ROSEDALE IN APRIL
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rose DeWitt Bukater stared intently at the
cards fanned out in the palm of her hand before inhaling a long drag of the
cigarette resting between an index and middle finger. Three Kings and a pair of
Aces! Hot damn…I’m hot tonight! Pursing full coral lips as if pondering
world peace, cool jade eyes met those of her male opponents then finally slid
to rest on Sergeant Tommy Ryan. It was now past midnight and the rowdy tavern
was still as noisy and bustling as ever. After Rose had left the Captain to
sleep off his drunk, she had eagerly descended the staircase for a much needed
drink and smoke. Suddenly, the entire hazy room had sucked in their breathes
and fell silent at her unexpected appearance. Of course, the Rebel enigma never
ceased to cause a stir wherever she went. And damned if she didn’t like it!
Slamming the poker hand down on the table
top, "Full house, boys! Now give me all your money!"
"Miss Rose…you cheated!" Tommy and
a few of the others at the table vehemently whined and complained.
"Aw, she just got lucky, Sergeant Ryan.
Women can’t play poker!" Sven scoffed in disbelief.
"Fiddle dee, Tommy, you blue-bellies are
just a bunch of sore losers, that’s all! You boys are really gonna piss and
moan when the Confederacy whips your asses!" Then holding up a hand as if
to ward off the rebuttals and jeers, Rose relented. "But being the fair
person that I am…how about double or nothing, Yanks?"
The Union soldiers seated around the table
enthusiastically agreed with the charitable proposal, eager to recoup their
devastating losses, yet simultaneously chuckling at the Rebel lady’s harmless
jabs and barbs. With a cigarette dangling out the corner of her mouth, Rose
began expertly shuffling the deck to the stunned surprise of all. It wasn’t a
clumsy amateur’s shuffle but fancy card play worthy of a crafty riverboat
gambler’s tricks. The cards appeared to magically fly through the air from one
hand to the other as the corners of Rose’s lips barely curled upward at the
corners. The shocked men sat in awe…and sudden dread. Tommy cast Sven a slanted
amused grin as if to say, We’re gonna get our asses whipped all right!
"I believe I just opened my mouth and
inserted the old hoof!" Chuckled Sven rubbing his neck as if to ease the
tension.
"What? You boys think a first class girl
can’t raise a little hell by having some fun?" Rose teasingly chided while
winking at Marie’s beaming proud countenance.
"What the hell are you doing now?"
Came a familiar snarl from the stairway.
"Well…well…well…if it isn’t Captain
Sunshine! Sleep well? I see you found all your clothes…at least those we can
see." Rose sarcastically reminded him with just a hint of hardness in her
tone before draining the amber contents in the shot glass and exaggeratedly
holding it up for a refill. Cocking her head to one side, she laughed under her
breathe at the disheveled appearance of the irritated Captain and nonchalantly
continued shuffling the deck of cards.
"I’m ready to go home, Rose. Let’s
go." Jack surly demanded as he precariously swayed on the stairs trying to
keep his balance.
"You go on, Captain. I’m not through
having my fun, yet. Besides, I promised your men here a chance to win
their money back!" Rose gave Marie and Tommy a smirk, confident that she
was intentionally lighting yet another fire in the ill-humored Captain Dalton
and purposefully began dealing out the cards completely ignoring his gruff
demand.
Her only answer was to be unceremoniously
jerked up by her arm and practically dragged like a pouting child out the
swinging doors by a grumbling swearing Captain Jack.
Shaking his head in bemusement, and with a
deep guffaw Tommy mused out loud, "That Rose knows just how to yank the
Captain’s chain. I’ve known him all my life and there’s never been another
woman that effects him like she does."
"I can believe that, Tommy. As I’ve
always said, Rosa is definitely a pistol…and your Captain Dalton is going to
have a hell of a time handling her! But then again, I believe Rosa has met her
match in your Captain!" Marie cackled in agreement.
