LOVE LASTS FOR ETERNITY
Chapter Eight

Rose's POV

It brought back painful memories, telling the story of how I'd met and gotten engaged to Cal. I felt sick to my stomach when I told them about the times he'd hit, threatened, and intimidated me. It hurt even more when I told them about how many times he'd pressured me to come to his bed. Halfway through, Jack and Nathan looked furious, their fists clenched like they wanted to tear Cal to shreds. I guess they probably did. Jack looked as bad as I felt when I told Nathan and Selina about the Titanic. They turned ghastly pale hearing about the details of the sinking and what Cal had done during it. I was nearly in tears by the time I'd finished. I felt Jack's arms wrap around my shoulders. I leaned against him and cried, unable to continue.

Reliving it like that made the realization of what had happened finally sink in. Fifteen hundred people had died on a ship they trusted, which didn't hold enough lifeboats for more than half the people on board. Those poor third class people who were trapped below decks, left to die. Those men who had sneaked onto lifeboats while innocent children drowned in the icy water. It made me burn with fury. I felt a mix of emotions--guilt at having lived when so many had died, anger at the White Star Line for the lack of lifeboats, grief for the fifteen hundred dead. I didn't know what to feel. I just buried my head in Jack's chest and cried. I felt Selina place a comforting arm on my shoulder. Nathan stayed sitting still, staring at the opposite wall. His eyes were blank, his fists clenched. It was like he was in shock. I didn't blame him. His best friend had just been in one of the worst shipwrecks in years and had been living with an abusive fiancé.

When he finally spoke, he muttered, "How could he? How could he do that to you, Rose? He ought to have died that night!"

I had to admit that he had a very good point. Cal had selfishly tried to save himself instead of helping anyone else. It was atrocious that he should be able to get away with it.

"So, I am guessing you two will be needing to rebuild your lives after this," said Selina, changing the subject a bit.

"Yeah. I guess so," Jack replied.

"Yes. We'll have to get some new clothes and stuff," I chimed in.

"And I'm assuming you want to get rid of those," said Nathan, indicating Jack's wrists.

I looked at them and suddenly realized he still had the steel handcuffs locked onto his wrists. I had grown used to seeing them on him and had forgotten all about them. He agreed that he should go and see to getting them off tomorrow, as well.

"I know a locksmith about fifteen minutes away who could help you out," Nathan said.

"Okay. I'll go there, then."

"I'll do the shopping, then. I know what'll happen if I let you do it," I said.

Jack looked at me. "And what does that mean?"

I rolled my eyes. "You're a man. Men always mess up the shopping."

"Yeah. That is actually a good point. You do the shopping, then."

"And what do you plan to do for the rest of the day?"

"Oh, I've got something in mind..."

I wondered what he had in mind. I couldn't think of anything, so I just gave up. Selina said that she and Lucy would come with me tomorrow to help.

"That would be wonderful. Does Lucy like shopping?"

"Oh, yes. She loves it! Watch out, though. She'll be picking out all sorts of little girl dresses for you with bows and ribbons. She's very into girly dresses!"

"Ha! Well, that's definitely not what I'm looking for, so I'll just tell her that they'd look a lot nicer on her than me."

"Oh, God. Don't. She'll be onto me then, begging me to buy them all. I'm telling you, if we gave into Lucy's every wish, this place would be a fairy princess castle of flowery pink furniture and girly flouncy dresses. She might seem like a sweet little angel, but she's a little madam when she wants to be!"

"Yeah, she is," Nathan said. "Like someone else I know used to be..."

I hit him on the arm. "Hey! It's not my fault I was brought up surrounded by posh, hoity toity brats. Doesn't mean I was one of them. Anyway, you were quite a strange person yourself."

"I was not!"

"Were, too!"

I thought back to when we were younger. Nathan had seemed quite odd to me, as all the boys his age I knew--not that Mother let me associate with many--were miniature Cals. He was a funny, cocky boy with messy clothes and tousled hair. I'd found him interesting and a fun guy to be with.

We told Jack and Selina about when we were younger. Like the time Mother had caught me on the back of one of the horses with Nathan and had been furious. Or the time we were having a tree climbing race and I fell and tore my skirt, causing Mother to explode. When she told me we were going to France, I thought she was doing it to get me away from him, fearing I would become a little too close. Now I knew it was because of Cal, however. Nathan even found a couple of photographs he still had from the time I had stolen the family's expensive camera and we'd taken pictures of ourselves riding the horses and larking about in the stables. Jack seemed amused to see pictures of me fooling around in a mucky horse stable, wearing a fancy, upper class dress. I looked so happy in those photos, taken weeks before leaving for France.

It felt good to relive those happy memories. I didn't even know Nathan had kept those crumpled old photos all these years. I felt bad that I hadn't kept any memorabilia of our friendship, but then again, after everything that had happened, the chances of me still having it was slim to none.

I wished my life had taken a different turn. I wished I'd never left for France, that I'd never met Cal. But then again, if that hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't have met Jack. And that was definitely something I didn't want to change.

About two hours later, Selina said she would start to make dinner.

"I'll give you a hand," I said, determined to pull my weight and learn how to cook. I'd never been taught housewife skills. Mother had always left those jobs to the servants. Now I would need all the practice I could get. At first, Selina refused to let me help, saying I was a guest and shouldn't have to, but I was certain I wanted to, and she gave in when I said I needed the practice.

Once in the kitchen, I watched as Selina took five pieces of chicken out of the icebox, one of them slightly smaller for Lucy, and slid them into the lit oven. She showed me how to peel potatoes and, after a couple of cuts on my fingers, I soon grasped the skill. Once I had put the potatoes to boil, Selina showed me how to shell peas. It was a fiddly job, but once I'd had some practice, I managed to shell the peas quite quickly. Soon they, too, were boiling with the potatoes. While we waited for the food to cook, Selina gave me a quiz on what I'd learned.

