Victoria
If he could have, I’m sure Harry would have picked both Anna and me up and ran with us in his arms back to the safety of our house. We made it back from the café in record time and Harry kept looking over his shoulder checking to make sure that we weren’t being followed. As soon as we got home, Harry shoved me through the door and after taking Anna from me, locked the front door. He held her close as he peered through the windows, checking for signs of Ruth or that servant she had with her at the café.
Satisfied we weren’t being followed, Harry turned to face me. He started to say something, but was interrupted by a knock from the side door and without even bothering to wait to be let in, the door opened and we both heard two sets of footsteps on the tile in our kitchen and after a moment, Rose and Jack appeared. Rose was still as pale as she was in the café after the confrontation with her mother. She looked at me, unsure as to where to begin.
Jack cast a glance between Rose, Harry and me. “Someone want to explain what the hell Cal was doing here and why no one felt a need to let me know?”
“I’m interested in this answer as well. Victoria, you and Rose put yourself in danger by letting him in and not telling us. What if he made a move towards you or Anna, or tried to force Rose to leave with him? I love you, but you’re no match for someone Cal’s size or strength and Rose, you’re not either. Plus you know he didn’t come alone. He more than likely had a valet in the car to back him up if need be.”
I started to speak, but Rose cut me off. “Don’t blame her, Harold.” I was surprised she used his given name. Then again, he did use mine, which he rarely did unless he was mad. “This isn’t her fault. This was me. It was all me. I told her not to tell anyone. I didn’t want to worry either of you.”
“I think it’s a little too late for that, love.” Jack sat down on the edge of the sofa. “Why did you not tell me he came? You know he didn’t come for Torie. He came for you. How in the hell did he find us?” After Jack finished, Rose sat next to him. Harry stood still, in between the sofa and the arm chair I had sat down in. He handed Anna back to me, but returned to his guard post. He wanted to keep an eye on both Rose and me, unsure as to what to say or do.
“Guess I need to explain.” Jack nodded. Rose looked at Harry who shifted his weight to his other foot and folded his arms. After he nodded, Rose continued. “Cal did show up. It was back in the winter months. You and Harry were out sailing. Torie and I had gone to the market to buy groceries. After we got back home, I had gone back out with James to get the mail. A strange man asked me where the farmer’s market was. I knew it was a weird question given it was the dead of winter and there was nothing going on there. I pointed the way towards the market and basically forgot about it. He seemed satisfied with my answer and took off towards town.”
“You told me about this. I remember. I think I brushed it off. You said he didn’t approach you or Torie, so I let it go. I had a feeling that somehow, I knew that guy worked for Cal, but you denied it.” Jack’s face was beginning to turn red in anger again.
Rose put her hand on his leg and tried to comfort him as she continued. “Jack, it didn’t dawn on me that the man could have worked for Cal, or for my mother for that matter. We’ve been so careful to keep our identity vague. I haven’t signed anything using my mother’s name and when we bought the house, we listed it under Dawson. There is nothing connecting my life to the old one.”
It suddenly hit me how Cal found Rose. “Rose. You’re wrong.”
She looked at me. “What?”
“The necklace. You sold it to buy the house. That had to be how he found you and found out you were still alive and living here.” I looked over at Rose and she realized she had made a mistake by selling the necklace and not throwing it overboard as she planned.
Harry looked confused. “The what?”
“On Titanic, Cal gave Rose this really beautiful necklace. Had a huge blue stone cut into a heart surrounded with diamonds on the chain. You never saw it and I only saw it once when Rose showed it to me. Cal thought it went down with the ship. It was only on board Carpathia did Rose realize that she had the necklace. Cal must have put it in the pocket of the coat he gave Rose before the ship sank. Cal found Rose, Jack and me waiting for a lifeboat. He shoved Rose and me on the boat after giving Rose her coat. He gave me his servant’s coat, I think. I don’t remember. Rose and I jumped off the boat to save Jack. And well, you know the rest.” I stopped to look at Harry. The look in his eyes meant he remembered how he found me half dead and frozen to the core in the water. I continued. “Anyway, she thought about tossing it overboard as a final goodbye to her old life, but I convinced her to hang on to it, just in case. After we were married, Rose and Jack sold the necklace to a jeweler in Pittsburgh I think to get money to buy the house for them and as a down payment on ours.” I stopped talking and saw Rose turn even paler than she was. “Cal must have found out about it. The necklace was worth so much and it was so rare. That must have been how he tracked us down. I figured he’d file an insurance claim on it, collect his money and forget about it. Evidently you’re forgiven, but not forgotten. Oh, God. This is my fault. Cal found you and found out you’re alive because of me. If I had just told you to throw that necklace over like you wanted, we’d…”
Rose stopped me. “This isn’t your fault. I held on to that necklace for a reason. I didn’t want to throw it overboard. I wanted to keep it to remind me why I left Cal.” She turned to Jack. “I kept it to remind me that yes, I gave up a lot, but it was worth it. I knew that no matter how hard I tried, I’d never be happy with Cal. That necklace was a constant reminder of that. The time you drew me wearing it was the night I cemented my feelings for you.” She stopped to look at Jack. “I knew that nothing on earth, even the sinking of the ship and us almost freezing to death, was going to come between us. The drawing you did of me in that necklace was why I kept it. It meant the start of a new life for me.” She held Jack’s hand in between hers. “For us.” She turned to face Harry and me. “And for you two as well. You both are my best friends. I couldn’t ask for anyone better than you both. You’re not just my friends, you’re my family and the best part is you’re not family by blood. You’re family that I chose to be with. That’s the best kind.”
