A MISUNDERSTANDING
Chapter Two
Another Mistress
Isabella would not admit to the fact that her
husband had held many mistresses in their own house. However, the fact could
not be denied. She had never confronted him about it, instead choosing to
ignore it in the hopes that it would go away.
She came to the conclusion that it really
wasn’t a great harm to anyone. A woman would enter his life for about a week,
share his company, and be on her way back to her own life. No damage. Yet, as
trivial as Isabella liked to pretend that this matter was, her heart pained her
every time she was witness to another mistress entering her house.
So it was a bleak day for Isabella when she
noticed the mysterious woman from the park frequently coming over to her house.
The previous mistresses had all had a particular manner about them, where they
almost bowed their heads in shame, giggled at any onslaught given to them by
Cal, and held a mournful expression around Isabella in public. But this
girl--Rose--she was different. Her head held high, she would go into Cal’s
office when he specifically said he was not to be disturbed. Then, on the odd
occasion of ever running into the Hockleys in the street, Rose would show
affection for Cal just through her looks, yet she was always kind and polite to
Isabella.
This behavior did not suit Mrs. Hockley. How
dare this woman think she could waltz in her life and care less about what she
was doing to her? And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t flip that
perfect hair of hers and smile that perfect smile. It seemed as if the woman
did perfect things, looked perfect, and lived her perfect life as she pleased.
Isabella was not a mean person, and more
often than not did her best to get along well with others, but she could not
stop the deep, brooding anger that she felt for Rose.
Her first task was to find out everything she
could about Cal’s new mistress. This did not take long, as the entire city
seemed to be a large park of gossipers, and they all had just one person as
their topic.
Rose was the daughter of Ruth DeWitt Bukater,
and had been engaged to her very Caledon about five years earlier. They had
taken a sea voyage back to America on the Titanic. They were separated after
the sinking and each had presumed the other dead for half a decade before Rose
had learned of Cal’s whereabouts and came back to Pennsylvania after living in
California for three years. Her life during this period of time was still a
mystery to everyone. Upon arriving here, she was staying at a top-notch hotel
with her two children, no father to name.
With this information on hand, Isabella came
to the conclusion that she must finally confront Cal. He never became
particularly violent with her, and she knew that she could not go on living
knowing that his past with Rose had been kept secret from her.
One dark night, her heart pounding in her
chest, she approached Cal and asked, "Is there something that you’d like
to tell me about Rose?"
His dark eyes found their way to hers, and he
replied, "No. Why do you mention her?"
"I’ve noticed that she’s been spending a
lot of time with you lately, especially alone in your office."
For the first time, she watched as a veil
seemed to be lifted from his eyes, "Isabella, it's no secret that I’ve
enjoyed the company of other women throughout our marriage, but, I assure you
that this is not the case with Rose."
"Then why didn’t you ever tell me that
you were engaged to her?"
"I did tell you that I had a fiancée
before meeting you."
"But you never said it was Rose DeWitt
Bukater." Her anger was rising.
"I didn’t think that it would matter.
And I have no reason to defend myself; I’ve done nothing wrong."
"Nothing? Then what exactly is it that
you’ve been doing with Rose in your office?"
"The relationship that Rose and I share
is special. We communicate feelings and hopes and dreams. It is
beautiful."
Her hands and arms already beginning to
tremble from the hot anger pulsating through her, Isabella asked, "And
what are these thoughts that you share? As your wife, I think that I at least
have the right to know that much."
His eyes only showing truth, Cal replied,
"That we love one another."
The anger seeped out of her very pores and
was replaced by deep blue sadness. She supposed this was the feeling you felt
when your husband was madly in love with another woman.