The Eighth Proposal He Buried in the Snow

The day I left the northern highlands, my father made me stand facing the snow-capped mountains and swear a binding vow.

For seven years, I was not to marry Jude Henson.

To keep that vow, I refused him.

Seven years. Seven proposals.

Every single time, I turned him down.

And every time I did, he only smiled and sighed, like a man with no choice left to him.

"It just means I haven't tried hard enough yet. I'll keep asking until you can marry me with an easy heart, Aisha."

So the moment the seven years were up, I had my mother mail my wedding dress to New York, the gown a highland girl prepares from childhood.

I put on the bright red gown and went to find him at the hospital, telling no one.

I had barely reached the door when my whole body went rigid.

"Devoted, lovesick suitor? Please."

"After she turned down the third proposal, I gave the ring to a woman doctor at the same hospital."

"We've had our marriage license for years. These proposals were just for fun."

Jude's voice, that warm, gentle voice, carried a contempt I had never once heard in it.

"They all say highland women are wild and free, but she likes to play coy. I got bored of it a long time ago."

"An eighth proposal? Depends on my mood."

...

"Dr. Henson, what if she says yes the eighth time?"

"What would you even do then?"

"On one side you've got the gentle, refined Dr. Delgado, on the other an exotic beauty from the highlands."

"If it were me, I'd keep them both!"

Laughter rolled out of the doctors' lounge.

I stood there and listened, and the bright red gown on my body felt like a joke.

Every one of them, I had longed for the day I could put on this gown and marry Jude Henson.

This time, just to get the gown to New York,

my mother rode out to find a post station and missed the herds at Summer Ranch.

My father drove the flock alone, and passing through Moon Bay, he was set upon by a pack of wolves.

He fought to protect the sheep, and still the wolves carried off seven of the lambs.

When they called me, the two of them, who treasured every lamb, weren't grieving at all. They were laughing.

"As long as our Aisha is happy, those seven lambs were worth it!"

My father, who had never once agreed to me and Jude Henson, held the video call up clumsily.

For the first time, an apology crossed that weather-darkened face.

"Aisha, don't blame your papa. I just couldn't stop worrying about the people out there."

"Your papa's never left the highlands his whole life. I've seen nothing of the world."

"Your papa only used his slow old head to think up this one way."

He spoke, and his face turned grave and earnest.

"Aisha, remember this. Once a highland girl puts on her wedding dress, she must hold the wedding within seven days."

"Only then will the highland mountains bless you with happiness for the rest of your life."

A highland girl, once she dons the gown, must marry within seven days.

My parents never imagined that when I finally put on the gown, the man who had proposed seven times would already be married.

And I never imagined that the Jude Henson who chased me across half a snow-capped mountain when he served as a doctor in the highlands,

who kept after me even when the thin air left him gasping for breath, would break his word.

A sour ache rose in my throat. I gripped a corner of the gown and turned to leave.

I had only just reached the hospital lobby when a hand suddenly yanked me back.

"Are you Aisha?"

"Are you the highland woman who wrecked my daughter's marriage?!"

"I'll beat you to death, you mistress!"

It came out of nowhere. Before I could even react, a hand cracked hard across my face.

My ears rang. I stepped back, trying to twist away.

But the middle-aged woman seized the gown and pulled with all her strength.

"Rrrip..."

The gown my mother had spent over twenty years preparing for me tore open in a long gash.

I froze where I stood, then shoved the woman to the ground with everything I had.

Looking down at the shredded gown, I shook all over.

I lifted my head to demand an answer, and there was Jude Henson running toward us, a familiar face beside him.

"Mom, what happened?!"

Blanche Delgado's eyes brimmed with tears as she helped the middle-aged woman up off the floor.

The first thing I saw was the ring on her left hand.

It was the ring Jude bought the third time he proposed to me.

Seven years. Seven proposal rings.

But at home I'd only ever found six.

Once, I'd thought Jude had simply lost one by accident.

I'd never imagined it was sitting on Blanche Delgado's finger.

It was as though a hand had reached across the air and closed around my throat. I couldn't breathe.

I looked at Jude and forced the words out, shaking.

"Jude, why is the proposal ring you gave me on her hand?"

My eyes locked onto him. But before he could answer,

Blanche shot to her feet and slapped me across the face.

"Aisha, don't you know my mother has a heart condition and high blood pressure?!"

"One shove from you could have killed her!"

The words came out choked as Blanche fussed over her flush-faced mother.

Both my cheeks had been struck now, and I tasted blood in my mouth.

A ringing wouldn't stop in my ears. My fingers clenched as I stared at Jude.

Tears spilled out before I could stop them.

"Jude, say something!"

"Why is the proposal ring you gave me on Blanche Delgado's hand?!"

