Hi, all, another chapter and we have only four more to go! I hope you enjoy this chapter, we have a little bit of Rose's point of view and of course the return of Bruce Ismay.
As l always say Bruce Ismay in my stories are based on the characters in the film and not the real man himself. So as ever, no disrespect intended.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine
Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.
Drifting Back
Chapter 11-Silence Of The Night
Bruce Ismay returns and he and Isabella have their final confrontation. And Theo Patterson and his past come full circle sharply.
She knew who it was before the car even came to a halt.
Rosalie and Eugenie had been with her shelling peas and Rose had offered to help. She had traded her information of the fashion shows in Paris for help learning domestic tasks and the two girls were more than happy to listen to the stories while helping her with what was second nature to her but yet so hard for her to get her brain around.
Rose had been sat there chatting happily her thoughts on the house that Jack said they were going to look at. Someone (Isabella) had helped Fabrizio and Helga pay the back taxes to their own little cottage. Once the wedding was over she supposed that they would move in and Tommy and Isabella it seemed already had a little guest house waiting for them too.
That just left her and Jack.
And Cora she supposed.
It wasn't that she didn't love Cora. Rose would go back on that door frame in the middle of the Atlantic in a heartbeat if it kept Cora safe and happy. It wasn't that she and Jack were almost pseudo parents to the girl. She had never met Cora's parents and she had no desire for the girl to call her Mom, or Mummy or Mamma or whatever the moniker was but she thought that they had a nice thing going if such a thing could be called nice. Her and Jack and Cora and the rest of them. She thought that she was going to have to talk to Jack soon.
They had wanted adventure. They had wanted to see the great big world outside the Titanic and they had survived hell on Earth in order to do so and yet there was something about this mountain about the comfortable easy day to day life that was lived here that made her want to keep on living it. Maybe the adventure was just that? Just living the ordinary simple day to day life? The life that so many people that night did not get the chance to live.
She did not know what to make of it. She did not know what to do about it. She wanted to speak to Jack about it but with all of them crowded onto the floor of a living room there was only so much conversation you could do.
Besides by the time that she got to bed most nights she was exhausted. She supposed it had something to do with the food. She felt as if she'd never had so much good butter and good eggs in her life as she had done at this moment in time. She was sure she was getting fat. Rose remembered the Titanic and it's stream of golden plates and servers and multiple courses and indeed the two girls in front of her had been amazed that a lunch course could consist of seven plates of food and seven glasses of different wine.
"It's a miracle any of you made it up the stairs" Isabella's grandfather had muttered the night before as they had tucked into some apple pie. Rose thought about it and admitted that he did have a point, especially when you considered the champagne that the ladies drank beforehand and the brandy that the men drank afterwards.
Here it was simple. Maybe the odd glass of beer but most of the time it was water and milk and tea and coffee. It was simple food done well, good homey stuff that was grown mostly from the Earth or taken from the land and it was the stuff that her class took for granted. Her mother would have never have even thought to make her own cheese or butter. Goodness her mother had never even known how to turn the water on in the morning.
But she tried not to think about her own mother. She had but Ruth in a box and she had done her best not to think about her. She was going to keep it that way for as long as she possibly could. When she was ready, when she had Jack by her side and a home of her own and all the things she wanted to go crossed off the list then she would begin to think about her mother.
But she had been half listening to the chatter of two very young girls who had actually had a childhood (compared to hers) when she saw the black car come up the drive and she saw how sleek it was, how nice and neat it was and she knew…she fucking knew.
She dropped the pan of peas and stood up her heart hammering in her chest and suddenly she was unable to do anything. She clicked her fingers and ducked through the door just as he got out of the car and she shoved Eugenie and then Rosalie through the door.
"Jack"
"What?" her husband said. He had been with Fabrizio and Tommy in the corner. Someone had given him some paper and he was with Charlie sketching. He took one look at her face and leapt to his feet. Isabella who had been sat with Helga helping the other woman learn how to read English looked up too.
"Bruce Ismay just pulled up"
It was lunchtime, they were all in the house and she saw out of the corner of her eye Theo Patterson stand up and come into the centre of the room.
"What did you just say?"
"It's him" she said her hands shaking. "It's him Isabella I swear to God—"
"So he came for me" Isabella said flatly. Her hand was on her stomach, her belly was still flat but there was a hardness to it that was plain for everyone to see now. Her wedding was this weekend. Just this morning they had started looking at what food they could provide and who to invite.
And now…
"Oh shit" Fabrizio said having been the only one with any sense to go to the window. "He is"
"Is he alone?"
"Looks like it."
"John get out the back, get on horseback and get to the Sherriff" George said sternly. "Go now"
John Patterson looked from father to grandfather but there was something in his grandfather's tone that seemed to win out over the silent stoic presence of his father. He stood up and was out the back door before anyone could blink.
"Jack"
"Stay here"
It was Isabella and it was a command. "If he sees you Rose he'll have Ruth down on you in a heartbeat if he can. He's here for me"
"He's not gonna fucking touch you" Tommy said and his tone was savage.
