ROSEDALE IN APRIL
Chapter Twenty-Two
As the ancient southern custom dictated, the
coy Miss Rose DeWitt Bukater was well coached in the feminine wiles of the
seductive art of hand-held fan flirting. Whether it be lightly fluttered under
the nose demurely exposing a lady’s lowered eyelashes or a deliberate languorous
sweeping motion across a bored face while lazily yawning to set a boorish,
uninteresting gent disheartened and on his way, it was a covert language all of
its own. With a quick flick of the wrist to open or close the fan shut, it all
held its own subtle meanings. Hidden, underlying significance traditionally
designed to keep the opposite sex guessing…and intrigued.
This cool April night, the enchanting and
vivacious Rose was flat out bored. Captain Jack Dalton was currently ignoring
her, deeply engrossed in private conversation with Sergeant Ryan and several
other Army officers in the parlor. Perusing maps laid out over a massive
library table and murmuring low amongst themselves as if they held the secrets
of the blasted war on that silly insignificant scroll of paper. And being idle
was something that Rose found hard to take. What to do? What to do? Of
course, she only desired one man’s attentions but how to get it without
appearing downright outrageously blunt? And as her shimmering jade eyes listlessly
drifted around the luxurious room, they suddenly collided with the dark
admiring gaze of Private Fabrizio di Rossi, the Captain’s infatuated teenage
lackey. Fabrizio was dutifully standing at attention by the double doors as if
to ridiculously guard his superiors from enemy Confederate marauders but
nevertheless slowly perusing her body as if he wished to know exactly what was
concealed under her skirts. A small, calculating smile touched Rose’s pouting
red lips. Purposefully picking up the white lace fan lying on the side table
and with that all telling flick of her wrist, the fan opened up.
Truthfully however, the Captain wasn’t that
deep in thought as erroneously speculated by the coy Texas belle. At least not
to the point that he missed the abrupt movement out of the corner of observant
ice blue eyes. As he curiously stared at the outright flirtatious tricks of his
mistress, something akin to insane jealousy flurried into his brain. A strange
sensation that up until he had arrived at Rosedale had been a completely
foreign emotion; and consequently, one that he didn’t have the slightest clue
how to handle. Jack caught the surreptitious simpering grins passed between the
two and his hot temper began to dangerously boil.
"Private di Rossi!" Jack warningly
barked. "I think the latrine needs a good cleaning out—NOW! You’re
dismissed!"
"Yes, Sir, Captain Dalton!"
Saluting his superior officer and spinning on his heel, Fabrizio forcefully
exhaled the breath he had been holding, certain in the embarrassing fact that
he had been caught secretly admiring the Captain’s beautiful young companion.
Instantly, Rose belligerently sprang to her
tiny feet in heated protest. "I don’t think that was necessary, Captain
Dalton!" Rose protectively admonished.
"That’s just it, Rose. You weren’t
thinking. Now get to our room and I’ll be up shortly." Jack’s blue eyes
shot warning sparks at his challenging redheaded lover.
"I’m not a child you can command!"
Rose fiercely ground out.
"Then stop acting like one!" He
grimly emphasized in a ridiculing harsh tone.
"Damn, dirty Yankee!" Rose
thundered before storming out of the room in a rage and deliberately slamming
the door causing it to clash like a loud clap of thunder.
"All of you are dismissed, except for
Sergeant Ryan. We’ll finish this up tomorrow at mid morning." Jack calmly
ordered as a suppressed tick quivered along his clenched jaw line.
In reality, Jack was more angry at himself
than anyone at that precise moment. As a pretense, he had insisted that Rose
stay in the parlor during military discussions with his men to try and keep her
out of trouble. But the fact of the matter was, it was actually so he could
discreetly ogle her beauty when no one was looking. He couldn’t quite figure
out why he was so obsessed with this particular female. While he admitted that
she held no rivals in physical beauty, there was something about Rose that
filled up his heart. Before, after he had relieved himself with a woman, he
could hardly wait to take his leave—avoiding clinging females at all costs. But
with Rose, he found himself wanting her by his side after they made love and
even within his eyesight at all times. Regrettably, he was becoming way too
involved emotionally. Therefore, Jack made a decision right then and there, he
had to find a way to break away. While it was true that the war that was
currently being waged between the North and South would eventually divide them
geographically, he had to find a way to take his leave of her spiritually as
well. He must find a way…somehow…someway…for both their sakes.
