She moved forward, her hand still held tightly by Dean, and took a seat to the side of the bed.
“Hello, Richard. My name is Mackenzie Harper, and this is a good friend of mine, Dean . . . Simone. We’re sorry to disturb you, but we were wondering if you would be willing to talk to us about something that happened a long time ago?” Mack held her breath while she waited anxiously for Richard’s reply. He took so long to answer that she started to fidget. Dean tightened his hold on her hand in reassurance.
“Do I make you nervous, young lady?”
She hesitated. “Actually, yes, you do. I’m nervous about asking you what it is I need to know.”
“So, ask me and get it out of the way.”
She inhaled deeply. “I found a diary dated 1947, it belonged to Rose Degan.”
Richard inadvertently froze. His eyes narrowed.
“You remember Rose, don’t you, Richard?”
After a few moments, he focused on Mack. “Rose was the first woman I ever loved, and I never loved anyone else like I did her. She was everything to me.”
“Will you tell us what happened the night she died? Please, Richard?”
He didn’t answer but instead looked toward the curtained window as if he was seeing something else. Finally, he looked back at them and whispered, “I’ve never spoken about that night since it happened, and then I only said I saw her go over the cliffs from a distance.”
“So what really happened?”
He sighed heavily as he shut his eyes Mack actually thought he had fallen asleep, until he started to talk, slowly, but directly.
“I stayed outside that night after she got home from work. I was so jealous and I wanted to make sure she didn’t sneak out to meet him. I’d taken sandwiches to eat for dinner and a thermos of coffee. Unbeknown to me, Jacob had been invited to dinner by her father. Don’t know what happened, but he left soon after arriving. So I stayed, knowing deep down that she would try to sneak out to see him. Later, I don’t know what time it was, I saw a figure moving quickly away from the house. I knew instinctively it was Rose so I ran in the same direction and then she disappeared from sight.”
Richard opened his eyes and looked longingly at Mack. “I’m not proud of what I did next, but I loved her and I panicked.”
“We’re not here to judge you, Richard. We just want to know what happened to Rose.”
He realized Mack was serious.
Richard took a deep breath. “I went running to the back door and started banging on it. I wanted to tell Rose’s father that she was gone, but Thomas opened it. He looked upset himself. I threatened him so that he would tell me where she had gone.” He paused and shook his head. “He told me he thought she had gone to meet Jacob, and that she normally took the footpath over the cliffs.”
Richard looked distressed so Mack stood up and moved to help him take a few sips of water.
“Thank you.”
He didn’t look too good. “Richard, do you want to continue?”
“Yes. It’s about time I admitted the truth.”
“Okay,” Mack said, hesitantly. She wanted the truth, but a part of her was terrified at what he would say. Mack took her seat next to Dean.
“I caught up to Rose on the cliffs. She was just standing there, near the edge, lost in her own thoughts. I made her jump in surprise.” He coughed. “She turned around to look at me and wanted to know what I was doing there. I told her I loved her and wanted her to stay with me and marry me. She laughed in my face. Rose told me that she was in love with Jacob, and only him, and that she was—” he wiped tears from his eyes “—pregnant with Jacob’s child. She told me that she was running away to marry him. I begged her not to. I told her that I would still marry her and we could raise the child as mine. She told me no, and as I started very slowly walking toward her, she took a couple of steps back, and went off the cliffs.”
Richard stopped and gulped in some much-needed air. “After that, I went back to Degan House. Her parents had arrived back home by then. I told them that I saw her go over the cliffs from a distance and that I never had a chance to talk to her.” He paused. “About a week later, her father came to see me and asked what really happened. I told him about the baby. He was angry as hell and ended up punching me. He told me never to talk about Rose again. I really did love her, Mackenzie. I didn’t mean for her to fall, and I would have saved her if I could have.”
As Richard finished talking, Mack handed him a tissue. She took one for herself and looked at Dean, who also had tears in his eyes. She turned and hugged him tightly.
Mack looked at Richard. “Thank you for telling us. It means a lot.”
“Tell Thomas I’m sorry for not saying any of this way back then. I was in shock and,” he paused, “a coward. I’m not proud of my actions. I thought everyone would think I’d pushed her off because she was going to him instead of choosing me.”
“Oh, boy.” Mack had to take some deep breaths to stop from crying.
“I need to rest now,” Richard said, his lips turning into a scowl as his hands began to shake in agitation. He dismissed them with one sweep of his old, wrinkled hand.