ANOTHER PROMISE KEPT
Chapter Eight
"Okay, so Molly…you sit
there. Like that, exactly. Rose, hold Josephine’s head a bit higher so I can
see her. J.J. and Larry…there! Helen…what are you doing?" Jack asked,
annoyed.
"Can’t I just sit?"
Helen replied, equally annoyed.
"Not for another month. Only
married women can be seated."
"That’s unfair."
"Tell your mother. She’s the
one who wanted an old-fashioned picture. Now, stand there, right by Fabri.
Okay?" Jack paused, looking at us, a satisfied look on his face.
"Now, for heaven’s sake, try to stay still. This shouldn’t take
long."
We all obeyed.
It was the day before Christmas,
and Jack was going to paint a picture of the family. He wasn’t too excited
about it, because he was used to another kind of picture, but he was so thankful
that Molly had taken care of me for all this time that he had agreed to do it.
Jack and I had been married for a
couple of weeks now. As soon as the doctor let us go back home, Jack took me to
the church and we got married. It was a beautiful, private, and short ceremony;
in other words, nothing like the wedding I was supposed to have to Cal.
Helen had gotten engaged, too–to
Fabri! Larry and J.J. weren’t too happy about it at the beginning, but Jack had
convinced them that Fabri was a good man. It had been him who had helped Jack
back on the Titanic. Fabrizio and Tommy had seen when Lovejoy was taking my
love under arrest, and they had freed him after Cal’s valet left. It’s needless
to say how happy I was when I heard this.
The painting was soon done. Jack
looked at it one last time before giving it to Molly.
"For the record--I don’t
usually do these kinds of portraits. I’m more used to…other kind of
models," Jack said, grinning at me.
"Yes, Rose has told me about
your work," the woman said with a disapproving look on her face, though we
all knew she was faking it. "This is very good, actually. Oh, and I love
that you painted yourself in the picture."
"What can I say? I have a
gift." Again, he looked at me.
"You surely do," Molly
replied, not getting the whole meaning of that statement.
That Christmas was the best
Christmas ever!
Larry had been right when he told
me that the Browns could hide a present better than anyone. When we woke up
that morning, Molly immediately sent us to look for presents. We spent the
whole morning searching. Jack turned out to be a great seeker and found almost
all the presents. Helen, on the other hand, couldn’t find one, but now that I
think about it, it might have been because she was too busy kissing Fabrizio
when she thought that no one was watching.
After that, we had lunch. Molly
had sent the cook and all the people who worked for her home for the holidays,
so Helen and I had to cook for the whole family. It wasn’t as bad as we had
thought it would be. While I was in the kitchen, I discovered that cooking was
something that I enjoyed doing and something I was good at. The whole family
was pleasantly surprised.
Living at the Browns’ house was
amazing, but when the new year arrived, Jack and I felt that it was time to
move on. There were a lot of things that we both wanted to do and a lot of
places that we wanted to visit, like riding Santa Monica’s famous roller
coaster.
So, after Helen and Fabri’s
wedding–which took place shortly after the holidays–Jack, Josephine, and I left.
We visited so many places…from Chippewa Falls to Florida, from New York to
Santa Monica. The only place I refused to go was Philadelphia. I wasn’t ready
to face my mother again; not yet.
I enjoyed each and every trip
almost as much as Josephine. Every time we went to a train station, she was
very happy, so, obviously, she had taken after her father. The train ride
wasn’t my favorite part of all, maybe because I had grown used to traveling in
first class, though I found that traveling in third class was a lot more fun,
especially with Jack.
We never spent more than a month
or so in each place, but when we got to Santa Monica–two years after we left
Denver–we decided to settle down for a while.
Jack got a job drawing
advertisements for plays and I stayed at home, looking after Josephine. I was
very happy, but something inside me told me that I could do more than that. One
day, when Jack came back from work, he told me that the theater where he worked
was looking for an actress, I immediately knew that that was my chance. I told
him that I wanted to give acting a chance and he, after staring at me for a
second, replied.
"I knew you’d say that, so I
talked to the director of the play and he has agreed to see you tomorrow."
I got the part. It wasn’t much,
but that small part led to another and another and another…soon I was the star
in a big play, which was on for a couple of months, but it had to be cancelled
when I got too big. By then I was pregnant with my second child.
William was born in July of 1916.
Jack was very excited to finally have a boy in the house, and Josephine was
happy to have a little brother to look after. I wasn’t off the stage for
long--since Jack usually worked at home, he took his materials to the theater
and he looked after Will while I rehearsed. Not one night went by when I didn’t
have my family watching me perform.
Things were going perfectly!