The Lobotomist's Wife(11)
Ruth had never before experienced the sort of physical yearning she felt for Robert. Robert wasn’t the first man she had invited into her bed, but he was the only one whom she consistently wanted to return. In the bedroom, as elsewhere, they had an innate and all-encompassing connection. Each time they made love, she felt that everything simply fit, the curves of her body and his, the delicacy of his lips with her mouth. Even her hand rested in his grip so effortlessly that she felt they had been holding hands for decades. Though they knew enough to be covert about their living arrangements, when they were together at home, they were as one. They had no secrets, which was why Ruth was startled as Robert rolled away from her and reclined on his side, looking at her with an odd distance and awkward nervousness.
“Robert, why are you looking at me that way?” Ruth swatted his face like a kitten batting a ball of yarn. “Are you all right?”
“All right. All right?” He smiled and stroked her hand lovingly. “Such an interesting concept, this idea of ‘all right.’ I think, to that question, I will have to answer in the negative.”
“The negative?” Ruth felt the room start to swim, and she bit her lower lip to steady her emotions.
“I am not all right. I am gobsmacked. Giddy, like a schoolboy, although I was never very giddy as an actual child.” He chuckled. “Ruth Emeraldine, from the moment I walked into your office to be chastised by the most beautiful, brilliant, and astonishing woman ever to cross my path, I have harbored a tiny hope that you were my one. My wonderful Ruth, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Robert leapt from the bed, ran around to her side, and knelt there, theatrically bowing toward her hand. From the outside looking in, Ruth recognized that the moment was pure farce, utterly absurd in nearly every way—the timing, the dramatic gesture, the fact of her age. Yet, her cheeks were wet with tears. She took a deep breath, battling her disbelief and attempting to collect herself, but found she could not. The feelings overpowered her. Suddenly, she was laughing, crying, and bursting with a joy that she had long ago assumed she would never feel.
“Ruth? Are you upset? I know I don’t have a ring. I hadn’t been planning to do this today, but I just couldn’t help myself—”
“Oh, Robert.” Ruth patted her face dry. “I don’t care about a ring. I care about you. I love you. Yes. Yes. I’ll be your wife.”
He jumped up, grabbing her in his arms, and even though she was an inch taller, lifted her from the floor to spin her around the bedroom. “You’ve made me the happiest man in the world!”
“And I’m the happiest woman.” She kissed him and felt a charge of electricity course through her body. And then a sobering thought struck. “There’s just one thing.” She dropped her feet to the ground and looked him in the eye, so he would understand the gravity of what she was about to say. “I think before we make anything utterly official, it’s time for you to meet my parents.”
Chapter Four
Ruth’s father, Bernard Emeraldine, was well-known in the world of industry for his fierce negotiating skills and standoffish demeanor. He had few hobbies, other than reading medical journals, and therefore had a reputation in society as someone you didn’t want to sit next to at a dinner party. For the rare person who did find common ground with him, Bernard was engaging and loyal to a fault, but he had few true friends. He would say he preferred it that way.
Ruth believed she took after her father, uninterested in the formalities of society life, fascinated by learning and sharpening her intellect. Yet, even though Ruth’s role at the hospital gave her more common ground with Bernard than she had in her childhood, she never stopped feeling judged by him for not being a boy, just as she felt judged by her mother for not acting like more of a lady. Being with her parents set Ruth on edge, so the idea of introducing them to the man she planned to marry was almost too much for her to bear.
Her parents knew they would meet Robert tonight. Ruth hadn’t told them about the engagement but did indicate that he was a suitor. Helen insisted on a formal dinner, which meant Ruth needed to dress properly. Tonight, she wanted things to go as smoothly as possible, so she chose her grandmother’s pearls and the peacock brooch that Helen had given her for her twenty-first birthday. Still, she worried. How could she expect her parents to welcome this unknown man into their family as her husband, when they hardly accepted her as their daughter?
A nearly crippling anxiety overtook Ruth as she and Robert strolled through Gramercy Park. If only she could turn back and hide with Robert in the bed of her townhouse. No, she couldn’t do that. Instead, she walked as slowly as she could manage, pretending to admire the wreaths and trees in the windows of the ornate mansions in celebration of the upcoming holiday season.
“Darling, you look pale as a ghost. Are you nervous? Don’t be. I can charm even the most skeptical benefactors. And I can’t imagine your father could be anything but easy compared to my own. The simple fact that he attends the balls that your mother hosts makes him exponentially more affable than mine ever was.”
“I know you’ll be delightful. It is just that my father has never approved of any decision I have made in my life.” Also, Ruth thought to herself, as chairman of the hospital’s board and its primary benefactor, he could control more of Robert’s fate than just his personal life. Ruth had, of course, told her father all about the interesting new doctor—a psychologist and a neurologist!—when they had first hired Robert, but she had been extremely careful to hide the details of their evolving personal relationship. Still, if she was to marry Robert, she owed it to both of her parents to give them a chance to get to know him.