by Tonie Chacon
“I didn’t. You, I believe, were staring at me,” Alice said. “I found you very attractive and just made fun with you. You know, enjoying the moment and all. You are very fun to flirt with. I thought you might want to take up with that this night,” Alice said lightly.
“But I do.” Emily could hardly wait. She turned her back to Alice and removed her shawl. Turning to wrap her arms around Alice from behind, she whispered into her ear as she undid her hairpins. “You may place your clothes over that chair.”
Alice pulled away. “No, I told you. You misunderstood me then, and now you misunderstand me again.” She put her glass down with a plunk. “I shall be bidding you goodnight. I shall possibly see you out upon the decks. I do wish you a pleasant voyage and it was nice to make your acquaintance.” Alice pulled her hair back off her neck.
Emily turned around. “What? I thought you wanted to take up where we left off?”
“I meant flirting. I do not just jump into bed with people I barely know. I thought I explained what happened that night. I am fully in my senses now, and I can tell you that I need to be wooed. I want to feel loved and cherished by my person, whoever she turns out to be. I thought this might turn out to be a captivating evening, but instead, you have turned it into nothing but sex. Well, no thank you. Again, good night.” Alice turned and walked out the door.
Emily was stunned. That was certainly not the scenario she’d had in mind for the night. She wondered if Alice would stay angry for long. She hoped not. They didn’t have much time.
Emily would woo her. She had the rest of the voyage to do so. Yes, it was a good idea. She was glad she had thought of it. It was a splendid idea. Alice would feel differently towards her by the end of this voyage, Emily was sure of it.
She washed her face and arms before putting on her nightgown. She would get a good night’s sleep and start again in the morning. She would just apologize to Alice and carry on. She was sorry Alice left in such a huff, though. Snuggling down in bed she thought how much better it would be with Alice to help warm her.
Emily drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.
ALICE HELD ONTO the brass handrails in the hall and tried to settle her breathing. She needed to go to her cabin. By the time she figured out the correct staircase, she was steaming.
Of all the nerve. She had tried to tell Emily she wasn’t like that woman she appeared to be when they first met. Well, yes she was that woman, just not as wanton as that. Alice was flattered at Emily’s attentions, of course. Emily could have anyone she wanted on this ship, man or woman. Alice should be jumping for joy that Emily chose her in the first place. She had no status of which to speak, no worldly goods, but Emily wanted her. Alice knew she did, she could see it in her eyes.
What beautiful blue eyes Emily had. Alice could get lost in them. But no, Emily had to open her mouth about that teeny, tiny little incident in the garden and ruin it all. If it really even happened. It was all from Emily’s perspective, wasn’t it?
She would see how Emily was tomorrow. Alice hoped she knew that she owed her an apology for her horrid behavior tonight. Alice had only told the truth. She did want to be cherished and she did want to be loved. She wanted more than just sex. She would have to see how Emily treated her in the morning. Alice would be graciously polite until Emily gave her some sort of an apology. Then Alice might, just might, concede and let Emily entertain her some on the voyage.
Alice did so enjoy the champagne.
She felt one of her dreadful headaches coming on. She had some powders in her case, no, that wouldn’t do at all. Look what happened the last time she mixed the two. Not again. She would suffer through the headache and remember not to partake of such strong spirits. They gave her a bloody nasty headache.
Alice reached her cabin and slipped quietly inside.
“You don’t have to tiptoe around in the dark, silly. Here, let me turn on a light,” Megan said softly. The light glowed on. “It is so nice not to have to strike a match just to put on a little light. These new electric lights are keen.”
“I’m sorry to have awoken you,” Alice said equally as soft. “I’ll try and be quick about it now so you can go back to sleep.”
“Oh, that’s all right. I wasn’t really asleep anyway. Where have you been? Oh, I’m sorry. That is a bit too personal, isn’t it?” Megan covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes twinkling.
