THE AFTERMATH
Chapter Ten
Soon, Charles began courting
Rose. She didn’t confide in him about her past for a long time, and then, three
weeks before their wedding, she told him everything about her mother and Cal,
skimping the parts about Jack. "Do you still love me?" she asked.
"Even though you didn’t tell
me anything about your family even though I was itching to know?" he
teased. "Of course I still love you."
Their wedding went off without a
hitch. A week after the wedding, Charles showed Rose a news article. It was
from the newspaper in Butte, sent to Charles by a friend who had heard that
Rose had come from Butte. It announced that a young man, unnamed, had been at
the train station a short while ago.
"Listen to this, Rose,"
Charles said. "This man was run into by a rushing porter and was knocked
under a train. He had told the ticket man moments earlier that he was going to
catch a train to find his beloved Rose Dawson. Do you know this man?"
Rose broke down and cried.
"Oh, Charles, do you remember what I told you about the man aboard the
Titanic who seduced me?" Charles nodded. "Well," she said,
"that was him. I won’t tell you his name, but that was him. Do you still
love me?"
"Rose..." Charles
soothed her, "of course I do. I feel very sorry about that young man. I
hope St. Peter opens the Gates of Heaven for him. I will let it be in a moment,
Rose, but I need to know one thing. I hope it is not too forward--and if it is,
you don’t have to answer."
Rose smiled wanly and asked,
"Was I in love with him?" Charles nodded and smiled wryly. "The
answer is complicated," Rose said. "I loved him, I supposed, but I
don’t think I was ever in love with him, if you know what I mean."