LOVE LASTS FOR ETERNITY
Chapter Seventeen
May 31, 1912
Chippewa Falls
Jack's POV
I awoke that morning the same way
I had just about every morning for the past two weeks or so--to the sound of
Rose throwing up violently in the bathroom down the hall. Just over six weeks
pregnant, she was experiencing bad morning sickness just about every day.
I got out of bed and walked into
the bathroom to find Rose leaning against the wall, holding her forehead. I put
my arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek.
"God, I feel terrible,"
she groaned, still half-asleep. "Why does having a baby have to be so
horrible?" She asked this question almost every day, and I didn't blame
her. She looked terrible in the morning now, exhausted and pale as well as
tired. She looked especially tired now, with lines under her eyes and her
eyelids drooping slightly.
Once she was sure she wasn't
going to throw up anymore, Rose went back to bed to catch up on a bit of sleep
and I went downstairs to get breakfast started. As I walked down the stairs, I
heard the scampering of legs approaching and knew instantly that Honey had
woken up.
She was now about three months
old, and growing. No longer a tiny puppy who needed help to climb up the
stairs, Honey was now around one and a half feet high with a slender body. Her
coat more golden than ever.
She came stampeding out of the
parlor, where she now slept, and jumped up on me as I entered the room. I
gently but firmly pushed her down and scolded her. I hated scolding her, but
she was now at an age where she had to learn these things. She was getting into
the habit of jumping up on people as they walked past and we needed to break
this habit as soon as possible. When I scolded her, she whined and gave me her
biggest, saddest eyes. Never able to stay angry at her for long, I knelt down
and gave her a belly rub.
Honey followed me into the
kitchen, expecting her breakfast. I served her some chicken from the icebox and
another bowl of water, which she consumed hungrily. I cut a few slices of bread
and began to toast them. Rose never felt up to eating much in the morning
because of the morning sickness, but I could usually persuade her to eat some
toast for the baby's sake.
While the bread was toasting, I
went out to the mailbox and brought in yesterday’s mail. There was a newspaper
and a few letters. One of them was an advertisement, another was a reply from a
dog trainer I had written to for training advice, and one was a letter
addressed to Rose--with a New York postmark. I took the mail into the kitchen.
The advertisement, which was trying to sell Mr. Thompson’s produce, was automatically
added to the tinder box--we saved all burnable scraps for the fire. I put
Rose's letter on the side for her when she woke up, and I sat down at the table
to read the reply from the dog trainer.
I'd written to him because
exercising some control over Honey was proving harder than we thought it would
be. We had decided when we first got her that we would be firm with our puppy
and make sure she was well-behaved, but it was proving quite difficult to scold
her when she would whine and give us her big, sad eyes whenever we did. She
would take offense at the slightest scolding and turn her back to us, sulking.
It pained both Rose and me to see her this way and we found ourselves giving
into her demands simply to prevent the sad eyes.
I read the letter from the dog
trainer thoroughly, determined to find a friendly way to train our dog.
The letter read:
When it comes to training a
dog, it is like dealing with a child. You mustn't spoil it, but you mustn't
give it the impression that you hate it, either. It's important to get the
balance between love and discipline just right. If the balance isn't right, the
dog will either resent you or be spoiled.
When you find your dog doing
something you do not approve of, firmly stop it, get them to look straight at
you, and firmly tell them no with a single swat on the rump. If your dog sulks
at this or acts sad, do not fall for it. Just ignore it and carry on with
whatever you are doing. Then, the next time you see your dog, be friendly and
carry on as if the scolding never happened. Carry on this routine until the dog
learns that doing the offense will result in a scolding.
Remember, when scolding your
dog, always do it responsibly. Act firmly, but do not get carried away and
frighten your dog into obedience. Never swat your dog more than
necessary--preferably only once or maybe twice--and do not hold a grudge
against your dog. Act as though dealing with a child. You would not frighten
your child into obeying you or slap the child more than necessary, so do not do
it to the dog.