“Well, I could tell you that I was just out walking on the deck by myself, but I’m sure you wouldn’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me. The truth of the matter is, I was invited up to another passenger’s cabin for a night cap. Simple, really. Then I left and came here. That’s the story.” Alice finished changing into her night clothes. She climbed into the bottom bunk opposite Megan and said, “Good night, Megan. Sweet dreams and all.”
Minutes passed before Megan spoke again. “Oh. We have a new roommate who got on in Cherbourg. She’s not here right yet, but her name is Alexandria. I’ve had the most amazing day. It’s hard to calm down my brain in order to sleep. Can we talk?”
Alice replied, “I would normally, but I have such a headache that I just want to close my eyes and sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? About anything you want. Whatever your little heart desires.” Alice all but mumbled that last part.
“All right, we can do that. I’m sorry for your head. Was it the champagne? Did you stay much longer in the lounge after I left? Did my brother ever show up to play tonight? Isn’t he a great violinist? Did you know he named his violin Violet? Funny isn’t it, Violet, the violin.”
“Please, Megan, can you stop with the questions. Are you always like this?”
“Okay, sorry. Sorry.” Megan turned off the light and settled in her bunk. “Good night,” she said softly.
Chapter Twelve
11 April 1912 — At sea
FRANCES AWOKE THE next morning famished. She wished she had eaten more the night before, rather than worrying about what people thought, as if everyone was watching what she ate. She hated to eat in public. She was glad it was only a seven day cruise or even less, until they got settled in for the holiday. Maybe she could ask Momma if they could have a private brunch on their deck, where they could see but not be seen. Yes, that would be splendid. Dinner was enough of a social event for her. She would ring the porter after she talked to Momma and order up food and some of that delicious coffee.
She pulled an old favorite robe over her sleeping apparel. It was good enough. It was just Momma and Poppa, after all, and possibly Alice, for brunch. “She has seen you in much worse, I assure you,” she said silently to the image staring back at her in her hand mirror. Slippers went on next and, with a pull of the curtain, she entered the common room she shared with her parents.
The sun was shining so brightly she immediately shut her eyes, but not before taking in the display of food surrounding her mother. “What’s this? I didn’t hear a thing. Is this all for you?” Frances was incredulous. She rushed to the other side of the room and opened the windows out on the sea for a wonderful, fresh breeze. Breathing deeply, she said, “Well, thank you for letting me sleep in. It was quite the day yesterday, wasn’t it?” She turned to face the table.
“Come darling,” Helene said. “Come join me for the most delicious brunch I have ever been served. Just look at this spread we have before us. It’s a thing called catering that all the ships are going to. One can choose from any of the four restaurants on board. Anything. From any of the four different restaurants that are here on Titanic. Can you even imagine? So here, let’s fix you up with some of this Lorraine omelet, and some bananas with cream, of course, and then how about a little Puffed Rice, I know how you love those.” Helene seemed to have a grand time loading her daughter’s plate with food. She started on the second plate with some split country sausage and some pulled bread with honey. Helene set the plates down across from where she was sitting.
Frances sat down and poured a cup of coffee. She preferred coffee to tea. It made
her feel brighter. Taking her first sip, she smiled. It was exactly like last night. Bold with a hint of, she was not exactly sure what, but it was delicious. “This is superb, simply superb.” She began to eat. “They certainly do feed us well on this voyage, don’t they Momma?”
At that moment, Fletcher came into the room and found them at the table. “Splendid, I’m famished.” He started to pile food on the plates, one dish upon the other until he had a small pyramid before him. He sat down next to Helene and spread out his brunch. Frances took notice how high he had piled the food onto his plate. No wonder his belly was getting so round. She lowered her fork.
“Heavens, Fletcher, must you always claim the whole table as yours? Haven’t you ever heard of sharing?” It was obvious that Helene was upset with him.
“Has anyone seen Alice up and about this day?” Frances inquired.
“No, and that reminds me, Fletcher, why isn’t Alice here with us?” Helene turned to look at Fletcher. “She is our goddaughter after all.”
