THE CHIPPEWA FALLS DAWSONS
Chapter Two
Jack waited for Rose to come find him. He
thought hard about what Cal had offered. He wasn’t sure how to tell Rose. He
wanted to never see Cal again. Would Cal really leave them alone? Could he be
happy if he took money from Cal? Would Rose even want to give up the diamond?
He was just happy that they had survived. If Rose had listened to him, he might
have died in the water. It took so long for the boats to come back.
Rose approached Jack with a smile on her
face. Her mother really did love her. And she still had a lifetime to spend
with Jack. She walked up behind him and put her arms around him. "I love
you, Jack."
"Oh, Rose. I don’t know how to tell you
this, but here goes…Cal came to see me while you were talking to your mother,
and he wants the diamond. He put it in his coat pocket."
"What?" Rose asked. She looked down
and realized that she was wearing Cal’s coat. She had forgotten. She reached
into the pocket and pulled the diamond out. "Jack, do you think we should
give it to him?"
"Rose, he offered to give us money for
it. But I don’t want anything if you don’t. As long as I have you, I’m the
richest man in the world."
Rose smiled at Jack. She knew that she had
finally found a man who would love her no matter what. "Jack, let’s give
him the diamond. We won’t need to ask for money. Mother is going to sell the
house. She can pay off Father’s debts. She said there should still be enough
money left to buy a modest house. Maybe she’ll buy the farm for us. She could
live there with us, if you don’t mind. She really has changed, Jack."
"Whoa, Rose, that’s a lot. Let me go
give the diamond to Cal. Then we can figure out what we want to do." He
smiled at Rose. She reached up and brushed his hair out of his eyes.
"Here, give him his coat back. I don’t
need it anymore." With that, they turned around and headed back towards
the other people on the boat.
Jack quickly found Cal and gave him back the
coat. "We don’t need your money, Mr. Hockley. Thank you for the offer.
Since I have given you the diamond, I expect you to leave us alone."
"I will, as long as Rose stays out of
Philadelphia. Tell her that."
"Ruth will need to go there to sell the
house, and settle her affairs. I trust you to leave her alone." Jack was
feeling weak in the knees. After all, this was the man who had tried to shoot
him and Rose just yesterday.
"Fine. I’ll stay away." With that,
Jack left. "I’ll have some revenge someday, Mr. Dawson." But Jack was
too far away to hear that.
Jack found Rose and Ruth sitting on a bench
in third class. He walked up to them and smiled at Rose. Ruth looked up, and
saw him.
"My daughter tells me that you asked her
to marry you, Mr. Dawson."
"Jack. My name is Jack. Yes, I have. She
agreed."
"Jack," Ruth said, hesitantly.
"Please forgive me for my behavior on the Titanic. I needed to
realize a lot of things. I am willing to accept that I treated you badly and
honestly ask for your forgiveness."
Jack thought for a moment before answering
her. "Ruth, you didn’t have to ask. I forgive you."