Victoria
“I’ll be back in a couple weeks. Promise.” Harry stopped packing long enough to kiss me on the forehead as he walked out of our bedroom.
I just stood there and tried my best not to cry. Even after being married for over a year, it still never got any easier when Harry had to leave me. I knew next door, Rose was going through the same emotions I was going through. Having my best friend go through the same feelings when her husband left as I went through when my husband left made it a little easier. I sighed. “Two weeks, right?”
Harry came back in the room and threw some toiletries in his bag and zipped it up. “Two weeks. I promise. Then, I have a surprise for you.”
I perked up at the thought. “What is it?”
Harry shook his head and smiled. “When I get back, my love, I’ll reveal all. Meanwhile, you keep Anna safe. Oh, and Lights and his wife will be here in a little bit. They’re supposed to meet us at the docks. They’ll be staying here. I told them to take the guest room and the kids could have Anna’s room. I’ll move her crib or her bassinette in our room so she can sleep near you.” He picked up his bag and walked down the hall to Anna’s room to get her up from her nap so we could all walk down to the docks together before the ship left. I leaned against the frame of the door and watched as Harry picked her up. Anna, still sleepy, rubbed her eyes and blinked, trying to figure out who was waking her up from her nap. She saw Harry and stared hard for a minute before finally speaking what was on her mind. “Mama!” She looked at Harry again. “Mama!”
I started to laugh. I walked in the room and tried to coach her. “Dada!” I tried to get her to say it for Harry before he left, but the defiant little child we brought into this world only smiled and repeated mama again.
Harry sighed and shook his head at her. “Dada! Say it, Anna. Dada!”
Anna looked up at him and studied his face a minute. “Mama!” Her innocent smile made me melt. Harry, however, just stared at her.
I couldn’t help myself now. I felt my shoulders begin to shake. I quickly brought my hand up to my face to cover my mouth, but a laugh escaped my lips. By the time Harry looked over at me, I was laughing. Anna saw me laughing, and she started laughing. “Mama! Mama!”
“I give up. We have a defective baby!” Harry was smiling as handed Anna to me as he walked out of her room.
I hit him in the shoulder as he walked off. “Our daughter is not defective! She just knows which parent she likes more. She knows I was the one who labored for hours with her. You just stood there. Doing nothing.” I smiled at him as I passed him in the hallway. “She knows!”
Harry just rolled his eyes. “I was there for the ordering of her if you will. That should count for something.” He kissed me on the cheek as he walked back to our room to make sure he didn’t forget anything. He took one quick look inside and nodded his head. He went back to Anna’s room and picked up her bassinette and set it down in our room next to our bed. She was a bit big for it, but it’d work while the Lightollers were here staying with us. He turned around to face me and putting his hand on the small of my back, we started downstairs together. We got about halfway downstairs when we heard Rose calling for us.
“You two decent?”
I looked at Harry and rolled my eyes. “Yes, we’re decent. Harry was trying to get Anna to say Dada and she won’t do it.” We rounded the last portion of the landing to our stairs and saw Rose standing there, wearing much the same expression as I was before our defiant daughter refused to acknowledge who Harry was. “He swears she’s defective now. Where’s Jack?”
She shrugged. “He’s coming over in just a minute. He had to make one last walk through before he leaves. He forgot extra socks last time and wound up borrowing from Harry and Lightoller.”
“And their feet aren’t nearly as big as mine. It’s like trying to wear one of your socks. Not happening.” Jack appeared in the kitchen and walked next to Rose.
“Dada!” James said as soon as he saw his father. The bright smile across James’s face could have lit a hundred homes. “Dada!”
Harry sighed. “See Anna? See how easy it is?” He motioned for me to give her to him. He held her close to him. “Anna. Say dada. Dada.” Anna just smiled. She said nothing. Harry sighed again and I started to laugh. He gave me a playful shove as he handed Anna back to me. He grabbed his coat and bag and together, the four of us, plus one defiant baby and one non-defiant baby, walked towards the docks to bid Harry and Jack farewell.
“Lights!” I turned around to see Harry spotting Officer Lightoller. The two approached and shook hands. Lightoller’s wife, Sylvia, stood behind him. Their two boys stood behind her, watching the excitement in awe. They spied me and I waved. The youngest just laughed and hid behind his mother.
“Sylvia. Officer Lightoller. How nice to see you again.” I extended my hand and he pulled me into a hug.
“Charles. Please, call me Charles. Only these two monkeys have to call me Officer.” He smiled at me and hugged me again. “This must be the little one. Lord, she’s getting bigger every time I see her.” He held out his hands and Anna looked at me as if to ask if it was okay. She sensed it was and reached for him.
She laughed again. “Mama!”
Harry groaned. “She won’t say dada. No matter how hard we try, she just won’t say it. I was telling my wife she’s defective.”
Sylvia laughed a little, but Charles hit Harry on the shoulders. “She is not defective. She’ll say dada when she wants. My oldest for the life of me wouldn’t say mama or dada. It was dardar. I have no idea where he got that from, but he was referring to our dog. Guess he preferred the dog’s company over us.” He shrugged and handed Anna back to me. He picked up his youngest son and his youngest son’s big blue eyes were wild with fascination.
Harry looked at his pocket watch, then sighed and looked at me. “I hate this part.”
He pulled me in close to him as I breathed in his aftershave before finally speaking. “I hate it too. But every day you’re gone from us is one day closer to coming back. Plus this is a short trip. Just two weeks, right?” I looked up at him and I felt a tear forming in my eyes.
