Cold April (19 page)

“
I came to thank you for returning Kathleen’s doll.”

“
Found her right where you said she’d be, under a deck bench. No problem.”

“
I also came to thank you for staying with Kathleen tonight. That was very kind.”

“
Like to do another chap a favor if I can. The man is daft over you. Can’t say I blame him. So I made it a bit easier for him, that’s all.”

“
Richard said that you said ...” She stopped, not knowing how to continue.

Harry took her hand in his and turned her about. “Look at you. A beautiful lady, in a smashing gown! You deserve the best, and you’ll have it with Graham. It’s as it should be.”

“
But—”

“
Don’t give me that line that you’re a working stiff like yours truly. You and I are friends, nothing more. Made the trip more exciting for me just to meet the likes of you. When I’m doing my tricks on some New York stage you can come and see me.”

Beth smiled. “I will. No matter what happens, I will come to see you.”

A commotion broke out near the doorway, and a man yelled to the crowd. “We’ve struck a bloomin’ iceberg. There’s ice all over the foredeck. Come and see.”

He disappeared and most of the partygoers followed.

“
Want to come with us?” Harry asked Beth.

“
I’d better not. I need to get back to Kathleen.”

“
Give her a hug for me.” He made a salute and then a buxom blonde grabbed his arm and laughingly dragged him from the room.

Beth maneuvered her way through the noisy, jostling group heading for the stairs and soon returned to their sitting room. Richard, already changed into more suitable clothes and wearing a heavy overcoat, smiled when he saw her.

“
We’ve struck an iceberg,” Beth told him. “At least, that’s what someone said. Some of the passengers in third class said they’d never seen an iceberg and have gone out to look at it. Is it true, do you think?”

“
Possibly. While you were gone, I stepped out on the promenade deck and heard another passenger say the same thing. Perhaps not. Probably we’re only stopped because there’s too much ice around and the captain wants to keep us safe. I’m going now to find out.”

“
Do let me know as soon as you can.”

“
I’ll go up to the boat deck. The wireless operators are sure to know something. When I went there the last time, they told me they had several telegraph messages from other ships reporting the presence of ice fields.” He paused. “I’d forgotten I’d said I would come back tonight to send a message to my cousin about our possible early arrival.”

“
Find out how long the engines will be stopped. If we’ve a long wait, we probably won’t arrive ahead of time after all.”

He smiled at her again before stepping outside and closing the door behind him.

Beth went into her own cabin, took off her fancy gown and hung it in the wardrobe. It was very late—almost midnight—and she knew she ought to climb into the warm bed and go to sleep. However, she also knew the memory of Richard’s kisses would keep her awake. She put her dressing gown on over her night-dress and went into the sitting room. She wanted to be awake when Richard returned. She wanted to know what had caused the shudder they felt and why they’d stopped in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She wanted to know if they were in any danger.

Recalling her mother’s fear for her safety, she was filled with dread. Everything was about to go terribly wrong.

* * *

Richard made his way through what seemed an inordinately large number of people on the stairs and the decks. He and Beth were not the only ones who had stayed up very late that night. Nor the only ones who had felt the ship lurch and go ominously silent.

A lone woman, wearing a fur coat over her clothes, spoke to him, as if needing a confidant. “It’s just like April of nineteen six.” She held his arm in a firm grip. “I was in bed in the Palace Hotel when I felt the same kind of jolt, and suddenly the whole building shook. I was thrown out of bed and then San Francisco fell down all around me.”

“
The earthquake.”

“
The great tenor, Enrico Caruso, was also staying in that hotel. He’d sung in Carmen at the Mission Opera House the night before, and the same thing happened to him.”

“
Were you thrown out of your bed tonight?” Richard asked.

“
No, but it was a tremendous jolt, and I might have, had I been in bed. I was sitting up reading. But it is April again. Bad things happen to me in April. My husband died in April last year. I should not have booked a trip for April.”

“
I’m sorry, ma’am, but you must admit that what we felt was not an earthquake.”

She attempted a smile and let go of his arm. “Probably not.”

On A Deck, several more people congregated at the railing and shared their reactions. “A scraping noise,” one said. “As if we’d gone over a bed of marbles,” said another. All remarked on the moonless, freezing cold night, the bright stars, the lack of any wind and the sea that resembled a large flat sheet of dark glass. Above them, the three working funnels blew out clouds of white steam.

“
I’m sure it’s nothing serious,” another man said. “I was in the smoking room and no one there seems the least bit worried. At two tables Bridge games are continuing without interruption.”

“
Maybe we’ve lost a propeller blade,” someone said.

A tall man in an overcoat approached. “No, it was an iceberg. I was taking my usual nightly walk, and I saw the thing. A huge black mass of ice, sixty feet high if it was an inch, went right alongside the ship and then disappeared behind.”

“
A chunk of ice came right into my cabin,” another man said. “I left the porthole open while I undressed, and suddenly I heard a grinding sound and ice flew in and landed on my floor.”

“
Yes, we did strike an iceberg,” another gentleman said. His wife added, “An officer told us so. But he said there’s no danger.”

More passengers began arriving on deck as word of the collision with an iceberg spread. Some acted as if the event called for a celebration.

“
Come, see the iceberg!” they called to slower arriving friends. However, there was no longer an iceberg to be seen. Soon part of A Deck filled with passengers admiring the chunks of ice that the monolith had left behind. Some folks—third-class passengers, Richard surmised—apparently still in a partying mood, ran about on the cold wet surface of the deck and threw bits of ice and slush at one another.

