Maiden Voyage

by Sarah Jane

  “Want to know what I’ll be up to, do you?” Constance asked. Abby thought she heard a teasing tone and looked at her questioningly. “Need to know when the cabin will be free … for sneaking in boys?” Constance raised her eyebrows.

  “I … I …” she stammered.

  “I think perhaps you’d better tell me everything,” Constance said, with a smile and knowing nod. The look on her face was the same one Abby’s cat would get when she’d cornered a mouse—pleased and ready to pounce. She’d been caught and needed to start talking, fast!

  “I didn’t have any choice!” Abby blurted. “It was either sneak him aboard or leave him to rot in a workhouse. I’m all he’s got since our mother died. And I’m not going back to London … there’s nothing left for us there. Please don’t tell Master Miles! Please don’t tell anyone!” Abby felt her throat constricting and tears welling in her eyes.

  “Shhhh. Shhhh. Don’t fret, my dear!” Constance stood up and placed her hands on Abby’s shoulders. “I’m not talking about your little brother,” she said calmly. “I’ve known about him since Cherbourg! I’m talking about that handsome steward I saw you sneaking out of here yesterday!”

  Constance smiled and gave Abby a wink. Abby’s face flamed hotter than the boilers in the Titanic’s belly. “You … I …”

  A light tapping interrupted the conversation before Abby could string together a sentence. Constance wrapped herself in a dressing gown and opened the door a crack to see who was knocking so early. Then she let out a whoop and threw the door open wide.

  “Well, speak of the devil!” Constance said, crossing her arms over her chest and stepping back.

  Jasper stood in the passage with a tray of scones—enough for three—and a bewildered expression. “Who, me?” he asked.

  “Yes, you!” Constance smirked.

  “Jasper!” Felix poked his head out of the curtains when he heard the familiar voice, and Abby resisted the urge to shove him back in. He’d obviously heard everything. The cat was out of the bag now—at least with these two.

  “Jasper, will you take me to see the bridge today? Please?” Felix begged. His eyes were bright. “I’m going to see every part of this ship before we land!” he hooted. “Maybe we can go up to the crow’s nest!”

  “We’ll see,” Jasper said, setting down the tray and rumpling Felix’s wild hair.

  “We were just talking about you,” Constance crowed. “Weren’t we, Abby? Of course we were,” Constance continued, answering her own question. “Why, do you see how red your sweetheart’s face is? That’s a dead giveaway.”

  Jasper turned to Abby. Abby looked at the floor and wished she could sink into it.

  “I’m sad to say that you are mistaken,” Jasper said to Constance, mercifully taking his eyes off Abby. “Abby is not my sweetheart.”

  Much to her own amazement, Abby felt her heart drop, but a second later Jasper flashed his crooked smile and added a word that sent her heart right back into her throat …

  “Yet.”

  “Isn’t it fascinating that we can send messages from the middle of the ocean?” Elisabeth Miles asked, composing a telegram to her brother.

  Lucy didn’t answer.

  Lucy and her mother were seated at a gleaming table in the first-class lounge on A deck, where they had been reading and writing letters and behaving as if last night’s episode had never happened. Only Lucy had not written or read more than a few lines. She found herself distracted by the opulence surrounding them. The room was modeled after the Palace of Versailles, with carved English oak, large mirrors, and plush gold and green velvet sofas that made the whole lounge glow.

  “Perhaps it’s silly to be writing Julian a telegram when we will be together so soon, but everyone has been talking about the Marconi wireless system. It seems a shame not to use it,” Elisabeth continued. “I suppose I’ll have to find a steward to deliver this to the wireless room.” She looked around, searching for a steward, and began to put her writing materials away. “Are you ready to leave?”

  Lucy closed her book. Reading was useless. Each time she reached the end of a sentence, she realized she hadn’t followed a word of it and had to start over. In addition to the distraction of their surroundings, she could not stop thinking about her coat and the girl she’d seen wearing it. Last night, when she’d finally retired to her bedroom, she’d searched everywhere for her green coat, thinking that her eyes must have been playing tricks on her. The coat was nowhere to be found. But how on earth could it have ended up on someone else? And what was it about the girl wearing it that was so familiar?

  “Lucy?” her mother said. “Goodness, where are you this morning?”

  Lucy tried her best to smile reassuringly. “I’m right here, Mother,” she said. “I suppose I’m a bit tired. I didn’t sleep well.”

  “Perhaps you should try one of my dreadful tonics,” Elisabeth mused as they made their way out of the lounge and onto the A-deck promenade for some fresh air. “Some of them make me feel as though I will never wake up!”

  Lucy bit her lip, feeling guilty for not confessing what was really distracting her. She would not be able to stop thinking about the coat until she knew what had happened to it … and that meant getting Abigail alone so she could ask the maid a few questions. She didn’t want to bother or worry her mother over something as silly as a coat.

  No sooner did she have that thought than Abigail appeared with two overcoats—her mother’s camel hair and her own blue one. “Time for a walk?” the maid asked brightly, holding the older woman’s coat out so she could put her arms in.