Furthermore, his uncharacteristic selfishness
was a recent personal flaw he was having an even harder time of dealing with
internally. For his company of men were well aware that Rose was his own
personal concubine, a term that he abhorred to consider but astutely realized
as a dishonorable fact. Therefore, they all knew that their commanding officer
continually satisfied his own carnal lusts again and again seemingly without
any regard for their own grievous predicaments. Nonetheless, the Union soldiers
had not been allowed or given leave to sate their own sexual energies in
literally months. Rose was stirring up rampant discord among the troops by
reminding them of the weakness of the flesh. Jack, on the other hand, was unfairly
pulling rank so to speak. For their Captain could have all that he desired and
needed…Rose was strictly an unjust perk for their commander.
Agitated and guilt-ridden, Jack picked up a
heavy crystal decanter and sloshed a stiff drink of whiskey into a glass before
slamming the bottle down on the table. "Shit! I don’t know what’s gotten
into me, Tommy!"
Tommy Ryan raised a brow and a mocking smile
passed over his lips before offering, "You don’t? Perhaps, you’re falling
for the lady, Jack."
"Don’t be ridiculous, Tommy! It’s just
that I saw the lusting look in Private di Rossi’s eyes which made me
realize...well, could you resist such a gorgeous woman’s blatant attentions if
they were directed at you, especially if you’d been celibate for so long?"
Jack derisively scoffed.
"Are you suggesting that I haven’t,
Jack? Besides, that little encounter with Ms. Dupuis that is…but let me remind
you that the boy hasn’t ever had any…" Tommy trailed off.
"Sorry, Tommy…I realize the boy is a
virgin. Hell, Rose is screwing up my mind! Dammit, I just impulsively ordered
one of my best men to clean out a disgusting shithouse because he happened to
smile in appreciation at an attractive woman." Jack incredulously
reasoned.
"Not just any woman, Jack. What
you mean is your woman…don’t you?" Tommy cleverly corrected.
Jack stared out of the window with his back
turned not denying or admitting the words he innately knew as truth. But he
didn’t want or need a woman at this stage in his life…for a soldier’s
life was too uncertain and realistically there could never be a guarantee of
his fate while in battle. An undetermined destiny that could end his life in a
blink of an eye by an enemy’s sword or bullet. And where would that leave Rose?
She was so young and needed to get on with her life, without him, although the
notion literally stuck in his craw. He had to stop acting the love struck fool
and being so confounded selfish!
"Captain, you know that Fabrizio and
Rose are both very young and inexperienced in the ways of love. The pup’s
hormones are raging out of control and to top it off, this place has such a
strange, mysterious romantic aura that stirs a man’s libido to high heaven.
Everybody, including myself, feels it…literally breaths it every day here at
Rosedale. But moreover, a stunning youthful unmarried girl just happened to
notice the enamored Private and innocently smiled. But I suspect, she was only
being friendly and gracious but most likely and in all probability just trying
to get your attention in the only way she knew how…unless…"
Tommy wisely let that taunting word hang mysteriously in the air.
"Unless what?" Jack spun around
with a dark scowl crinkling his brow.
"Unless you’re not giving the lady all
that she needs. Of course, I could be wrong." Tommy exaggeratedly shrugged
in mockery.
"Let me ease your false suspicions,
Sergeant! I give the lady everything she wants and then some.
Now, I have some unfinished business to attend to upstairs!" As Jack stomped
out of the room, he halted at the door and menacingly shot back over his
shoulder as if in afterthought. "Oh and Sergeant…why don’t you go help the
innocent Private with the latrine on your way out!"
Tommy stood shaking his head in rueful
amusement but he had to good-naturedly laugh for Jack had taken everything he
had tried to tell his friend all wrong. Jack simply didn’t get it! For Tommy
hadn’t meant just the body’s physical pleasures because emotional love
was what he reasoned that the naive Rose DeWitt Bukater desired above all else.
Because that was the elusive beacon of light that everyone required in their
lives to be whole and truly happy…even his stubborn life-long best friend. The
poor Captain was falling for the girl whether he wished to face the cold hard
fact or not. And poor Rose…she was about to face the thorny dragon in less time
than it takes for a cat to lick its arse! Yes, the latrine would definitely be
preferable to the forthcoming squabbling tirade that was about to erupt in the
room next door to his tonight! Another sleepless night in Texas…dammit, he was
thinking seriously of requesting a change in his sleeping arrangements from his
Captain…like real soon!
"Hell, at least I could sleep in
the latrine!" Tommy comically complained out loud to an empty room.
