THE HEART GOES ON
Chapter Three
Late September, 1912
Santa Monica, California
Jack
Lying in my single bed in our
Santa Monica house, I heard the grandfather clock in the hall chime seven AM. I
was just awake. From the bathroom, I could hear the sounds of retching. Poor
Rose. This pregnancy was taking its toll on her; she had terrible morning
sickness and was exhausted.
From what I could gather, after
the Titanic she had to work in a photographer’s shop, processing film in the
darkroom. I was worried the chemicals could have harmed her or the baby, and
after being in the icy water, too, I hoped the baby was going to be all right.
I got up and slipped on my robe
as I heard Rose creep back into her room. It was all quite amusing, really, us
in separate rooms. The shock of us meeting up on the beach, when we’d thought
we’d never see each other again was strange. We had slipped into a strict
no-touch protocol in a sort of delayed shock. We weren’t on the Titanic
anymore. This was real life, and we had to behave...I hadn’t touched Rose since
the Titanic--not that I wasn’t longing to. I was white hot for her. The last
occasion had been the heated intimacies in the Renault as we carved out
precious, desperate moments together, and our love had taken us to a higher
plane, where only we existed.
With Ruth living with us, it made
things difficult, and Rose’s pregnancy made things difficult, too. It would be
different after the wedding next week, when Rose would be my wife for always. I
smiled in pleasure.
Rose
My door opened, Jack crept into
my room, knelt down by the bed, and took my hand gently. I looked at him and a
grin crept upon my face. His face had a similarly big smile. He was so
handsome, his hair smoothed to one side, his eyes alive.
"Jack," I whispered.
"What are you doing?"
"Good morning, my sweet
Rose, and my naughty baby making you being sick." He kissed my hand and
then leaned over and kissed my head. "I still can’t believe our baby is in
there sometimes," he said. I sat up slowly. He reached a hand down and
touched my stomach tenderly. "I could climb into bed with you," he
said quietly. "I want to hold you and be yours and you mine."
I giggled. "No, we can’t;
you’ll have to wait ‘til we’re married." Then I added, in a low, serious
voice, "Then you can take me to the stars again. I can’t wait!"
His eyes were huge in his face
and I could see the desire burning there. I felt my senses start to heighten
and our gazes locked. Wordlessly, I pulled him to me and our lips met in a
passionate kiss. I closed my eyes and held him tight. He moaned audibly in
passion.
He pulled back, his eyes smiling.
"You are everything I could ever want," he said. "When I saw you
that first time, standing on the promenade deck, looking so beautiful but sad,
I knew you were mine. I had never wanted anyone as much as I wanted you."
"As did I. It was the same
for me, too," I replied, holding his hand tightly, the love flowing
between us...we could not stop touching each other; he was like a drug to me.
He kissed my hands. "Try and
sleep, Rose. I will get the doctor to check you and our baby over later."
He stood up. "I think I hear your mother downstairs. I’ll go and get some
breakfast. I’ll get your mother to bring you something up later."
I yawned. I was so tired. The
baby, protesting, suddenly kicked me hard. "I’ll try, Jack. See you
later."
He walked out of the room, blowing
kisses as he left.
"Only a week to go. Only a
week," he was singing.
Jack
I walked into the dining room.
Ruth was sitting at the table, having a cup of tea. She smiled a bit and nodded
hello. It was still awkward around her. We had not had the best of starts. She
had been all animosity when she first met me, as she thought I was ruining
Rose’s chances of matrimony with Cal, and she had admitted that she had
conspired with Cal to plant the necklace on me and also to keep Rose under lock
and key until the Hockley wedding.
I should have hated her, but I
couldn’t. The Titanic had changed her, and also the knowledge that the precious
Hockleys had brought about her family’s downfall beforehand, all premeditated.
She had brought Rose and I back together with Molly’s help, and to be fair, was
bending over backwards to be nice and to make amends, but Rose still looked at
her strangely and didn’t trust her. I would get Molly to help to find Ruth her
own place after our honeymoon; we would need our own space.
"How is Rose?" Ruth
asked tentatively.
I glanced at her. She was very
pale. "Not too good. Everything has been an ordeal for her. She’s only
seventeen at the end of the day," I said harshly. "I’ll get the
doctor to look her and the baby over later."
"Jack," Ruth said more
firmly. I got myself a cup of tea, sat down, and looked at her. Ruth’s eyes
were bright. "Jack," she repeated. "I know you don’t like me. I
can’t blame you after what I put you and Rose through. I am so sorry."
