LOVE LASTS FOR ETERNITY
Chapter Four
Rose's POV
I followed Molly through the ship
in disbelief. How could Jack be alive? I had seen his body sink into the sea.
There was no way he could've survived either freezing or drowning. Yet Molly
seemed so certain. I let her pull me through the corridors of the ship. It was
nowhere near as grand as the Titanic, but it was a very nice ship nonetheless.
I knew it couldn't be true, but I still couldn't help hope that Molly's words
were true. Maybe Jack was alive? But what if Molly had made a mistake? The boat
had rowed off with me in it, not him. Could another have come back and found
Jack? No, I told myself firmly. He was dead and at the bottom of the
ocean. I'd seen it with my own eyes. Molly had simply made a mistake.
Molly, meanwhile, dragged me
through the whole ship, and eventually we ended up outside the ship's
infirmary. She opened the door and I felt my heart skip a beat. I broke free of
Molly's grasp and ran towards him. My one and only true love, Jack. He was
here. He was alive.
I ran towards his bed and threw
my arms around him, not caring that he wasn't even awake. I hugged him tight,
tears falling down my face. I buried my head in his shoulder, muttering,
"Oh, my God. You're alive! Oh, my God…" He suddenly squirmed in my
arms and groaned. He was waking up. I leaned back and unwound my arms from him.
I sat down beside him and watched him wake up. I was afraid to blink in case I
was imagining it. The man I loved, who I had lost in the freezing Atlantic, was
alive. I blinked hard, bracing myself for it all to disappear, but when I
opened my eyes, he was still there. He slowly opened his bright blue eyes and
blinked hard when he saw me. He had clearly thought me dead, too. I smiled at
him and he shook his head, as if trying to wake up.
"R-Rose?" he asked, his
voice a bit wobbly. I couldn't help the tears of joy falling from my eyes.
"Oh, Jack!" I sobbed.
"I thought you were dead!" He lifted his arm and brushed my hair out
of my eyes, trying to comfort me.
"I thought you were,
too," he said, his voice more steady as his body woke up. "Molly
checked the list for me and it said that Rose DeWitt Bukater was dead. But then
when I saw the name Rose Dawson, I thought it might just be you." I was
touched at how he had tried so hard to find me. I felt ashamed to think that
I'd simply given up all hope. I felt so disloyal to have just given up on him.
I cried harder at the thought.
"Oh, I'm so stupid!" I
shouted. "I didn't bother looking for you. I just gave up all hope. You
must hate me now." I lowered my head. He lifted it again with his hand and
made me look into his bright, sapphire blue eyes. I couldn't help but feel
myself go into a trance, looking into those beautiful eyes.
"Rose," he said firmly.
"Don't be so stupid. Of course I still love you. I love you with all my heart
and I always will. You saw me sink into the ocean. Of course you thought I was
dead, and I don't blame you. Just remember that I still love you from the
bottom of my heart and I always will--forever."
I smiled at him and said in a
shaky voice, "I love you, too, Jack, forever." We leaned forward and
kissed. We put our arms around each other and hugged tightly. "By the way,
what time is it?" Jack asked.
I was a bit confused about why he
wanted to know the time, but said anyway, "Just gone twelve. Why?" He
slumped back onto the pillows and sighed.
"Oh, God, here we go
again," he muttered, closing his eyes. I was confused now.
"What do you mean,
Jack?"
"Any minute now, they're
gonna come and make me take that damned medicine." I couldn't help but
roll my eyes.
"Jack, that damned medicine
is to help you get better."
"It tastes so horrible, I
can barely swallow it, and it makes me feel sick and drowsy," he whined.
"Jack, those are just side
effects. Believe it or not, it's to help you. Think of it like this. If you
take the medicine, you'll get better and we can start our lives together."
He looked at me, smiling.
"So, you're sure you want to
be with me? Remember, Rose, this is a big step you're taking. You're giving up
riches, jewels, nice clothes, food, the certainty of a warm bed to sleep in.
Remember that it’s not always fun and games being poor. It can sometimes be
hard and testing. I'm just saying that if you want to go back to Cal now, I
won't make you stay or hate you for it." I reached out and held his hand
tightly.
"Jack, I've made my decision
and I don't regret it one bit. I'm the happiest I've ever been in my whole life
when I'm with you. I know what I'm giving up and what I'm taking on, and I know
that all I want is you." He squeezed my hand back and simply smiled at me
adoringly.
"Oh, God. I love you,
Rose," he breathed.
"I love you, too. I can't
wait to start our life together! Where will we go? The only other person I know
in New York is my Grandma Thelma, who is an exact replica of my mother, inside
and out, if my memory recalls."
Jack thought for a moment, his
blue eyes narrowing in concentration. "Well, all the people I know are in
Chippewa Falls. My parents are dead, like I said, and I can't be sure we’ll
have a place to stay there. There's only one boarding house for the whole town
and it doesn’t always have a free room. There's one thing I know, and that's
that I'm not having you sleep on the streets. I make it sound like a cozy
camping trip, but it's not. It's dangerous. I had two close calls when I was in
Paris, and there is no way I'm gonna put you through that, full stop." I
was touched by his care for me and his determination to keep me safe. I wracked
my brains for anyone, anyone I knew who could offer us a roof over our heads.
Nothing.
Mother hadn't allowed me to
choose my own friends. She knew I would go for the ones she didn't approve of.
The poor ones, the spirited ones, the unladylike ones, the common ones. She had
chosen for me, had arranged fancy tea parties with her friends' daughters,
snobby, upper class girls in fancy frocks who gossiped about who was doing what
and how it shamed their families, an exact image of their mothers. I had stuck
through it all, but had secretly sneaked out to the stables and had struck up a
friendship with the stable boy, Nathan Calvert. I heard alarm bells ringing
inside my head when I thought of him. Nathan Calvert! That's it! He
would never turn his childhood friend away. He and I had been inseparable since
we were young. When Mother and I had traveled to Europe, Nathan and I had
secretly exchanged addresses and kept in touch with regular letters. I had a
very close friendship with Nathan, but we felt nothing more than that for each
other. We were very close friends, but I hadn't thought about becoming anything
more than that. What did worry me when I thought of Nathan was what Jack would
think. I loved Jack dearly and I hoped he would understand that Nathan and I
were childhood friends and wanted to be nothing more than that. I prayed that
the love of my life would understand how I felt about my one and only true
friend.