Hey guys! I'm back and neglecting my essay once more :D I haven't done a continuing story for ages and this idea came to me when I was doing two things;

Neglecting my history essay.

Eating celery.

Disclaimer – I don't own Titanic or any characters or anything, ever.

Enjoy and review?

28th June 1912

As she stepped off the train, small carry case in hand, she felt instant relief to feel the warm wind flow around her. It was the first breeze she had felt in days and after the torturous third class, three day train journey, she realised how she must not take such a simple thing for granted again.

She stepped down onto the smallest platform she had ever seen, to see that it was completely empty except for her. Confused, she took a minute to observe her surroundings. There were a few benches and behind the train track were trees, as far as she could see. This was certainly different to any journey she had endured in her lifetime; she was used to splendid train journeys in private booths and they would always end somewhere grand; London, Philadelphia, Paris. But she never wanted to experience another journey with Cal or her Mother again and thus here she was, stood alone in the middle of a deserted platform, miles away from any major city.

She walked up to a small board that was on the wall of the station, and read its contents;

'Six miles to Chippewa Falls

Thirteen Miles to Victoria Springs

Twenty Nine miles to Clancy Maple; see train times at main reception.

Carts into Chippewa Falls run from 7am – 6pm Mon to Sat. No carts on Sundays. Ran by local Ian Calvert, first door out of the station.'

Rose was out of the door before she realised she had started walking. Behind the lonely cart was an old dusty road and nothing else, no buildings, just grass and trees. She suddenly felt a wave of uneasiness overwhelm her. There were no people and Chippewa Falls was six miles away; it was as if she had stepped into a ghost town.

Suddenly, as if on cue, a young man jumped up from behind one of the two horses, causing Rose to jump backwards. Giving the horse a pat on the nose, he dashed to her as if afraid she may fall.

"Excuse me Ma'am! I didn't hear you there, are you looking for a cart into town?" Rose simply nodded at him, and he took her small bag from her and placed it in the cart, before offering her his hand. She took it graciously and stepped in to the cart. She turned and saw the man looking at her curiously, but she trusted him for reasons she could not muster. His kind eyes calmed her uneasy mind and his smile almost made her want to smile too. He supposed she should get used to curious looks; although she now dressed like and tried to act like a person of third class, a lifetime of luxuries and her upper class lifestyle had left their mark on her in the way she spoke and walked, and she doubted they would ever change.

He climbed up and upon whipping the horses; they began their journey into town. Rose enjoyed the journey tremendously, despite the bumpiness and slight nausea it caused. Oliver, it turned out was good company and she enjoyed their conversation immensely, in which they had spoken about Chippewa Falls, and Rose's train journey from New York. Although she had spent the journey talking to Oliver's head of wavy, dark brown hair, she felt better to have spoken to another human being after having not said a word for days. She hadn't mentioned anything about how long she had been there or why she had come to this small town that was so far away from civilisation.

Rose thought it looked perfect. When they reached the town that was Chippewa Falls, Oliver jumped down from the front of the cart so quickly that Rose didn't even notice until she felt her hand willingly take his as she stepped down onto the ground.

"And you only run the carts on Saturdays?" He handed her her bag after she insisted that she could manage it, and she stood before him. "Yes, my father runs it on weekdays, when I work at the butchers down the road. He's getting on you see, so he could do with the help" he smiled and closed the passenger door, "not that I mind one bit; I get to meet interesting people, and I enjoy that very much." He added and she saw his deep blue eyes twinkle as he hesitated getting back into the cart. He missed the pang of sorrow that passed over Rose's face as she registered how similar the colour of his eyes was to Jack's.

"Are you sure you'll be alright? Because I can take five and show you around" She smiled, in spite of herself but raised her hand.

"Thank you, but I'll manage." He looked disappointed, and Rose noticed, but pretended she didn't. Jack had wanted her to move on, but she doubted she would be able to think of a man in that way for years. Until then, she had decided to travel alone and see all the places Jack had told her about, whilst desperately wishing that he could somehow be with her. Although she believed he was, spiritually, she would have given the World for him to be holding her hand and showing her his old home with his childish enthusiasm that she loved.

She handed him some money and he took it, placing it in the pocket of his overalls.

"If you insist, I hope to see you around, Rose." With this he took her hand and kissed it, much to her surprise, and he got back into the cart and travelled back in the direction they had just come in.

