Unsinkable Read online

  Beckett kept looking for an opportunity to engage Carrington in some kind of conversation, but it wasn’t easy to get more than a few words out of her. He listened to the music playing in the background and watched her talk to Molly.

  At last he had enough of her pretending to ignore him. Was he imagining that there were more courses tonight than ever before? He stood and leaned close to her ear. “Come outside with me.”

  She looked at him for the first time since dinner had started. She gave him the faintest of smiles and stood, allowing him to take her arm.

  “Carrington, the meal isn’t over,” Rose began disapproval evident in her tone.

  “We’ve had eight courses. Mother. I’m quite full.”

  “Oh let them go, Rose,” Molly said. “They’re far too young to sit here all night with all us old folks.”

  As usual Molly’s candor earned a few laughs and Rose gave Carrington a frown as she walked away from the table with Beckett.

  It was cold on the deck, the temperature had fallen to the low thirties. Beckett took Carrington’s hand and was relieved when she didn’t pull out of his grasp. He stopped walking and faced her.

  “I’ve forced myself not to write in the book all day. I didn’t want to take a chance on dictating what happens to us. I know how I want this scene to play out, Carri. What I don’t know is what you want.”

  “I want to have some say in what happens in my life, Beckett. I don’t want someone to always decide what I’m going to do without asking me.”

  “Why do you think I would ask that of you?”

  “You wrote me into your story. Then you manipulated me with the book.”

  “I’m so very sorry about that. But I didn’t start out writing about you. Just about a girl that I imagined. She just turned out to be you, and then, yes, I tried to make things go my way. I’m sorry if you didn’t want that.”

  “I did want that, in a way. I wanted to have you and do the things I wanted to do. My parents, my mother especially, always dictate every moment of my day. I look at all the society ladies and that’s not the life I want.”

  “I understand that. It’s why I don’t want the job at the bank. I never wanted to become some copy of my father, even though everyone has always expected me to do that.”

  “I’ve been so sad all day,” she said, with tears in her voice. “I was angry at you earlier and then, as silly as it sounds, I missed you. As much as if you’d gone away.”

  “And that’s why you’ve been ignoring me all evening?” His fingers lifted her chin and his eyes met hers.

  “No, that was for Mother’s benefit. And to see if you noticed me.”

  “I noticed you. That’s quite a gown you’re wearing.”

  She shivered. “I wish it was warmer.”

  He pulled off his coat and draped it around her, then took her in his arms. She didn’t pull away, instead she let her head rest on his shoulder, standing so close to him that she could feel his heart beating. He held her close for several minutes and then he raised her face again and bent to kiss her. She wondered how she could have considered, even for a few hours, a lifetime without kissing Beckett. How it made sense that after so little time together she could feel so much for him, how he could feel so much for her. She decided that it didn’t matter, that there was no need any more to try and make sense of it. That somehow, hers and Beckett’s lives were supposed to cross, that they had always been destined to fall in love.

  He broke away from her and spoke in a voice just above a whisper. “We are going to be together.

  Wherever we are, as long as we are together it doesn’t matter. It can be New York or Egypt or farthest Africa. I don’t really care. You can call the shots. I just know we have to be together. Forever.”

  “What about your job? Your writing?”

  “I’m not sure I can really write. I was considering throwing the book overboard earlier.”

  “No, don’t. I want to keep it. Even if you don’t finish the book, it brought us together.”

  “Maybe we should take the job at the bank and find a way to travel, frequently. On second thought, I really don’t need the job except to make Father happy. I have plenty of money.”

  Carrington laughed. “If you took the job would he let you travel?”

  “We’ll see. If not, he can have his job.”

  “And we’ll see Egypt?”

  He kissed her again. “And anywhere else you want to go.”

  “I want you to keep writing.”

  “For right now, let’s just plan on a future together. What that future looks like can wait to be determined. We have the rest of our lives to decide what happens.”

  “I love you, Beckett.”

  “I love you, Carrington.”

  She whispered. “You alone can call me Carri. I like the way it sounds when you say it.”

  “I love you, Carri.” He kissed her again. And again.

  “I’m freezing,” she said at last. “Can we please go back in?”

  “Yes. Want to make bets on whether or not they’ve served dessert yet?”

  Carrington laughed. “Who serves eleven courses in one dinner?”

  “No one except the Titanic,” Beckett said, taking his coat back and putting it on so that he would be properly dressed for the dining room. He took her hand in his.

  “A perfect fit,” she said, holding their clasped hands up.

  “I had noticed,” he said and they began walking back to the brightly lighted first class dining room, where the last course was just being served.

