Snow White and Rose Red
Once upon a time, in a beautiful Rose garden...
Rose sat back on her heels and looked over the acre and a half that was hers alone. It was a garden full of her namesake. The roses were in bloom and the fragrance that filled the air was sweet and heady. Many of these roses were her own hybrid variations that she had slaved over for the last several years. Her newest, Moonlight Kiss was a purple so deep it was almost black at the base and lightened slightly at the tip of each petal. Its color was a happy accident; she had been trying for the fragrance first. She buried her nose in its open petals: absolute perfection.
Camera in hand she backed up and began setting up the shot. It was the perfect time of day for photographing this section of roses. Hopefully this new rose could be in next year's catalog. She continued to shoot down the row until the sun had risen too high. Hot, sweaty and feeling a bit wilted she headed back up the field to the house that overlooked the garden. She took her basket with freshly cut flowers with her and detoured through her mother's cutting garden for a few others.
She had always loved the house. It was a big old fashioned farmhouse with high ceilings and a wrap around porch about ten feet deep. Flower beds with every variety imaginable surrounded the house. They had a mowed yard but not nearly as much as most houses in the area. Flowers of every variety surrounded the house growing over trellises, arbors and spilling out of containers of every variety. Their farm, Dahlquist Flowers, lived up to its name. For three seasons of the year they had pretty much non-stop blooms.
The interior of the house was much cooler than the exterior. It wasn't hot enough yet for the air conditioning to be turned on. "Ha ha," Rose thought, her mother had left fresh lemonade in the fridge and she poured herself a tall glass.
"Hey Rose, did you get those shots in?" asked Snow, plopping herself down at the table. She was still dressed in her work clothes, she worked part time at an accounting firm in town, when she wasn't keeping the farm in the black.
"Yup," she replied after a long drink, grinning at her twin. "I'll play with them later today and pick the best shots." Her slim, dirty fingers recut the stems of her flowers under the running tap. She popped them into the waiting vase.
"Good," said Snow, leaning to reach the counter, helping herself to a sip of her sister's lemonade. "Jerry Miller is coming on Friday to discuss the layouts for the catalog. We still have to pick out the cover picture," said Snow.
"Just remember that we won't have very many for the first two years or so", said Rose. "Hopefully my cuttings will over-winter better this year than last. I still can't believe that we lost so many."
"Yeah," replied Snow. She truly looked like her nickname today. Her raven black hair was cut into a bob at her chin and her creamy skin looked like it had never seen the sun.
Rose just sighed to herself. She wished for not the first time that she looked anything like her gorgeous sister. She was a full five inches taller, with brown hair and eyes, and freckles that multiplied with every bit of sun they encountered.
"We need to ask our new neighbor if the skanky real estate developer has hit him up yet."
Rose snorted, "Although he is acting like quite a recluse. I would be surprised it the slimy land baron has had any better luck finding him than the rest of us."
"True enough," said Snow. "I know that you and mom promised Gwen that you would 'look after him', but this is getting ridiculous. The man has gone out of his way to let us know that he doesn't want to be bothered. He even has his groceries delivered for Christ's sake."
That had been true enough. Rose often wondered about their new neighbor. Gwen had told them quite a bit before her unexpected death of a heart attack six months ago. His name was Daniel Stevens and he had been a Marine that had been badly hurt in combat. Gwen had invited him to stay with her when he was released from the hospital. He was a favorite great nephew, and one of the few of her many relatives that had kept in constant touch over the years.
Rose grimaced at the thought of the rest of Gwen's relatives. She had had five children, and about a million grandchildren, all living within several hours. And yet the only time Gwen had seen or heard from them was when they needed something, generally money.
A grin crossed her face. Gwen had surprised them all when her will was read and Daniel had inherited it all. Gwen had left her relatives a litany of reasons that Daniel had inherited and they had not. They had been furious, threatening to contest the will. Gwen had foreseen this however and her lawyer had carefully made sure that there was absolutely no way they could contest.
And so Daniel Stevens had inherited eighty acres, a beautiful house, car and an undisclosed amount of money. The only other person to inherit anything had been her mother, Lily Dahlquist. She and Gwen had been friends since she had moved in with Snow and Rose twenty years ago. Gwen had been surrogate mother and grandmother to the struggling family and remained close throughout the years. Gwen had left Lily an odd section of 10 acres that was on the boarder of their two properties. It was an incredible grove of peeling birch trees and meadows full of wild flowers. As a child, Rose had been convinced that fairies lived there. She had spent an inordinate amount of time in that area just looking for them, or just dreaming in general.
Daniel had moved in about three months ago. Only the lawyer had actually met with him. No one else had so much as seen him. She had gone over to the house twice. Both times she had phoned first to let him know she was coming over, she didn't want to be rude. The first timed had been to prune Gwen's roses in early spring, the second to check on them and make sure they were being watered.
Rose set the roses on the table and sat down after refilling her lemonade glass.
"Anyway," Snow continued, "Jerry, the catalog guy is going to be here Friday and I need those pictures."