With a deep breath, she allowed herself to observe her surroundings. Without a doubt, she had never seen anywhere like this before; Oliver had taken her into the centre of town, and there were buildings, not big by her standards but they were bigger than the houses that were behind them. The larger buildings were for businesses, and she saw that one of them was the butchers that Oliver had told her of earlier. There was also a grocery store, town hall and a beautiful church, among other things, and each had people leisurely going in and leaving them, going about their daily business.

She felt her eyes well up. This is where he lived... but she swallowed back her tears, determined to keep her raw emotions from surfacing while she was in the street. She would never allow her pain to show whilst around other people, but at night, when all was silent and she was truly alone, she would allow herself to mourn for her lost love.

Blinking back tears and pushing thoughts of Jack to the back of her mind, she headed toward the grocery store.

At the counter there was a rather large man, with a striking dark moustache. When she entered, the two middle aged woman at the front of the shop began to whisper; gossip is sure to spread quickly in a town this small, thoughtRose, but she turned a blind eye and went straight up to the man at the counter.

"Excuse me, Sir, but could you please point me in the direction of a guest house, please?" she asked politely, letting more of her upper class roots through then she had hoped.

The man raised an eyebrow; indicating that it was a rare occasion in this town for a first class visitor to come and visit.

"Of course, say!, you're not from around here are you?" he placed his elbow on the counter and glared at the gossiping women behind Rose, who were listening in with strenuous effort at what Rose had to say. At this, they shuffled their feet for a moment then, with expressions so sour they could have rivalled Rose's mother, left.

"No, Philadelphia actually" I certainly hope everyone's not this nosey, thought Rose, her aggravation from her exhausting journey settling in.

The man whistled, "And what brings you here, to Chippewa Falls? We don't have no big cities nearby or anything!" The man chuckled to himself, while Rose smiled, a severely rehearsed smile that she had used to Cal many times.

"Actually, I had a friend that came from here, he spoke fondly of it. I just wanted to see where he came from and grew up." She felt those tears rising again at the thought of Jack; this was the first time she had mentioned him to anyone.

"And where's the guy now?" The man seemed blind to Rose's distress and gave her a warm smile, lifting his whole moustache.

At the bottom of the North Atlantic. "He Died." she offered without expression, and was glad when the man, though clearly interested, didn't pry.

"Oh, um... sorry to hear that. I'm Clarence Simons, by the way, and the guest house is just up the street, a few houses away. If you need anything, I'm work here every day."

Rose saw the embarrassment on his face, and the sympathy in his eyes.

"I'm Rose. Rose D... Darcy." She had gotten so used to introducing herself as Rose Dawson that she almost let it slip. But she didn't want questions to be risen about her relationship with the Chippewa Falls Dawson's, so she gave a different name; one that she always wanted to be called as a young teenager. "Thank you." She smiled and left and once again found herself on the main street of town. The women that she had seen were sat nearby on a bench, still talking and looking at her in a way she didn't care for. She could see them better now, and it appeared that one of them was not much older than her, if at all, and the other was clearly an older relation. They both had the same mousy hair and dark eyes, but the main difference between them was their weight; the daughter, Rose assumed, was petit and slim and her mother was much larger. They both had unkind faces, with lips twisted in revulsion.

Seeing their curiosity about her, she ignored them and headed off to the guest house.

The guest house was one of the biggest buildings on the street, behind the church and town hall. It was run by a widow, Dorothy Miller, who welcomed Rose in with open arms and after cooking her a small supper allowed Rose to get some much needed rest, which she was thankful for.

"Yes, and breakfast will be at seven, is that too early? Of course it is! You've been travelling all day, you'll be exhausted; I'll make it for nine instead then!"

"Thank you." Rose smiled at the kind woman, who seemed to have tired herself out by talking. When she was left alone, she took out her few belongings and placed them in various places around the room.

Reaching into the bag for more of her belongings, Rose pulled out a necklace, which had caught onto her finger. Tenderly, she stroked the diamond and closed her eyes as the image of Jack's eyes swam before her. She sat on the bed, and didn't try and fight the tears that she felt coming. They fell gracefully from her cheeks, and landed silently on her nightgown.

"I want you to draw me like one of your French girls..."

Unable to contain her emotions any longer, she sobbed into her pillow until darkness claimed her.

I don't know when I'll be able to update... probably sometime before Tuesday. Review?