Chapter nine:

The large grandfather clock read ten to midnight. Rose pulled herself a chair at the dining room table. She needed to take the weight from her own feet. Cal walked past her and went over to her father's drinks cabinet before opening it and helping himself to another brandy, as though it was his own to take his liberation from. Rose could only watch his cocky demeanour and just hope that he knew how ridiculous he truly appeared to be.

''Care for a glass?''

She wanted to comment on the fact that he was in her house, yet he was asking her if she would like one of her own father's brandies. ''Yes.'' She replied, knowing she shouldn't but today's events called for something strong before bed to at least made sure that she slept a good amount. Tomorrow would be a day which she was already dreading.

He poured it silently before coming to her and placing it in front of her. She grasped the glass and brought it to her lips immediately, ignoring the burning sensation and the foul taste but it had to help her somehow. It had to numb out the senses. The ones which Jack had brought to life with a single touch.

''Well, how can I help you?''

Cal sipped his brandy for just a minute. He nursed it, taking his time very slowly before responding to her very eager question.

''Your mother and I have been discussing... certain things.''

Rose moved a curl from her face. She knew what this meant. He wanted their wedding to go ahead, he wanted to control her and he hated knowing that for the last few months he had not been able to touch her. His presence had repulsed her after his activities with Cara – but a man had needs, one which his fiancée had not been willing to fulfil. One whom was very frigid and cold, like her own mother, he suspected. He grinned at his own thoughts.

''Is that right?''

''Yes.'' He rounded the chair, watching her as though she was prey. Wasn't that always his act? Just how he could approach her, ensured she was fearful...Cal's jaw tightened. ''Rose, stop acting like a child. You sit there drinking liquor, with the attitude of an adolescent!''

''Cal, I am just seventeen yet you expected me to be a woman. An adult. You wanted to go to bed with me. When I refused, you take God knows whoever else. I have nothing to offer you, nor you to me. Clearly we are unsuited to the other, so please just allow this—whatever it was—to have faded out and come to a natural end. I am not infatuated with you, nor do I ever think I was.''

Rose stood from the table. This time she was adamant that she would not be spoken to or treat the way she had been in the past. From somewhere, she had strength and courage and she knew that had stemmed from Jack. The one person who had showed her everything which Cal had prevented her from experiencing.

Cal came to her, quickly. She was a pistol, that was for certain. Unable to hold her tongue and at one point; that had been the utter appeal of her.

''You refused to honour me, the way a wife is supposed to honour her husband.''

''I am not your wife!'' She shouted. Her temper becoming too much. Oh, why did she leave Jack when he had asked her to stay with him for the night and she knew for certain that she would trust him with all of her heart to not invite her into his bed, yet, a part of her fancied the idea of him been her first, perhaps even her only. Yes, she was aware they were childish notions but still, one could dream. ''Nor will I ever be.'' Rose exhaled her frustrations, feeling how the weight upon her shoulders seem to increase ten fold. How much clearer could one be?

Following her outburst, Cal remained fairly calm. ''Rose, I have paid for you. I paid your useless father's debts, I kept this roof over your head. Your family name is still clear.''

Picking up her glass of brandy, Rose took a larger sip. She could take offence for his insult of her father, she could have raised her voice further but she decided to take the high road. She was not becoming involved in his games anymore. She was freeing herself from his poisonous tangled web.

''Then taint it, Cal. For I no longer care. My mother may kiss your damned feet but I refuse to. There was a time I believed I may have loved you but then you hurt me, you hit me and I am not going to be that person.''

A sharp glance from Cal did nothing to deter her from attempting to leave the room. She opened the door of the dining room into the hallway when she came face to face with Lovejoy. He towered over her, his impassive gaze down toward her as though she was an unruly child. Lovejoy placed his hands upon her delicate shoulders and pushed her back into the dining room and closed the door with a quiet click. Her Mother must have gone to bed leaving them all alone. Abandoned to handle this alone. Faced with two men. Side by side. Now, she felt herself begin to panic. She needed to get out of there quick. She felt like she needed to scream...that would wake the whole damned house up.

''Perhaps, take a seat, love.''

"I would rather not."

"Then we may be here longer."

"You might be but I shall not." Rose eyed Lovejoy sharply. ''I am afraid that your valet isn't going to convince me to marry you either, Cal.''

Biting the inside of his lip, Cal felt his anger start. It started in his stomach before it took over his full body and his hand came up around her face, slapping her once before shoving her backwards with such force that she fell to the floor, tangled up within the garish rug and her hair curtained her face. Just one slap did little to stop the urge to continue but he stopped, knowing Ruth was upstairs. There had to be another way to curb her. She had begun to sob, he felt nothing but annoyance. The same whining his Mother would make when his Father taught his wife a lesson or two.

''Perhaps now you will listen!''

Rose said nothing. A light numbness came over her body as though she was growing intolerant to his abuse because her heart was truly used to it. Her heart was aching for Jack. She wanted to be a safe and comforting place with him, for him to hold her and all of this would all go away. She closed her eyes and prayed for a second. She didn't believe in God, but she prayed to not have to live through this again. She had left, she had found the strength and now he had taken it away from here again...