"And what's the most important thing about cooking chicken?" she asked.

I wracked my brain. "To make sure that it's properly cooked to avoid the risk of food poisoning."

Selina smiled. "Great! And how long does it take for potatoes to boil?"

"About twenty minutes, but pierce the potato with a fork halfway through to make sure it's cooking properly," I recited.

Selina was amazed at how quickly I'd learned. "Pretty soon you'll be able to bake cakes by yourself if you keep this up!" she praised.

I swelled with pride. I had always been a quick learner, especially when it was something I really wanted to learn, and cooking was definitely one of those things.

When we finally served the food, everyone complimented my cooking, even Lucy. Nathan said my chicken was superb, not undercooked but not too crispy either. Which was a good thing, said Selina, because Lucy was a fussy toddler who refused to eat anything that was burnt.

"The potatoes are great, too," said Jack. "Was it your idea to boil them with melted butter?"

I nodded proudly. "Well, I just thought that if you put butter on them when they're cooked, surely they’d taste even better when they're cooked with butter?"

"You are definitely right there, Rose," said Selina.

"Yum!" came the little voice of Lucy. She dug into her meal, finishing it all, even the peas, which some fussy toddlers refused to eat.

Nathan had to give her a light scolding for dropping a piece of chicken on the floor to a begging puppy, but she just slipped little bits under the table behind her father's back after that. I saw her several times, but didn't have the heart to inform her Nathan. Eventually, Nathan shut the pups out in the back garden for a while to keep them out of the way of the food. After dinner, while Selina and I washed the dishes, Nathan and Jack fed the dogs, which was quite a sight. Those pups were deadly when they were hungry, and standing in between them and the food bowls was fatal! When they finally came back inside, they both had muddy dog marks all over their trouser legs. It was really quite funny, but they didn't seem to think so.

By the time all the household chores were done and the dogs were all sorted out for the night, it was quite late. Lucy knew when her bedtime was, but kept quiet, taking advantage of the situation. Her mother, however, eventually noticed the time and carried her daughter up to bed. Nathan showed me and Jack up to the guestroom, where we would be sleeping. By about ten o’clock, we had all said good night and turned in to bed. I was exhausted. It had been such an eventful day. I was only too happy to fall asleep.

However, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking. Thinking about so many things. I knew we couldn't stay with Nathan and Selina permanently. We needed to sort ourselves out as soon as possible. I decided I would go job hunting tomorrow. I wondered what sort of work I could do, having never worked a day in my life before. I turned over and gently shook Jack's shoulder. He stirred and opened his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked when he was awake.

"I was thinking. We can't stay with Nathan forever. We have to get back on our feet, but we need money to start off with. And who's going to hire me when I haven't worked a day in my life? I can't do anything. I can't sew. I can barely cook. I can't draw like you can. I feel so useless!"

He put his arm around me and held me close. "Rose, you aren't useless. There's got to be something you can do. And it's not your fault you can't do anything. It's because your mother wouldn't let you. And you don't need to start working straightaway. We've got the money from Cal's coat to start us off. That should get us by until you can learn a trade."

I considered. Jack made sense. We did have enough money for the time being. Why didn't I think of that? I felt so much better now.

"Oh, Jack. What would I do without you?" I asked, kissing him. Before we knew it, the kiss became passionate, and before we knew it, we were making love again, absorbed in our love for one another.

*****

The next morning, I awoke to the glorious smell of food. It smelled of eggs, bacon, and toast. I yawned and sat up. Sunlight poured through the window and shone right in my face. I rubbed my eyes. I looked over at Jack, who was awake and staring at me, smiling.

"Good morning, beautiful," he said.

I leaned over and kissed him. "Now it is," I said.

We quickly dressed in the clothes Nathan and Selina had lent us until we could buy some more. Our own clothes had to be thrown away, as they were so water damaged. We decided we would go out and do what we'd planned for the day as soon as possible.

When we went downstairs, we found Nathan sitting on the sofa, reading the paper, and Lucy playing on the floor with the puppies. Rosie looked perfectly happy to have the little girl play with her offspring. Perhaps she was just protective. I could understand that. I would be, too, if it were me. The strong smell of food cooking came from he kitchen. I went into the room to find Selina cooking breakfast. She smiled and said good morning to us.

"Good morning," we replied. I stayed in the kitchen and helped with the cooking while Jack joined Nathan in the parlor. They both cleaned out the dog bowls and saw to the dogs' breakfast while we cooked.

It was tricky work, frying the eggs, because the oil spat at me angrily, but soon I learned to control the temperature and they cooked just fine. I could slice the bread easily enough, but toasting it under the grill was trickier than frying the eggs because it toasted so quickly. I left one slice alone for a second and it burned to a crisp. After several attempts, I got the hang of it.

We all sat down and ate while talking about the day ahead.

"Lucy? Do you want to come shopping with me and Rose?" Selina asked her daughter.

"Yeah!" Lucy replied, dunking toast into her fried egg.

"Well, shall we leave about ten?" Selina asked me.

"Yes. Sure," I replied.

"We'll leave about the same time, then," said Nathan. He was going to go with Jack.

After breakfast, Selina and I washed up and gave the kitchen a quick cleaning while Nathan and Jack shut the dogs upstairs in the spare bedroom, which had been turned into a room where they could stay when nobody was in. Selina went to help Lucy get dressed. At last, we finally left the house to do the day's tasks.

Chapter Nine
Stories