules.”

  Rose turned back to the ocean, churning inside as much as the waves below. She loved Star but…No, she couldn’t do it. Kat might be brave enough. And Momma—well, Momma plunges into things without thinking twice. I’m not like them, Rose thought. I worry about what people think of me and I want to blend in.

  “Anyway,” Lizabeth said, “what would she wear?”

  “Between my brother and yours, we could put something together,” Kat said.

  Lizabeth raised her eyebrows. “Todd is ten years old and Christopher is twice her size. It won’t be easy finding something to fit.”

  “Stop! We’re going to forget about it, aren’t we?” Amanda said. “Why are you still talking about it?”

  “You’re right,” Kat said. “There’s no point.”

  The only place I’m brave is on horseback, Rose thought. But how could she let Star, bewildered, be auctioned off, his reins held by an uncaring stranger, while all sorts of people shouted their bids? If there was even a slim chance to make it better for Star—maybe even a slim chance to convince Uncle Ned to keep him! There was something about being here in the lighthouse that made her reach deep inside herself for courage.

  Suddenly Rose turned and blurted out, “I’ll do it!”

  “You will?” Lizabeth said. Amanda looked shocked. Kat applauded.

  “Then we’d better get busy,” Kat said.

  “Tomorrow’s the last day, just until six,” Rose said. “I don’t even know the way to North Menasha.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Kat said. “There’s a four-thirty train out of Cranberry. It’s a short ride, we’ll make it there in plenty of time.”

  Then everyone was talking at once.