THE HEART GOES ON
Chapter Thirteen
Mid-October, 1912
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Lake Wissota
Rose
Jack was sleeping as I lay
looking at him, his face angelic. I kissed his head and stroked his hair. His
eyes opened slowly. "Rose," he whispered sleepily.
I lay back down next to him. We
lay looking at each other face-to-face. "Are you okay?" he asked,
looking at my worried face.
"I can’t help but be
concerned that Cal will turn up," I whispered.
Jack pulled me to him and started
kissing my face, my eyes, and then my mouth. "I will always look after
you," he murmured, pressing himself against me and kissing me deeply.
"Didn’t I promise to love and cherish you, Mrs. Dawson?" he asked me.
"We are all going to Lake Wissota today, to get out of here, and we’ll make
some plans. Maybe we’ll have to move on. I don’t know. We will not be divided
by anyone."
"I don’t want to leave
here." I pouted and turned away from him. "Someday, Jack, we will
have to confront the demon that is Caledon Hockley!" I burst out, and slid
out of bed.
Jack’s eyes clouded. "Rose,
we will have to plan. We have the baby coming soon."
I started dressing quickly.
"Yes, that’s right. Don’t
forget that you’ll be a father soon. Get up!" I snapped. "We can’t
miss your day out at the lake with your new friend, Gerard Hockley."
"Rose!" Jack scolded.
"Calm down. We’ll get things straight. I promise you. Gerard is all right.
I need his insight on what to do next." He came up behind me and turned me
around. "You spitfire." He laughed. "That’s what I love about
you…your fire. We’ll get through this together." Love shone in his eyes. I
sank into his arms and rested my head on his shoulders.
"I trust you, Jack," I
said quietly, and held him close.
Jack
Once we were all up and ready to
go, Aunty prepared a picnic basket. Gerard was yawning and looked strangely out
of place in his fine clothes.
Rose was wearing a simple blue
gingham checked dress with a white shawl over it and a wide-brimmed straw hat
with her flowing hair in a ponytail. She looked like a lovely country maiden,
and I told her this. "It’s much more comfortable in this than being all
corseted," she said, smiling. She had recovered her spirit well.
"After lunch, when the light
starts to fade, I am going to go the Chippewa Falls bank and deposit that
damned necklace and our cash," I said quietly in Rose’s ear. "I have
slipped them into our picnic basket. I don’t want to leave them lying around
the house, not when Aunty and William are off to the Eau Claire farmer’s market
today. It’s best they are out all day. I don’t want to get them involved
anymore than they need to be."
Rose looked serious. "Yes,
it’s for the best," she echoed.
Gerard asked, "What are you
two talking about?"
"Oh, just going to pop into
town after lunch to make some deposits," I said absentmindedly. Gerard
shrugged.
"We’d better go," Rose
said, anxious to be away.
I picked up the basket, and
Gerard followed, bringing the picnic blanket and my portfolio.
"Aunty!" I called.
"Lock up the house well and be vigilant. Make sure William carries his
shotgun."
Rose
Lake Wissota looked beautiful in
the soft autumn light. The leaves were just starting to turn yellow and it was
not too cold. Jack and I stood hand-in-hand and looked at our reflections in
the rippling water.
"Can you believe I ice-fished
out there? Damned cold. I fell in when I was ten and my dad hauled me
out." He laughed.
Gerard was laying out food
awkwardly, spilling some of the homemade lemonade. We laughed at him, "You
can tell he has never done that in his life!" Rose cried. Gerard gave a
wistful smile.
We all sat and enjoyed Aunty’s
homemade lunch, and then Jack and I laid down, sated and full. Gerard said he
wanted to go off and explore the nearby woods and lakeside and said he’d be
back shortly. We told him not to get lost.
"I’ll start drawing the lake
in a minute," he said dreamily. He was lying next to me on the blanket. He
turned onto his side, watched me, and one hand reached out and stroked my hair.
"You look so beautiful," he said. "The baby makes you bloom like
a beautiful Rose," he quipped.
"Oh, Jack, what I am going
to do with you?" I giggled "That’s so lame."
He ran a hand over my large
tummy; he watched the baby’s movements intently and laughed out loud as the
baby gave a sharp kick. "Crumbs, it’s a bit lively, isn’t it?" Jack
commented.
"It?" I asked.
"It! You can’t call the baby that." Jack smiled at me, his blue eyes
warm and tender.
We entwined hands.
"We’d better think of some
names," he said. "What about Herman for a boy, Henrietta for a
girl."
"Oh, you," I scoffed,
and smacked him lightly across his arm.
He laughed and then started to
sing to me. "Up she goes, up she goes, Josephine..." I joined
in and we started laughing, holding each other and giggling.
Memories of us after the steerage
party, walking on the deck, us singing that silly song, enjoying a moment of
hilarity and fun. He had touched my heart even then.
"Hey, Jack!" I cried
then. "Josephine! That can be a girl’s name. Jack, for you, if it’s a
boy."
Jack looked thoughtful. "I
like Josephine," he said. We faced each other and he pulled me close to
him. "You make me happy," he said tenderly, and then kissed me.
As we kissed, I suddenly heard a
sharp snapping sound nearby and I broke the kiss and turned sharply in sudden
fear.