Four Seasons of Romance by Rachel Remington Read Free Book Online Page A

having these dreams.”
    “I have dreams too,” Leo said. “Dreams of
our future together.”
    She shook her head. “Those aren’t the kinds of dreams I
mean. I’ve been having dreams of your dying in the war.”
    He sat on the soft bed of leaves and pine needles and
beckoned to her. “Come here,” he said, opening his arms, and Catherine falling
into them.
    “Why did you hide from me?” he murmured, as she shook
silently against his chest.
    “It’s not because I don’t love you,” she said, her voice
muffled against his shirt. “I just couldn’t bear to see you again, knowing I
might lose you.”
    “I don’t have to report to basic training for ten days,” he
said. “We still have time to spend together.”
    She shook her head fiercely. “It’s not enough.” She kissed
him, first softly, then passionately, on his neck, his arms, and his lips.
“It’s not enough,” she whispered. “It’s never enough.” Then, she climbed on top
of him as he slipped his arms around her waist.
     
    *
     
    The next morning, Catherine begged her parents to allow Leo
to stay with them. “Please,” she said, “just for a few days.”
    Her father laughed in her face. “What in God’s name makes
you think I’d allow that half-breed inside this house? If I as much as see him
on my property, I’ve got half a mind to shoot him where he stands.”
    “Oh, that’s nice,” Catherine retorted. “It wasn’t enough to
hit him—now you want to blow him to bits?” She slammed her fist down on the
kitchen table. “Is that how you treat the men fighting for this country you
claim to love? He’s about to get shot at every damn day!”
    “Watch your mouth, young lady.”
    “I don’t care what you say.” She turned to Elaine and laid a
hand on her arm. “Mother, please, just for a few days. He could help with the
chores. He’s very handy. I just want to see him as much as I can before…”
    Elaine’s eyes darted to her husband, then back to her
daughter. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “That would be inappropriate. I can’t
consider it.”
    Upset, Catherine barely spoke to her parents for the next
week and took all her meals with Leo or at the drugstore, even spending the
night at Leo’s apartment, in flagrant defiance of her parents’ wishes. In a
final effort to make them change their minds, she threatened to follow Leo
wherever he was stationed.
    “I’ll go to France,” she said. “How would you like that? Your precious daughter in a foreign country, alone?” They
just shook their heads.
    She cried to Leo about her hardhearted parents then
apologized for not eloping with him when she had the chance.
    “It’s all right,” Leo said. For once, he encouraged her not
to make waves with her parents. “Just wait for me,” he said, stroking her hair
in an attempt to soothe her. “Wait for me to come back. Because I promise you,
Catherine, I will come back.”
     
    *
     
    On the day before he was scheduled to leave, Leo roamed the
hills and river valleys of Woodsville until his arms were full of flowers. At
home, he pulled a ball of twine from his pocket and set to work.
    That night, they met at the Bath-Haverhill Bridge, the site
of their first kiss, the starlight shining off Catherine’s long brown hair like
a silver waterfall. For her part, she marveled at how tall and handsome he
looked standing there, his arms behind his back. How much like a soldier ,
she thought with a pang.
    “What do you have there?” she asked.
    Then, Leo presented her with the biggest bouquet of wild
lilies and black-eyed Susans she had ever seen.
“Beautiful,” she said, burying her nose in the fragrant petals, then reached
into the small coin purse she carried. “I have something for you too.”
Carefully, she extracted a silver heart-shaped locket and placed it in Leo’s
palm, him eyeing it with wonder. “It’s my great-grandmother’s ,”
she explained. “She gave it to me before she died. It’s very special to