LOVE LASTS FOR ETERNITY
Chapter Twelve

Rose's POV

I awoke to a cold, wet nose nuzzling my cheek. I opened my eyes and saw Honey standing over me, wide awake and insisting that I should be, too. I yawned and stretched and tried to pull her into a cuddle, but she wasn't finished yet. She decided I needed a wash and began to lick my face. Her little pink tongue was ticklish and I squirmed away from her, giggling. She decided I was clean and leaped from my back to Jack's. She nuzzled him with her nose, but he turned over, groaning. Honey was having none of it and yapped loudly in his ear, demanding that he wake up.

"All right! All right! I'm getting up," he said finally, reluctantly turning back over. Honey, finally satisfied, licked his face like she had done with me. It was amazing how determined she was. It seemed that when she wanted something done, it would be done. She finally finished licking him and settled down between us, licking her paws clean.

"Looks like we've got a ready-made alarm clock as well as a puppy," I joked.

"Looks like it. How're you feeling?"

I shrugged. "Not bad. I just hope I can keep down my breakfast. Every time I eat, I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"Well, nobody ever said having children was easy."

"Easy for you to say. You'll never have to go through it."

"Well, yeah. That is a good point. Shall we go down now? We've got to be out of the house by nine if we want to catch the train."

We climbed out of bed and got dressed in the clothes I had bought yesterday. I loved the loose feel of my dress. It was so different from the restricting layers of clothing I had worn all my life. The corset itself was more expensive than this dress.

We entered the kitchen to the same smell of food as we had smelled the day before. Honey had decided to sleep in upstairs, having seen that we were up. I helped Selina cook, determined to scrape up any extra cooking tips before we left. Jack joined Nathan outside in feeding the dogs. While we prepared the food, we chatted to each other.

"I'm going to miss you when you go," Selina said as she fried the eggs.

"Yes. I'll miss you, too," I replied. Then I had a thought. "Do you think Honey will miss her mother and siblings?"

Selina considered. "I think she may, but she was so shy, she never really played with the other pups. She'll probably miss Rosie, though. She was always close to her mother."

"I feel so mean now, taking her away like that. I'd hate it if that ever happened to me. Even though it did, but I did that of my own accord. I was never close to my mother."

"Well, in a way, it's the best thing for her."

This put my mind at rest. Honey herself had decided she wanted her breakfast. She came stumbling down the stairs and darted into the kitchen. She scrambled at my leg and look at me with those melting brown eyes. She gave a sharp yap that could only mean two words.

"I'm hungry!"

I picked her up and carried her outside to where the other pups were eating their breakfast. Any other pup would have leaped from my arms and charged at the nearest bowl, but Honey cowered into me, scared. I stroked her trembling body and slowly walked towards the bowl that was not occupied by a puppy. I knelt down and tried to coax her from my arms. No luck. In the end, I just carried her back inside with the bowl and gave her breakfast inside.

"She's always been like this. She hides behind the shed and waits until all the others are finished before eating. It's like she's willingly placed herself at the bottom of the pecking order," Selina explained, setting the plates of food onto the table.

I comforted Honey as best I could while she ate. It was funny. Around anyone else, she was terrified and refused to be any bit as bold as her brothers and sisters. But with Jack and I, she was a determined pup who always knew what she wanted and how to get it. I guessed that was just the way she was, and I loved her for it.

"Hey, got off!" I suddenly heard Jack's voice from the back garden. "Come on! Let go!"

I walked over to the open back door and glanced out--and collapsed with laughter. Jack was shaking his leg around, trying the shake off Rosie, who was clinging to his trouser hem, a low growl in her throat. She was shaking her head around like she was tearing up a pillow. She gave an almighty tug backwards, making Jack lose his balance and fall to the ground. Nathan stood nearby, laughing uncontrollably at the scene. Finally, Rosie got bored and trotted off to annoy someone else.

"That dog really doesn't like you!" I said between giggles.

From the kitchen, Selina was also laughing. Everyone seemed to find it hilarious--except Jack.

*****

After a quick breakfast, Jack and I went upstairs to pack the few belongings we now had. We had only bought essentials, not wanting to waste too much of the money we had. We still had to settle down somewhere. Where that would be, we didn't know. We just had to get out of the city as soon as we could, for both of our sakes.

"Where will we stay in Chippewa Falls?" I asked, folding my clothes inside my suitcase.

"I'm not sure. Remember that I said there was only one boarding house, run by Mrs. Ryan last time I was there. Remember, that was five years ago, though. Things might have changed since then." It sounded like he was trying to stop me from worrying. I wasn't worried, just interested.

Chippewa Falls sounded perfect, a small, quiet country village. I was especially interested in Lake Wissota. Jack had told me about the time he'd fallen through the ice, and a few other bits about the lake. He said in the summer you could go fishing there and come home with fat, juicy fish worthy of either eating or selling. I’d always wanted to go fishing, but Mother would never have allowed it.

Although it was April, it was still a little chilly in New York and would be colder in Wisconsin, so Jack had gone out quickly to get a few more things--a warm coat for each of us and a strap on coat for Honey, to keep her warm. Her thin puppy fur wasn't very warm yet. Jack picked a red one to match her collar and leash, cheap but a good value one with warm fleece on the inside to keep her warm.

