The Titanic Sisters

by Patricia Falvey

  ‘What can I do, Delia? We’ve searched everywhere.’

  I nodded. ‘I know.’

  He stood up and extended his hand to me. ‘Will you come and keep me company, Delia? If I’m alone I’m afraid I might go mad.’

  ‘Of course,’ I whispered.

  Besides the bed and dresser, a small table and velvet chairs stood under the window in his room. I sat down and watched him as he poured whiskey into two glasses. He took off his coat and unbuttoned part of his shirt. I had to pull my eyes away from the smooth black hairs on his upper chest. I took a gulp of whiskey.

  ‘I’ve missed you, Delia.’

  ‘I’ve missed you too, Aidan.

  ‘I’m sorry for everything. For sacking you that day Lily was lost. It was wrong of me. I was determined to punish you, but it was Lily I succeeded in punishing.’

  ‘But you more than made up for it the day you saved my life when my horse bolted. I’d say we’re even.’

  He nodded.

  ‘Oh, poor Lily,’ I blurted out. ‘Where on earth can she be?’ I wanted to tell him about my premonition, but I didn’t want to give him false hope.

  ‘All I can think of is that bastard, Sullivan. He never wanted me to bring her to Texas. And now if he finds out what’s happened, he’ll blame me for this, too, as well as for Mary.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I murmured, ‘but he was away in Ireland when we left. He can’t know for sure that we’re here.’

  ‘He has spies everywhere.’ Aidan’s tone was bitter.

  I swallowed hard. ‘It’s quite likely she ran away to find me,’ I said. ‘Mayflower said she’d been drawing pictures of me at the ranch. It’s all my fault!’

  Darkness had fallen and the saloon across the street was lit up like a Christmas tree. Rowdy shouts and laughter drifted up from the street, the sounds occasionally muffled by the rhythmic beat of horse’s hooves.

  ‘No, Delia, it’s not your fault she’s missing. It’s mine. I should never have left her alone.’ He turned to face me. ‘What if we never find her?’

  I thought back to his words to me that night back in New York: The ones you love will always leave you in the end one way of another.

  I could hold myself back no longer. I went over, sat on the arm of his chair and put my arm around his neck.

  He reached up and pulled my face close to his. Then he kissed me hard on the lips. I responded like a thirsty pilgrim drinking from a stream. I’d fantasized about this moment ever since our night on the train, but I never believed it would happen again. I moaned aloud. Still kissing me, he stood up and lifted me in his arms and carried me over to the bed. He put me down gently, lay down beside me, and pulled me to him.

  We turned to face each other in the shadows. His arms tightened around me as he pulled me close. He kissed me again and again, whispering my name at each pause. I reached over and unbuttoned his shirt all the way so that I could run my fingers across his bare chest. He moaned as I let my lips trail across his chest and down his body.

  Suddenly he sprang up and, standing with his back to me, removed the rest of his clothing. I lay admiring his broad shoulders and slender hips silhouetted against the dim light. I let my eyes travel over his buttocks and down his strong legs.

  When he turned to face me, my heart pounded. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. He sat down beside me and, quietly and gently, began removing my clothes. Impatience filled me, and I pulled the rest of them off myself. When I was naked, his hands caressed me from shoulders to toes. His breathing was ragged. I could stand it no more and I reached up and pulled him down on top of me.

  When he entered me with a gentle thrust, I felt a sharp, distant pain, but it melted away as soon as it came. We moved together in a single rhythm as if our bodies had long known each other. I called out his name as my passion mounted and I abandoned all reason and control. If this moment meant I was going to hell, so be it. I didn’t care. All I wanted was to cling to this man and never let go.

  His thrusts grew stronger, and I urged him on, faster and faster, raising my body greedily to meet his. We reached the crescendo together, calling out each other’s names aloud before collapsing, our breathing hard.

  ‘Don’t ever leave me, Delia,’ he whispered.

  NORA

  Kearney brought me back to the hotel. He was spitting nails that I hadn’t persuaded Mr McCabe to sign over his lease.

  ‘Mr Sullivan’s not going to be pleased,’ he said.