Cal's mind was so focused on what the problem was; her. In his mind, he ran through a list of issues and he stared into those soft green eyes of hers. He contemplated his reasons for still wanting her. He searched his mind for one but he knew what the answer damn well was; she was the only girl to fight him back. Yes, that made him angrier at times. But Rose would never just lay down and take his hit but for now, he hoped that she would. His anger levels had risen in the last few days, accelerated by the fact that she had left the house all day and he needed to know where she had been. That, perhaps, was the main cause for his concern. Why should she need to leave? She had no friends. Certainly she would be too frigid to take a lover. Exhaling, he glanced up at Lovejoy. This entire evening felt easier than it could have been to deal with. There had been little fight or struggle and her silence now perhaps showed that she was compliant for now. All it took sometimes was for a woman to know that the man was in charge…

''Look at me,'' Cal urged.

Rose was about to refuse but he started to come closer to her. Quickly, she raised her head. Cal looked over her for a moment. He could so easily have helped her up from the floor, sent for help to clear her face and then allowed her to go to bed, but something niggled at him, slowly twisting to the point where it began to annoy him. Slowly pulling at him. Digging into his stomach.

''Who was in the car, Rose?''

Lovejoy raised his eyebrows in interest. He hadn't expected Cal to believe the car was associated with Rose's disappearance but nothing would escape his own eyes, nothing. He listened, his own interest sparked.

''What car?''

Cal sipped his brandy, it momentarily quashed his anger. He enjoyed the feeling for a moment or two. The calm before the storm.

''When you arrived home, it just so happened that a Dodge had pulled up and then left within minutes. Coincidence, since the state of the vehicle tells me it belongs to no one on the street or even in the area.'' Lovejoy answered for Cal. A wild smirk across his face told Rose that he knew something. He was picking at something and she knew he would not give up toying with her until she revealed something about that car. She never would.

Rose felt sickened, weak and bored. ''I don't know.'' She lied as she pulled herself up and stood up as straight as she could. ''Ask the neighbours whether or not they had visitors this evening if it is any particular interest to either or you.''

Cal watched as she had gotten to her feet. Usually she would stay down for longer and he could toy with her, make her tell him things and twist her around his finger ever so easily but this time he didn't. Her answer made him smile, she had more fire in her stomach than before. Something about her had changed and that was how he knew that Lovejoy was in fact, correct. Rose knew who was in the car. She had landed herself in the hot water. That was the little drastic detail that he needed to ensure that she saw sense.

''Hmm, Lovejoy, you may now leave us.'' Cal didn't take his eyes away from Rose. His mood seemed to have changed, he was; calm. Collective.

''Of course.''

Lovejoy nodded to Cal, ever faithful before leaving the dining room and clicking the door closed. Rose watched as he silently walked to the drinks cabinet and helped himself to another drink. This was another side to Cal which Rose had never seen, he was so unpredictable and yet so calm. She kept herself prepared for any outcome. She kept her eye on the door whilst his back was turned but he knew that the manservant would just waiting outside. She sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. Whilst she felt weak, there was a part of her that felt on guard.

''The car? Do you expect us to believe you walked home.''

Rose rolled her eyes visibly. ''Oh Cal, believe what you will. It is after midnight and I am very tired.''

Her will to stay had ran out and Rose knew at that moment in time that she would not stay in the house any longer. She would go, she would run. She had to. She had to try something for staying here would no doubt keep her as the mouse to his cat. His prey. His pathetic games. His normal routine which she knew off by heart. She refused to tread on eggshells any longer and the same went for his ex-cop of a valet. It was as though she was trapped in a bad dream, and now, she actually cursed herself for running straight back into the trap. She was stupid.

''Where have you been?''

''Out.''

''With who?''

Rose tried to suppress her sigh but she couldn't.

''I have some friends. I have a life. I want to do normal acitivites like see the pictures, go for a walk, go to have a burger. I am not just some little delicate doll sitting on a windowsill for ever to gather dust and never be touched.''

''I was prepared to offer you that.''

''No, you wanted me to sit there and be decorative, without the need to speak, or act or think. I am a woman. Women stopped been viewed as objects thirty or so years ago! Women got the vote-''

''Oh for God's sake, do not start a tirade on women's rights as though we are in times of the suffragette movement. Women have everything which they should ever need!''

''Spoken by a man who has no limitations.''

''I am the son of a wealthy man. I am a man who has to be honoured by his wife. A wife who should be classy, respectable and not be running about time with God knows who.''

''Then, you are looking at the wrong woman for you.''

''Am I?'' Cal raised his brows. ''Perhaps if I hadn't invested so much damned money into this match then I would have walked away but I will take you to the altar and you will marry me even if you are chained to me all the way down the aisle.''

Rose should have felt the shimmer of fright that she always did when he spoke so passionate and yet so hateful of their nuptials which at one point, she was actually looking forward to. She watched the door, waiting to see if she could make it there whilst Cal still was sinking his brandy. With a beating heart, she started for the door.

A clink seemed to stop her steps towards the door. A loud clink. In slow motion, she saw Cal finish pouring the brandy out into the same glass which her Father would drink from. He took one sip from it. Just one sip. Usually in these moods he would down it in one. His lips over the rim. His black eyes on her. Watching her. Then she was hit by something. Something very heavy but not heavy enough to knock her to the floor right away. It seemed to linger there for a moment or two. She seemed to topple, to not know how something had stolen away her balance...

It took her breath away, stole every ounce of strength which she seemed to have gained and knocked her to the floor then. As she lay one of the last things she saw was shards of glass everywhere, on the floor, in her lap and embedded in her foot as she had stumbled backwards and then she saw the blood. So much of it. She screamed as loud as she could and then she faded out. Just like she had done before. So many times before.