All too soon, it was time to say good-bye and depart for the station. Nathan would come with us, but Selina stayed behind to watch Lucy. We all exchanged hugs and we promised to write to them once we were settled.

"Take care, Rose," Selina said as we said good-bye.

Lucy was sad that we were leaving, but was even more sad that Honey was leaving, too.

"Don't you worry, Luce. We'll take very good care of her," I assured her as she hugged the puppy one more time.

"Will she have lots of toys to play with?" Lucy asked in her sweet little voice.

"Yes, she will. She'll have lots of toys to play with and never be bored."

Lucy lifted Honey up and said sternly, "You be good, okay? Don't be naughty or you'll get in trouble," she lectured.

Lucy seemed able to let Honey go after that--after we promised to bring her with us whenever we visited.

Finally, we were walking down the quiet street towards the station. Honey was still quite scared and I ended up having to carry her half the way. She was absolutely terrified of the noise and busy streets.

As we approached the station, something horrible caught my eye. It was a missing poster on a lamppost. On the poster was a picture of me, taken at a gala I had attended with Cal and Mother in Paris. The poster read:

MISSING

Rose DeWitt Bukater, fiancée of Caledon Hockley, has been missing since the Titanic disaster. It is known that she survived, but has not been seen since. Mr. Hockley is very worried about her safety and well-being and is offering a $50,000 reward for her safe return.

I read the poster, my eyes blurring with tears. I looked around and saw the posters on not only this lamppost, but every lamppost as far as the eye could see. I felt the tears roll down my face. I was so scared. I knew Cal would react this way. I just didn't think it would happen literally overnight. Jack and Nathan read the poster, and both saw how serious it was. We had to get out now.

Jack held me close as I cried and wrapped his arms around me protectively. "It's okay, Rose," he said, lifting my head so I looked him in the eye. "I promise. I won't let him get to you. We're almost out. The train's waiting and as soon as it leaves the station, we're safe. He'll never get to you, Rose. I promise."

I hugged him hard, thanking God fate had brought us together.

We stood on the platform for five minutes before the train departed. I hugged Nathan and thanked him again for taking us in, and for Honey.

"Hey, you're my best friend. You know I'd do anything for you," he said, smiling at me.

Suddenly, the warning whistle blew. The train was about to leave. Jack and Nathan quickly said good-bye. I was so pleased they liked each other. They even shared a common interest in art. We gathered our things and climbed onto the train as it began to slowly move. We waved good-bye until the station was consumed in pearly gray smoke.

We made our way through the cars, looking for the compartment number on our tickets. We were in compartment B-52. I shuddered. Another Titanic reminder. B-52 was the number of the stateroom I had stayed in.

The compartment itself was perfectly comfortable. There were two separate beds, which was a bit of an inconvenience, but we could live with it. The journey would only take two nights. There was a tiny closet for clothes. There was also a shelf with a collection of reading material. I browsed through and saw a few well known titles, plus a few I had never heard of but which sounded interesting. Of course, there wasn't a dog bed, but we made Honey her own bed by laying a warm blanket on the floor. She seemed a bit wary of these new surroundings and gave a nervous yelp whenever the train shuddered or bumped, but she soon managed to get used to it.

Jack and I spent the day exploring the train or just staying inside our compartment. I decided to read one of the books on the shelf. I was so absorbed that I didn't notice Jack sketching me curled up on the bed, my nose deep in the story. Honey soon became bored and began chasing her tail and chewing on the blanket that was her bed.

Whenever the train stopped at a station, we would go out onto the platform for some fresh air and exercise, something which soon became what Honey endured each boring day for. Although nervous about exploring her new surroundings, she soon became curious as to what the view would be the next time she jumped off the train. As the train steamed west, the cities and towns began to disappear and the land soon became flatter. I even had the delight of seeing a group of deer race past in the field behind one station. Jack seemed amused at my reactions to these sights. He had grown up in these surroundings and was used to them. I had been kept shut up in the city all my life and had rarely seen the countryside or wild animals. Honey, on the other hand, saw these large, unfamiliar animals as a threat and cowered behind me or Jack whenever they came into sight.

The further west we went, the safer I felt. The mere thought of being hundreds of miles away from Cal let me sleep soundly at night. I knew well that he would do anything to get his trophy wife back. Well, his wife in practice if not yet by law, to quote the son of a bitch himself. But what harm could he do if he didn't have the faintest idea where I was? I was sure that Jack, our unborn child, and I were safe now.

Speaking of our unborn child, I don't know if it was that or if I was train sick, but I think I threw up a total of eleven times over the whole journey. I knew that pregnancy often resulted in some sickness. That was just part of the process, but I hadn't dreamed it would be this bad. I felt as if everything I ate and drank came back up. I began to worry that something was wrong. Was the baby damaged? Had I done something wrong? I'd ended up chatting with a woman who had two children of her own, and she assured me that I was doing nothing wrong. It was all natural in the early stages of pregnancy. This helped, but I couldn't help feeling concerned with every wave of nausea.

After a two and a half day train ride, I was somewhat relieved to be stepping off the train in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. I breathed in the cool country air and felt instantly refreshed. Outside the station, there were pine trees scattered about everywhere, their scent filling my lungs. By the roadside there was a carved wooden sign bearing the words Welcome to Chippewa Falls.

Chapter Thirteen
Stories