By following these rules, you
will hopefully train your dog into obeying you. Do not expect it to happen
overnight. It will take time for the lesson to sink in, but do not give up
after just a few days or weeks.
I read the letter thoroughly,
making sure I had memorized everything. When I was sure I had, I put the letter
away and finished off making breakfast. Then I cleaned Honey's food bowl out
and was putting it away when Rose came into the kitchen, looking a little
better than when she was throwing up.
"Morning," she said
sleepily, still waking up.
"Morning," I replied,
giving her a kiss as she sat down. She didn't look like she wanted to eat
anything, but she reluctantly nibbled a piece of toast for the baby's sake.
Honey came over and nuzzled Rose's hand as she ate, sensing that she was
unhappy. She usually was these days, but only in the morning, which was
understandable for a pregnant woman. She was always back to her normal,
cheerful self around late morning. I knew she would cheer up extra fast today.
We were going to a livestock sale to buy a few animals for the farm.
We were still building our
savings, but we now had a steady income with two jobs. Rose insisted on still
working full time, despite my best efforts to persuade her otherwise, and together
with my wages, we had a bit of money in the bank now. We had also received a
little present from Molly.
We had sent her a letter,
inviting her to the wedding when the date was decided, and she had sent us back
a letter of congratulations and an early wedding gift of five hundred dollars,
a gift we both would have tried to refuse if it was given to us in person.
This, added to the money from Cal's coat and both our wages, gave us a fair
amount of money. Enough to start off small with the farm, and hopefully enough
for both the wedding and for the baby, when the time came.
After breakfast, Rose, Honey, and
I rode Thunder to the neighboring town, Eau Claire, where the livestock sale
was. I had been to the sale a few times when I was little and knew how to get
the best buys. There was a choice of either a live auction or a private sale. A
live auction was good if you weren't too picky about your animals, but if you
wanted to choose your animals and have a certainly of buying them, a private
sale was better. We decided we would go for a private sale.
We had planned to buy one
breeding pair of cattle and one breeding pair of sheep to get started. We also
knew that we wanted to buy one more horse. We now had Thunder living in the
stable, but he was lonely and bored by himself all day in the paddock, so we
decided to buy him a friend--and hopefully, a breeding mate. I knew from
experience that when buying animals, it was important not to get carried away
and go on a spending spree. After all, as my dad had told me at a sale once, it
might seem like a bargain at the time, but animals cost money to keep.
The sale was busy that day, with
a large selection of animals up for auction, and even more people looking to
bid and buy. Loose dogs darted between people's legs and the shouts of the
auctioneer inside the ring was enough to deafen someone. Honey's tail was tight
between her legs and she let out a whine every now and then. She was still
jumpy and nervous at anything unfamiliar, and this loud, noisy place scared her.
She leaned against my leg for comfort and I stroked her head as we walked
towards the private sale section.
"How do you know where
anything is?" asked Rose, looking around the crowds in bewilderment.
"Well, there are signs
telling you where to go, but when it's this busy, it's best if you know where
you're going," I told her. We made our way to the sheep enclosure first.
They would be the cheapest purchase of the day.
All the ewes, rams, and a few
lambs old enough to leave their mothers were in separate enclosures, each one
wearing a tag around their necks with the seller's details on them. I explained
to Rose how to check that they were healthy, and we began looking at the ewes
first. We found one, a nice, average size, three years old and in good condition.
The seller said he was asking seven dollars for the ewe, but we managed to
bargain it down to six dollars. He also mentioned that he had several rams for
sale, if we were interested. We said we were, and he brought out one of them.
He was four years old, in good condition and a good breeder, according to the
seller. He was on sale for eight dollars, but we bargained down to seven
dollars. We gave the breeder our address and he said he would drop off the
sheep the next day.
Next, we moved on to the cattle
pens. We easily found a cow and a bull, which we bought for a total of
seventy-eight dollars. They would be delivered the next day, also. Once that
was done, we made our way towards the stables.
