OLIVIA
Chapter One
"What a wonderful day,
Emma," Olivia Barlow said as she sat down at the dressing table in her
room. She glanced at herself and decided she liked what she saw. At eighteen,
she was just coming into her own. She had grown taller and slimmer over the
summer and she even thought she had gotten prettier. Cool blue eyes were framed
by dark, thick lashes and her ashen blonde hair framed her face and fell to her
waist in soft waves. She flipped it forward over her shoulder and began to
brush it, curling it around her fingers every so often.
"What are you so happy
about?" fourteen-year-old Emma grumped from her bed.
"Need you even ask?"
She laid the brush down and turned to her sister. "Caledon Hockley is
coming to see me today. He is so handsome and debonair. Every girl thinks
so."
"Caledon Hockley?" Her
sister threw back the blankets and slid from the bed. "I don’t like him.
He gives me the willies."
"Oh, pooh! Every man gives
you the willies. You’re such a child. When are you going to grow up?"
Olivia shook her head and resumed brushing her hair.
"Never!" Emma stuck her
tongue out at her older sister. "I like being a child. Grown-ups have no
fun. It’s always do this and do that, and you have to act so silly to get a man
to notice you. Who cares, anyway?"
"I care, that’s who."
Olivia stood and spun herself around. "Caledon Hockley is no ordinary man,
Emma. He’s one of the wealthiest men of Philadelphia society. He’s the catch of
the town, and he’s coming to see me!"
"He’s so old, though."
Emma rubbed her eyes.
"He’s not old. He’s mature.
Besides, thirty is not old."
"I’m never getting
married!" Emma declared. "I’m not going to have a man tell me what to
do."
"If you weren’t such a
child, you would understand how silly that sounds. Haven’t you paid attention
to Mother and Father at all? Mother lets him think he’s making all of the
decisions, but really it’s her. She gets what she wants and he gets what he
wants. That’s the way my marriage is going to be. When I get married, that
is."
Olivia walked to the window and
pulled back the white lace curtain to look down at the neatly manicured lawn
that was several acres in width. She smiled wistfully as she imagined she and
Cal walking along the path down to the pond. She would take his arm and he
would hold her hand. When she looked up at him, she would smile and he would
fall madly in love with her. She already was in love with him, and she had only
talked to him once. When her parents told her that he had asked to call on her,
she almost fainted with happiness.
She also knew that it had only
been six months since he had lost his fiancée on the Titanic. But her love for
him would heal any pain he still might feel from that. While she was sad for
his loss, she knew that she was better suited for him than Rose DeWitt Bukater.
Olivia and Rose had grown up in
the same circles and gone to the same schools, but she couldn’t say that they
were more than acquaintances most of the time. Rose was always different, and
Olivia never understood her. She always seemed to be unhappy and discontented
with everything.
Once, Rose’s family was having a
party and Olivia was on her way to the powder room to freshen up when she saw
Rose and her mother in a heated conversation on the balcony. One of the glass
doors was partially open, so she stepped closer to hear what it was about. She
knew she was eavesdropping, and if she had been caught she would have been
mortified, so she pretended to look in her purse while listening to what was
being said.
"I don’t care, Mother. You
can’t make me!" Rose snapped hotly.
"I can and I will. Do you
understand me, Rose?" Ruth’s cool voice countered. "This is very
important, and I won’t allow you to destroy the only chance we may have."
"I don’t care about any of
that. This is my life, and I don’t want to be forced to do something that I
don’t want to do."
"We all make difficult
choices, Rose."
"You’re not giving me a choice.
You’re making me do this! Don’t you even care about what I want?"
Ruth’s tone changed then.
"Of course I do. I want you to be happy, darling. And you will be if you
just do this. This is the best thing for everyone."
"Everyone? Don’t you mean
you, Mother?"
Olivia peeked through the opening
to see Rose walk to the balcony and cross her arms tightly. It was plain Rose
was upset about something, but Olivia still couldn’t discern what the
conversation was about.
"I wish I could just leave
here," Rose said in a low voice. "I wish I could fly away and never
be found again. Then I could live my life the way I want."
"Don’t be ridiculous,
Rose," Ruth scolded. "Now, come…we’re going back in, and I won’t hear
any more talk of running away. Remember what I said, and smile, Rose. You look
so much prettier when you do."
In a few moments, the two women
were headed for the doors, and Olivia hurried away so as not to be caught.
Later, when she thought of the conversation she had overheard between Rose and
her mother, she couldn’t help but wonder what they were arguing about. She
wondered why Rose would want to run away. Was her life that bad? Even after she
had become engaged to Cal, she didn’t seem happy, and that was something Olivia
couldn’t understand. If she were engaged to Caledon Hockley, she would be the
happiest girl in the world.