  “Perfect timing, O’Rourke. Just give me a moment.” Elisabeth smiled and handed off her writing supplies to Lucy. “I’d like to wash up first.”

  “Of course, Mistress,” Abigail replied, lowering the offered coat.

  Lucy watched her mother disappear into the lavatory and close the door, then tugged lightly on Abigail’s sleeve. “I need a word,” she said. Abigail’s eyes grew wide in an instant.

  “I need you to tell me what has happened to my green coat,” Lucy said. “I’m quite certain I saw a girl wearing it last night. In fact I followed her until I saw her heading down to steerage.”

  Abigail quickly stepped back, as if trying to escape a snare. She was still for a moment, thinking. Then she straightened her shoulders and let out her breath, clearly having made some sort of decision. Lucy hoped she’d decided to tell the truth.

  “I’m so sorry, Miss,” she said. “I was carrying it with me yesterday morning. I meant to take it back to the stateroom, but I got distracted and laid it over the back of a chair. When I returned to retrieve it, it was gone! It was entirely my fault, and you can take it out of my wages.” Abigail spoke faster and faster and her chin dropped. “Just please don’t say anything to Master or Mistress Miles!” she pleaded in a quavering voice.

  The poor maid looked like a terrified rabbit and Lucy’s heart went out to her. She knew she should let the girl off the hook before she died of fright. Besides, she believed what Abigail was telling her. She’d made an absentminded mistake, she was distracted—it was so simple, so logical, and …

  She felt a corner of her mouth rise. “Distracted by a certain steward, perhaps?” she teased.

  Abigail exhaled. She looked a teensy bit more relaxed—and also a bit embarrassed.

  “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of telling Mother or Father,” Lucy reassured the maid, looking back over her shoulder to make sure her mother hadn’t reemerged. She leaned in close. “This is strictly between you and me, and we shall get the coat back before my mother suspects a thing.” She tapped her foot on the deck thoughtfully. “We just need to find some reason to slip away so we can go on a search.”

  “We?” Abigail echoed. “Didn’t you say you saw the girl go down to steerage? You don’t want to go down there, Miss.”

  Lucy felt the tingle of anticipation as an idea crept into her head. “Oh, I most certainly do!” she said, looking at t
he unsent telegram in her hand.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw her mother approach, and stepped forward to speak with her out of Abigail’s range of hearing.

  “Mother, would you consider letting me deliver the message to Uncle Julian with O’Rourke? I haven’t seen the wireless room and I’d really like to get a peek at the Turkish baths as well—I’ve heard they are magnificent.”

  Her mother hesitated, so Lucy rushed on.

  “O’Rourke works awfully hard, and Father is quite hard on her. Spending a bit of time on a less tedious task might be a welcome relief.”

  Her mother smiled and reached out a hand to her daughter’s cheek. “You are a kind soul, Lucy,” she said. “And I suppose I could take some air on my own and meet you at lunch …”

  Lucy beamed. Her mother didn’t often leave her to her own devices, and now she had reason and permission to explore more of the ship. It was time for an adventure!

  Isabella put a hand on her chest, trying to steady her racing heart. She’d successfully made it past the guard at the steerage gates once, but yesterday’s guard had been distracted by the man with the scar. There was no such distraction this morning, and even from a distance Isabella could tell that today’s guard took his responsibilities very seriously. He reminded her of her neighbor’s bulldog with his scrunched-up face, underbite, and what appeared to be a permanent scowl. It seemed he never let his body or his gaze leave the exit. Ever.

  Slipping back behind a corner, she peeked around, biding her time. Her heart had not slowed the tiniest bit. Getting past the guard was only the first hurdle—she still had to locate her sister and mother. And what about the maid who had seen her in the coat? The young servant obviously knew that the fine green garment was not hers. She’d asked about it as if she recognized it, as if she knew to whom it belonged.

  Could it have been hers? she wondered. She stroked the soft wool. Though she doubted the fine coat draped over her arm belonged to a maid, it wasn’t completely impossible.

  Isabella glanced back at the passage, nibbling her thumbnail. She must continue her search! She heard Phillip Miles’s gloating laugh in her head and clenched her fists as her impatience grew. She simply had to get past that guard!

  Finally another crewmember approached the bulldog-faced man. “Have you heard?” he asked importantly, taking a broad stance and tucking his hands behind his back. “There’ve been ice warnings.”

  The first guard raised his chin, and then nodded. “That’s not unusual for this time of year,” he replied. “Plenty of ice in the North Atlantic in April.” He leaned forward and said something else—something Isabella could not hear. The two men kept their heads bent together for several seconds. It was now or never.

  Running her free hand over her bodice, Isabella lifted her head and walked boldly toward the men, easily squeezing between them and the wall, and started up the stairs. She was halfway up the first set of risers and thinking she might have made it unnoticed when a voice boomed out behind her.

  “You, there!” one of the guards bellowed. The bulldog, no doubt. “Where do you think you’re going? Stop right now!”

  Isabella slowed for the briefest of seconds, then made her decision. And ran.

  “You’re awfully clever, Abigail,” Lucy complimented the maid as she followed her from the first-class promenade to the second-class boat deck. They’d delivered the message to the wireless room and were now officially in search of the girl in the green coat. “And you certainly know your way around!”