This was the part that we were
most interested in. We knew we wanted one that was easy to ride and wasn't too
big. There were a large selection of horses to choose from, and we began
walking along the stalls, examining the horses in turn.
The first one we took interest in
was a chestnut male with four white socks and a white clover mark on his
forehead. His name card said his name was Star and that he was twenty-four
years old. We had already decided we wanted a fairly young horse, so Star was
too old for us. We patted him and moved on.
The next horse was a glossy black
mare called Jet, seven years old and came from a carefully bred bloodline. She
seemed perfect until we tried to stroke her and she snapped at us angrily, her
ears pricked back in alarm. When we looked back at her name card, we saw the
words A Very Free Spirit, which was a polite way of saying dangerous
horse. She was too aggressive.
The third horse was an auburn
color, with a reddish main and tail. Predictably, his name was Red, and he was
ten years old. He seemed friendly enough until we read his name card and found
he had a medical condition in his joints that would require regular medication
and vet examinations. As much as we would have liked to buy him, we wouldn't be
able to afford his needs.
We moved from horse to horse,
each one having at least one fault. Just when we were beginning to think there
was no perfect horse here, we came across a beautiful light beige palomino with
a white mane and tail. Her name was Kara and she was six years old. She let us
stroke her and nuzzled our hands affectionately. She was our perfect horse. We
stayed stroking her for so long that her seller came and asked us if we were
interested in buying her. We said we were and he said she was on sale for one
hundred thirteen dollars. This was a little pricey, but she was perfect and we
were willing to pay the price for her. We happily paid the money and the seller
said she would deliver Kara tomorrow evening.
"Oh, I can't wait until
tomorrow night!" Rose said excitedly as we left the stables. "She's
so perfect. I can't wait to ride her!"
"Well, we like her. Now we
just have to see if Thunder likes her," I added.
"Oh, he will," Rose
said confidently. "How can he not? She's lovely."
"Yes, she is. Hopefully
she's good with people riding her."
"Well, if she's not, how
hard would it be to train her?"
"Quite easy I think, but the
first few times it can be dangerous because she's liable to throw the rider
off." Rose looked a little nervous when I mentioned the throwing off part,
but soon put the idea out of her mind.
When we got back home, Rose
finally opened the letter that had come for her the day before. I already knew
who it was from. The New York postmark clearly showed that it was from Nathan
and Selina. Rose read the letter quickly and gasped, her face pale. I leaned
over her shoulder to read the letter, and was horrified by what it said.
Nathan said that Cal had found
out about their part in our escape from New York and had come to their house in
the night, drunk and threatening them with a gun. I couldn't believe it. For
one thing, it was amazing that Cal had actually discovered Nathan was involved.
Then there was the fact that he had threatened not only him and Selina, but
Lucy, as well, with a gun. How could he be so monstrous? Rose sat down at the
table, her forehead resting in her palm.
"Oh, my God! He is such a
bastard!" she suddenly gasped. "How can he point a gun at an innocent
little girl? He's a monster!"
I sat down beside her and put my
arm around her. "Hey, the important thing is that he doesn't know where we
are and he didn't actually fire the gun."
"I know, but I feel so
guilty. If I hadn't come to him for help, they never would have been at risk in
the first place. Oh, it's all my fault!" She started to cry and I pulled
her close, stroking her red curls.
"Rose, it's not your
fault," I told her. "It' nobody's fault but Cal's. He's the one in
the wrong here, not you."
"I can't believe he found
out. How could he have found out?"
"I don't know. Maybe someone
saw us and reported us to the police. At least Nathan put him off the track.
He's in California right now."
"Yes. That's something good
at least, I suppose."
I comforted her as best I could,
trying to reassure her that he was never going to find us, but if Cal could
find out that Nathan and Selina had helped us, why wouldn't he be able to find
out that we were in Chippewa Falls? What if he went back to New York and
threatened Nathan and Selina again? It seemed we hadn't heard the last of
Caledon Hockley.