"I'll have them tonight," said Rose, a little irritated that Snow felt it necessary to repeat herself.
"Oh, he was asking about you, too," she smiled.
"Who, Jerry?" Rose sighed, "I am not interested in going out with Jerry Miller."
"Why not!?" said an exasperated Snow. "He's nice looking, has a good job, nice personality; what's not to be interested in?"
"Because he is more interested in you that's why. The man can't keep his eyes off of you. No thank you."
"He is not. You're just too damn picky, if you ask me," said Snow. "You are the only twenty three year old virgin that I know."
"And you know what," replied Rose, "there is nothing wrong with that! So back off!"
Rose stomped back out of the door, ignoring her sister's protests behind her. She was so sick of her sister trying to foist off men on her. One thing she hadn't mentioned was the fact that she didn't want to date Jerry because Snow had already slept with him, shortly after meeting him. She truly loved her sister, but she was very tired of her going through men like they were flavors of ice cream. She only wanted one, THE one, and she was perfectly willing to wait for him.
She climbed into her pick-up truck and slammed the door behind her. She drove with no particular destination in mind, but wasn't surprised that she ended up at Gwen Stevenson's house. She had adored Gwen and treated her like a long lost grandmother from the time she was old enough to walk. Gwen's house was similar to theirs, if just a bit smaller.
There was an unfamiliar car in the drive and the newer Jeep that Gwen had driven was gone. Maybe he had a visitor, family maybe? Oh, well. She walked up the stairs of the wrap around porch and knocked on the door. No answer. From inside she heard a thump and a crash.
"Daniel?" she shouted, "Are you ok?"
There was no answer and worried she grabbed the spare key from its hidey hole and opened the door.
"Daniel?" Nothing in the house had changed much; the foyer was the same as it always was. It was a bit disconcerting; she expected to hear Gwen say her name any minute. Immediately to her right, through an arched doorway was her office/study/library. It looked like a tornado had hit it. There were papers everywhere, the drawers had been ripped from the desk and several shelves of Gwen's considerable library were scattered around the room.
"Holy Shit," she whispered. She pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and flipped it open, intending to call the police. She never got that far though. Hearing a noise behind her she half turned and was tackled to the floor, knocking the wind out of her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw an arm raised to strike her; and everything went black.
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Daniel turned into the drive, glad to be home after a long day. Home had a great sound to it. For so long his only home was where the military had shipped him. It was nice to have his own place. He smiled at the memory of Gwen, going on and on in her letters about what plants she was planting and how well they were blooming. Occasionally a dried, pressed flower would be sent tucked in between the pages of her letters, scenting the pages with the faint scent of roses.
Pulling into the drive he noticed the beat up pickup truck parked in the drive. He recognized it; it belonged to that neighbor girl. He also noticed that the front door was wide open.
His lips compressed into a thin line. Being neighborly was one thing; going into his house when he wasn't there was another. Bristling with irritation he pulled his six foot four frame out of his almost new truck, and pulled his cane out after him. He had lost his left leg above the knee over a year ago and his prosthetic had taken some getting used to. Sitting in the truck for the hour drive home had stiffened him up. He was sore everywhere, his physical therapist had really worked him today.
Limping in through the open door his eyes took a minute to adjust from the bright sunshine outdoors to the quiet dusk of the house. Stepping forward he surveyed what he could see of the house. Nothing looked out of order in the foyer and he couldn't hear anything but the quiet of the house.
Another few steps in and he caught sight of a body sprawled across the floor, surrounded by the remains of a shattered crystal vase. His eyes scanned the room as he felt for a pulse. There was no one else in the room, the windows were unbroken. Maybe they had left through the front door after they had bashed his neighbor?
Her pulse was strong and her breathing steady. Brushing the broken glass off of her he lifted her carefully and crossed the three steps to the couch. She was lighter than he thought she would be and she was definitely the girl that had come over several times to look after Gwen's roses. If the few glimpses he had had of her had not been enough, Gwen had pictures of the Dahlquist family pretty much everywhere, from grade school to high school and beyond.
She was pretty, with curly brown hair held back in a simple pony, straight nose, curvy lips and freckles. It didn't look like she was wearing any make up and her lashes were long, curving gently on her cheeks. She smelled good, like sunshine, grass, and woman. He groaned quietly to himself. He had the sudden urge to lick along that sweet jawbone to her ear and nibble on the lobe. He mentally slapped himself upside the head. It had been far too long since he had had sex. That had been with his now ex-wife and seemed like a lifetime ago.
Rose, if that was the right name, had that 'girl next door' prettiness, absolutely nothing like his ex-wife, who could easily take over an hour 'getting herself together'. This girl looked about as naturally pretty as it was possible to be. He could also see the goose egg on the side of her head, just above the ear. He concentrated on adjusting her comfortably on the sofa. He grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer as he pulled out his cell phone and called the police.
It was pretty obvious that she had interrupted someone tossing the office and gotten bashed for her trouble. Hopefully she could identify whoever it was.
While he was talking on the phone he didn't notice her eyes open and close several times.
