Free Yellow Rose Bride by Lori Copeland Page A

passed since Teague’s death, and Cammy was getting worse every day. She was withdrawing, wrapping herself in a shroud of grief. She rarely left the room she’d shared with her husband. Her face was lined with anguish, and she wept inconsolably at times. The house was like a tomb.
    â€œVonnie—don’t—the light hurts my eyes,” Cammy protested, turning her face away from the glare.
    â€œMomma, you have to try.”
    Mrs. Lincoln came each morning to coax her downstairs, thinking up reasons for them to take a short drive or go into town, but Cammy resisted all her efforts. She spent her days in a chair beside the bed, usually remaining in her dressing gown, sometimes listlessly allowing Vonnie to help her dress.
    Each morning Vonnie brushed her mother’s hair and wound it atop her head, but Cammy never showed an interest in how she looked these days. Already frail, she had lost more weight. Her clothes hung on her alarmingly sparse frame. She spent her days staring into space as if nothing mattered, and Vonnie knew that to her it didn’t.
    â€œI’ve got a surprise for you today. We’re going to visit Audrey.” Vonnie hoped a visit with Audrey Schuyler would make Cammy realize how fortunate she was to have her health.
    Health was precious, and only when one lost it, or saw it being slowly drained away, did they realize their own good fortune. It had probably been her mother who had told her that.
    â€œWhat dress would you like to wear?”
    â€œI’m not up to visiting today,” Cammy said.
    â€œI think the pink flowered one with the pretty torchon-lace collar,” Vonnie ignored her mother’s protest. “It’ll put the color back in your cheeks.”
    â€œNo, Vonnie. I don’t want to go.”
    â€œFranz says Audrey has been feeling better the last couple of days. Here, let’s slip off your gown….”
    Ignoring her mother’s feeble objections, Vonnie maneuvered her arms into the dress sleeves like a rag doll.
    â€œDear, really, I don’t feel up to going anywhere—”
    â€œThere, don’t you look pretty! Here, let’s put your shawl about your shoulders in case it’s a bit cooler when we return. I’ve had Roel hitch the team to the buggy—”
    â€œI don’t think so, dear, really—”
    Vonnie sighed. She would have liked a good cry herself. She smoothed the shawl across her mother’s shoulders. “Now, we’re almost ready to go. It’s a lovely day out there—the temperature’s nearly perfect. Hard to believe Thanksgiving’s just around the corner.”
    Vonnie bustled around the room, gathering up the things needed for the afternoon outing. Audrey would be the one to set Cammy’s priorities in place. Teague was gone. No amount of crying could bring him back. They both missed him unbearably, but somehow she had to make her mother want to live again.
    She had to virtually pull Cammy out the door and down the stairway. Oblivious to her mother’s weak protestations, Vonnie propelled her outside and into the waiting buggy.
    â€œThank you, Roel,” she said, accepting the reins to the team. “We’ll be home before dark.”
    â€œSí, señorita, hasta luego.”
    Giving the reins a slap against the horses’ rumps, Vonnie set the team on its way.
    â€œMy, my, my,” Franz said, greeting them warmly as they hitched the horses to the railing of the Schuylers’front porch. “What a nice surprise. Audrey will be delighted to see you. Come in. Come in!”
    He ushered them into a small but neat living room where Audrey was resting on a sofa, a yellow crocheted throw over her thin legs.
    â€œOh, how wonderful it is to see you!” Audrey said, holding out both hands to Cammy.
    Vonnie relaxed as her mother reached out for Audrey and the two old friends clasped hands. Cammy seemed to momentarily shed the melancholy