FALLING STARS
Chapter Ten
March 17, 1913
The train pulled to a stop at the station in
Philadelphia. Rose peered out the window, trying to locate her mother in the
crowd. Ruth had promised that she would be there to greet them, but Rose didn’t
see her yet.
They waited for a few minutes before leaving
the train, allowing the crowd to clear out first. Rose carried Gregory and his
belongings, while Jack carried their luggage and arranged to have their other
belongings placed where they could ship them to the Hockley mansion, where they
would be staying until they could find a place of their own.
Rose finally spotted Nathan and Ruth Hockley
sitting on a bench in a corner of the train station. Holding the baby securely,
she made her way over to them. Jack followed, more hesitantly.
"Mother!" Rose called above the
noise of the crowded train station. "Mother!"
Ruth finally saw her. "Rose!"
They hurried toward each other, then stopped,
uncertain of how to greet each other. Jack came to stand beside Rose.
Ruth turned to her husband. "Nathan, you
know Rose, of course. This is her husband, Jack Dawson. And," she peered
down to look into Gregory’s carrier, "this must be their son,
Gregory."
Nathan nodded politely, acknowledging them.
"Mr. Dawson. Mrs. Dawson." He looked at Rose a bit oddly, wondering
why she had rejected his handsome, wealthy son for this shaggy-haired artist.
Then he shrugged. There was no logic to love, and, if all truths were told, he
felt that Cal was better off without Rose, loathe as his son had initially been
to admit it.
They walked in silence to the car. Nathan
hired a wagon to bring the Dawson’s belongings back to the house, and the five
people squeezed into the Hockley’s car, Nathan and Ruth in the front, and Jack,
Rose, and Gregory squeezed into the back.
The journey back to the Hockley’s home was
quiet, although Ruth kept turning around and looking at the baby in Rose’s lap.
Gregory stared back at her, wide-eyed with curiosity.
When they reached the mansion, Nathan ordered
a couple of servants to place the Dawson’s belongings in a upstairs suite. Rose
disappeared for a few minutes to care for Gregory, and then joined her husband,
mother, and stepfather in the parlor.
"So, this is your son?" Ruth asked,
looking at the now-drowsy baby in his carrier.
Rose nodded. "Yes. Gregory Peter Dawson.
He’s almost two months old."
"May I hold him?"
Rose nodded, surprised, and took the sleeping
infant from his basket and handed him to Ruth. Gregory whimpered, annoyed at
being awakened and a little fearful of the strange arms holding him, but Ruth
held him securely, and he soon dozed off again. Apparently Ruth hadn’t
forgotten how to hold a baby.
Nathan, too, was looking curiously at his step-grandson.
The baby slept soundly, his thumb in his mouth. Jack finally spoke to Ruth.
"He has your nose."
Ruth nodded, looking closer at the baby.
"You’re right. He does. But that chin...that’s from Rose’s father."
"I always thought it was from her. So
strong and stubborn..."
Ruth shook her head. "Rose inherited her
father’s chin, but this boy is going to look just like him, except for having
red hair, of course. My first husband had brown hair." She looked at Rose.
"You shouldn’t let him suck his thumb. It will push his teeth into odd
positions."
Rose shrugged. "He doesn’t have any
teeth yet."
"He will soon. Just wait. It’s a pity
that the powerful ingredients in the patent medicines have been removed. They
certainly quieted you when you were teething, Rose."
"Those things weren’t safe."
"They never hurt you."
"I was luckier than some babies,
then."
Jack interrupted before they could start
arguing. "How have things been for you, Ruth, since the Titanic sank? This
is the first time we’ve seen you."
"Well enough. It didn’t take me long to
realize that Rose was still alive. I didn’t see her name on the survivor list,
but then I looked for your name, and sure enough, there was a Rose Dawson
there, too. I asked if a Rose Dawson had been on the ship when it set sail, but
no knew who she was supposed to be. So I knew that my daughter was still
alive." She turned to Rose. "Cal and I tracked you to Chippewa Falls,
but when we saw you with Jack--really, you need to learn to lock your doors at
night--Cal decided against bringing you back."
"You--you knew all along?" Rose
sputtered in disbelief. "Why didn’t you let us know you knew?"
Ruth was silent for a moment.
"Rose...you know that I didn’t particularly like him." She gestured
to Jack. "It took me a long time to accept your marriage. You are married,
aren’t you?"
"Yes." Rose stared at her mother.
"Why wouldn’t we be?"
"You were born to privilege, and,
well...he wasn’t. And I’m aware that you didn’t go about your courtship in the
usual way--"
"How could we, with me already engaged
to Cal and the both of you watching me like hawks?"
"Obviously, we weren’t that successful
at watching you, or I wouldn’t be a grandmother now."
Rose looked at her strangely, wondering just
what her mother was hinting at. Ruth shook her head.
"Rose, I’m not blind. I saw the way you
two looked at each other when you came back to the stateroom. I hadn’t been
widowed so long that I didn’t know what that look meant. That ship brought
death to fifteen hundred people, but, if I’m not mistaken, it brought life to
at least one." She glanced at her sleeping grandson.
Both Jack and Rose turned red, glancing at Nathan,
who was trying to look as though he wasn’t listening. It was bad enough for
Ruth to have figured it out, but to have Rose’s ex-fiancé’s father know what
had happened was worse.
"So, when were you two married, anyway?
And what day was Gregory born?"
Rose sighed. Her mother seemed to have
figured everything out, so there wasn’t any harm in telling her. "We were
married November 13, 1912. Gregory was born January 18, 1913."
"Why didn’t you marry sooner?"
Jack responded. "We decided to wait
until we had a place to live, and I had a job. You, of all people, should
understand the need for money." He held Ruth’s eyes challengingly.
Ruth looked a bit guilty, but looked back
unflinchingly. "I believe you should have married as soon as you knew a
baby was on the way. I’m assuming that you knew before the wedding?"
"We knew."
"Well, it doesn’t matter now. No one
need know."
Rose glared at her mother. "Mother,
we’re not sorry for anything that happened. There’s nothing to be ashamed
of."
Ruth disagreed with her, but kept quiet.
Instead, she told them, "Of course not. But it would be best, for the
baby’s sake, if people thought you married much sooner, even as early as late
last April."
"Jack and I already discussed that. We
would have allowed you to believe that we married then, had you not figured
things out."
"Well...Rose, I am not going to tell
anyone anything. I don’t think Nathan will either." She glanced at her
husband, who nodded in agreement.
"Part of the reason that Jack and I came
here was to get away from narrow-minded people who would condemn Gregory for
the circumstances of his birth. We have no intention of letting those
circumstances be known."
"Rose, Jack...I can’t say that I’m
pleased with your actions. But I won’t reject Gregory, and I have decided to
accept your marriage. I won’t reject the two of you, either. We’re glad to have
you here."
There was silence for a moment, until Gregory
opened his eyes, stared up at his grandmother, and gave her one of his bright
smiles. Ruth smiled back, oddly pleased at the baby’s ready acceptance of her,
and looked at her daughter and son-in-law.
"Welcome to Philadelphia," she told
them, still beaming.