THE HEART GOES ON
Chapter Six
October, 1912
Cal
Emily Harrington Smyth wouldn’t
look at me over the breakfast table, her eyes watery and her pallor pale. She
barely ate, staring down at her plate. Gerard was fussing about her, asking her
if she was sick or something.
It had been a few weeks since the
encounter in the summer house, since our little tryst. I had been heavily
intoxicated, but she hadn’t fought me off and had acquiesced to me in the end.
She had no choice. She wasn’t a spitfire like Rose.
I was more manly for her than my
milksop brother. He’d thank me one day for breaking in his mousy future wife.
She had avoided me since and was
very polite to my face, simpering around like a china doll. She wouldn’t dare
say anything, as I told her that Gerard would not want to marry a little slut
who had thrown herself at his grieving brother.
Gerard got up and excused him
presently, leaving Emily and me at the table.
She raised her eyes to me,
holding her tea cup in her hands. She looked wary, her soft blue eyes sad and fearful.
Like Rose’s green eyes when we
were sitting on the private promenade deck, her saying I couldn’t command her
like a foreman in one of the mills, defying me after dancing in steerage with
that Dawson filth. My sweeping the table harshly to one side and Rose sitting
with shock on her face amongst the smashed china. No woman would cross me.
Women had to be polite and courteous, refined.
"Caledon?" Emily said
quietly, putting down her cup. "I need to..."
I laid down my knife and fork and
looked at her.
"You are not to say
anything. Do you understand me, Emily? We had a dalliance, and it was very
pleasurable, but you mustn’t tell, as you don’t want to be labeled a
slut." I talked to her sharply, as if she were five.
Recollection flashed over her
face as she remembered. Her brows knitted and sweat formed on her forehead.
She flinched, and tears welled in
her blue eyes. I despised weak, crybaby women. I sneered at her. "You do
understand, Emily; keep your silence. If you want to be Mrs. Gerard
Hockley..."
"I’m not one of those types
of ladies," she whispered in her small, ineffectual voice. "How could
you have treated me so badly, Caledon? You are supposed to be a gentleman, like
Gerard."
Anger flooded me; in two paces I
was around the table, grabbed her arm, yanked her out of the chair, and smacked
her hard across the cheek.
She gasped loudly, a red mark
appearing on her cheek. I pulled my face down to hers and hissed, "I am a
gentleman. I’ll tell everyone you threw yourself at me. They won’t believe you.
I am Caledon Hockley, and I always get my way." I could hear my father’s
rough tones in my own voice. I threw her roughly aside.
"I won’t say anything. Don’t
tell Gerard. He’d hate me!" she wept, and fled from the room.
I went back to eating my bacon.
Silly little girl. What a fuss over a little affair. She’d get over it. It
meant nothing to me. If anything, it had cleared my mind and snapped me out of
the doldrums.
I would get back into Father’s
favor and earn my privileges again. I was working at the mill and was showing
him what I could do as his dutiful son.
If Gerard thought he was getting
the money, then I would have his wife. Fair deal. I would make him pay for
being Father’s brown nose. He wasn’t wily and free-thinking like me.
I hadn’t heard anything from
Bonner and the detective agency. I had sent Bonner ahead to California to track
down Rose. I hadn’t gone in the end. My father had me managing one of the
mills, and I dared not oppose him anymore. I was already on shaky ground.
Once he found her, I would speak
to her make her see sense. She had been raised a lady. She was born to be my
society wife.
My train of thought was
interrupted by Sylvie walking in, dressed in a pale blue morning gown.
"Did I hear raised voices,
Caledon?" she asked pointedly.
I pushed my empty plate to one
side and stood up.
"Oh, Emily was having an
attack of the vapors! Wedding nerves. I was telling her that to be a Hockley
wife she would have to be made of strong stuff," I improvised, putting a
fake smile onto my face.
God, I had always hated this
woman.
Sylvie frowned, not sure.
"That is Gerard’s role, really," she said haughtily. "Training
Emily to be a suitable wife. However, the girl skulks around like a ghost
lately. She will need more backbone to be a pillar of support, fitting Gerard’s
position in society. You are not wrong," she replied. She poured herself a
cup of tea. "Any news, Caledon" she inquired, "of the
runaway?"
"No, but Bonner will be back
soon, I hope. Things will be resolved," I told her.
She smiled coolly. "I do
hope so do, Caledon. Your father is most displeased with the situation.
However, you have been working hard at the mill these past weeks, and he is
more responsive to you now, especially with Gerard’s good fortune."
This was news that my father was
warming up slightly. Now, if I could marry Rose and get the diamond back, I
could reclaim what was mine. My eyes glittered. I walked over to my step-mama,
she held up her arm, and I kissed her wrist.
"Thank you, Sylvie," I
said pleasantly. "It has been a pleasure to talk with you. I wish you good
day. I must leave to go to the mill."
She smiled, pleased at my good
intentions.
I would win. I was a Hockley and
the firstborn.