"I totally agree, Marie. When those two
are together, sparks are sure to fly to high heaven! Loving and fighting seem
to go hand in hand where those two are concerned!"
"It’s never boring…that’s for sure! You
know, I just never could picture Rosa married to that pompous ass Major
Henley…but the Captain…"
"Well, Jack made damn sure of
that!" Tommy suddenly fell quiet at his hapless slip of the tongue,
positive he had spilled the beans about his best friend’s maiming the hated
Major before Marie curiously pierced him with inquisitive then enlightened
dawning eyes.
"Never mind…forget you ever heard that,
Marie. Besides, it’s a long story."
Bending over the slightly tipsy Sergeant’s shoulder,
Marie touched her tongue to Tommy’s ear before huskily murmuring, "Well,
I’ve got all night and would so love to hear a fascinating bedtime story."
"But…oh hell, can you keep a secret till
the day you die?" Tommy slightly slurred his words.
"Let’s put in this way, sweetie. I’d
never do anything to jeopardize the lives of people I care for or those they
might care about. And that certainly includes my cousin and you."
Truthfully, Marie meant every word she uttered because honesty was the one thing
in her life that stayed constant. And for some inexplicable reason, Tommy
believed her as he led the way upstairs to the Diamond Room.
Meanwhile, Rose already had the Duke hitched
up to Marie’s borrowed landau with the Captain’s roan tied to the back. Straining
and tugging and after a few embarrassing stumbles, but with Rose’s assistance,
Jack finally managed to collapse into the carriage before easing his splitting
head back across the seat. Closing his eyes and expelling a deep groan, there
was already a stab of intense pain between his temples and with each
bone-jolting bump along the dark misty road, Jack winced. Of course, Rose was
well aware of his obvious hangover and was unsympathetic to say the least.
Inwardly musing, Well you deserve it…and more, damn, dirty Yankee!
As Rose silently cast the Captain a sideways
glance, she nervously chewed her bottom lip pondering how to put the next vital
question to the inscrutable man. To be tactful…or blunt? What the hell…just
go for it, Rose and think about it later, so she carelessly shrugged.
"Captain…was Meesha good in bed?"
Rose snidely commented.
Squinting one eye open, Jack gave her a mere
glimpse and then completely ignored the question.
"Well…was she?" Rose jealously
persisted with a jeer.
"Rose, just keep this carriage on the
road and don’t talk. You’re giving me a headache!"
"I’m giving you a headache?
Umpf…and I guess I also gave you h…"
Interrupting her vulgar comeback,
"That’s enough, Rose. Just drive. We can talk later." Jack darkly
threatened fighting the nausea rising into his throat and the effort that it
took to talk at all for the intense knife blade of pain slicing through his
throbbing brain.
With her lips curled into a self-satisfied
smirk, Rose shook the reigns out careening down the narrow twisting path
intentionally hitting every pot hole possible as the Captain viciously cursed
and bounced. After she had punished him long enough, she mercifully slowed the
horse to a smooth canter until the Captain had stopped groaning in discomfort
and gradually his mouth hung wide open in a deep snoring sleep. However, she
soon grew bored by the interminable silence, therefore not able to help
herself, "Captain! Captain Dalton…you better wake up and close that mouth
or a bug is gonna fly down your throat!"
Jarring Jack back into semi-consciousness, he
agonizingly grabbed his head and grimaced. "Thanks for your concern, Rose.
You really show it with your devil-may-care attitude and your crazy driving
skills!"
Laughing under her breathe, "Go back to
sleep, Captain. We still have a long way to go and I promise to be civil for
the rest of the trip anyway. And I never break a promise." Staring askance
she prodded, "Which reminds me, are your promises as good as gold, Captain
Dalton?"
"Please, Rose. I’m not in the mood for
your prattling chit chat." Jack sickly objected.
"Just a simply yes or no and I’ll hush
for the rest of the way home. I promise."