Upstairs, Rose was enraged at being banished
to the master’s chambers like a naughty child and was furiously pacing…waiting
to pounce with claws bared. Detecting heavy foot falls outside their room, Rose
twirled around with arms akimbo as Jack stepped into view. Immediately sensing
the precarious situation, he raised a finger in ominous warning.
"Don’t say a word, wench, I’m not in the
mood." Jack sinisterly ordered as he impatiently threw his hat on the bed.
"Oh? And what mood are you in Captain
Yank!" Rose sarcastically flung.
"Right now I want to pull down your
drawers and spank your backside!" Jack scowled.
"You forget, Captain, that you forbid me
to wear any!" Rose wittily reminded him.
The hilarity of that admission struck him and
a low rumble vibrated in his chest. Fighting a grin that threatened to spread
across his lips, Jack raised his hand as if to explain and started to plead in
earnest.
"I forgot…but let me try to explain my
actions, Rose." Jack wiped his brow as he began to pace.
Crossing her arms, Rose crooked a finely
arched brow impatiently waiting as her toes tapped the floor.
"My men have been without female
companionship for months now. It’s a fact of life that men need to relieve
certain tensions with a woman or our primal base instincts become repressed and
all hell can virtually break loose. They see you fluttering your eyelashes and
wiggling your delectable body that could drive them into a mindless rut. They
might lose control, you know, and I might not be there to stop them. And where
would that leave you?"
"I’m not intentionally…" Rose
defensively rebuked but Jack impatiently cut her off.
"I’m not saying that you are…it’s
just…they see me and know we’re…having sex and…"
"And what’s all right for their Captain
should be all right for them?" Rose intuitively interjected not allowing
him to finish.
"Precisely, Rose. We’ve all shared women
before. Don’t look so shocked. Hell, nearly every man visits brothels and
there’s never enough whores to go around; so therefore, we might have to wait
our turn sometimes!"
"How disgusting!" Rose repulsively
snarled.
"Maybe…but is that what you want?
To be held down, repeatedly raped and passed around because regardless of how
loyal my men are…shit! A woman like you can tempt young studs like Private di
Rossi to commit outright mutiny regardless of my commands to the
contrary!"
Rose stood with glowering green eyes narrowed
and then derisively snorted while turning her back as if to dismiss his lame
excuse. Jack spun her back around, impatiently giving her a little shake for
her undivided attention. Cradling her chin in the crook of his finger, he
tilted her head back so he could look into bottomless depths of emerald pools.
"I don’t want to see that happen, Rose!
You have to realize what my men see in you."
Introspectively, Jack lifted a tendril of her
long, silky hair and curled it around his fingers. "Hair like this…like
blood fire, wild and untamable with a life of its own. Pretty combs can’t even
control it because sooner or later it falls like hot copper threads around your
shoulders. Hair that begs for a man to touch and smell and tangle in his
hands."
Jack then caressed her exposed collarbone and
leisurely ran his fingers across the ridge before he huskily murmured,
"Skin like this…smooth as dogwood petals and pale as polished pearl. And
you so enjoy showing it off. You wear your dresses cut so low the whole of
Texas holds their breath when you walk."
Then his index finger came up to outline the
curve of her slightly parted lips before he throatily rasped, "A sensuous
mouth like this…like the heart of a sweet, ripe plum. One kiss from these lips
can ruin a man. Make him crazy with a need to possess you." With a voice
that sounded like a scratch deep in his throat, his mouth went suddenly dry and
he swallowed hard to breathe before whispering, "And if they knew what I
do, that you were born to hunger for a man between your legs. The incredible
heavenly pleasures you could give them if you so desired." Abruptly, Jack
released her and stepped away before partially revealing, "It’d kill
me…" Jack suddenly stopped his unrehearsed and unintentional flow of words
feeling as if he had unwittingly fallen into a hell pit and realized too late
that his soul was doomed. It jolted him back to reality with an intensity that
gripped his heart and sent blazing fire streaking through his blood.
Silence, but for the ticking of a clock above
the mantle. Rose’s shoulders appeared rigid as if she would shatter if he as so
much as touched her again. She didn’t move, didn’t breathe, just stared at his
back with glassy green eyes wide and unblinking. Her body felt all of a sudden
fragile and tense and trembling. Her lower lip quivered as her heart
frantically raced while fighting back the tears threatening to stream down
flushed ivory cheekbones. The soul searing declaration just whispered had
unexpectedly taken her emotions by storm. Poetry flowed through his tender
compliments of her physical attributes then unfortunately reminded her with
naked honesty the liberties that she had shamelessly allowed him. Consenting
liberties that seemed as natural as breathing with the Captain.