Climbing up the stairs to the Boat Deck, he went into the wireless room, where he found Phillips still sending passengers’ messages through the receiving station, Cape Race. The man looked exhausted.

“
Where’s your other operator?” Richard asked.

“
He’s not due till two a.m. We’re twelve hours on and twelve hours off.”

He no sooner spoke the words when Harold Bride came into the wireless room, looking tense.

Picking up on his partner’s mood, Phillips asked, “What is it? Why’re you here early?”

Bride hesitated and nodded his head in Richard’s direction, as if what he wanted to say was confidential and not suitable for a passenger’s ears.

Phillips raised his voice. “What is it, man? It’s been a terrible ten hours, and I’m ready to fall into bed.” He took off his headset, rose and headed for the next room, which held their bunks and from which Bride had just appeared.

“
I came early to relieve you, but ...” He turned to Richard. “Excuse me, sir, but you really shouldn’t be here now. We’re terribly busy.”

All thoughts of attempting to send a message long gone, Richard dutifully left and started for the stairs. Just then he saw Captain Smith leave the bridge and head for the wireless shack. Richard retraced his steps and approached the side of the room. He stood and waited, wondering what the captain would say. The door remaining open, he heard the captain’s voice but couldn’t make out every word.

He pieced it together. Captain Smith told the operators the ship had struck an iceberg and he had ordered an inspection to learn the extent of the damage. He told them to prepare to send a call for assistance but not to send it right away. They were to wait until he told them to do so.

After the captain walked away, Richard, not being a seaman himself, pondered what the term “assistance” meant. How could anyone “assist” them? Did the captain expect other ships to come to their rescue?

To Richard’s surprise, the captain returned in a few minutes, and he had to move quickly to stay out of Smith’s line of sight. Smith only poked his head in the open doorway this time. “Send the call for assistance.”

“
The regulation call, CQD?” Phillips asked.

“
Yes. At once.”

The captain left and Richard took up a position at the open doorway. He heard the tapping of keys and assumed the message was going out. He knew a little about Morse Code, enough to know that CQD meant “Calling all Stations—Distress.”

Standing in the shadow of the wireless room, apparently unseen, he heard other sounds—pounding feet as two crewmen ran past, other voices.

“
It’s a bloomin’ mess is what it is. ’Berg made a gash in ’er side like carvin’ up a roast pig.”

“
How big?”

“
Three hundred feet, they say. Water pourin’ in, fillin’ the whole bloomin’ bow.”

Chapter 20

Restless, Beth alternately perched on the edge of a chair in the sitting room and paced the floor. From time to time she looked in on Kathleen, but the child remained asleep. She wished Kathleen was awake and it was morning instead of midnight, so she could prowl around the ship and learn what was happening. Disasters tended to happen in the middle of the night, didn’t they? The doubt and frustration of not knowing anything irritated and depressed her.

Why didn’t Richard return? What kept him? She worried for his safety, but couldn’t imagine a situation that would make his injury or death plausible. Like her and the thousand others on board the Titanic, he was merely a passenger, not the captain, an officer, a seaman or even a steward. To say nothing of one of the hundreds of men below decks in the holds or engine rooms. He had no responsibility for anyone except Kathleen and herself, so why did he not come back?

Finally, hearing noises in the corridor, she opened the door. Although not as cold as the outer deck had been, the temperature was noticeably cooler than the cabins, and she pulled her dressing gown more tightly around her body.

A middle-aged couple, still dressed in formal wear, argued as they went down the corridor.

“
I know we’ve struck an iceberg,” the man said. “The steward told us, but he said not to worry. So why can’t we just undress and go to bed? Why do you want to look over the ship when there’s nothing to be done?”

The woman with him continued to hurry along ahead of him. “I don’t care what he said. Striking an iceberg is a serious matter. They’ve stopped the engines.”

At that moment a stateroom door opened across the hall and an older woman peered out. Having apparently heard the conversation as well, she added her own opinion. “I knew something terrible would happen! When I found out they had never christened the ship, I should never have signed on.”

She looked at Beth. “You, my dear, what do you think is happening?”

“
I’m sure I don’t know. I would go and look, but I have a child asleep in the next room and I don’t want to leave her.”

“
See,” the first woman said to her husband. “I’m not the only one who wants answers.”

“
Where is the steward?” the other one asked.

“
Why isn’t he here to answer our questions?”

Another gentleman rounded the corner and said, “It’s only an iceberg. Do you want to see the ice? I’ll take you there.” His eyes sparkled with excitement.

“
What do you mean?”

“
I’ve just come from A Deck and the forward rail is filled with passengers watching the crowd below throwing ice at one another. A regular party.” He headed for the stairs.

“
There you are,” the husband said to his wife. “I told you it’s nothing serious. Now come and let’s go to bed.”

“
I won’t sleep. Something I ate at dinner didn’t agree with me and I have a queasy stomach.”

“
If you lie down in bed, it will be better.” He urged his wife toward their stateroom. “You will fall asleep much easier now that the engines are quiet.”

Beth didn’t want the engines to be quiet. She wanted them to start up again, to reassure her that the voyage would continue, that nothing bad would happen to them.

The woman across the corridor disappeared behind her closed door, and another man hurried by.

“
Do you know what’s happening?” she asked him.

“
Besides striking the iceberg, you mean?”

“
Yes. I heard that we had done so. Will the engines be started up again soon?”

“
Not for a while, I expect. I saw the captain and a slew of officers marching down the corridors on D Deck. They will no doubt check every inch of the ship to make certain she’s seaworthy before starting up again.” He paused. “Captain Smith has never had an accident and will want to be sure to avoid one this time. His final command, you know.”