A TWIST OF FATE
Chapter Two
"Miss Rose, Mr. Hockley will despair
when he sees you have bought more paintings" chided Trudy as they entered
the house.
"I have so many already, he will not notice three more!" Rose
replied. "Now find John and ask him to come up to my gallery."
Rose had a room at the top of the house which she called her gallery. Her
interest in art quite infuriated Cal, so he gave her a room of her very own for
her to put her pictures in. She would have loved to have them displayed in the parlor
or dining room, but Cal would have none of it. Those walls were reserved for
portraits of Rose. At first she found it quite disconcerting seeing her image
everywhere, but she had got used to it. Cal was obsessed with pictures of his
wife and took great delight in showing them to all visitors. "You are
beautiful Rose", he would say. "I want the world to see that Caledon
Hockley's wife is a rare treasure to behold".
And that's what I am, Rose had resigned. Just a bauble to decorate the Hockley
house.
John came up to the gallery and Rose asked him to get the pictures framed for
her. Then she went to the parlor for some tea. It was too early for Cal to be
home so Rose made herself comfortable and thought about the afternoon's
encounter with Mr. Dawson. Thinking of what he had said to her made her smile
and blush. This disturbed her slightly. She had never noticed anyone with such
beautiful eyes. Not a man anyway. But it was so good to have someone to speak
to about art and Paris. She made her mind up to go back and see him the very
next day.
The following day was just as beautiful as the day before. After Cal had left
for the steel works, Rose called for Trudy.
"We will be going for a walk around lunchtime. Please be ready."
"Yes Miss Rose."
Rose was quite surprised to find how anxious she was that lunch would come
quickly. It did come however and the two of them set off for the park.
Jack Dawson was there and came over to greet them like two old friends.
"Mr. Dawson, can I offer you a spot of lunch in the park? Rose enquired.
"Sure, what do you have in mind?"
"Trudy, please go and collect a small selection of sandwiches for
two" Rose instructed and gave Trudy some money. "We will be just in
the park"
"If you're sure Miss" Trudy seemed edgy about doing this.
"Yes, now go" Rose turned to her knew friend. "Now Mr. Dawson if
you care to collect your things we can go and sit in the park"
"Please, call me Jack" He gave another one of his grins and gathered
up his belongings.
"And you may call me Rose" They sat on the first available bench.
"Well Rose. I got ask this question. What does a fine lady like yourself
want with a guy like me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, your class don't normally associate with a poor guy!" He still
grinned. Does he ever stop smiling? Asked Rose to herself.
"It is quite simple Jack. I love art. I love Paris. Infect I love travel.
I have been fortunate to visit quite a lot of Europe. But, I have no one to
talk to who shares these interests. I was rather hoping you could give me a
lively debate"
"And what about Mr. Hockley?" asked Jack.
"Oh he is not interested in anything like that. Only business and
politics"
"Sounds boring" replied Jack
"And what would you know of it?" countered Rose angrily.
"Okay." Jack held up his hands. "Sorry"
"Look Jack, please tell me about yourself. You said yesterday you were new
here"
"Yes I am. I am from Wisconsin originally, but for the last five years I've
been traveling and sketching" He handed Rose a leather bound folder.
She began to look through it. One drawing in particular caught her eye.
"Jack, is this drawn from life?"
"Yeah, that's actually quite a story. I was in Southampton docks when she
sailed. In fact if it wasn't for a lucky hand of poker, I'd have been on
her."
"How come?"
"Well, my friend and I we in this card game. I'd put all the money I had
in the world on the table. Two other lads had put in their tickets on the
Titanic. Anyway, to cut a long story short we lost the game. I lost all my
money but, well just maybe I won my life"
"It is a terrible thing that happened" Rose stared at the drawing of
the Titanic. " We would have been on it ourselves but Cal could not get
the parlor suites he wanted."
"Lucky for you! Do you realize that we could have both been on that ship?
Not that we would have met of course."
"No" replied Rose. "I do not suppose we would."