"Isabella" Fabrizio said quietly. "If your going to do something then you better do it now you've got ten seconds if most. There's just a driver and I think we can—"
But Isabella had already stood up. Before anyone could have even begun to react she had opened the door and had strode out into the sunlight her face a mixture of determination.
"Shit" Jack said gently moving Lilibet so that she was in Charlie's lap. "Rose stay here"
"You all stay here" Theo Patterson said shaking his head. "Charlie get my gun, Pa you load it for me and hold it because if—"
"Teddy"
"CHARLES"
"Yes Daddy"
"Teddy please—"
"Mr Patterson Sir, she's my—"
"YOU ALL STAY HERE! THIS BASTARD IS MINE"
And then he was gone too.
"Shit" Tommy said as Charlie ran to get the gun.
And then he was gone too.
Thank God for windows.
Isabella stood there. Her Uncle watched John Patterson on horseback ride down the path as if he was born to it. The Patterson's only had one horse and yet…
"What the fuck do you want?"
Her Uncle raised an eyebrow.
"So you came back here?"
"You surprised? You surprised I went to find him after everything that you had told me?"
Her Uncle watched her for a second.
"No" he said finally. "I suppose the bastard had to find the bastard eventually."
Tommy who had come out behind her made an abortive gesture but Fabrizio had come out with him and like the brothers that they were he had grabbed his friend by the arm. Isabella didn't even have to look behind her to see that her father had come out with her.
Her father, her fiancé and her friends.
Her family.
God what a wonderful thing to say.
"What do you want?"
"I need you to come out of hiding"
"And?"
"And I need you to speak to the press about your return from the dead. It can do a lot of good into making things right between you and me. And between me and the press."
Yes. Isabella had assumed it would be something like that.
Once upon a time she might have looked him dead in the eye and said yes. She might have done what he had asked for. Certainly she would have considered it. But that was before Tommy, before, this baby, before free choice. Before her family and the man standing behind her who had promised her that he had her back one way or the other. That the only way she would ever be taken of her own free will (like her mother) was if they had gone through him.
She was desperate for it. Aching, trembling, desperate for it. For the support. For the family he had promised her.
And so she chose to take a leap and actually land on her own two feet and so she spoke her truth.
"Fuck off Bruce"
She heard what sounded like a cheer from behind her and she knew that it was Tommy.
Her Uncle's smile dropped.
"What was that girl?"
"You heard. Fuck off. Fuck off back to the wreck of the ship where you left all those people to die. Just…we are done…I am to be married, I am pregnant, and I am not my mother. So your being here doesn't do shit. You can bring as many people as you want but you will have one hell of a fight on your hands, I have a family, a father. And I choose to have faith in them. I am a loved child regardless of how you described me. And If the world has come crashing down around you because of your actions then YOU WERE THE ONE WHO GOT ON THAT FUCKING LIFEBOAT. NOT ME!"
She breathed in and she breathed out. She was perfectly controlled.
The baby inside of her was calm. She had to be calm for the baby.
"Go home" she spat at him but before she could do anything or say anything else there was the touch of a hand at her arm and she turned to see her father standing there.
"Fa—Theo"
"Go inside" was all he said and then Charlie was there gun in hand and her father was smiling.
"No…no please…no you are…" she meant to say too precious because he was. He was too precious to her for him to kill Bruce Ismay because of her but the man smiled as if he understood all of that and more and she felt Tommy at her elbow. She interlocked their fingers together and the tightness of his grip told her that there was no way that he was ever letting go.
She needed that.
She craved that.
She craved him.
"Tommy take her inside. Mr Ismay and I need to have a talk a good decade and a half in the making"
Tommy must have seen something that she didn't because he was pulling her back and she didn't care that his was the man that had raised her for the first seventeen years of her life. She cared only for the man who had loved her for as long as that and this the man who was holding her, the man who had put a baby in her belly. Her husband to be.
"Tommy" she said once she was sat down on the couch.
"No" he said cupping her face in her hand.
"No Isabella do not do that. You never, ever will look for me and see me gone. No man gets between me and mine."
She wanted to tell him that, that was wishful thinking at best but Isabella was too far gone to say that. The nightmare was at the gates and she was too scared of what he would do. Despite her earlier bravado she was all too aware of what he could do. Of what power he had.
But it was Tommy and it was his scent and his smell and his touch and she leaned into it, she craved it and when she closed her eyes and trembled in his arms it was her mother's face and her mother's unconquerable smile (both of which she had heard about and for the first time that she could see) burned beneath her eyelids.
For the first time Isabella Ismay, soon to be Isabella Ryan and who once upon a time would have been Isabella Patterson had the sense to trust.
She did not think she would be let down.
Beneath her eyelids she knew her mother would agree.
And yeah, there we go, God I had fun writing that. I will bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-Theo Patterson and Bruce Ismay come full circle and the relationship between the two men is explored. And the demons are vanquished.