"What’s done is done, Ruth.
We can only move on. Rose and our child are the future," I replied.
A wry smile touched her lips.
"Rose was a difficult pregnancy," she said in an amused tone. "I
was as sick as a dog with her. Then she was born, and she had the loudest pair
of lungs I had ever heard." She laughed and relaxed.
Our eyes met, and I smiled.
"Really?" I asked. "What was she like as a girl?"
Ruth’s face and demeanor relaxed
suddenly. It struck me that I could see her similarities to Rose. Ruth
certainly could be quite nice once she stopped holding herself so prissily.
"Oh, headstrong, so
headstrong. Jack, if I said black, she’d say white. She was so different from
me. She always wanted to be a boy, and was climbing trees, being argumentative
and forceful."
I laughed. "She’s still like
that!" Ruth laughed, too, and then her smile faded.
"With her father, Daniel,
they got on so well, but with me, it was hard work. Daniel was the same with
me, chalk and cheese; it was not a happy marriage, Jack."
"I’m sorry," I said.
"Were your parents happily
married? Did you have a nice childhood?" she inquired suddenly. I was
taken aback.
"Yes," I said, sipping
my tea. "I grew up in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. My father, Jim, managed
our small farm and our bit of land, and my mother, Hope, ran a local shop; it
was an okay childhood, and they were content. I was the only child, and then it
all changed when I was thirteen." I frowned as I remembered.
"Jack." Aunt
Janette’s voice holding me as I sobbed. "I am sorry. They were good
people." She had tried to bring me up, but the memories and the pain held
me back. I had to escape Chippewa Falls in the end and make my own way. Like a
tumbleweed, being blown this way and that.
"They died in a fire. They
went back to rescue the horses from the barn and never got out."
"I’m sorry, Jack," Ruth
said.
"It was a long time
ago," I said. "My Aunty Janette and her husband, William, moved in
and brought me up, but I left when I was fifteen and went traveling, had lots
of adventures, then ended up on the Titanic."
"Your aunt--is she
well?" Ruth asked.
"I really should go and see
her; I did telegraph her that I was okay."
"Jack, maybe you should go
and see her after my grandchild is born. I am looking forward to being a
grandmother, I suppose," Ruth said warmly.
We were interrupted by banging on
the door.
Mrs. Amoy, the housekeeper,
appeared a moment later.
"Beg your pardon, Mrs.
DeWitt Bukater, Mr. Dawson. Mrs. Brown is here, and says it’s urgent."
Rose
I hurriedly dressed and joined
Mother and Jack in the parlor. Molly Brown’s flushed face was serious for once.
"Sorry to disturb you,
Rose," she said. "Jack. Ruth."
Jack came to stand beside me and
put his arm around my shoulder.
"What’s going on, Molly? You
are worrying us with your seriousness," Jack said.
Molly grimaced, pulled a letter
from her bag, and passed it to Jack. I read it out loud over Jack’s shoulder.
Mother was looking worried.
Dear Mrs. Margaret Brown,
I was sincerely hoping you
could assist myself, Nathan Frederick Hockley, and my son, Caledon Hockley II,
in the search for Caledon’s missing fiancée, Rose DeWitt Bukater. She vanished
prior to their engagement gala in June. We believe she is still in shock and is
traumatized due to the recent sinking of the Titanic, which she and my son were
on.
He misses her terribly, and
there is a reward for news of the whereabouts of Miss DeWitt Bukater or her
mother, Ruth, who also has vanished.
My son is beside himself and
wishes only to find his beloved so they can marry and be happy again.
If you can help, please
contact Mr. Fisher of Fisher and White Detective Agency, Main Street,
Philadelphia with information.
I stopped reading.
"What the..." Jack
yelled. We turned and looked at each other, nausea rising in me. I sat in the
nearest chair.
"I don’t believe it,"
my mother said in shock.
"Oh, dear. I had a feeling
he’d do something like this," Molly said.
"Rose," Jack said, and
looked at me, lips narrowed, eyes dark and cross. "He won’t find us. He
has no right to you. We won’t let him spoil anything. Just because he’s got
money, he thinks he can buy everything and everybody."
"He never bought me," I
said, "and I never want to see him again as long as I live. He’s a snake.
He tried to kill Jack and I!" I put my head in my hands as a blinding
headache took over.
Molly said she was going to call
the doctor, and Jack led me back upstairs to lie down. My mother followed
behind us vacantly, very upset by the sudden, terrible intrusion of Caledon
Hockley’s dark influence reaching out once again. Would we ever be free of him?