Fletcher got all huffy and exclaimed, “It was a matter of money, my dear. No concern of yours now. She is fine where she is. Second Class is as nice as this. At this late date and all, this was the only First Class suite available. Any other ship would consider where she is to be as grand as First Class.”
“Well, then, why can’t I stay down in Second Class with her?” Frances asked. “It’s not fair that I have to stay here with only a curtain between us.”
“No darling,” Helene said. “Alice is my goddaughter, but you are my baby. I can’t have you rooming alone, especially not in Second Class. I only wish Alice could be with us.”
“But I’d be with Alice, not rooming alone,” Frances whined.
“She is fine. Mark my words,” Fletcher said. “I have never let you down, have I, Pumpkin?”
Helene’s fiery red hair had always been a sore spot for her, but Fletcher was delighted in the nicknames he could come up with.
“Oh, Poppa, could you get any sappier?” Frances sighed.
“Who’s sappy?” Alice asked, sweeping into the room and grabbing a cup off the tray. She poured herself some coffee from the carafe and sat next to Frances.
“Poppa and his love names for Momma,” Frances said. They all shared in a hearty laugh and then got down to the business of eating. All that could be heard was the scraping of silverware on the new plates and cups. Frances sipped her coffee and gazed outside toward the sea.
Helene asked Alice, “How is your cabin? I just found out about the accommodations, of course. Do you have to share with strangers, dear?”
“Only one. A girl boarded at Cherbourg, but I haven’t met her yet. Her name is Alexandria. She came in after I was asleep. And there’s Megan, of course, who is no longer a stranger. You met her last night. Thank you again for allowing her to join us at dinner. I know it was a treat for her. I’m thrilled to be rooming with her.”
Frances listened as she sipped her coffee. Alice was thrilled, was she? Here Frances had hoped it would just be her and Alice, arm in arm, strolling along the promenade, together in her fantasy world. Frances went back to studying the horizon, just outside the window.
MEGAN WOKE UP alone in the cabin. She wondered what time it was. She hadn’t slept so soundly since, well, she didn’t remember. Lord, did she feel good. She stood and stretched her arms above her head, then bent at the waist and touched her toes. Ah, that felt so good. She cleaned herself up for the day and chose the outfit she wanted to wear. A green muslin gown with white trimmings. If it wasn’t too windy, maybe her dark green shawl to tie it all together.
She set off to find the Second Class dining room. Down one flight, or no, that wasn’t right. Megan closed her eyes for a moment and brought up the map of the ship in her head. Yes, that was it. She turned herself around and headed toward the grand staircase. What a beautiful sight it was to behold. The sun cascaded through the huge stained glass dome so brightly she had to shield her eyes. The sunlight sparkled off the mirrors located around the staircase. Little prisms of color danced along the walls. Lovely. She went up one flight to get to the dining room for the Second Class passengers. She entered the room and looked about. She selected a table so she could see the comings and goings of other passengers. A waiter immediately appeared with cold water and butter pads on ice for the table.
“Coffee or tea, miss?” the waiter asked politely.
“Coffee please,” Megan replied. She looked over the menu, freshly printed for the morning of April 11, 1912. How funny to think Colin may have had a hand in printing it. Well, she was duly impressed. A different menu for every meal, for each restaurant. It boggled her mind.
“I’ll have the oatmeal porridge and milk, and some ham and eggs with jacket potatoes and some fresh bread. We will see how stuffed I am after all that before I go off and order more. Thank you.”
The waiter disappeared into the kitchen.
Brunch was a lovely affair which she was glad to have partaken, once she realized that everything she ate or drank, except spirits, were included with the ticket. She should have known that fact. How many times had she stated it out loud for ticketed passengers to hear? But she never really heard herself when she talked. Oh well, it was delicious any way she looked at it. Simply delicious.
She sipped her coffee and started planning the rest of her day. Once she ate everything she ordered, she really should go walk off some of it. She would go on up to the promenade deck to find the ladies from yesterday. She did so enjoy herself with all of them. This journey had already begun to hold great memories. What was in store around the bend was another question, which she was leaving to the good Lord above.