  ******

  Jack Phillips took another ice warning message, this time from the ship Californian. He set it aside and continued sending the days requested messages.

  Second Officer Lightoller noticed as he stood on deck that the temperature was dropping. Going back to the bridge, he called two crew members and asked then to take a lookout for ice in the crow’s nest.

  “Expecting trouble, sir?” asked Frederick Fleet.

  “Not necessarily. Just be on the lookout, will you? Let me know if you even suspect something.”

  Reginald Lee said, “Right sir. We’ll go up now, then?”

  “If you would. Just keep a close watch. The last we thing we need is to hit an iceberg.”

  “At least we’ve got an unsinkable ship,” Lee remarked.

  The two men climbed into the crow’s nest. Neither took binoculars.

  Inside the dining room, the first class passengers lingered over after dinner coffee and port. At nine thirty, Captain Smith retired to his cabin.

  ******

  When most of the gentlemen at their table had retired to the smoking room, Beckett and Carrington remained at the table with Molly and Warren. Alice and Rose had gone to their own cabins, as had Mrs. Astor.

  “Just a few more days on Titanic,” Molly observed. “And then back to real life, right?”

  “What do you do in real life, Molly?” Beckett asked. She was so different from the other women he knew that were her age.

  “You mean when I’m not crawling around in pyramids and having eleven course dinners with the social elite?”

  “Yes,” Beckett said.

  “I do whatever needs to be done, I guess. I fought for the suffragette movement and try to find ways to help the poor and unfortunate. I kinda think everyone deserves to be treated right. But I do like to explore new things too. I have a bit of a wanderlust in my soul, I guess.”

  “Sounds better than working day after day in a stuffy old bank.” Beckett said.

  “So are you taking that position that’s waiting for you?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “Sweetheart everyone knows about that,” Molly said.

  “If I take it, Dad will be happy and maybe he’ll give me some time to follow Carrington around on her explorations.”

  “And what about your book?”

  Beckett took Carrington’s hand in his. “I don’t know if I’m finishing the book I
was writing. It was getting a little too personal. But maybe somewhere I can find a publishable story. Maybe I’ll find it in Egypt or the south of France, or somewhere we go.”

  “I’m thinking of trying to get Mr. Brown to go back to Egypt with me,” Molly said. “Heck, we could even sponsor one of those concessions myself if I wanted too. What do you say Carrington?”

  “If you’re going, Molly, then so am I,” Carrington said. She cast a glance at Beckett. “That’s okay, isn’t it Beckett?”

  “It’s okay for all of you,” Warren said. “But where does all this leave me?”

  “You don’t have a plan, Warren?” Carrington asked.

  “It may surprise you, Carrington, but not everyone has their life all planned out for them. My family is well off enough to have gotten me educated properly, but unlike Beck I haven’t had a job waiting since birth. My being in first class aboard this ship is strictly thanks to Jackson’s generosity and the fact that he thinks I’m a good influence on Beckett.”

  “Maybe he’ll find a place for you.” Beckett said. Maybe I will.”

  “Since that’s all settled,” Molly said with a twinkle in her eye. “Who’s up for a round of cards?”

  “Molly!” Warren said. “A lady doesn’t play cards with gentlemen.”

  “Who ever said I was a lady?” she asked. Warren reached in his pocket for his ever present deck of cards and dealt them all in.

  ******

  Jack Phillips had received yet another ice warning, this time from the Mesaba. Still buried in messages he needed to send, he set it aside.

  The Titanic continued to move ahead at 22 knots, as the temperature dropped. Frederick Fleet and Reginald

  Lee engaged in small talk and looked for ice.

  “There’s some out there,” Lee said. “Too cold for there not to be.”

  “I guess they think we can pass right by. The ship’s unsinkable, right?”

  “Still, he said to watch for it. See anything?”

  Lee shrugged. “Some mist on the horizon, that’s all.”

  Inside, Jack Phillips received yet another ice warning, this time for the Californian, who reported that the ice was so bad they had stopped until morning. Phillips looked at the stack of messages he had yet to send and angrily responded. “Shut up, shut up about the ice already! You’re jamming my signal and I’m busy here.”

  *******

  Beckett walked Carrington to her door. They’d left Molly and Warren still playing cards with Molly winning.

  “So we settled everything?” Beckett asked in her ear as he held her close.

  “Maybe not everything,” she whispered. “But I know I love you.”

  He took her hands in his face and started to kiss her again. “Come inside,” she whispered.

  “No.” He kissed her. “Last night I was working on a script. I’m not doing that tonight.” Another kiss.

  “It wasn’t wonderful?”

  His lips left hers and traveled to caress her ear, then slid down to kiss her neck and her collarbone.

