LOVE LASTS FOR ETERNITY
Chapter Twenty
June 21, 1912
Santa Monica, California
Cal's POV
The last two months had been the
most frustrating of my life. I felt like my whole world was crumbling around
me. Everything had gone wrong.
Back at the start of April, I had
it all. I was rich, powerful, destined to marry into a well-respected family.
Nothing, it seemed, could go wrong. But it did.
I wished now that I had never
bought tickets back to America on that blasted ship. How could I have let this
happen? My fiancée stolen, right from under my nose, by a worthless gutter rat.
When I didn't find either of them on the Carpathia, I was comforted by the fact
that they were dead at the bottom of the Atlantic, as they deserved. But once
word got out about what had happened aboard the ship, things began to change.
People began to talk. I was stared at by the most respected members of high
society. They smiled and said hello as normal, but I could see it in their
eyes. They no longer saw me as a rich, respected steel tycoon, but as the man
who had had his fiancée stolen by someone beneath him. I walked with my head
held high, but inside I was burning.
Then, in New York, I found them
both to be alive. At the time, I was drinking large amounts of whiskey. It was
my only comfort. I found getting drunk to be a way of numbing the constant ache
inside my head. After discovering them to be alive, I set about my plan. I was
determined now. All was not lost after all. I had enough money to win Rose
back. I could afford all the advertising and police assistance I wanted. My
first act was to go to the police station that same night and have Missing
posters printed in the hundreds. Then I had them distributed all over the city.
And with such a high reward, surely someone would come forward with
information. Right?
No such luck. After finding the
posters to be of little use, I tried phase two. I was still drinking heavily at
the time, and after an unbelievable amount of investigating, I managed to track
down one of Rose's friends, who lived in New York. Nathan Calvert. It took a
while, but I eventually got him to tell me where Rose was. He told me they were
heading for California, to Santa Monica.
I made my way to the seaside town
as fast as I could, bringing with me a hired private investigator and the new
valet I had hired. He was good, I admit, but not a patch on Lovejoy, who had
died carrying out my orders. I was restless the whole journey. I felt certain I
had finally caught them at last.
But again, another dead end. I
searched the whole town, top to bottom. I asked at all the boarding houses,
every hotel, even beginning to interrogate the locals and tourists. After
finding another dead end, I was getting frustrated. It was like an endless game
of cat and mouse. I was preparing to make my way back to New York to
investigate further when I received a letter from a not-so-close friend who
lived in a remote area of Wisconsin called Chippewa Falls. The letter brought
joy to me, and a sense of victory. It seemed that I finally had them cornered.
My friend, Robert Thompson, he was called, wrote that she was using a false
name, Rose Smith, and that he thought that she wouldn't be leaving anytime
soon. And with that glorious, glorious news, I began to plan my trip to
Wisconsin.
I had to plan it out carefully.
After the last couple of failures, I didn't want this one to be messed up, too.
I decided to take my time planning the ambush, as Rose seemed to be staying put
for now. I decided I would make it as quick and as easy as possible. I would
turn up at the most unexpected time possible, and hopefully, the sight of my
gun would be enough to scare Rose into coming back to Philadelphia with me and
becoming my wife.
I couldn't wait to have Rose back
in my life. My life had become almost unbearable. I was constantly shadowed by
Ruth DeWitt Bukater. That woman was the most annoying woman I had ever met, and
I only put up with her because she might stop the marriage if I offended her. I
had to put up with her mindless chatter about who was doing what, and she was
forever planning the wedding, as if Rose was upstairs right at that moment. It
was becoming unbearable. Of course, I had to drag the woman along with me when
I went to Santa Monica, and we would have left for New York a lot sooner if
Ruth hadn't insisted on staying for just a little longer to meet some
well-known people in the area, something I said was pointless, but she said
that it was good to be known with people across the country. Honestly! As if
she didn't know enough people already!
The day I showed her the letter
from Mr. Thompson, we were sitting in the small lounge of the hotel suite we
were renting in Santa Monica, and after reading the letter, she nearly exploded
with delight. She was ever so pleased to hear of her daughter's whereabouts.
"Well, we must leave at
once!" she cried, and turned to leave to supervise the maids in packing.
"Ruth, we can't leave yet.
We must plan our strategy," I insisted.
She looked at me with surprise.
"Mr. Hockley, you talk as though we are launching an attack," she
said, giving a small laugh at the absurdity of it.
Oh, if you only knew, I thought to myself. "Of course not,
Ruth. I am merely saying that we do not want to startle Rose after the
unfortunate incidents aboard the Titanic."
Ruth nodded in agreement.
"Yes. I see your point. A wise move. Who knows what state she'll be in,
having to live amongst the common people when she is used to the splendor of
society?"
"I quite agree. I plan to
travel to this Chippewa Falls sometime around mid-July. I trust you will
accompany me?"
"Why, of course. This is,
after all, my daughter we are talking about. And despite her mistakes, I am
determined to be there to see her back on the straight and narrow."
I nodded in agreement and lit a
cigar. Taking a puff on it, I thought through my plan so far.