The day Jesse came to claim her, Hans received him with a blank careful expression on his face. Greta’s apprehension grew as Jesse entered and August and Ernest loaded Rose’s possessions into the car. Pearl was with him and was civil greeting everyone in the family.
Rose turned to her mother. “Goodbye Mama. It was wonderful being with you and getting to know Margretha and Maria.” She turned to Hans and experienced a panic which she tried hard not to show. Hans shook hands with both Jesse and Pearl. He sized Pearl up diffidently, trying not to be too cordial but polite, too stiff for either of them not to see his discomfort. Rose looked into her father’s face searching for the symbolism of the conclusion she hoped for but found nothing.
Rose touched his arm briefly, but her composure slipped as she walked past Jesse and Pearl and got into the car. Tears welled in her eyes but a new attitude dwelt there now. A seed of defiance began to grow at her father’s insolence, a frantic surge of revenge seized her with a hard grip. As she drove away she did not look back, Greta and the women looked after her. They understood, she had come in peace and conducted herself respectably, and her conciliatory gesture was rejected. She would not forget the insult Hans handed her and she would see that he paid.
In those brief days, before the implement business was spawned, in the gathering and directing of a new home and a new life, Rose was able to view her experience with Larry Lockhorn as Han’s way of having the last word in essence showing her “shame on you, here’s what could have been.” It was vicious and Rose had been gullible in allowing that to happen. She had not been well for a long time and Hans had exploited her physical disability twisting it to his own purpose. She would never allow anything like it to happen again.