Rose for Rose: Book Two in the Angels' Mirror Series

Rose for Rose

Book Two in
The Angels’ Mirror
Series

by

Harmony L. Courtney

Rose for Rose:
Book Two in
The Angels’ Mirror
Series

3rd Edition Kindle- Published 2014

Copyright © Harmony L. Courtney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.
The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Scripture taken from
The Message
. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Acknowledgements:

I’d like to thank those who have been my patient and encouraging early readers, and my family, without whose support this would not have been accomplished as easily.

With this particular book, I especially want to thank my parents, Barbara and Gerald, and those whose stories have inspired me to certain parts of this text.

Thank you to my editors, Cheryl Good and Gerald Darnall. With your help, I pray this book will shine for Jesus.

Its difficult sharing tender things about our pasts that can be misconstrued or that might shed a light we wish not cast upon us, and therefore I say thank you, and keep your confidences. S.M.B., especially… thank you.

This book is dedicated to

Nan Barber and Lisa Marie Farfalla…

with Love.

Two friends who’ve been there through thick and thin. Thank you with all of my heart. Godspeed and forever blessings, oh, sisters of my heart.

Disclosure:

As with any novel that brings in characters who were real people once upon a time, it is not this author’s intent to malign any person, historical or current. I have sought to create as true-to-life characterization as possible for those you find in these pages, but at some point, real people must, of course, become fictionalized to tell the story.

I have done much research to assess the characters real and fictional alike, and have done my best to create scenes that are realistic regarding each setting, aside from Noah’s Café.

The birds at Noah’s Café are solely for the purpose of the storyline. They would be a health code violation in actual time, and for good reason. Please do not attempt this arrangement.

Any omissions or commissions that are incorrect are solely due to an error in my own research, and are not to reflect on the people or settings portrayed in the text.

Other than a handful of specific buildings, places portrayed within the text are real. Any errors in other languages within this text are the interpretational error of this author.

Please note that
Rose for Rose
has some darker images, which are necessary to set the stage for the rest of the series.

With that, I leave you to enjoy
Rose for Rose
Thank you for your support of this book. Stay tuned for the rest of
The Angels’ Mirror
series for the remainder of their story.

Prologue de Trois

Vancouver, Washington… July 24, 2013

Heart pounding, Edward looked at the petite but sturdy midwife, panic threatening to overtake him. Though she was speaking to his wife, he was at her side, and determined to help in whatever way possible.

              Given his recent heart surgery, holding her hand was about it.

“We’ll need to go to the hospital soon, since you’re dilating so fast,” she said quietly. “You’re already in active labor, and it’s only been three hours. I’m going to have to call an ambulance in at this point if we’re going to make it to the hospital before this little one arrives.”

Edward watched as his wife struggled to gain emotional traction, Emmaline’s words still ringing in his own ears. He appreciated her take-charge attitude, and in the ten minutes since she’d arrived, she’d already gotten much under control.

They hadn’t expected Cherish to come early; in fact, since the twins had been late by a week, Edward figured she might be, too.

A sigh escaped his lips, and he held Paloma’s hand as they waited for Emmaline to contact the hospital.

Paloma’s eyes met his as they waited. He could see love there, but more than that, he saw a blinding fear of the unknown. Maybe it seemed scarier this time, because of how events unfolded before… maybe not. But there was something rather…unsettled about the look in her eyes now.

“Maintenant, Paloma, je sais que vous avez peur, mais nous devons faire confiance en Dieu Tout-puissant de nous surveiller tous et amener chérir dans le monde entier, en toute sécurité. Vous êtes en train de faire super,” Edward murmured, lapsing into French as he tried to comfort her. Her slick hand melded with his, and his heart raced.

She had to know he was just as nervous as she; he just wished he could do more to help.

Lord God, be with us all
, he silently prayed, thinking about the change that was about to take place; the change that already had.
For surely we can do nothing without You, and we know this child is already Yours. Keep her safe and guide her to us, Father.

With effort, he wiped some of the moisture from her brow with his handkerchief and put it back in the pocket of his chinos, then resumed holding her hand. She smiled at him, though when the next contraction hit, the smile faltered a few moments.

With Duncan and Chosen, labor had taken it’s time, and then they’d had to induce in order to help things along, which ended up causing even more complications. And because of those complications they’d threatened a Cesarean, but at the last minute, little Duncan had crowned and things had finally smoothed out. Chosen was on the small side for full term twins, and jaundiced, but after a few days, both boys were sent home with their thankful parents.