Harry took his finger and dabbed the tear before kissing me. “Just two weeks. Then our surprise.” He kissed me again. “And don’t go asking Lights here. He has no idea what it is.”
Charles nodded. “Not a clue. Neither of them would tell me. Guess they thought I’d ruin the surprise or something.” He shrugged.
I looked over at Rose and she was having the same emotional goodbye with Jack as I was with Harry. Anna looked over at Rose and Jack, then back at me and Harry. “Dada?” She looked at Harry with her big eyes. “Dada? Dada?”
Harry about fainted. “She finally said it! She’s not defective.” He leaned in to kiss her, which only made her giggle.
“Mama!” She looked at me and laughed and then buried her face in my shawl.
I laughed too. “Well, she said it twice.” Harry nodded and picked up his bag. He dug in his pocket and found his ID card. He looked at me once more and kissed me then turned to walk with Jack to the ramp to board. Rose looked at me and started crying. I couldn’t help it. I felt the tears fall down my cheek too.
Harry and Jack walked to the docks. After showing the officer their IDs, they boarded. Harry stopped about halfway up the ramp to wave at me and blow me a kiss. Through my tears, I waved back and held Anna’s arm and made her wave too. Rose came up beside me and laid her head on my shoulder. Together, we cried as we watched the ship leave the docks.
Sylvia had come up to us and after watching us cry for a moment, spoke. “I’ve been married to my husband for a lot longer than either of you.” Rose picked her head up off my shoulder and Sylvia put her hand on Rose’s shoulder as a sign of comfort. “It still makes me cry whenever the boys and I see Charles off. It still tears me up. The boys are older now and know Daddy has to leave and will be coming back, but still doesn’t make it any easier on me.”
I nodded. “So this is what it’s going to be like for the next one hundred years or so Harry and I are married?”
Sylvia laughed. “Probably not as bad. I know when we were first married, I wouldn’t eat for days when he’d leave me. Then after we were married longer, it eased up. Then the kids came. But it still hurts.” She stopped to see Charles playing with their two kids. “So, are you two ready to head back now?”
I nodded. Rose did too, but she stopped. “Oh goodness. I’ve got to stop by the market before we head home. We’re out of a few things and James would never forgive me if we didn’t have wafers for him to gum on while he’s teething.”
“Why don’t you and Rose go to the market. Charles and I will head back to your house. He knows where you live.”
I dug my house keys out of my handbag and handed them to Sylvia. “We won’t be gone long.”
She nodded and took the keys then walked off to join her husband and kids.
Rose and I made our way silently to the market. “Has Jack or Harry mentioned anything to you about my mother?”
I nodded. “Harry mentioned it to me a couple days ago. Said Jack is a bit worried. You didn’t talk about it much and he’s worried you’re having doubts.”
Rose stopped walking and turned to face me. “God, no. No in a million years. I love Jack. I’d rather hang myself than be with Cal.” She started walking again as we neared the market. “I should have known Cal or Mother would try to find me. After all, I’m worth too much to my mother to never be seen again. I just don’t want Cal to try anything. Rumor was, he had a business associate who was stealing money from Hockley Steel taken care of. If you know what I mean.”
I opened the door to the market. “What?”
Rose nodded. “Yes. Of course, that was never confirmed. That was just gossip around some of the office girls. There was one girl there, Ellen, I really liked. She was Cal’s father’s secretary. Mother hated that girl and everything about her. I of course liked her out of spite. She told me she overheard both Cal and his father talking about one of the foremen stealing money from the office. Cal apparently had proof and hired someone to take care of it.”
I was floored. “That doesn’t surprise me actually.” I shifted Anna to my other hip and put a few things in Rose’s basket. “We both need to be careful. You do know the Lightollers are only here for us, right?”
Rose nodded. “I figured as much.” She stopped in the aisle and began to scan the boxes for the type of crackers James ate. She found the box and absentmindedly threw it in the basket as we finished up our shopping. We both paid for our groceries, and left the store.
On our way home, a thought hit me. “Do you think Cal or your mother will be back?”
Rose nodded, “Unfortunately, I do. Cal doesn’t like to lose. He hates it. And given the fact that he lost to Jack, that’s only going to make him even that more determined.”
“Cal filed an insurance claim on that necklace, didn’t he?” My mind was already formulating a plan. “He claimed it went down on the ship. He either didn’t realize he put it in his coat or he didn’t realize you lived. And he filed an insurance claim I bet.”
Rose nodded, “Probably. That necklace set him back money I’m sure. Why? What does that have to do with anything?”
“He filed a claim, right?” Rose nodded. “So if he filed a claim and we can produce the necklace, that makes him guilty of fraud, right?”
“But I sold that necklace when we bought our house, remember?”
“I know that. But on the transaction papers, it showed that rather than money, the necklace was traded as collateral, right? It’ll be there and I’m sure the bank took photos of the necklace before they sold it to make sure they’d get their money back.”
“So, if Cal tries anything, we have blackmail?”
I nodded. “We do.” We reached the corner where our houses were. “We’ll talk about this later. I don’t want anyone knowing about our plans just yet. I’ll be thinking about this some more. Come over later. Mrs. Miller made a huge dinner for the Lightollers. With Harry gone, there’ll be more than plenty.”
Rose nodded and after checking her mail, went inside their house. I felt a little better knowing that we may have just found a way out of this whole mess Cal and Rose’s mother landed us all in.