Black Rose

like, and an apartment you could afford, would you prefer that to working for and living with Clarise?”
    Her face was very pale when she lifted her head. “Why would you do that?”
    “Partially to spite her, and partially because I don’t like to see family unhappy if the solution is a simple one. And one more partially. I’m hoping you can help me.”
    “What could I possibly do for you?”
    “She has things from my home, from Harper House.” Roz nodded as she saw the fear and knowledge flicker over Jane’s face. “You know it, and I know it. I don’t care—or have decided not to care—about the statuary, the things, we’ll say. But I want the papers. The books, the letters, the journals. To be frank, Jane, I intended to bribe you to get them for me. I’d help you get yourself employed and established, give you a little seed money if you needed it, in exchange. But I’m going to do that for you anyway.”
    “Why?”
    Roz leaned forward. “She would have beat me down, if she could. She’d have manipulated me, run my life, crushed my spirit. If she could. I didn’t let her. I don’t see why I should let her do the same to you.”
    “She didn’t. I did it myself. I can’t talk about it.”
    “Then we won’t. I’m not going to browbeat you.” She could, Roz knew, all too easily. And that’s why she couldn’t. “What I’m going to do is give you my numbers. Here’s my home number, and my cell phone number, and my work number. You put these somewhere she won’t find them. You must know she goes through your things when you’re not there.”
    Jane nodded. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t have anything.”
    “Keep that attitude up, you’ll never have anything. You think about what you want, and if you want me to help you get it. Then you call me.”
    “You’d help me even if I don’t help you?”
    “Yes. And I can help myself if and when I need to. She has what belongs to me, and I need it back. I’ll get it. You want to get away from her, I’ll help you. No strings.”
    Jane opened her mouth, closed it, then got quickly to her feet. “Cousin Rosalind. Could we... could we go somewhere else? She knows I come here, and she might...”
    “Get reports? Yes, she might. All right, let’s go somewhere else. My car’s right out front.”
    SHE DROVE THEM to a little diner, off the beaten path, where no one who knew them, or Clarise, was likely to dine. The place smelled of barbecue and good strong coffee.

    She ordered both, for each of them, to give Jane time to settle her nerves.
    “Did you have a job back home?”
    “I, um, did some office work, at my father’s company? You know he’s got the flooring company.”
    “Do you like office work?”
    “No. I don’t like it, and I don’t think I’m much good at it anyway.”
    “What do you like?”
    “I thought I’d like to work in a bookstore, or a gallery? I like books and I like art. I even know a little about them.”
    “That’s a good start.” To encourage the girl to eat, instead of picking at the sesame seeds on her roll with restless fingers, Roz picked up half the enormous sandwich she’d already cut in two, and bit in. “Do you have any money of your own?”
    “I’ve saved about two thousand.”
    “Another good start.”
    “I got pregnant,” Jane blurted out.
    “Oh, honey.” Roz set the sandwich down, reached for Jane’s hand. “You’re pregnant.”
    “Not anymore.” Tears began to slide down her cheeks. “Last year. It was last year. I... he was married. He said he loved me, and he was going to leave his wife. I’m such an idiot. I’m such a fool.”
    “Stop that.” Voice brisk, Roz passed Jane a paper napkin. “You’re no such thing.”
    “He was a married man, and I knew it. I just got swept away. It was so wonderful to have somebody want me, and it was so exciting to keep it all a secret. I believed everything he said, Cousin Rosalind.”
    “Just Roz. Of course you did. You were in love with him.”
    “But he didn’t love me.” Shaking her head, she began to tear the napkin into shreds. “I found out I was pregnant, and I told him. He was so cool, so, well not really angry, just annoyed. Like it was, I don’t know, an inconvenience. He wanted me to have an abortion. I was so shocked. He’d said we were going to be married one day, and now he wanted me to have an abortion.”
    “That’s very hard, Jane. I’m sorry.”
    “I said I would. I was awful sad about it, but I was going