Because Edward himself was recovering from heart surgery, he couldn’t do much more than just be here; he barely had the energy to hold her hand without shaking after a few minutes, and it made him feel like a
nithing
.

But he was thankful to be regaining some strength, even if it wasn’t as quickly as he had hoped. He thought back to the births he’d heard about when he was a child and young adult, and those he’d witnessed, and he prayed.

This wasn’t, of course, the 1670s, 80s and early 90s he remembered. This was the twenty-first century, and much had changed. Even though he had learned much since his mirror-traveling experience, there was always something that shook him, every single week; something that shifted new paradigms.

Thankfully, Mark and Eugenie were taking care of the boys, offering to pick them up when they learned that Paloma had gone into labor.

They’d turned out to be great friends, after all.

At first, Edward had been wary of the judgmental, overly analytical and obsessive psychologist and his girlfriend, who worked part-time as a mental health aide, and part time in one of the little diners over in Wood Village.

It had taken a while for the two to truly believe Edward’s journey had taken place, though it felt more like Mark pushing Eugenie toward unbelief and skepticism, which did not seem to come naturally to her.

Since his transporting – something he was thankful for every day now – Edward had gotten to know and love more people in the Portland area than he had in all of England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, and France combined.

There seemed to be something about the people here that stimulated and encouraged him to not only be himself, but to be a better man of God than he ever could have been in the days before. He didn’t think it was the place as much as the people: sometimes he shivered to think of how his life would be now had God not intervened in such an unconventional way.

If he hadn’t decided to step through that mirror…everything would be so different. He’d have ended up with that… that
girl
his father and cousin had betrothed him to without his knowledge, input or consent, and where would it have left him? Where would it have left history? Where would it have left Paloma?

That sure wasn’t anything he wanted to imagine….

A chill went up his spine even as the thought flit through him anyway. He didn’t realize just how chilled it made him until he opened his eyes and found his wife and Emmaline both looking at him curiously.

As Edward remembered the day he’d gone in for heart surgery, and how brave Paloma had been to push the packet of information through the portal in the hopes that someone who knew him in his former time would find it, he had to smile. And at his smile, his wife smiled back.

Was she, too, thinking on that not-so-long-ago day?

The gracious – but mind-spiraling – gift God had given him… the gift of choosing to walk out of a potential nightmare of a marriage and then, within months, be an active and thankful part of a different story, was more than he could ever have imagined.

And all because of an awe-inspiring antique but, indeed, mysteriously weird mirror?

Who would have fathomed?

He thought back to their wedding; thought of how little Lindsay had stolen the show for most of the first half hour before she was finally relieved of her flower girl duties. He thought of the lengthy guest line ending in Paloma’s former boss, Ethan Peacock, and his wife, Vanessa, who strode up to them with a note card saying that the mirror he’d traveled through was now theirs. That Ethan had bought it from his antique dealer friend, who’d found it in a little shop in the late nineties, in Oceanside, California of all places – apparently renting out some of the more interesting antiques like the mirror – was intriguing. But there had been hints that it had also been involved in some sort of court case. Edward just wished he could get his hands on the documents from the case to see what had happened.

After the church reception, of course, they were blessed with their time at the beach. He distinctly recalled their conversation with Ralf, the unhappy chauffer, their first lovemaking – when he discovered the lovely henna and other artificial tattoos his wife had surprised him with – and their reception picnic and barbecue for those who wanted things less formal than the church reception. And then, after their time at the beach, they were able to spend time enjoying Mt. Hood, too.

“Don’t push yet, Paloma. They’ll be here in eight or ten minutes,” Edward heard Emmaline say through the fog of his thoughts as his wife struggled to keep from screaming.

“I know it’s hard, and I know you want to push, but we need to get you to the hospital. This is too early; too fast.”

Sweat was pouring off of his bride’s face and drenching her buttercup and violet-print dress, and her gingery-red, newly shorn curls were beginning to stick like plaster around the frame of her face. Though only a few days ahead of her due date, when labor hit her this time, it was hard and, as Emmaline had said, it was faster than expected.

Petunia Grace watched from across the room, her eyes glowing embers underneath the couch. The poor cat must be terrified, though earlier, she had been quite sympathetic. It wasn’t until Paloma’s first terrified, pain-filled scream that she had run off to watch from a distance.