Rose forced her intoxicated mind to digress
as she wisely caught the Captain’s underlying meaning. And although she
seriously doubted the truth of his fanatical concerns as to her welfare, she
rationally albeit impulsively suggested, "Captain Dalton, why don’t you
get your men some prostitutes then?"
Somewhat shocked at Rose’s outlandish
suggestion, Jack dubiously rebuked, "That’s all well and good but
where…"
"At Diamond Bessie’s, of course!
Besides, Marie could probably use the business right now…dirty Yankees or not.
One can’t be too choosy nowadays, I suppose."
Jack stood in shocked silence. She never
ceased to amaze him.
"You are a brazen wench…come here!"
Jack’s sensual bow-shaped mouth twisted into a lop-sided grin at her witty
defamatory comments as to their Northern citizenship ties. But mainly, Rose’s
naivete that a lowly common whore would have any heartfelt reservations
whatsoever as to where a paying customer’s wartime loyalties might be was so
ludicrous and yet so sweetly innocent.
Pulling her to him, Jack tenderly and
gratefully kissed her as if she had amazingly solved the piece to a great
puzzle. He gently slanted across her garnet lips breathing in the sweet essence
that made this innocent woman so special. A purity that he had vindictively
stolen and heartlessly exploited since that first day he had lain hungry eyes
upon her.
All of a sudden a sickening rolling of her
stomach prompted Rose to break the pleasing contact and hesitantly peer up at
smoldering eyes of sapphires.
"Captain, will you be going with them to
Jefferson?" Rose awkwardly stammered.
"Well, of course, I’m their superior
officer!" Jack cockily declared.
Chewing on the inside of her bottom lip and
frowning, a sense of desperation washed over her. Tragically, Rose began to
regret her suggested overblown solution to the men’s celibate dilemmas as she
reluctantly clarified, "And are you going to be with one of Marie’s
girls?" Butterflies furiously fluttered in the pit of Rose’s nervous
belly. Stark fear of the unknown and an insecurity like none she had ever experienced
caused her heart to swell nigh to exploding. Time came to a trembling halt as
she fearfully stared up into twinkling blue stars. Reassuring words were there
on the tip of Jack’s tongue. Gritting his teeth, he forced them back and told
himself he had to let her go. With the taste of her still in his mouth, warming
his blood like fine bourbon, he knew if he backed down now, he was a lost
man…damned if he wasn’t already.
"Of course, every man needs a little
variety, Rose!" Jack nonchalantly confirmed while his heart shattered and
his soul screamed in denial.
Before she could stop it, Rose’s hand came up
and harshly connected with the Captain’s left cheek rocking him back on his
heels.
"You unimaginable, insufferable
bastard!" Rose sneered.
With the unexpected stinging slap still
ringing in his ears and scorching the side of his face, Jack viciously grabbed
her by the arms and crushed her to his chest before his mouth swooped down
hard, bruising and punishing her scarlet lips. She struggled briefly and although
her lips parted allowing his tongue to sweep inside her, she refused to kiss
him back. Her eyelids slid closed as a whimper escaped her throat. She went
heavy in his arms as if every bone in her body had liquefied forcing Jack to
slide one arm around her waist to keep her on her feet. Slowly her eyes opened
and Rose tore her mouth from his and deliberately wiped the invisible evidence
of the hurtful contact from her aching lips as if in distaste. Deep color
flushed her face and for a split second a hint of vulnerability flashed in her
green eyes as they fixed him with an intensity that held him paralyzed and
fighting the insane need to reach for her again.
"I hope you catch something and rot in
hell!" Rose direly threatened with a slight crack in her voice.
As she furiously bolted out of the bedroom
and onto the second-story balcony, a taunting cynical laugh echoed throughout
the mansion.
"Damn, dirty, filthy Yankee!" Rose
disgustingly screeched while emphasizing each word with loathing and contempt.
Heavily leaning against the balustrade, she inhaled a deep cleansing breath
before letting it out in a rush. Staring up into the moonlit ebony sky, a sly,
cunning idea suddenly began to take shape and a strange calm settled over her
previously upset demeanor. In a soft broken whisper to the April night air,
Rose miserably sighed, "We shall see, Captain Jack Dalton…we shall
see."