THE COST OF BEING RICH
Chapter Thirteen
I sat in the lavish stateroom, accompanied by
Ruth and the Master-at-Arms.
In the hall I heard them coming, and painted
a mental picture of what was happening.
Rose and that Dawson boy would be walking
down the hall, surely distracted by some willy-nilly matter, while Lovejoy
slipped the diamond into Dawson’s pocket. It would then be found by the
Master-at-Arms, and all my troubles would be over. Rose would see how utterly
defenseless she was without me, and sail right back into my arms.
*****
My plan had worked well.
As I stood facing Rose alone in the room, I
knew that Dawson was being locked up as we spoke.
I braced myself for her to come running into
my arms, but she stood motionless. The logical thing to do would have been to
realize that she needed more time to recuperate, but as I said before, all
logic was past me.
I approached her. And I am ashamed to this
day of what I did next. But I can understand it. If she was hurt by Jack’s
felony, it was nothing compared to the pain she had put in me. That’s why I
slapped her. And I wanted to hurt her more. The anger had been building up ever
since she had started making her demands on me, but we were interrupted by a
knock at the door.