A FATHER'S RESCUE
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rose closed her eyes and collapsed to the
floor as the awful sound of glass shattering exploded behind her.
When she came to, her mother knelt at her
side with smelling salts, gently caressing her face.
"M-mother? What happened? I
thought--" Rose tried to lift her head.
"It's all right," Ruth soothed.
"He won't be coming back."
She explained what happened: she and Michael
came upstairs looking for Rose and, hearing the argument in her bedroom,
Michael had immediately run for his gun, still kept in a desk drawer in his
study. He returned just in time to see Cal bearing his own weapon, and fired.
But his illness had hurt his aim; the bullet missed Cal by mere inches and had
instead shattered the vanity mirror.
A shaken Cal had confessed to climbing into
the house through an open window, with the intention of forcibly taking Rose
back to Pittsburgh with him. He seemed ashamed of his actions, and frightened
of Michael, but Bukater was taking no chances. He had phoned Nathan Hockley and
informed him of his son's actions, and as of this moment was driving Cal to the
local police station to await his father.
Rose panicked. "But then they'll know!
Everyone will know we're alive!"
"Rose, it's all right. Cal was the only
one you really didn't want to know that. Obviously that's over with now. You
father will explain to those people. You need to worry about yourself right
now. Are you feeling better?"
"I'm all right. I can get up now, I
think." Rose sat up slowly, and saw her mother watching her every move.
"Mother, try not to worry. I'm all right. He didn't hurt me."
"I'm sorry, I know I'm hovering. You
only just came back here, and I..."
"I know, you can't help it," Rose
said gently. "Daddy had to pretty much convince me to come, but now I'm
glad I did. Even with what just happened. I...I missed you, and I wondered how
you were doing. I'm sorry our talk didn't go better earlier. I didn't come just
to be angry at you."
Rose got up, stepped over the glass that
still littered the floor, then sat on her bed and looked straight at her
mother, waiting for her reply. "I know you didn't, Rose. You said earlier
that Jack.. well, would you like to tell me about it? I promise not to
interrupt, at least not often. Maybe I didn't like him, but he obviously meant
a lot to you. I'd like you to tell me. Please?"
Rose sighed deeply. "All right, I'll
tell you as much as I can. I don't know where to begin, Mother," she said
after she'd sat perfectly still, staring at the remnants of her broken mirror
on the floor, for a full minute. Ruth waited. Do you believe that everyone has
a mate, someone they're meant to spend their lives with, and fate will bring
them together no matter what their circumstances in life may be? I know it's
difficult for you to understand, having had your life practically planned out
for you, but I believe that I was meant to be with Jack, and that we would have
met elsewhere if not on the ship. You see now how Cal really treated me. And
Jack was the opposite--good-natured and loving and completely carefree. We
enjoyed so many adventures in two days and never left that ship. He set me
free."
Ruth sniffed. "I'm sure he did.
Sketching you in that vulgar pose the way he did."
"It wasn't vulgar, Mother. It was art.
Jack's drawings were some of the best I've seen, and I asked him to draw
me." She paused, adding sadly, "And now they're all gone."
Her lower lip quivered, and she took a deep
breath to stop the tears, but they came anyway. She hid her eyes in the
handkerchief her mother gave her.
"I promised him I wouldn't do
this," she sobbed. "When a piece of wood was all that kept me from
drowning, he made me promise to live the life we'd planned to share, even
though I would have to do it alone. So from now on I'm living for the both of
us." She looked at Ruth with determination. "Daddy and I are going to
try to make a life for ourselves in California, so he can get the rest he
deserves."
"Rose, I was hoping you would both stay,
for a little while."
"We might. We aren't in a rush. I think
both he and I need to feel better before we can travel again."
"Your father seems just fine. Did
something happen to him, lately?"
"Yes, I saw him when I was in the
hospital. It's something with his heart. He doesn't complain, but he also
doesn't see a doctor like he should."
"He can always see our doctor. What were
you in the hospital for?"
"I had pneumonia. I'm much better now. I
just feel a little overtired, sometimes. Daddy worries about it, as if I were
still a little girl. But I don't mind. I know he does it because he loves me.
And he's much sicker that I am. I'll be fine, eventually, but he...he says he
doesn't know if he will or not."
"Thank you for telling me. I knew he was
sick when he left, but I thought perhaps he was better now. He seems
so...cheerful."
"He is. He's glad to be with both of us.
He missed you."
"He what?"
"He missed you, Mother. I know, he would
never admit it, but he still loves you. I can tell by how hurt he was that you
were so willing to send him away and pretend he'd died. And for money!"
Ruth looked away. "You wouldn't
understand, Rose. You're--"
"I'm an adult who can make up her own
mind. Haven't the past few weeks proven that?"
Ruth sighed. "They've proven that you're
much too headstrong and impulsive. But I suppose we must put that in the
past," she interjected quickly. "You've obviously made up your mind
that you want to live as far away from me as possible, and I can't convince you
otherwise."
"I want you to come with us," Rose
said.
Ruth stared at her, mouth agape. Finally she
shook her head, "That would be impossible."
"Why?" Rose persisted. "What
do you have here? An empty life surrounded by shallow people. None of your family
live here. You can start over out West."
"Start over? I'm too old to begin a new
life."
"Nonsense!" Rose suddenly felt
warmth flooding into her entire being, sudden inspiration and exhilaration that
she would come to recognize as joy. "You can do anything you wish. Sell
this stuffy house and everything in it, and tell all those inbred socialites to
kiss your fanny!"
Ruth gasped and objected as Rose suddenly
pulled her to her feet, but her daughter ignored her protests.
"We can live as a family again," Rose
sang. "A real family, this time. Come Mother, let's plan."