AUTHOR'S NOTE - Hi guys! Here's the latest chapter. Again, short, I know, but it's the content that matters, not the size! By the way, any suggestions or tips are appriciated, anything that will help make the story a better read for you. REVEIW PLEASE!

June 21st 1912

Santa Monica, California

Cal's POV

The last two months had been the most frustrating of my life. I felt like my whole world was crumbling around me. Everything had gone wrong.

Back at the start of April I had it all made out. I was rich, powerful, was destined to marry into a well-respected family, nothing, it seemed, could have gone wrong. But it did.

I wish now I had never bought tickets back to America on that blasted ship. How could I have let this happen? My fiance stolen, right from under my nose, by a worthless gutter rat. When I didn't find either of them on the Carpathia, I was comforted by the fact that they were dead at the bottom of the Atlantic, as they deserved. But once word got out about what had happened aboard the ship, things began to change People began to talk. I was stared at by the most respected members of high society. They smiled and said hello as normal, but I could see it in their eyes, they no longer saw me as a rich, respected steel tycoon, but as the man who had had his fiance stolen by someone beneath him. I walked with my head held high, but inside I was burning.

Then in New York, I found them both to be alive. At the time I was drinking large amounts of brandy. It was my only comfort, I foun getting drunk to be a way of numbing the constant ache inside my head. Anyway, after discovouring them to be alive, I set about my plan. I was determined now. All was not lost after all. I had enough money to win Rose back. I could afford all the advertising and police I wanted. My fist act was to go to the police station that same night and have Missing posters printed in their hundreds. Then I had them distributed all over the city. And with such a high reward price, surely someone would come forward with information, right?

No such luck. After finding the posters to be of little success, I tried phase two. I was still drinking heavily a the time, and after an unbeleivable amount of investigating, I managed to track down one of Rose's friends who lived in New York. Nathan Calvert. It took a while, but I eventually got him to tell me where Rose was. He told me they were heading for California, to Santa Monica.

I made my way to the seaside town as fast as I could, bringing with me, a hired private investigator and the new valet I had hired. He was good, I admitt, but not a patch on Lovejoy, who had died carrying out my orders. I was restless the whole journey. I felt certain I had finally caught them at last.

But again, another dead end. I searched the whole town, top to bottom. I asked at all the guest houses, every hotel, even begining to interrogate the locals and tourists. After finding another dead end, I was getting frustrated. It was like an endless game of Cat and Mouse. I was preparing to make my way back to New York to investigate further, when I received a letter from a not so close freind who lived in a small, remote area of Wisconsin called Chippewa Falls. The letter brought joy to me, and a sense of victory. It seemed that I finally had them cornered. My freind, Robert hompson, he was called, wrote that she was usng the false name, Rose Smith, and that he thought she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. And with that glorious, glorious news, I began to plan my route to Wisconsin.

I had to plan it out carefully. After the last couple of failures, I didn't want this one to be messed up too. I decided to take my time planning the ambush, as Rose seemed to be staying put for now. I decded I would make it as quick and easy as possible. I turn up at the most unexpected time possible, and hopefully, the sight of my gun would be enough to scare Rose into coming back to Philadelphia with me and becoming my wife.

I couldn't wait to have Rose back in my life. My life now become almost unbearable now I was constantly shadowed by Ruth DeWitt Buckator. That woman was the most annoying woman I had ever met, and whom I only put up with because she may refuse the marridge if I offended her. I had to put up with her mindless chattwer about who was doing what and she was forever planning the wedding as if Rose was upstairs right that moment. It was becoming unbearable. Of course, I had to drag that woman along with me when I went to Santa Monica, and we would have left for New York a lot sooner if Ruth hadn't insisted on staying for just a little longer to meet some well-knowns in the area, something I said was pointless but she said that it was ood to be known with peope across the country. Honestly! As if she didn't know enough people already!

The day I showed her the letter from Mr Thompson we were sitting in the small lounge of the state hotel suite we were rentng in Santa Monica, and after reading the letter she nearly exploded with delight. She was ever so pleased to hear of her daughter's whereabouts.

"Well, we must leave at once!" she cried and turned to leave and supervise the maids packing.

"Ruth, we can't leave yet. We must plan our strategy" I insisted. She looked at me with surprise.

"Mr Hockley, you talk as though we are launching an attack" she said, giving a small laugh at the absurdity of it. Oh, if only you knew, I though to myself.

"Of course not, Ruth. I am mearly saying that we do not want to startle Rose, after the unfortunate insidants aboard the Titanic" Ruth nodded in aggreement.

"Ah, yes, I see your point. A wise moove, who knows what state she'll be in, having to live amungst the common people when she is used the the splendor of society"

"I quite agree. I plan to travel to this Chippewa Falls sometime around mid- July. I trust you will accompany me?"

"Why of course. This is, after all, my daughter we are talking about. And dispite her mistakes, I am determined to be there to see her back on the straight and narrow" I nodded in agreement, and lit a cigar. Taking a long drag on it, I thought through my plan so far in my head...