Thankfully, the screams had been few and far between, though her eyes had glazed over some of the time as labor pains came upon her.

A tear slid down her face even now.

As they waited for the ambulance, all Edward could do was pray and hold Paloma’s hand. Emmaline fed her ice chips from the freezer to try to keep her calm, and whispered encouragements into her ear.

As the ambulance arrived, Edward’s phone rang, but he ignored it.

This wasn’t the time to walk away to take a call, and whomever it was would have to wait.

Jason tried calling Edward again, since Paloma wasn’t answering.

Maybe they’re already at the hospital,
he reasoned, shrugging as he turned around to go back in the house to give his wife, Me’chelle, the report of no reply.

“Me’chelle… I think they’re probably either at or on the way to the hospital. There’s no reply on either cell, and when I spoke with her a while ago, she said the midwife was on the way over.”

Steadily watching her as she diapered their daughter on the couch, her own belly large with child, he smiled.

Soon enough, it would be their turn to make the mad dash to the hospital and meet their youngest child.

“So do you want to go, since you’re her brother,” she said as she tossed the dirty nappy aside into the waste can, “or should I, since I’m another woman?”

She picked Charlie up, then handed her over to her father, who already knew how he wanted to reply, but also how he should.

He knew Me’chelle long enough and well enough to know he should let her go and be with Edward and Paloma, and yet part of him rebelled.

He really wanted to be there for his sister!

The better part of valor and wisdom voted for making sure Me’chelle was with her as another woman who would understand what’s going on.

Jason moved a hand from his daughter’s arm for a moment, sweeping it through his short dark hair as he thought it over some more.

Jason peered at Me’chelle, watching her move to sit up on the couch, her proud blonde Afro and mahogany skin glowing in the soft lighting. Her blouse was slightly askew from moving around, but that was easy enough to remedy.

He resignedly sighed as he gently reached to untwist the binding of his wife’s shirt. “Why don’t you go? I have a feeling you’re more in tune with what’s happening than I am.”

A large smile came over her face as she stood once more and deposited a kiss onto his chin, then went for her scarf-tied purse, the cloisonné, leather, and jade bangles at her wrist jangling together with the movement.

“Eager to be there already, are you,” he teased, setting Charlie back down to play so he could give his wife a hug.

It always amazed him how this woman could love him so much, and that she trusted him to no end.

“No, Charlotte, stay close to Daddy,” he gently called as he watched her start to toddle precariously down the hall. He chased the girl, then brought her back, before resuming the conversation.

“I think I’ve been eager to know what she’s going through because we’ve already all been through so much. If she needs a woman to talk to, somehow I don’t think Emmaline will be her first choice…”

She took a pick to her hair to quickly fluff it out in the hallway mirror before grabbing a glass of water and walking to the door.

“Well, you just be careful. Clayton isn’t due for another month, and I don’t want you to get so stressed out you go into labor early, alright? Promise me you’ll stay in the waiting room during delivery if you can, hmmm?”

As they spoke, Charlie played with his tie, and now the clip was on the floor. Sylvester, the five year old Foxhound they’d recently adopted, came to investigate. The dog yipped a few times and kicked at the tie with his front paws, then looked up at Charlotte, bringing a smile to Jason’s face.

Me’chelle kissed him once more and then, holding onto Sylvester’s collar with one hand and onto his daughter with the other, he watched as she exited and drove away.

“Well, Syl, ol’ boy, I guess it’s just us to watch over this rascal,” he said finally, letting the dog go and putting his daughter down. Quickly finding his tie clip, he tossed it on the kitchen counter and decided it was time for something to eat. “Are you hungry, Charlie?”

The girl looked up and smiled, holding her arms up in the air for him to pick her back up. She still didn’t say much, at eleven months, but she was working on it.

“Juice, Papa… juice!”

Paris, France… July 24, 1695

King Louis looked at the packet of papers and images his cousin had left in his care the day before and frowned, irritated and confused.

He had been preparing for a small series of upcoming masques with his wife and some of their staff, and it annoyed him that James and Mary thought so little of him that they didn’t trust him with this before now.

How could this even be possible? Edward… Edward’s really still alive, over in the America’s, with a wife and children of his own? And his wife’s brother is married to a woman of another race?
 
Really?
As exotic and exciting as it all sounded, he secretly wondered if the pair had somehow contrived the whole thing.