Replacement Baby (10 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Rodney called Rose
on Sunday morning and suggested that they have tea.

“I know of a great little bakery near my store,” he told her.

“I’d love that!” Rose told him. “My sweet tooth has been begging for a treat all morning.”

Rodney chuckled. “Okay, I’ll come get you at two.”

Rose wore her new yellow sundress and a pair of sandals. She pinned her hair back and spritzed a borrowed bottle of perfume on her neck. Then she waited by the front door until Rodney arrived.

Together they strolled to the main street and then found a cab. Their cab stopped near the bakery and they walked there at a slow pace.

“How was your work at the store yesterday? Didn’t you have a meeting?” Rose asked him.

“It was all fine.”

“I think it’s really cool that you manage a jewelry store,” Rose told him. “I’ll bet you get to see really interesting jewelry piece all the time.” She secretly hoped he might give her jewelry as a gift sometime. She had never received a gift like that before.

“Oh, really? Why?” Rodney asked her.

“I don’t know, I just think that jewelry is so beautiful,” Rose told him. “It seems like a really important job, to manage such valuable things.”

Rodney smiled with pride. “I like to think it is.” They continued to walk. “Hey,” Rodney said suddenly. “Want to see my store? It’s just down the street.”

“Sure,” Rose agreed, feeling excited.

They turned down a street and stopped in front of a large jewelry shop. The sign read
Herald’s Jewelers, Established 1894
. A row of diamond necklaces was on display in the front window.

“Wow, this is all beautiful.” Rose spoke breathlessly. “You manage all this?”

“Yes, I do,” Rodney told her. He waved his hand, motioning to several display cases. “I take care of all of this.” His voice was full of pride.

“Wow, it’s amazing.”

Rodney smiled.

Around the store were over a dozen customers and half a dozen clerks. Everyone respectfully greeted Rodney as “Mr. Martin.” Rose felt very important as she hung on his arm.

“Would you like to try on a piece?” Rodney asked her.

Rose could feel her heart beating in her chest. “Yes,” she cried with excitement.

Rodney took Rose’s hand and led her to a case in the corner. “Take out the Juliette,” he instructed the clerk. The woman obeyed immediately and lifted a beautiful necklace that had scores of diamonds set in white gold. The diamonds encircled the entire necklace.

“Now, turn around,” he ordered Rose. She eagerly did what he asked and lifted her hair. She felt the cool heaviness of the necklace as it rested on her shoulders. She dropped her hair and let Rodney spin her around to gaze in the mirror.

“Wow,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

“You look amazing,” he whispered in her ear.

“I love it,” she whispered.
I’ve never worn real jewelry before,
Rose realized.
I love how this necklace looks on my neck. I love how the diamonds sparkle. I’ve been missing out.

Rodney helped Rose take the necklace off. After glancing around for a few more minutes, Rose and Rodney walked to the bakery. They enjoyed a hot pot of tea and a plate full of scones. They finished their time with a sponge cake.

After leaving the bakery, Rodney took Rose to the Tube station so she could go home. He walked with his arm around her.
This would be the perfect moment for him to kiss me,
Rose thought with eagerness.
Will he? Maybe I should kiss him.

Looking down at Rose, Rodney gazed into her eyes. She lifted her chin and parted her lips.
Do it. Do it,
she silently implored him. Rodney leaned down and pressed his lips against Rose’s forehead. Her heart sank.

“Good-bye for now, sweet Rose,” Rodney said in a soft tone and walked away.

Rose stared after him, gaping.
Is there something wrong with him? Is there something wrong with me?
Shaking her head, Rose turned around to walk down the stairs to catch the train.
Wait,
Rose thought suddenly, stopping mid-step.
What if he doesn’t really like me? What if he found someone else and he just can’t bring himself to break it to me? I just need to ask him. I need to ask him what is going on.

* * *

Mrs. Douglass had an extra busy workload the next week. Rose worked an additional four hours, which she was paid additional money for. A French diplomat was coming, and Mrs. Douglass was preparing the menu for a special meal. She wanted to fuse French, English, and American cuisines for the occasion. Because of this, Rose spent most of the day on Tuesday going from market to market to buy ingredients. Each item was carefully handwritten on Mrs. Douglass’ extensive grocery list. She went to a French grocery store, and then to a different one, which sold many American foods. Meanwhile, Julie was at work at the hospital and Lionel stayed home working on a writing assignment for his job.