  ‘Sure don’t I know that.’

  When I was in the safety of my room, I took out the lease McCabe had signed and threw it on a table as if afraid it might explode in flames. My heart was beating a mile a minute. What in the name of God had possessed me to lie to Kearney? I should have been over the moon at landing the biggest lease in the county. Sullivan would have been so pleased he’d probably have given me a massive bonus. Now, he’d be more likely to thrash me within an inch of my life – or worse.

  I began to pace the floor, gathering my thoughts. The sooner I legged it out of Dallas the better, that much was clear. But where would I go? I didn’t know anywhere besides New York. If things had been different with Dom, I could have stayed with him, but as it was . . . I blinked away the image of Kathleen standing in her red petticoat, sneering at me. I could find Delia and tell her what I’d done. But my courage failed me. I still couldn’t face her. Going back to Donegal was out of the question – I’d never go back there with my tail between my legs. I sighed. There was nothing for it but to go back to New York and hope Sullivan wouldn’t find me. A small voice told me it was a foolish hope.

  The next morning, I asked the hotel porter for a train schedule to New York. There was a train leaving at two o’clock. I packed my suitcases and sat down to wait.

  The doorbell chimed. I was expecting breakfast. I’d ordered almost everything on the menu. May as well, I thought, it’ll be the last thing I’ll be getting out of Sullivan. I hurried to the door. My mouth fell open when I came face to face with Kearney.

  ‘What now?’ I said roughly.

  He pushed the door wide open. It was then I saw a small girl standing in the hallway. Kearney grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room.

  ‘Who’s this?’ I said.

  ‘Never you mind,’ said Kearney. ‘You’re to keep her here for the morning and then take her to the station in time for the two o’clock train to New York.’

  ‘I’m going on that train myself.’ I blurted the words out before I could stop them. My nerves were getting the better of me and I was acting like an eejit.

  Kearney smirked. ‘So I understand from the porter downstairs. This will work out very well.’

  ‘And what am I to do with her when we get to New York?

  ‘Someone will meet you there, don’t worry.’

  I looked from him to the child. ‘I’m not a bloody child minder,’ I said. ‘What do you take me for?’

  ‘You forget, Mr Sullivan has paid you until the end of the week.’

  ‘But you said you wouldn’t need me any more after yesterday.’

  Kearney’s tone was sarcastic. ‘That was only if you had a signed lease, Miss Sweeney. Unfortunately, you failed.’ He went to the door. ‘Two o’clock,’ he said, and then he was gone.

  I wanted to yell after him, but what good would it have done. I looked down at the child. She was watching me with wide, blue eyes.

  ‘So, what’s your name?’ I said.

  I must have sounded impatient for she didn’t answer me. I tried again, more gently this time.

  ‘There’s no need to be afraid, love,’ I said. ‘I won’t hurt you. My name is Nora. What’s yours?’

  I wasn’t used to being around children, and I felt awkward talking to her like that. But she still didn’t answer. I wondered if she was mute.

  The doorbell rang again. If it was that arsehole Kearney again, I was ready for him.

  ‘What the hell d’you want now?’ I shouted as I opened the door.

 
A young waiter dropped a tray on the floor and backed away. ‘Breakfast, ma’am,’ he murmured then ran back down the hallway.

  It was almost comical. I must have scared the daylights out of him. I picked up the tray and brought it in and set it on a table.

  ‘Come on,’ I said to the child. ‘There’s plenty for the two of us. I, for one, am famished with the hunger.’

  She shook her head and sat down in an armchair. It was hard to eat with her staring at me. At last I had an idea. Didn’t most children like to draw? I know I did when I was young. I got up and fetched some paper and a pen from the desk and handed them to her. She took them without a word and went over to a wee table beside the window, sat down and began to draw.

  My appetite disappeared. I pushed the tray away and sipped a cup of tea. The clock chimed ten. I sighed. What was I going to do with this child for another four hours?

  I decided to take a long, sudsy bath. Who knew when I’d ever get the chance to have another one? I locked and bolted the door in case the child took the notion to escape. I didn’t want to face Kearney if I lost her. I took my time in the bath. After I dried myself off, I fixed my hair, put on some make-up, and sprayed myself with the scent I’d bought at Nieman Marcus. How long ago that seemed.

