Chapter 29

In the morning,I’m sitting on Dean’s lap in the kitchen of Rose Cottage and sharing a pot of steaming coffee, while we make a list of what we need to organize for our wedding. I’m not quite sure how I ended up announcing this weekend was fine for a wedding. A moment of insanity?

Yesterday had been an amazing day, full of highs. Not only had I discovered Rose and Jacob had been together all these years, but I was now wearing Eliza’s engagement ring as my very own, which raises the question, “Dean? Do you think your mother would like to come looking at wedding dresses with my mother and I?” I see the shock on Dean’s face. “She’s going to be my mother-in-law so the least I can do is try and get along with her. But if she’s rude again, all bets are off.”

“Tell me when and where and I’ll let my mother know.” He smiles.

“Thomas is here,” I blurt, spotting him through the window.

“Mack, he’ll probably be shocked at first, but he has a family now. He’s no longer alone. He’s stronger than you think.”

“Am I interrupting something?” Thomas asks, coming into the kitchen.

I stand, laughing, and then walk over to Thomas. “We got engaged yesterday, Thomas. We want to be married here, at Rose Cottage, this weekend.”

“Oh, my.” He clears his throat. “Congratulations to you both.” Thomas hugs me, and then shakes Dean’s hand.

“Sit down, Thomas. That’s not all our news,” I say, my voice tight with nerves.

He sits down and glances from me to Dean. “Well, you can’t be pregnant yet. Can you?”

“No, I’m not pregnant, Thomas. This is my engagement ring.” I lift my hand up so Thomas can see the ring.

“That’s lovely, Mack.” Then he turns to Dean. “Is it a family heirloom?”

“Yes, it is,” Dean answers.

“Thomas, there’s no easy way to say this.” I take a deep breath. “Yesterday, when we went to visit Dean’s grandparents, we discovered that Eliza, Jacob’s wife and Dean’s grandmother, is actually Rose, your sister.” Thomas’s eyes focus completely on me. “Rose didn’t die that night, Thomas. Rose and Jacob blackmailed Richard into telling your parents that he saw her go over the cliffs.”

Dean passes Thomas and me a glass of water and continues the story, “Rose came back to see you and tell you the truth in 1954, only to be told by your father that you’d died in Korea. All these years, Thomas, she thought that you were dead.”

Thomas leans forward in his chair and drops his face into his hands. I go over to him and wrap an arm around his shoulders. I feel him shaking while his tears fall silently.

He lifts his head. “After all these years. Because of the both of you.” He shakes his head. “I can’t take it all in. I never expected any of this.” He looks at me then Dean. “You’re my great-nephew?”

I wipe at my eyes. “Eliza and Jacob will be here this weekend for our wedding. She’s waiting for your call, Thomas.”

“I can talk to her, after all these years. What’s she like?” he asks softly with excitement.

“She looks about twenty years younger than she is. In fact, Jacob certainly doesn’t look his age, either. Thomas, she was as shaken as you are when she learned you were alive. She said she has missed you so much over the years. She still wishes to go by Eliza, though.”

“I can understand that. After all, that’s what she’s used for a very long time… So, she gave you her engagement ring,” Thomas says, looking at Dean.

“She did. She said she wanted the woman of my heart, who returned her brother to her to have her ring.”

“Then I guess if you want a wedding here this weekend, you better get a move on.” Thomas laughs.

I’ve relieved Thomas is taking the news about Eliza so well. In a way, it’s a dream come true for me because not only have I fallen in love with Dean, but Thomas as well. After I marry Dean, we will all be a family. I also know one little lad who will be thrilled to bits to discover Thomas is going to be part of the family.

He stands “I’ll take her number, if you will, then leave you to it.”

I hand him the number that I’ve already written down for him. “Here you go. Are you okay?”

He pulls me into his arms and holds me close. “I’m more than okay. Thank you so much. You’re the daughter I never had,” he whispers, close to tears.

* * *

Thomas satin his living room with silent tears running down his face as he stared at the piece of paper with his sister’s telephone number written on. Never in a million years did he ever think that she was alive and living her life with the man she’d fallen in love with so many years before.

He’d always had a love-hate relationship with his father but hearing the lies their father had told Rose made him angry. So many years lost. So many years of being alone without any family around him when all along he still had his sister, her husband, and their offspring. His heart ached for all that he’d missed, and as he thought about Rose, now Eliza, a soft smile crossed his lips.

Sighing heavily, he grabbed a handful of tissues and cleaned himself up before he reached for the telephone that sat on the table beside his chair—better to not waste any more time.

His hands shook as he carefully dialed the number, and he waited…and then, when his call was answered, he heard his sister’s voice as his own failed him.

“Hello, is anyone there,” she whispered before Thomas heard her gasp. “Thomas, is that you?”

“Yes,” he replied in a strangled voice.

“Thomas,” Eliza whispered, softly crying. “I can’t believe that I have you back… So many years… Oh, Thomas, how I wish . . .” His sister broke down into sobs, and hearing her, Thomas cried with her.

Their call stayed connected and eventually, Thomas pulled himself together enough to start thinking again.

“Rose… I mean Eliza, will you tell me about you and Jacob? About your life? I need to hear you talk to me.”

He heard his sister sniffling before she admitted, “Leaving you was the most difficult, Thomas. That’s why I left you that photograph in your comic. I always wondered why you never tried to contact me.”

“That was all my fault for never opening the comic until Mack told me that you’d written about it in your diary...So many years Rose.”

He could hear the smile in her voice and the affection that she had for Jacob as she continued, “After that night, we lived with Jacob’s sister in Boston until we’d saved enough for a house of our own. Jacob had a really good job and quickly moved up in the engineering company. Over the years we invested in the company and by the time Jacob retired he was nearly running it.” She paused, and chuckled. “Do you remember Jayne?”

Thomas had to think because it was a long time ago that she wanted him to remember, and then the memory of her best friend popped into his head, and he laughed. “She always wore make-up and Father would complain behind her back about the kind of men she’d meet dressed up like she was.”

“Yes! That’s right. Well, Jayne is still my best friend today and she married a colleague of Jacob’s a few years after I left.” She sighed. “I so wish we hadn”t lost all those years.”

Smiling through his tears, Thomas said, “We have now, Rose. We have now.”

He sat back with a grin splitting his face, enjoying hearing her voice as he got to know more about his Rose’s life.