By the end of the day on Tuesday, Rose was already exhausted. She soaked her feet in the bathtub for an hour while she read a book. It was a mystery novel which she had borrowed from Mrs. Harrison.

The book was about a young woman who was escaping her abusive ex-husband. She fled to Oregon to get away from him, but he followed her there. While Rose read, she began to hear thunder in the distance. She stopped to listen briefly before continuing on to the next chapter. She continued reading and reached a particularly suspenseful part of the book where the woman realizes that her ex-husband had followed her all the way to Oregon.

Rose’s heart began to pound.
What if Mother followed me here to London?
Rose began to worry. Of course, she had seen no sign of Mother since coming to England. And really, Mother had no way of knowing where she was. But reading this book was beginning to make Rose jumpy.
Maybe I should put it down,
she thought to herself
.

A clap of thunder crashed nearby and shook the house. Rose was so frightened that she jumped and the book flung out of her hand and hit the bathroom door with a loud thud.

Rose heard a knock on the door a minute later. “Rose?” came Julie’s voice from the other side of the bathroom door. “Are you okay?” She jingled the doorknob and came inside.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Rose told her. She sat on the edge of the bathtub in her pink, fluffy bathrobe. Her feet rested in the tub.

“What was that sound?”

“Oh, I got scared and dropped my book,” Rose told her.

“Oh, that one?” Julie grinned. “Her ex husband dies at the end. Falls off a bridge.”

“Wow, gee, thanks for telling me, Julie,” Rose with sarcasm. “I’m only in the eighth chapter.”

“Oops, sorry to ruin it for you,” Julie apologized, embarrassed.

“When did you read it, anyway?” Rose asked.

“Oh, I didn’t read it,” Julie admitted. “I saw your copy out on the table and I just read last chapter.”

“You just read the
ending
?” Rose asked in disbelief, her face showing how mortified she was.

“Yeah, I always do that,” Julie told her matter-of-factly.

Rose’s mouth hung open. “
What
?” Her eyes grew wide.

“I didn’t want to spend all that time reading the whole book,” Julie explained. “Reading a whole book takes way too long. So I always read the ending. Once in a while if I read an ending that is really fantastic, then I’ll read the rest of the book.”

Rose shook her head. “I’m not even going to try to understand this.”

Julie laughed. “Lionel says the same thing.”

“Well, I guess I’m done reading for the night,” Rose said, lifting her feet out of the tub. “Will you hand me that towel?”

* * *

Rose attempted to fall asleep while thinking of Rodney. She kept thinking of how happy she would be to see his face again in a couple days. He was going to call her on Friday.
I really like Rodney. I like him a lot.

The sound of a distant train whistle floated through the window. Rose glanced toward the window through the dark room. Seeing nothing but moonlight and lamplight outside, she turned over and hugged her pillow. She snuggled into it, daydreaming of Rodney and the warmth of his arms whenever they danced. She realized that she had become more fixated on him ever since she gave up hope on forming any kind of relationship with her birth mother days before.

Rose’s mind drifted back to the painful moment when her birth mother shut the door as she stood outside on the front step. Once again, that seem sinking feeling came to her. Rose shook her head, as if to shake away the sense of rejection that she was battling constantly since that day.

After several more minutes of trying to sleep, Rose began to pay attention to the sound of light raindrops on the window. Again, she opened her eyes and glanced toward the tapping. Tiny droplets reflected the evening lamplight from outside. Chilly, she pulled the covers more closely over her. Finally, she fell into a deep sleep as she listened to the raindrops
tap, tap, tap
on the window.

Chapter Seventeen

Two weeks went
by and Rose and Rodney continued their usual outings and dates. Then one day Rodney told Rose he had to go out of town for work.

“It’s this big jewel show in Paris,” he explained to Rose. “I’ll miss you, but don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.”

Rose felt her heart sink in disappointment when he gave her the news, but she was too busy to focus on her emotions. The Douglass family was hosting an embassy ball in their home, and Mrs. Douglass needed all the help she could get. Rose was paid extra by Mrs. Douglass to work every day the week before the ball. It was a masquerade party, and it would be quite formal.