  When I went back into the living room, the wee one was still drawing pictures. I crept over to look at them. When I picked one up, my heart almost stopped. The picture was of a ranch, with the stick-figure of a girl, and scrawled beside it was the name ‘Delia’.

  ‘Holy mother of God,’ I said aloud.

  I looked at the child, remembering the posters I had seen in Shotgun City. ‘Is your name Lily O’Hanlon?’

  She nodded at me without a word.

  DELIA

  I’d been sitting daydreaming about my night with Aidan, when Mayflower showed up without warning, as was her habit, and announced she was taking me to lunch. She had something important to tell me, she said.

  Once we were seated outside the café across the street – the one where I had lost Lily – she looked around to make sure no one was listening and started to talk.

  ‘I heard tell there’s some high-falutin’ woman in town trying to buy leases for a company nobody round here ever heard of. From what I hear, she’s good at seducing men into signing up with her. All silk and flounces and sweet-talk. I’d say this isn’t her first rodeo.’

  ‘Is she hurting Aidan and Hans’ business?’

  ‘She sure is,’ said Mayflower, ‘although she’s going after other folk’s leases as well.’

  My temper rose. How dare somebody set out to deliberately destroy Aidan?

  ‘D’you know her name?’

  ‘No, not yet,’ said Mayflower.

  ‘Her name is Nora Sweeney,’ said a voice behind me.

  I swung around. There stood Aidan.

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,’ he said. ‘Shane Kearney told me you were both over here. I thought I’d join you.’

  I wanted to tell him it wasn’t his sudden appearance that startled me, it was the mention of Nora’s name. My heart had missed a beat, and a sick feeling had come over me. Had I heard him correctly?

  ‘What did you say her name was?’

  ‘Nora Sweeney.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I met her out at the oilfield. She was with an unsavoury character named Grissom. He said they were friends, but I saw her arguing with him as they walked away.’

  I hardly heard what he was saying. My head spun so alarmingly I thought I might faint. Surely this woman couldn’t be my sister. Nora was dead. I had seen her drown. I heard Aidan and Mayflower’s voices as if through a fog.

  ‘Whoever she is, she’s been trying to buy up our leases, particularly the ones that will expire at the end of the month.’ Aidan breathed a deep sigh. ‘If she succeeds, this could be the last straw. She could ruin us.’

  ‘We ain’t gonna let that happen,’ said Mayflower. ‘We need to find out who she’s working for. I’d wager Shane Kearney knows. He seems to know everything goes on in this town.’

  Ignoring the urgency in Aidan’s voice, I went back to Nora Sweeney.

  ‘What did she look like? Did she say where she was from?

  ’ Aidan looked at me. ‘What?’

  ‘Nora Sweeney. What did she look like?’

  ‘Pretty, dark hair, slender, about your age. She had an Irish brogue, and said she was from County Cork. I asked if she knew you, she said she didn’t, and that Sweeney was a common name.’

  I tried to think. Nora was buxom, not slender. And this woman was from Cork. Besides, Nora would never traipse around muddy oilfields talking to poor farmers. And if she was really in Texas she wouldn’t be staying at Kearney’s hotel. She’d be staying in Dallas at a fine hotel like the Adolphus. My panic began to ease. It had to be someone else entirely. But as I tried to convince myself, my own words came back to me. In New York hadn’t I told the Boyles that Sweeney was a common name in order to throw them off the scent? Could that have been what this Nora Sweeney was doing as well? The thought lingered in my head.

  I turned my attention to Mayflower and Aidan.

  ‘We can’t just sit here and allow this hussy to ruin us,’ Mayflower said.

  Aidan shook his head.

  ‘It may be too late, May. Well eighty-eight is our last, best chance. Our geologists tell us they are sure there is oil somewhere nearby on the same land, but if eighty-eight doesn’t come through by the end of the week, we’ll be left with hardly enough money to pay off the crew, let alone renew the lease.’ He looked at Mayflower. ‘I’m sorry, May, I thought Hans had told you.’

