Seventeen Years Later

"Mother, please tell me I can just stay here, at home tonight, and not go to this party?"

Smiling, Rose knelt down to her youngest child, and youngest daughter. At five years old, Charlotte Hockley was most assuredly just like her mother in personality. It was almost uncanny.

"Oh, darling, but we're all going. And it will not be that dreadful, I promise!"

Charlotte's eyebrows wrinkled. "Really?"

Rose shrugged a little. "Oh…well not too dreadful." She couldn't bring herself to lie to her youngest.

Smiling, fifteen-year old Liza Hockley said, "Oh, but Charlotte, don't you want to go? Oh, I just love going to parties…all the beautiful dresses and jewels…and dancing and gossip…it is simply marvelous! I simply cannot wait until my sixteenth birthday…then I can start finding my husband! And Grandmother is just as anxious!"

Smirking, seventeen-year old Thomas Hockley, the eldest, said, "Oh, but what unfortunate man would ever want to be stuck with you all his life?"

Sixteen-year old Charles Hockley intervened. "I do concur."

Sticking out her jaw, Liza drew herself up to her full height, her long brown curls in perfect waves down her back. "Oh, like any proper lady would want vagabonds like you two!"

Brightening, smoothing out her white dress, Liza said, "Oh, Mother, do please help me with my necklace!"

Rolling her eyes a little in amusement, Rose did so.

Thomas and Charles were the spitting image of Cal, looks uncannily close to their father. They also both had his business sense, and devilish charm. Both a blessing and a curse at times.

Liza, like her brothers and father, was tall and slender as well, as her grandmother also was, and, while she did possess her mother's long curls, her hair was brunette, like her brothers and father as well. She also had her father's beautiful eye color, just like Thomas and Charles did.

Liza, like her grandmother before her, absolutely adored all things first-class and superficial, though she was very sweet and kind at heart. Though Rose loved her eldest daughter immensely, with all her heart and soul, as she did all of their children, it still baffled her how she had managed to create the complete opposite of herself in terms of personality…

Smiling as she finished fastening the pearl necklace on, Rose said, "You look beautiful, darling."

Liza beamed, turning once again to look at her reflection. Little did she know that she was one of the most desired young ladies of first-class by the vast majority of eligible first-class bachelors, both her age and a little older.

"Mother?"

Smiling again, Rose knelt. Charlotte Hockley alone had inherited her mother's red curls and ivory complexion, as well as blue eyes and her curvy figure. She also, like her mother, preferred exciting things to the mundanities of first-class life.

"Yes?"

But instead of a reply, the little girl simply gave her a hug. Smiling, Rose kissed her affectionately on the head.

Suddenly, Cal returned from upstairs, fixing his suit. He smiled when he saw Rose.

"Are we all ready?"

"Yes, Father," Liza squealed, and Cal grinned.

"You look beautiful, darling," he said, and she smiled.

Thomas and Charles both gagged. "Please, Father, don't give her any more compliments! She's so vain already it's sickening."

Liza tossed her head, defiance in her glare. "What's sickening is how both of you wore those exact same tuxedos last week!"

Cal grinned, watching the interaction between them.

Thomas simply smirked. "It's not as sickening as watching you look at yourself in the mirror." Charles laughed.

Cal simply rolled his eyes good-naturedly, smiling as he turned away. "Oh, just get along, all three of you."

Turning to Rose, he said, "May I speak to you alone please?"

She stood up, puzzled.

Oh no…she had thought things had been salvaged with the business…were things as bad as they had all once thought?

The horrible stock market crash, one year ago, had been one of the darkest days Rose could remember in recent memory. Vividly, as though it were yesterday, she could still recall Cal coming home from work, dull, unresponsive, as though he were dead…Everyone, it seemed, was going bankrupt. Businesses were going broke left and right…the future had never been more uncertain.

Though it had taken a lot of risk and work from Cal, and though Hockley Steel had been substantially hit…miraculously, the business was still afloat, and still somewhat thriving in these horrible days of The Great Depression. Of course, it was far from what it had once been, as all the big businesses were, but it still brought in lots of money, and they were still able to keep their livelihood, and home and family safe. Also there was hope that soon, this slump would be over and the economy would return to normal.

He noticed her expression. Immediately, he said, "It's alright, darling. The business is still sound."

Letting out a breath she had not known she had been holding, she put a hand on her chest, rubbing a little. "Oh goodness, that's a relief."

Expression growing serious to match hers, he said, "It's a relief every day. When I think of how many people I know who are penniless right now, I'm even more thankful we didn't lose it all. It's a damn miracle we just lost how much we did."

Suddenly, he kissed her, and she closed her eyes. It had been so long since it had been just the two of them…

Playing with her hair, he said, "When do you film next?"

Flustered, she closed her eyes, trying to recall. "Not until the end of next week…the movie is almost done. Why?"

Smiling, Cal said, "When it is…how does a week away, with no children, sound?"

Rose smiled. "That would be heaven."

Gazing into his eyes, she reached up and smoothed a piece of his hair back. She couldn't help smiling.

Though she never, ever would have fathomed the path her life would take back when she was simply an angry seventeen-year old, engaged against her will, and later still, when she was on her own after the sinking, she thanked God every single day for giving her Cal. Though she never would have dreamed she would ever fall in love with him, she was, deliriously so, and she would not trade her life with him, and their children, for the world. It still marveled her when she thought about it.

Cal took her hand, kissing it, smiling at her, and she smiled back as they walked out, side by side, to gather their children and go to the party.