Excitement filling her heart, she began to look forward to the party. Julie, of course, was overjoyed.

“The nephew of the Russian diplomat will be going, and I’ve heard he’s hot,” Julie told Rose one afternoon as they strung twinkle lights around the main entryway, which led into the foyer. Mrs. Douglass had been putting Julie to work with party preparations, as well.

“Oh, really?” Rose asked, suddenly curious.

“Absolutely,” Julie told her. “I’m sure there will be other guys, too. This is going to be the event of the summer for me!”

“This will be the event of my life,” Rose admitted with a laugh. “I never did anything back in New York. My mom was really, really strict.”

“Ugh, that’s the worst,” Julie muttered as she continued to work. Julie’s attempts at empathy were often weak.

Rose gazed at the large room. The foyer was large enough to be the dance floor. There was to be a dance instructor teaching two traditional waltzes and a foxtrot at the party. The rest of the evening there would be current music and modern dances. Mrs. Douglass was very traditional and she liked to throw in touches of the unique and customary at her parties. Rose only knew modern dances from her time with Rodney. Julie had been droning on about how waltzes were so old fashioned for weeks. Listening in silence, Rose had been sort of curious about these dances. She had recently been reading parts of Dickens and Austen novels in her spare time, which had piqued her curiosity about traditional dances and balls.

“Well, it was bad, but now I’m here,” Rose chirped cheerfully. “I don’t know what I’m going to wear yet, but I guess I’ll figure it out.”

“Hey, why don’t we go shopping after this?” Julie proposed.

“Sure, sounds good.”

“Gosh,” Julie moaned. “I’ve been telling my mom to get a DJ for this party, but she won’t listen. She’s all about creating some sort of historical, traditional soirée or something. It sounds like a party they would have at the retirement home.”

“Oh, come on, it won’t be so bad,” Rose insisted. “It’s different. Let’s just enjoy it.”

“Sure, okay. Hey, I’ll go ask mom if she needs help with anything else right now,” Julie told Rose. “And if she doesn’t, we can just go shopping now.”

“Okay,” Rose agreed.

Julie hopped down from the step ladder she was standing on and went upstairs to find her mom. She came back in a few minutes, Mrs. Douglass in tow.

“Of course you girls should go and have a good time when you’re done,” Mrs. Douglass told them, smiling. “It just so happens that I wanted to talk to you about shopping, Rose.”

“Yes, Mrs. Douglass?” Rose responded politely.

“Well, you’ve gone above and beyond to help me with everything for the masquerade party,” Mrs. Douglass explained. “So I would like to purchase your dress for the party as a way to say ‘thank you.’”

Rose’s cheeks turned red and her eyes grew wide. “Wow, thank you, Mrs. Douglass!” she exclaimed in shock. “Thank you very much. This is amazing.”

“You are most welcome, Rose.” Mrs. Douglass smiled in her usual pleasant way. “You deserve it. You’re an incredibly hard worker.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Rose told Mrs. Douglass over and over again, her gratitude pouring out.

“You earned it,” Mrs. Douglass reassured her. “Please, Rose, you don’t need to thank me. You deserve this for all your hard work. Julie, you just write a check when Rose finds the dress she likes.”

When Mrs. Douglass left the room, Julie exploded with excitement. “We’re going
shopping
!” she howled.

“Okay, calm down and let’s go,” Rose told her, grinning.

They left and took the Tube toward the shopping area by the river. They left the station and walked down to the shopping area near Canary Wharf. Julie found three floor length gowns that she loved at one store and Rose attempted to help her friend make a decision. Rose noticed several dresses which she liked, but she wanted to choose something special.
I’m going to look really pretty when I found my dress,
she told herself and smiled.
I’ve never worn a long gown before. I’ll feel like a princess or something. I wish Rodney could be there.

“So I know of this fantastic little hat shop we can go to when we find our dresses,” Julie told Rose after Julie decided not to buy any of the three dresses and they left the store. “They make custom masquerade masks. So we’ll get our dresses and bring them in. Then they will design masks to match our gowns.”

“Sounds great,” Rose said.

As she waited for Julie outside of the dressing room, Rose became lost in her thoughts.
I like this peaceful world of parties and shopping. It’s so different from my life growing up. It’s nice to get out and try different things.