"Yes." An exasperated Jack bit out.
"Really, you keep your word at all
costs? Your promises are forever?" Rose gushed in surprise and elation.
"Let me remind you that you’re not
keeping your promise, Rose. Now shut up! I answered your question, now let it
lie! Shit!" Jerking his hat over an angry face and crossing his arms
across his chest, Jack determinedly shut her out for the remainder of the
journey home.
Nevertheless, Rose smartly saluted the
Captain and grinned all the way to Rosedale. She wasn’t sure why she was in
such a fantastic mellow mood…for Jack hadn’t actually promised her a damn
thing. But he would, she mused, it was just a matter of time. And when she
finally got that promise, it was nice to know that it would mean something and
was taken very seriously….forever…promises meant forever. I like that,
Captain Jack Dalton! Rose dreamily sighed.
Keeping with the Captain’s orders, the next
day was a continuation of rest and relaxation mostly out of necessity due to
the massive numbers of hangovers from the previous night of leisure and over
indulgences. Several of the Union soldiers had been swimming in the lagoon and
were now on their way back to their makeshift quarters. Captain Jack Dalton was
standing on the verandah of the manor house leaning against a huge ivory column
having a much needed smoke when he heard it.
"Tommy…Fabri…how’s the water out
today?" Came the loud, piercing scream from the upstairs balcony directly
overhead. Completely unaware that the Captain was directly underneath the
gallery, Rose was so tempted by the possibility of a cool, refreshing swim that
she wasn’t thinking clearly.
Jack didn’t know what made him cringe more.
The unexpected shrill screech that still range sensitive to his pounding head
or the all too familiar use of the Sergeant and Private’s first names. He
couldn’t understand this abnormal desire he harbored to hear his name whispered
from Rose’s lips. How would it sound? What did it really matter? It was just a
friendly civil endearment…so why the big deal? And why did she refuse to use
it? Because Jack desperately needed to hear her say it just once…so damnably
much!
"Heavenly, Miss Rose! You must try it!
It’s all clear now; we’re the last of the stragglers! Nobody else left so you
can have some privacy!" bellowed Sergeant Ryan in answer.
Unbeknownst to Rose, Jack purposefully
swaggered back to the hallway. He could hear her noisy scrambling up above in
the master’s chambers like a busy little rat building a winter’s nest. Soft
hurried pitter pats of footsteps, an enthusiastic opening and closing of
dresser drawers, every little move, he adeptly overheard…and he waited. Leaning
up against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, one knee bent with his boot
heel propped on the door jamb, he calmly waited. Finally a door opened and shut
and a vision in white appeared at the top of the sweeping massive staircase.
The first thing he noticed was the enticing
bounce of her breasts as she skipped down the stairs…along with the shapely
calves and ankles set off with heathen leather sandals. The snowy white wrap
dress was cinched tight at the waist that struck her just below the knees.
Rose’s long silky hair was pulled up on top of her head with pearl encrusted
combs. Of course, luxurious auburn strands were already stubbornly falling down
her back in defiance of being tamed in any semblance of order. That copper fire
with a life of its own! She never failed to take his breathe away with her
wild, radiant beauty…and to top if off, Rose’s unique way of shunning southern
society’s dictates regarding the all too revealing wardrobe that she chose to
wear. A woman with a mind of her own and she damned sure wasn’t afraid to use
it! La femme fatale!
"Where do you think you’re going dressed
like that?" Jack demanded a bit too gruffly.
"Well, I’m going for a swim,
Captain Dalton, if you must know." Rose sweetly offered.
"In that? It’s too short!"
As blue orbs smoldered in jealousy albeit rising passion.
"Truthfully, I don’t plan on wearing it
in the water, Captain. If it’s any of your business."
"Then what do you plan on wearing…"
Interrupting his sentence, Rose temptingly
unbelted the dress and held it out open to the sides exposing delicate ivory
short underpants and an embroidered matching lace chemise. Jack’s eyes widened
before his breath locked in his chest and a lump formed in his throat.