  Mayflower shrugged. ‘He never tells me bad news. He’s got too much pride.’

  ‘Isn’t there anything we can do, Aidan?’ I said.

  He shook his head. ‘No. We’ve tried raising more capital, but nobody will lend to us.’ He ran his hand through his hair. ‘To tell you the truth, I don’t much care any more. It’s Lily I’m worried about and the business be damned.’

  Mayflower and I exchanged glances. What else was there to do, except pray that a well somewhere would come in? Even if it was only a tiny drizzle of oil, we would welcome it.

  After Mayflower left, I walked back over to the hotel with Aidan. Shane Kearney, as always, was standing in the lobby watching us. My head was buzzing. Aidan’s news about the business was bad, but that news was dwarfed by the possibility that Nora might be alive. If the woman Aidan described was her, I should be over the moon. But if it was her, why was she trying to ruin Aidan’s business? Eventually it dawned on me that she must have found out I had passed myself off as her when I came to New York and was exacting her revenge. Nora had always had a vengeful streak. But who had told her? I reasoned it must have been Dom – he was the only one who knew.

  I made up my mind then and there that I would find her and face her down. I wasn’t going to let her get away with this.

  NORA

  I gaped at the child, unable to take it all in. Standing in front of me was Aidan O’Hanlon’s child – the child the whole town was searching for. How in God’s name had she landed up in my hotel room? Shane Kearney must have had her hidden in the hotel all this time. But why? There was no point in asking the child what had happened to her. She was either mute or afraid of her life to say a word.

  I walked over to the window, trying to calm the thoughts that were tripping over one another in my head. Kearney had said I was to take her on the train to New York. He’d found a convenient chaperone in me. But he didn’t say who was to meet her at the other end. What if I was delivering the child into some oul’ devil’s evil clutches, there was no telling what might happen to her. Well, I wasn’t going to be part of it.

  I began to pace the room, racking my brain. I was sure there was more to the story than Kearney was telling me. It was only when I stopped pacing that the penny dropped. Sullivan! That bastard Sullivan! That’s who Kearney was sending her to. Why hadn’t I realized i
t sooner? Hadn’t he told me that night in New York that he was ruining O’Hanlon so he could get I Lily back? Kearney must have told him I didn’t get the biggest lease signed so he decided to take the girl instead. And that blackguard, Kearney, had the girl already stowed away in case Sullivan asked for her. I felt sick to my stomach. How on earth could they treat a child like that?

  It was clear to me now what I had to do. I had to take Lily back to her da and the sooner the better. Who knew what else Kearney had up his sleeve? I went to the window and peered down on to the street. By luck, the driver and car Sullivan had hired for me was still there. I took Lily by the hand and hurried her out of the room with me.

  ‘Come on, Lily,’ I said, ‘I’m taking you to your da.’

  She didn’t fight me. I decided to leave my luggage behind me. I wouldn’t be taking the two o’clock train anyway – certainly not when I knew Sullivan would be waiting for me at the other end.

  I told the driver to go as fast as he could to Shotgun City. When we arrived, I told him to pull around the back of the hotel. I couldn’t risk having Kearney see us. We were halfway around the hotel when Lily shot up and shouted ‘Stop!’ The car screeched to a halt. I nearly jumped out of my skin. The child had a voice after all, and a loud one at that.

  ‘Delia,’ she cried. ‘Delia.’

  I looked to where she was pointing and there, behind a glass window on the ground floor, I saw Delia. I hardly recognized her at first. She had filled out, and her skin was bronzed. Her hair was bleached the colour of straw and hung in a thick braid down her back. I took in a deep breath. Where had the faded, sickly looking girl gone – the one who was afraid of her own shadow? This girl was gorgeous. If it hadn’t been for Lily, I might never have recognized her.

  Lily bolted out of the car before I could stop her and was knocking so loudly on the window, I was afraid she’d shatter it. Delia sprang up, scattering papers in every direction, and raced out the door. When she reached Lily, she sank down on her knees and threw her arms around her. The child hugged her back and the two of them burst into tears. As I watched them, I felt a lump in my throat.