At the next store, Julie found a bright purple off-the-shoulder taffeta dress. It had a large skirt and a sash. The dress made a swishing sound whenever Julie moved. She spun around in front of the mirror and her skirt encircled her.

“I love it,” Rose enthused. “It’s perfect on you.”

“Me, too,” Julie agreed. “This is the one I want.”

Julie purchased the dress and they went on to the next store. Rose felt most drawn to the dresses which were deep colors of blue or green. She tried on half a dozen, but could not decide on one.

“I really like that off-the-shoulder style that you got, Julie,” Rose told her. “And I love the full skirt. The taffeta is pretty, too.”

“Okay, let’s keep a look out for something similar,” Julie said to her as the clerk boxed up her gown.

At the next store, Rose spotted a dark green taffeta dress with a full skirt and simple off-the-shoulder sleeves. A green rosette was set in the center. It was hanging up on a wall on display.

“Rose, your mouth is hanging open, this is a good sign,” Julie commented, coming up along beside Rose.

Rose laughed. “Is it really? I guess I should try it on, then.”

The dress fit Rose perfectly. She truly did feel like a princess with it on. She spun around and gazed down as her skirt flew all around her.

“This is the one,” she told Julie. “It’s similar to yours, but still different.”

“Then let’s get it!”

Julie and Rose had both their dresses delivered to the Douglass house. When the gowns arrived in the early evening, they hurried off in a cab to a nearby hat shop, which Julie had told Rose about. Once there, a woman examined the dresses and drew mask designs based on the fabric colors and gown styles. She promised to have them ready by Saturday afternoon, which was the day before the party. Rose could not wait.

* * *

Saturday morning came, and Rose could hardly contain her excitement. She got dressed and walked toward the stairs for breakfast. Lionel caught her in the hallway on the way down to breakfast. He was holding a newspaper in his hands. He extended the paper out to show it to Rose.

“Look at this!” he said quickly, excitement in his voice. “There was a big jewel robbery at this jewelry store near Buckingham Palace last night. The place is called Herald’s Jewelers.” He pointed to the third paragraph down in the article.

“Wow,” Rose said with surprise in her voice. “That name sounds familiar. Have we been by there?”

“Not sure,” Lionel replied. He stopped for a moment to think. “I just can’t remember. But maybe.” He pointed back to the first paragraph in the newspaper article. “It’s the worst jewel robbery in London in over five years! More jewelry was stolen than any other robbery since 1989.”

The article continued on the next page. There were a few black and white photos of the interior of the shop and of some of the missing pieces. There was another photograph of the shop sign.

“It’s so strange,” said Lionel. “It says here that there was no sign of entry at the store. They can’t figure out how the thieves broke in.”

“Hm,” Rose mumbled. “No broken glass and no picked locks,” she said, summarizing the information in the text as she read. “The alarm didn’t even go off. The video tapes appear to have been stopped on purpose. Sometime stopped the recordings on all the tapes.”

“Looks like we have a mystery on our hands,” Lionel commented.

“Yes,” Rose agreed. “Or, to be more specific, Scotland Yard has a mystery on
their
hands.”

“Unless we solve it first!” Lionel exclaimed.

“Very funny,” Rose replied sarcastically. She paused to read more. “I’d like to go by there, though. It all sounds so mysterious. It seems interesting.”

“I guess it would be fun to peek through the windows and come up with our own theories of how it all happened.”

“True,” Rose replied.

“Let’s go eat now and figure this out later.”

“Well, let’s go, then,” Rose agreed. Together, they went downstairs to the breakfast room, still discussing the robbery. Seated at the table were Mr. and Mrs. Douglass and Julie. The three of them were also talking about all the details of the jewel robbery while Mr. Douglass held the newspaper.

“Did you hear about this?” Mr. Douglass asked his son.

Lionel nodded, placing his own newspaper on the table beside the bowl of scrambled eggs and the platter of steaming hot sausages. The father and son began discussing their opinions on the robbery.

Rose sliced the sausages on her plate. Their heat caused delicious smelling steam to rise up to her nose.

“Wait,” Rose choked on a piece of sausage and began coughing. She covered her mouth with a white cloth napkin. When her coughing had ceased, she gasped out a realization that she had been to the jewelry shop before. “Herald’s… that is the jewelry store Rodney manages!”