"Care to join me, Captain?" Rose
saucily invited with a demure grin on her lips.
Swallowing hard, "I think I can be
talked into it…it is beginning to get hot in here!" Jack leered as
he deliberately let his eyes slowly roam over her immodestly garbed body.
With an amused giggle, Rose glided up to the
Captain and whispered in his ear, "You go get your things and I’ll pack us
a picnic lunch. I’m sure we’ll be famished after a long, hard swim…yes?"
Before the ornate German-made grandfather
clock in the hallway struck the half hour, Jack and Rose were giddily strolling
down the path to the secluded pond hand in hand. Under the canopy of an ancient
live oak, Tommy and Fabrizio admiringly watched the couple depart the
plantation’s grounds.
"Captain Dalton is a lucky man,
no?" Fabrizio dreamily sighed.
"He certainly is, Pup. But the hell of
the matter is, he refuses to admit it."
"L’amour dis not logical, no?"
At the grassy banks of the serene inviting
waters, Rose spread out a patchwork quilt before Jack sat the wicker picnic
basket to the side. For some reason, Rose felt a hint of shyness intrude.
Shrugging the uncharacteristic notion aside as if it were no more than an
annoying insect, she untied the dress and slipped it from her creamy shoulders
before it whispered in a heap to the ground. Casting the Captain a coy smile,
she suddenly sliced through the water and swiftly swam out to the large ancient
boulder in the center of the lagoon. Perching on top, she laid her head back to
soak up the sun’s warm relaxing rays completely unaware of the angelic portrait
that she made. After Jack finally caught his breathe and shucked his clothes,
he agilely dove into the water eager to join her.
As he drank her up, he found himself thinking
that Rose couldn’t have been more sexy or sultry if she was completely naked.
The fine delicate wet material was now completely transparent and very little
was left to the imagination. It reminded him of another time when she had shamelessly
leaned over a hitching rail while two young Negro boys doused her with pails of
water from an overhead tree limb. Shaking his wet tawny head at the explicit,
stimulating reminder, he chuckled deep in his chest.
"What’s so amusing, Captain?" Rose wondered.
"Just a memory, mia." Jack reached
up and twisted a drenched lock of auburn hair around his index finger. "I
don’t have to tell you how delectable you look lying on that rock with your red
hair all wet like this, resembling a silken web spread out around your
shoulders." Jack’s throat turned dry, his skin hot despite the cool water
lapping at his aroused body.
Blushing and not sure how to take such an
obvious compliment, Rose changed the subject, "My real father, Rafael? He
first saw my Mama sunbathing on this very rock seventeen years ago. Uncanny,
isn’t it?" Rose reminisced while patting the rock as if to emphasize the
same exact spot.
"If she was anything like you, she must
have knocked him right off his heels." Jack hoarsely murmured.
"I’m not quite sure how you meant that,
Captain Dalton. One can take that remark two entirely different ways!"
Rose humorously laughed while Jack suddenly pushed himself upon the boulder to
sit beside her grinning from ear to ear stark naked.
Deeming not to clarify his true meaning, Jack
suddenly lifted the St. Mary’s medallion nestled in the valley of her generous
breasts. His tanned knuckles grazed the soft alabaster flesh, and Rose abruptly
flinched. Perhaps from the jolt of hot sparks searing her cool skin or from the
recent tenderness that had developed there…she wasn’t quite sure. While it took
the Captain by surprise, Rose prettily flushed and dropped her eyes from his
probing gaze.
"This necklace…why do you wear it so
much? Is it just your favorite or does it hold some kind of sentimental
meaning?" Jack curiously queried while smoldering blue orbs stared
intently into the lovely visage of the woman that had stolen his breathe…and
his heart away.