  “It was. But Dad is right sometimes, and this isn’t the time or place. The next time it happens we’ll know it had nothing to do with Titanic or my book.” He kissed again, and again, as if he couldn’t get enough. He wanted to go inside her cabin. He wanted to stay all night. She wanted that too, he knew it from the way she responded to him.

  He forced them apart. “You could so easily seduce me,

  Carrington. It would take so little encouragement for me to stay with you again tonight. Go on. I’m going to my own cabin. Alone. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Beckett…” She reached for him again.

  His hand caressed her face, he smiled tenderly at her, but he didn’t come closer, didn’t kiss her, and then he was gone.

  *******

  Frederick Fleet thought he might fall asleep right there in the crow’s nest. It was late, going on midnight he suspected. And then, looming ahead, he saw it. And enormous iceberg right in their path. He reached quickly for the phone that called the bridge. When Sixth Officer Moody answered it, Fleet yelled “Iceberg! Iceberg right ahead!”

  First Officer Will Murdoch set things in motion. The engine room was told to stop and the crew tried to turn the massive boat hard to the starboard side as ordered. When the iceberg hit, the ship gave a shudder and stopped. Murdoch raced to close the water tight doors. Then he returned to the deck and stared at the iceberg.

  “Good Lord, Will, what have we struck?’ EJ Smith stood behind him.

  “An iceberg, Captain,” Will Murdoch said.

  “You closed the watertight doors?”

  “I did Captain, but I have no way of knowing how many compartments filled.”

  “Send Mr. Boxhall down to inspect the hull and get Mr. Ismay and Mr. Andrews up here at once.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Captain Smith stood on the bridge of his ship as the officers hurried to follow his commands. No need to panic, he told himself. The ship was seaworthy and not going to sink. This was nothing more than a minor setback. At best they would lose a few hours’ time.

  He tried to believe his own words as he waited for the assessment of damages.

  For fifteen minutes Officer Boxhall inspected the hull. Fifteen minutes that seemed to those on the bridge of the Titanic that seemed like fifteen hours. Bruce Ismay had come to the bridge in his silk dressing gown and slippers. Thomas Andrews was still dressed in his evening attire.

  “The ship cannot possibly damaged to the point where we cannot continue to sail,” Ismay said.

  “Anything is possible until we know more, Mr. Ismay,” Thomas Andrews said.

  “You were supposed to have built an unsinkable ship,” Ismay said angrily.

  “No ship is truly unsinkable Mr. Ismay. We build them of iron, which will sink if it fills with water.”

  “What about all your watertight compartments? Wasn’t that going to be the thing that kept us afloat no matter what?”

  “If no more than four are filled we will stay afloat.” Andrews said. “I suggest before we panic that we wait and see what Mr. Boxhall discovers.”

  Boxhall was nearly out of breath when he arrived back at the bridge. He’d run back to report his finding. “Orlop deck flooded, sir. Forward of the number four compartment.”

  EJ Smith turned to Andrews. “Inspect the damage if you please Mr. Andrews. And quickly, I am sure I don’t need to stress that.”

  “Are the passengers aware that anything has happened?” Ismay tightened the belt of his dressing gown.

  “A few up on deck,” Murdoch replied, “but it appears this has gone unnoticed by most of them.”

  “Have everyone tell them nothing has happened,” Ismay ordered.

  “But something has happened, Mr. Ismay,” Murdoch said, glancing at Captain Smith.

  “Bruce is right, Will. We need to make sure no one panics. Mr. Boxhall, have the deck crew assure the passengers if they ask that all is well.”

  Smith walked out on deck where a few young men were tossing around chunks of ice that had fallen there from the iceberg. Again he told himself that his last voyage would not end in disaster. Mentally he counted the number of people they could put in the lifeboats.

  Not enough lifeboats for all the souls on board, he thought. We put them at risk for aesthetic reasons. We cancelled the lifeboat drill. He couldn’t let his thoughts go there right now. He needed to remain calm and in control. Surely Andrews would return with positive news.

  ******

  A knock at his door woke Beckett. He had fallen asleep at the desk, trying to work out a direction for a new novel. The book lay on the desk, closed. He had been scribbling on a stray sheet of paper. He stood and went to the door and opened it.

  “Warren, what time is it?”

  “Nearly midnight. Have you noticed the ship isn’t moving?”

  “I hadn’t but I fell asleep. What’s happened?”

  “Molly and I were about to go to our cabi
ns when the boat kind of made a shudder and then stopped. We’ve hit an iceberg.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I went out on deck and saw it. There’s huge pieces of ice on the deck and a bunch of kids out kicking it around.”