Should she go to the Royal Post after or before she caught up with her new friends? She was hoping that she could make friends with someone in the mail room to give her a good boost for a job when they hit New York. Maybe she could even get a job on the ship. Megan thought she could do something like that. She might enjoy not really having a home, but only the good ship beneath her feet, perhaps a sweetheart to leave her heart with every time she came and left port. What kind of life might that be? It sounded fetching. Yes, that made up her mind. Off to the mail room she went.
The mail room was located on G deck, so she took the elevator down to E deck, got out, and walked over to the service elevator to go down the rest of the way. The mail room and storage room were in the third and fourth compartments on that level of the bow. She entered the doorway and noticed a couple of men toting big bags filled with what she presumed was mail. There were hundreds of sacks piled one on top of each other like a huge pyramid. It was a lot of mail. She wondered how much mail each sack held. However much, it was very interesting.
“Excuse me, sir. May I ask you a couple of questions?” Megan asked politely of a worker walking by.
“Uh, sure miss. What can I help you with?”
“Well, to start with, where did all this mail come from? How do you go about sorting it all out? Do you have another holding spot for the mail or is this all of it? And what do you do with passenger mail? Do you deliver it here on board, or does someone else do that?”
The clerk stood dumbfounded for a second.
“Um, let’s see. This isn’t all the mail, so yes, we do have another storage area on board, and are you always this curious?”
“It seems to be a family trait,” said a voice from behind a crate as Lucas came walking around it. “Her brother is just like her. Blah, blah, blah. Good thing he is a newsman, or claims to be. I’m not sure what she can claim. I’ll take over here, Smitty.”
Lucas looked back at Megan with a smile in his eyes and said, “Now then, what were all those questions about? But most on my mind is how did you get here, on board? Colin made no mention of it, now did he? What happened to that job you loved so much? Now I’m the one with questions.”
“I changed my mind,” Megan said. “It’s a woman’s prerogative, you know. Now, will you answer my questions about the mail?”
“Aye, I do. I want to get a job at the Royal Post there in America, and I thought I’d pick these gents’ heads for an easier way to get involved with the right people from the start. So here I am.”
“Here, come on through.” He swung a bench top up and she stepped through. “I’ll give you the grand tour. I’ve got a couple of minutes before I have to leave. This is where they start to do the separations for ship and land. Basically, you start by dumping those sacks over there and start sorting. Packages go to one place and little articles to a different area to be worked.”
Megan realized that the five clerks worked together each doing what they did, while using a rotating system. It pleased her. It seemed no one would get bored with his job, since they traded so often.
“What do you mean, you have to leave?” Megan asked. “Are you rotating with someone soon?”
“I’m loading up the last tender ferry, the America. I have to pick up a load of passengers and mail in Queensland. They don’t have a dock big enough for a ship this size, so we have to ferry our mail and passengers to and from.”
“I hope you have a good ferry ride over and back, then. Will I see you tonight in the lounge with Colin? If I do see you there, I’ll even save a dance for you,” Megan said as flirtatiously as she could.
“Don’t be holding your breath too long tonight, now, you hear. You might run out of breath and then you’ll die. Keep your spirit up and your feet out of the water. Just a bit of advice for you.”
Ding, Ding, Ding.
“Ho, that’s my call. I’m off to Queensland. Glad to see you and all. I hope I helped with all your questions.”
Megan watched as Lucas and the other clerks opened a hatch door in the wall of the mail room. She could see a small passenger boat had pulled alongside and men were throwing lines out to Lucas. He grabbed them and tied off the ferry. He and the other clerks laid a gangplank between the two ships and crossed it to load the mail bags bound for Queensland on to the other ship. After they were done, Lucas jumped on the ferry, threw back the lines and the other clerks hauled in the gangplank. The hatch door closed and Megan found herself left with the harried clerks who remained.