I started to tear up and Harry rolled his eyes and reached in his pocket for a tissue to wipe my eyes. “Women. The things I missed by being employed on that ship. I missed the whole nickelodeon that was the story of the necklace and now the mad ex-fiancé bent on revenge.”
I turned to face him. “Oh hush. What she said was sweet. I have my sister and my father, but I also gained a sister and a brother-in-law in the process. That means something to me. I can’t help it if I’m a woman and I’m emotional.” He smiled at me, so I knew he was just kidding. “I thought so.”
“I hate to interrupt this sob fest, as touching as it really is, but we’ve got bigger problems. We all know Cal and Ruth well enough to know they will be back. Cal won’t let Rose go easily and we’ve got to figure out what to do when he comes back. It won’t be a matter of if he comes back, it’ll be when. And if I had to press my luck, I’d bet soon.”
“Jack’s right.” After Jack finished speaking, Harry spoke up. “Cal will be back. It’s an almost certainty. I’m not willing to risk my wife or my daughter in the crossfire of his anger. They found us, if I had to guess, by using some sort of investigator or detective. Cal’s money and Ruth’s will to get Rose back are two wills to not be challenged. Jack, I don’t know about you, but one of us, if not both of us, need to stay home with the girls until this is done. I don’t want them to be alone. I know we’re due to leave the end of the week, but what, you think we should both cancel, or one should go and one should stay?”
“So what, you both are going to quit your jobs to stay home with us because my spastic ex-fiancé might try something? Both of you can’t take turns watching us. Cal’s probably got some other poor soul to boss around like he did me. I’m the least of his worries. Mother isn’t anything without Cal and if he has found another woman to call his wife by now, she won’t do anything to jeopardize staying in his good graces. If Cal kicks her out, she’ll have nothing. No money. No home. No society. Nothing. As much as my mother thinks she loves me, she loves yachts and the social circles Cal’s money can buy more than me. That’s why she forced me into that engagement in the first place.”
Harry shook his head, “Rose, I don’t know if you were just in shock from your mother being there or what, but the look she had in her eyes. It scared me. It was almost like she’d kill someone to get you back and she’d kill whoever got in her way whether that be me, Jack or anyone. And that servant she had with her? I didn’t like the way he kept looking at you or Torie. My hand to God, if he gets near either of you, or anyone in our families, I’ll blow him off of the face of the earth with the fury of God’s own thunder. That’s why I think it’s a good idea that neither of you are alone until we get this whole Cal mess solved. I’ll have to wire the home office, but I think Jack’s done with his training and doesn’t need to be sailing with me anymore, which frees one of us up to be home with you at all times until this is over with.”
“I don’t know if this will ever be over with until Cal gets what he wants, and that’s Rose. That’s a situation we need to consider.” As much as I didn’t want to lose my friend, I made a suggestion. “Rose, you and Jack may need to move. I don’t want to lose either of you in my life, but do you think Cal’s really going to stop? He knows where you live. He knows too much.”
“No. Rose and me, we’re not uprooting our family. We’re not disrupting our lives for him, or for anyone for that matter. I’ve always faced problems head on. I’m not running.” Jack looked at Rose who nodded. “We’ll figure something out. Cal found us once. What makes you think if we up and move he’ll find us again? We can change our names, shave our heads and join a convent and he’ll still find us.”
I had to stifle a laugh at the thought of Rose shaving her head to escape Cal. “Jack’s right. We should alert the police as to what happened though.”
“And say what? My ex-fiancé tracked me down after I sold a stolen necklace after I was presumed dead on Titanic to buy a house for us as well as our new family? That’ll go over real well. Would you and Harry like the padded room next to Jack’s and my room?” Rose shifted James around, who had started to fall asleep as we were speaking. “Can I put him upstairs in Anna’s room?”
I nodded and Rose got up to put James down for a nap. “So now what?” I looked down at Anna. Her dark brown eyes were focused on me. She seemed to be trying to tell me something, but unable to speak, she couldn’t convey the message that she wanted.
Rose came back after putting James down. She stayed quiet for a moment until she sat up on the couch next to Jack. “We fight fire with fire.”