"Both actually…it was a gift from my
father to my mother. She wore it constantly and as a matter of fact, he gave it
to me just a few days before you got here. It’s very special." Rose
softly answered, gingerly placing her slender fingers on top of his, prompting
Jack’s stomach to turn completely over while rendering him completely
speechless. His thoughts were so jumbled, he couldn’t say a word.
"I knew you were coming, you know."
Rose mysteriously hinted.
"You mean General Grant informed you
beforehand? But I thought…"
"No, not in that way, Captain. Obviously,
I received no letter of introduction from your General. What I meant was that
my gypsy Grandmother foretold of you coming to Rosedale."
"Pray tell…you’ll have to explain that
one." Jack skeptically asked with an arched brow yet intrigued just the same
by her forthcoming explanation.
"That same night at the gypsy encampment
when I found out about Rafael being my true father and he returned this
necklace to me…Madame India Bouvier read her tarot cards and predicted a
mysterious Yankee with moonstones was coming…for me." Rose softly
whispered with a catch in her throat.
"What are moonstones?" Jack lightly
chuckled while his insides tingled and the hair stood up on the back of his
neck.
"Your eyes, Captain. Pearly,
translucent, pale blue gems…feldspars, actually. The gypsies claim they hold
ancient magical powers." Rose’s eyes burned directly into his.
"Oh really…and what kind of mystical
powers do they possess?" Jack huskily probed as they were both held
spellbound by the other.
Silence but for birds singing melodic songs
of peace and grace. Trance like, as two hearts throbbed and twisted, the two
lovers magnetically came together in spirit and in body. Lips slowly met and
blended. It was a kiss rivaling all kisses. Tender, urgent, tasting, lingering…a
kiss that went on and on…neither wanting it to end. It was a magical
captivating kiss that tore down all barriers…all reservations…bared both
seeking souls to the other. Kindred spirits uniting in harmony…bound by an
eternal enraptured love.
Jack loved her right there in the water until
tears formed in Rose’s limpid glowing eyes. He brought her the power that was
Jack. She brought him the magic that was Rose. And as they both in unison
reached the pinnacle of passion’s peak, their sighs of blissful ecstasy blasted
through the April breezes matching the songs of all God’s heavenly creatures.
Neither said a word…none was necessary. Both
content to just hold the other and touch. And when caressing was not enough any
more, they made love yet again. Theirs was the romantic fairy tale of surging
desires of the heart, the spirit, and the flesh. A man that burned to possess
his Rose and a woman that dreamed of being her Captain’s one and only.
Sometime later, as Jack laid his head in
Rose’s lap upon the quilt munching cold chicken salad sandwiches and drinking
chilled tea, Rose nervously cleared her throat as she worriedly perused the
bronzed half naked man that never ceased to make her heart swell with each tiny
glimpse.
"Captain…you never answered my question
last night." Rose hesitantly reminded him as her brow creased into a
frown.
"Oh…and what question was that, mia. I
don’t seem to remember much of that homebound ride from hell last night."
A lop-sided lazy grin twitched at his sensuous kiss-swollen lips.
"Did you enjoy making love to
Meesha?" There…she said it, yet not really sure that she wanted to hear
the truth.
Blue crystals and green stars collided and
fused. "Believe it or not, mia…I never made love to that woman. While she
did try to please me in another way, my heart wasn’t in it for some
reason." Jack guiltily reflected yet his gaze never faltered.
"I’m glad, Captain." Rose smiled as
her ivory cheeks blushed with sudden color.
"Did you enjoy being touched and kissed
by Fabrizio?" Jack unexpectedly rebutted as his jaw line tensely quivered
from clamped teeth and his heart twisted painfully fearing the answer.
"Honestly, I wanted to like it. I
even felt last night that I needed to like it. But…my heart wasn’t in it
for some reason." Rose emphatically parroted.
"I’m glad, mia. So very, very
glad." Jack throatily murmured as he reached up and pulled her
kiss-bruised mouth down to his…sealing their unspoken love…forging their souls’
destinies forever.