My Clarity

Chapter thirty six

"I had expected to be sought out before today."

Caledon Hockley may have stood tall, proud and unnerving but his face gave away the slight nerves behind his apparent solid demeanour. The last time either party had seen each other was aboard the Titanic as Lovejoy had been led away and Rose had seen his face disintegrate into the vast crowds of waiting passengers. Any lasting image of that moment had vanished from her life when he had. There was very little need for her to even consider thoughts of him, having removed him from her life as easy as he had come into it the year before.

At this moment though, Rose had no reason to sit at the leather upholstered chair within Jack's office that he had offered to her as they had entered, instead, opting to stand and stare in the face of what could have once been the Devil but now, he was tired, she could tell. Weary. And today, at that very moment, she recalled would have been the day which she would marry him. Become Mrs. Rose Hockley. How the name would have felt like acid upon her tongue especially when in the presence of them both, the one who she believed she could never have and then the one who would have become her husband. Irony wasn't lost on her, neither was her lot of luck.

''No,'' Rose felt his voice prickle up her spine as he had spoke. He was attired beautifully but his hair had rapidly fallen out of place and hung almost desperately in his eyes. He was tired, sluggish and although Rose sensed he hadn't touched a drink in hours, the smell of it still lingered about. Perhaps in the wake of something so tragic; he had turned to the bottle. Maybe the great man did have feelings buried deep within his layers of self-importance and arrogance after all.

''My husband and I have no reason to seek you out, Mr. Hockley, nor did we intend to.'' Her body seemed to stand taller than before, her shoulders back and weightless, perhaps it was the confidence which Jack had instilled into her.

Cal's dark eyes narrowed to Jack, who cautiously stood beside Rose. At the mention of the word husband, Rose had sensed the tilting of Cal's head, the straightening of his spine.

Outwardly, he was a polished and put together man about to turn thirty years old and yet, here was a man about to fall apart due to not getting his own damned way; just like a child. Studying his reaction ensured she feared him less than she ever had. What could she fear only his upper hand? A cut and bruise would be gone in a few days. He would never do more than that for fear of his own reputation been in tatters. He had run away from his actions onboard the Titanic and yet, still seemed to stand here as though he was owed some kind of apology.

''Why are you here?''

''I came to offer my condolences,'' Cal told her, directly, and not even glancing to Jack. ''I am so very sorry to hear of your mother's death and I simply came to offer whatever help that I could extend--''

''--no help is required, thank you. And, I do accept your condolences, although, there was never a need to personally extend them, a letter would have sufficed.''

''A letter which you would have disposed of.''

Rose caught his gaze. ''Perhaps.''

Then, with a fumbling leather gloved hand, he reached into his pocket and extracted a crumbled letter. ''I did come to address you, also, Mr. Dawson.''

Instinctively, Jack stepped in front of Rose, as though his own body was a human shield at whatever Cal would throw at them. The deep, darkness in his eyes mirrored the hatred within his own sapphire ones. His own heart still pumped from the kiss which he and Rose had shared minutes before in the billiards room; he knew that their feelings mirrored the other. Whatever happened from that moment onwards, they would be in it together as man and wife would and that was the ultimate achievement of this marriage, beyond all what they would build together; they were already united and held an affinity.