Thank you all SO much for your patience! Here's the next chapter! I should have the next one up by Monday / Tuesday x
9pm
Rose and Henry had managed to get Emilia and Alfie to sleep relatively quickly, but had the nightly battle with Charlie as always, and it was 9pm by the time the 2 of them managed to sit down and have the conversation that Rose had been dreading all day- more so since she arrived home from Jack's house earlier that day, riddled with guilt over sleeping with him.
"So…" Rose took a deep breath as she looked across at Henry on the other side of the table. "I don't want a divorce, Rose" Henry got straight to the point and got a huge sigh of relief from Rose. Sure, she had made some mistakes in their relationship but knew she wanted to be with Henry… or at least she thought she did.
"You don't?" She asked. "No… but I'm struggling… I know he's Emilia's Dad, so he's always going to be around and you'll always have a relationship in that sense… but… I just get this niggling feeling that he wants more" Henry said. Rose tried to show little emotion, knowing Henry was right. "He just wants a relationship with Emilia… he knows I'm happy with you" Rose tried to reassure him. "Then… no more secret meetings with him… no more personal life exchanges… can't it just be about Emmy? When she's being dropped off or picked up…" Henry asked. "It's already like that" Rose responded quickly, getting a raise of an eyebrow from Henry. "It's not… and you know it's not… if you say you didn't sleep with him, then fine… I'm not going to argue with you… we have too much to loose, there's 3 children in the middle of all of this. But if we're going to make this work then Jack needs to be around as little as possible" Henry said. Rose stayed silent for a minute. She hated the thought of the only exchanges with Jack being over the handover of Emilia, but if she wanted her marriage to work, she knew this was her only option. "OK…" she swallowed.
—-
28th February 1921
Rose had struggled the last few months not seeing Jack. She'd snuck off to see him once following hers and Henry's conversation to explain that they could no longer see one another, not wanting to have the conversation with Emilia present, but aside from that, she had either sent Henry to drop off or pick or Emilia from Jacks house, something a now 8 year old Emilia had picked up on.
"Am I still staying at Dad's this weekend?" Emilia glanced at Rose as she ate her breakfast. "Yes darling, if you want to?" Rose asked "it is his weekend…" she continued. "I want to… will you pick me up on Sunday?" She frowned "no sweetheart, it'll be Henry" Rose forced a smile. "Why? You never pick me up anymore…" Emilia eyed Rose. "It's just easier when Henry does it. You know Alfie likes being with me, and getting him ready and taking him to Jack's is very time consuming…" Rose lied, Alfie had no preference between her and Henry, and Emilia knew it… "OK" Emilia shrugged with a sigh and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Go and get your coats on" she said to Emilia and Charlie, trying to change the subject.
—
Now that Charlie was about to turn 5, bedtime had become a little easier and he no longer got out of bed every 5 minutes after having a story read to him. Alfie was now 9 months and sleeping through the night in his own bedroom and Rose finally felt well rested for the first time since before Emilia was born, but Henry noticed she had been sleeping a lot more recently with the occasional sickness bouts. He found her lay on the couch at around 8pm once he was sure Alfie was asleep.
"Hey… are you OK?" He frowned at Rose concerned. "Yeah" she nodded with a small smile and forced herself to sit up. "No you're not. What's up? You've been very tired lately…" he sat down beside her. "Oh, I'm probably just deficient in iron or something silly, I'll pick some tablets up soon" she smiled a little. "And the sickness?" Henry raised an eyebrow. "What sickness?" Rose panicked, unaware Henry had heard her vomitting episodes. "Rose… I've heard you… the sickness, tiredness… you know what I'm thinking…" Rose sighed to herself. "I'm not pregnant, Henry…" she said. "How do you know? When was your last period?" He raised an eyebrow. "I- … mid December" she bit her bottom lip. "Exactly…" "but… we're careful… we're always careful…" Rose said, Jack not even entering her head. "These things happen sometimes…" Henry replied. "Are you OK?" He continued, and she held back the tears forming in her eyes. "I don't know…" she sighed. "Do you mind if I go to bed? We can talk this over in the morning… and if I need a doctor, we can ask him to come then…" Rose said. "Of course" Henry nodded "I'll come up with you" He gave her a reassuring smile and followed her up the stairs.