"What do you mean, the proposal ring he gave you?!"

"My daughter went with him to pick that ring. It was always meant for her!"

"You filthy little mistress. I'll show you my daughter's marriage license, and we'll see how much fight you've got left!"

Blanche's mother, her face twisted with malice, yanked out a red marriage license and flung it hard into my face.

The sharp corner struck me in the eye.

I shut my eyes against the pain, and when I opened them again I was looking at the first page of the license.

Jude and Blanche in white shirts, smiling.

The marriage date was the day after my third refusal of his proposal.

"You see it now?!"

"Take my advice, mistress, and stop hanging on my son-in-law!"

"Or I'll have you exposed online, so your parents up in the northern highlands can see the fine daughter they raised."

"A perfectly decent life, and you run off to New York to be somebody's mistress!"

The ugly words came one after another.

I kept my head down and let the tears fall, drop by drop.

Until at last Blanche coaxed her mother away.

Jude walked up to me.

He raised a hand to smooth my hair, and that familiar, long-suffering sigh slipped out.

"Aisha, it hurts, doesn't it? Let me take you to get that looked at."

Not one word of explanation. Not one word of apology.

Jude was trying to cover something sickening with a gentle face.

I threw his hand off hard.

And the words tore out of me.

"Jude, why did you lie to me?!"

"You'd already married Blanche Delgado. Why keep proposing to me, over and over?!"

"Did it make you happy, playing with me?!"

"Happy?"

"Aisha, the first time I proposed and you turned me down, I could understand that."

"But turning me down three times? That's not me playing you. That's you playing me!"

For the first time, Jude's mild, easy face filled with anger.

The veins stood out at his temple, and his fingers curled into a fist.

"You came away from the northern highlands with me of your own will. I didn't force you, did I?"

"Back in New York, I ran myself ragged for you, helped you settle in, helped you find decent work. You can't deny any of that, can you?"

"My family's been pushing hard for me to marry. I dropped you hints, plenty of them. You haven't forgotten that, have you?"

"Aisha, I, Jude Henson, have never abased myself like this for any woman!"

"So everything happening right now, you brought it on yourself!"

Each word came out low and furious, ringing through the hospital lobby.

Jude shut his eyes and breathed in deep, over and over, working to cool the anger down.

When he opened them again, most of the fire had drained out.

A faint sneer had taken its place at the corner of his mouth.

"Aisha, I know about the wedding dress your mother sent you."

"Since you've already decided to marry me, I can make an allowance for it."

"On one condition. You wait until Blanche and I are divorced."

"As for when that divorce happens, that depends on how you behave."

He finished, took a call from Blanche, then turned and walked off.

I stayed where I was, one hand carefully cradling the gauzy skirt of the gown, and wiped my eyes dry.

Then I dialed my father.

"Papa, the matchmaking gathering at Summer Ranch in three days. I want to go."

"Jude Henson. I'm not marrying him anymore."

After booking a flight back to the northern highlands, I took off the gown, stitched it carefully back together, and folded it neatly into my suitcase.

Jude pushed the door open and saw me packing.

He froze for a few seconds, then spoke without much interest.

"I know dresses like that are something you people start preparing as girls. But this is New York, not the highlands."

"If you want to marry me, you wear a white wedding gown."

As he said it, he loosened his tie, pulled out his phone, and held it up in front of me.

A full screen of white gowns, every style there was.

"Blanche and I are having our wedding. In three days."

"These are the ones she passed over. You can pick something from them."

"Once she and I divorce, you'll get to wear it."

His words still came wrapped in barbs.

I listened in silence and said nothing.

A few seconds later he set the phone down and spoke coldly.

"Blanche's mother had a real fright today. Go to the hospital and apologize to her."

"That's the first step. Show me you're sincere"

"I won't."

"What did you say?!"

Stunned that I'd refused, Jude's voice climbed several notches.

"Aisha, do you still want to marry me or not?!"

"Now! Right now! Come with me and apologize!"

His face was tight with temper as he gripped my wrist hard.

"Aisha, I'm giving you one last chance. Are you going to apologize or not?!"

"Jude. I'm not going."

"Not now, and not ever."

I looked him straight in the eye and said every word of it.

His grip on my hand clamped down all at once.

"Aisha, you're coming with me whether you want to or not!"

He dragged me the whole way, and he'd just hauled me to the door when Blanche came rushing in.

"Jude, I've been so worried."

"My mother's not doing well..."

She wrapped herself around him, sobbing softly.

I stood off to the side and watched. Then Blanche suddenly lifted her head.

"Aisha, have your parents send over a few more bags of wild medicinal herbs!"

"This time, I won't make Jude give away the slot for fixing your mother's leg."

