FALLING STARS
Chapter Nine
March 13, 1913
Jack and Rose sat together on the train,
watching the still-wintry landscape pass by outside. Gregory slept soundly, his
head on Rose’s shoulder. They had left Chippewa Falls early that morning.
The past week had been spent in preparation
for their departure. Both Jack and Rose had quit their jobs, and had informed
the landlord that they were leaving. They had packed up their belongings, and
shipped them to the train station for transportation to Philadelphia. Harold
Calvert had helped them ship their belongings, much to Rose’s dismay. He had
been courting Louise, and Rose wondered if Louise knew how Harold looked at
her.
Rose hadn’t particularly liked Chippewa
Falls, but she did have a few friends. The day before they were to leave, she
walked around town, Gregory in his carrier, saying good-bye to the handful of
people who had befriended her--the owner of the dry goods store, the couple who
owned the house they had rented, Mrs. Allen, and Louise. Jack had made his
farewells in a local bar, returning home slightly tipsy.
Rose had said good-bye quickly to the dry
goods store owner, and to the owners of the house, but she spent more time
saying her farewells to Mrs. Allen and Louise.
Mrs. Allen had put someone else in charge for
a while why she talked to Rose and served coffee and pie. She had cuddled
little Gregory, making Rose promise to write and tell her how the child was
doing. Gregory had rewarded her with one of his delighted smiles.
Rose had spent the afternoon with Louise. It
was odd, she thought, how she had become such good friends with someone she had
once disliked and been jealous of. Louise had held Gregory for hours, and had
at last reluctantly given him back to Rose. Rose hoped that Louise would marry
soon and have another baby of her own. It would be good for her.
That morning, Jack and Rose had bundled up
Gregory in his basket, and walked down to the train station. After buying an
extra ticket for the baby, they had boarded the train. Rose knew that Jack
would miss Chippewa Falls, and his old friends, but it was best that they left,
for Gregory’s sake. Few people knew them in Philadelphia, and none knew their
exact history.
Rose had looked back once as the train pulled
out of the station, and then had looked resolutely forward, toward whatever the
future would bring.
Rose looked up as Gregory lifted his head,
wiggling his arms and legs and making soft baby sounds. He caught a glimpse of
the landscape moving by outside and stared for a moment in rapt fascination,
grinning toothlessly. Then, he lost interest and whimpered, indicating that he
wanted to be fed.
Rose pulled a blanket from the diaper bag and
covered herself with it, unbuttoning her blouse to feed the hungry infant. He
stopped whimpering as his needs were met.
"Looking forward to going home?"
Jack asked her, watching her feed the baby.
Rose shrugged. "I guess." She
wrapped her arms more securely around Gregory as he wiggled, almost knocking
off the blanket. At almost two months old, he was growing fast, and was a
healthy, active infant.
"Worried about seeing your mother
again?"
She nodded. "A little. I haven’t seen
her since I went back to rescue you after Cal framed you. I hope she really is
willing to accept our marriage, and accept Gregory."
"She said that she had accepted your
marriage, in the letter."
"I know. I just...I haven’t seen her in
so long, and she’s remarried now. I wouldn’t doubt that we’ve both
changed."
"For the better, maybe. I know you
have."
"Maybe." She paused. "I hope
she was telling the truth when she said that Cal had decided to call off our
marriage. It would be much easier to deal with him if he isn’t interested in
me."
"Whether he is or he isn’t, he can’t
drag you to the altar and force you to marry him. You can’t legally have two
husbands at once."
Rose smiled. "True." She looked
down at Gregory, who had finished nursing and was looking up at her in
curiosity. Rebuttoning her blouse, she lifted him to her shoulder, and, putting
an old towel over her garment, burped him.
Once Gregory’s diaper had been changed, and
he was settled in Jack’s lap, not really sleepy yet, they continued their
conversation.
Jack bounced Gregory up and down on his knee.
"Are you going to tell your mother when we were actually married?"
Rose shook her head. "I’ve thought about
that, but no. Mother may have accepted our marriage, but I can just imagine her
reaction if she knew that I was almost seven months pregnant on my wedding
day."
"Are you sorry we waited so long?"
Rose looked at him. "Not really. Our
wedding was as close to perfect as can be. Still, it would be easier to explain
if we had married sooner, like right after we left the Carpathia."
He nodded, laying the now drowsy baby across
his lap. "I’d feel uncomfortable lying about something like that,
though."
"Who says we have to lie? Maybe no one
will ask exactly when we were married. If they don’t, then we just won’t tell
them. And if they do, we can always say that we have been together since the
Carpathia, which, technically, is true, even if we weren’t married yet."
"And what about Gregory’s
birthday?"
"I told Mother he was born late in
January. If she believes we were married late in April, then anyone doing the
math would find the birth to be right on schedule."
"But, if she accepts him, she may want
to know his exact birthday. Sometimes grandmothers like to dote on their
grandchildren, especially around birthdays."
"He was born January 18. If we were
married the day the Carpathia docked, or just after, and he was conceived on
our wedding night, that would make him just a few days early. Some babies are
born a little early, and after two months, who can tell?"
"I don’t know..."
"Jack, we can still celebrate our
anniversary on the date we were married. But I don’t think that telling Mother
is a good idea. She can be very judgmental about things like that. Trust me on
this. I’ve known her for eighteen years. You’ve only known her for three days,
and she didn’t behave very nicely toward you those days." She paused.
"We can tell her, but only if she shows signs that she has changed enough
to accept such things."
"Seems to me that your mother would
understand not having enough money to marry."
Rose laughed, disturbing the sleeping infant
in Jack’s lap. Gregory whimpered, and Jack picked him up and put him on his
shoulder, stroking his back. After a moment, the infant quieted, falling asleep
on his father’s shoulder.
"She just might, but still...I don’t
want her to know, especially not about the Renault."
"How do you know she doesn’t? When we
came back to your stateroom to tell them that the ship had struck an iceberg,
your mother looked at me as though she was convinced that I had despoiled her
beautiful, innocent daughter."
Rose laughed again, more softly this time.
"You did. But I was more than willing to be despoiled, as I recall."
"Yes. ‘To the stars,’ you said."
Rose stuck her tongue out at him. "You
didn’t object."
He laughed softly at her expression.
"No, I didn’t." He glanced at the sleeping infant, the unexpected
product of that night. "All right. We won’t tell your mother, or anyone
else, until we can be sure that they won’t be judgmental."
Rose hugged him. "Thank you, Jack. I
just hope that everything works out."
"Me too, Rose. Me, too."