Beyond the Spring Breeze novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Question for Roz

The bakery closed at five, and Roz always stayed to scrub the ovens.

I came in through the back door at ten past, while she was on her knees with a wire brush and a bucket.

She looked up with flour on her cheek.

"Thea!"

Then she saw my face and sat back on her heels.

"I heard about the pawn shop," she said. "Dean told me. Thea, it's a misunderstanding."

"I know it is."

I laid the yellow ticket on the table beside the dough scraper.

"You tried to pawn my mother's watch on Tuesday."

Her eyes went to the paper and then away.

"I didn't," she said. "That isn't my name."

"It's your handwriting."

"Lots of people write like that."

"Roz."

I said it quietly.

"I was in the garden last night. I saw the kitchen. I saw the photographs. I saw Daddy say grace."

The brush slipped out of her hand.

It hit the floor with a clatter and rolled under the table.

She did not pick it up.

For a long moment she knelt on the tiles with her hands in her lap, small and blonde and perfectly still, and I saw something move behind her eyes.

Her whole face changed.

The sweetness didn't go away.

It simply stopped being the thing in front.

"Well," she said. "Now you know."

"Yes."

"You're upset."

"I'm not upset."

"You should be." She got to her feet and wiped her hands on her apron. "Do you know what it's like? Watching you? Everybody in town knows Thea Kittredge. Thea who rows. Thea with the yard. Thea with her mother's silver on the wall. And I'm Roz from the bakery, who comes in the back door."

"I didn't know."

"You never asked."

"You never told me."

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