Her words slid past my ear.

I went rigid, a few seconds of pure disbelief.

"Jude, is what Blanche said true?"

"You gave away my mother's treatment slot on purpose?"

"Do you have any idea? Because she missed that treatment, her leg is crippled for the rest of her life?!"

He kept shouting, and I fought with everything in me to keep my body from shaking.

Jude's voice came light and careless.

"Your mother had it coming anyway."

"Digging up that much wild medicinal herb, wrecking the ecosystem. That's what she gets."

What she gets?

Those words burrowed straight into my heart like the snow-worms back home, the kind that drink your blood and eat you alive.

The pain stopped my breath.

My mother was born in the northern highlands. She loved every blade of grass, every tree there, more than anyone.

If it hadn't been for Jude's mother, who deliberately made things hard for me and demanded I find those herbs for her.

How could my mother ever have dug them up, knowing it was against the law?

If it hadn't been for me, for the so-called happiness Jude and I were supposed to have.

How could my mother have fallen on that slope and broken her leg?

"Aisha, are you even listening to me?!"

"Tell your father and mother to dig up a few more bags of those herbs and send them over!"

"It's not like your parents know the law anyway. A couple of backward criminals!"

Blanche's sneering voice cut into my ear. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face.

The next second, Jude caught my wrist and flung it back hard.

I lost my footing and slammed my head against the sharp corner of the cabinet by the entryway.

Everything went black. I felt something wet trickling from my forehead.

Hand pressed to the wound, I lifted my head slowly.

Jude's eyes froze. Without thinking, he bent to look for the first-aid kit.

A gentle, automatic comfort slipped out of his mouth.

"Aisha, don't be scared"

But he came back to himself fast.

His brows drew tight.

"Aisha, hurting yourself doesn't work on me anymore."

"I'll say it again. You want to marry me? Then wait for my divorce!"

"You're only good enough to be my second wife."

Every word delivered, Jude hauled me up off the floor.

"Move! We're going to the hospital so you can apologize to Blanche's mother!"

I bit down on the pain and let myself be dragged out of the complex.

The strange stares of passersby followed me, and I struggled hard.

Then, out of nowhere, I heard someone mutter a jeer.

"That woman's the mistress!"

"She got slapped at the hospital today. I've even got it on video!"

The word mistress.

It stabbed clean through my heart. I opened my mouth to argue.

And then I heard Blanche talking to the people watching.

"You're not seeing things, she really is the mistress!"

"See the way she looks?"

"She's from the northern highlands. From now on, when you see those highland people, keep your distance!"

"Or one day you'll get cheated on and never see it coming!"

Blanche's words were thick with prejudice, planted to lead people on.

I shook all over with fury and rushed at her, slapping her across the face.

The blow stunned her, and she shoved me hard.

I was at the top of a full flight of stairs. I couldn't keep my balance, and in my panic I grabbed tight at the hem of Jude's shirt.

Jude stopped.

The next second, Blanche burst into tears and fainted to the floor.

Jude's body lurched a step forward.

My only hold was gone, and I went tumbling down the stairs.

Hands clamped over my head, I felt like my body was being pulled apart with the pain.

I don't know how long it lasted before I finally stopped rolling and lay still on the concrete.

When I woke again, I was lying in a hospital bed.

I braced myself up and walked out of the room, and heard a nurse shrieking with excitement.

"Dr. Henson and Dr. Delgado make such a perfect match!"

"Look, this is the livestream of their wedding. I'm so jealous of the coworkers who took the day off to go in person."

The nurse's words came into my ears one by one, and my phone suddenly rang.

"Aisha, are you awake?"

"If you're awake, come to the wedding. I have something to say to you."

Jude's voice carried through the noisy wedding music.

I looked at the plane ticket on my phone, three hours left before it boarded, and spoke calmly.

"Jude, do you know that once a girl from our northern highlands puts on her wedding gown, she has to marry within seven days?"

"I'm not waiting for your divorce anymore."

"What did you say?"

On the other end, I heard Jude go still and confused.

He thought I was joking.

He said it again.

"Aisha, what did you just say about marrying within seven days?"

I didn't answer him. I only said one more thing.

"Jude, I'm going back to the northern highlands to get married. I'll never set foot in New York again as long as I live."

""

At the lively wedding, Jude gripped his phone, his eyes full of disbelief.

The emcee's voice rose and rang beside him, and he didn't take in a word of it.

He called the inpatient ward in a panic.

"Aisha, she's still at the hospital, right?"

The nurse was still watching the wedding livestream, and the sudden call left her stunned.

"Aisha? That highland mistress?"

"She left over ten minutes ago"

The nurse hadn't finished her sentence.

Jude tore down off the stage like a man gone mad.