  Abby took a breath. “I suppose I’m learning my way,” she answered. Yesterday’s frantic search for her brother had taught her a few things, but she could never tell the young Miss Miles where she’d gleaned her knowledge of the boat’s layout. Abby was greatly relieved that Lucy wasn’t angry about the coat and that she wanted to help locate it in the lower-class areas of the boat, but searching with her employer’s daughter posed a significant problem. The decks they needed to search were precisely the places Abby had told her mischievous little brother it was safe to be! And why wouldn’t she? There was no possible way she could have known that Miss Lucy Miles might be in those places, too!

  If Lucy sees Felix she will certainly recognize him, Abby thought anxiously. And surely his being on board is too great an offense to keep from her parents. She nervously fiddled with the bundle of money tied inside her skirts. It was enough to help them once they got to America, but not enough to get them out of jail, or out of the Atlantic Ocean should Master Miles throw them overboard in a fury. He’d never do that, she thought … Would he?

  Never mind, she told herself. All you can do is find the girl and get the coat back as quickly as possible.

  “Do you see her?” Lucy called from behind her. “Anywhere?”

  “Not yet, but we will!” Abby replied. She hoped the nervousness in her voice sounded like Lucy’s excitement. She led the way off the boat deck and down the main second-class staircase with its oak balustrades and red-and-white linoleum floor. Abby was very familiar with this staircase and rather liked it, or at least appreciated that it went from the boat deck on the very top of the ship all the way down to F deck. They weren’t going that far down, however—at least not yet. She stopped on C deck and turned toward the enclosed, glass-windowed promenade, where passengers strolled and children played. She spotted a group of young boys playing with a small ball and quickly scanned their faces to make sure none of them was Felix …

  “That girl—she was older, and she wouldn’t be playing with boys,” Lucy said, noticing Abby’s fixation on the ballplayers.

  Abby swallowed nervously. “Of course not,” she agreed. She half hoped that Felix had gone back down to the boilers, though she’d expressly told him never to do that again. How quickly things could change! She scanned the deck, not allowing her eyes to linger anywhere for very long.

  Lucy had stopped next to a window and was studying the various passengers as they strolled past on the promenade. “Do you suppose the girl would be bold enough to wear the coat again?” she asked. “After all, she knows that she’s been seen wearing it. I’ve been looking for a spot of green all this time, but really I need to remember her face.”

  Abby hadn’t even considered having to find the girl without the coat! Her eyes instinctually darted to every young girl in sight, hoping to see something familiar. Dark curls and wide-set eyes … Were they green? Brown? These were the only features she could remember besides the coat. And no one here fit that description.

  “Let’s try the library,” Abby suggested, trying to stay positive. That would be a nice place for a girl to spend a bit of time, she thought, and it’s certainly not somewhere Felix is likely to go. But as she perused the sycamore-and-mahogany-paneled room and the clusters of passengers visiting or writing letters, she knew at once that the girl they were searching for wasn’t there. She wasn’t sure how she knew. She could just feel it.

  “It’s quite a lovely room, isn’t it?” Lucy murmured, adding, “It’s almost as nice as first class. But I don’t see her.”

  “Me, either,” Abby agreed. She had so hoped that they would spot her on the second-class promenade. Swallowing equal parts disappointment and worry, she turned and led Lucy back toward the C deck cabin corridors.

  “I only looked into her face for a moment, but somehow I think I’ll know her,” Lucy suddenly said, pausing slightly outside one of the berths. She spoke very quietly, almost as if she were taking to herself. “I felt like I recognized her even as I was laying eyes on her for the first time.” She stopped entirely and looked to Abby. “Does that sound crazy?” she asked, and then went on without waiting for an answer. “There was just something about her face, or the way she wore the coat …”

  Abby was surprised and pleased that Miss Lucy was talking to her so frankly—as if they were a team, and not a maid and her mistress. “No, it doesn’t sound crazy,” she said. “And it will no doubt help us identify her.”

  They made their
way through the cabin corridors, seeing no one, and down to D deck to check the second-class dining area and more cabin corridors. But their continued search was fruitless. The girl was nowhere to be found.

  Abby sucked in her breath. At least we haven’t spotted Felix, either, she thought. Be grateful for that! And she was. But she was also hard-pressed to face the reality of their situation: They were searching for one girl on the biggest ship in the world, and had nothing but a very basic sense of what she looked like.

  She could be anywhere.

  Isabella lifted her skirts and dashed up the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time.

  “I said stop at once!” a voice behind her bellowed. Her legs were burning by the time she reached D deck, and she turned and raced blindly down a second-class cabin corridor. She turned left, then right, then left again. Her breath was heavy and she slowed slightly and glanced back to see if anyone was still following.

  “Which way did she go?” a voice called out. A very loud voice. Perhaps more than one!

  Panicked, Isabella re-hoisted her skirts and picked up speed just as a maid came out of a cabin carrying an armful of clean white towels.

  “Excuse me!” the maid called, but too late. Isabella careened right into her, upsetting the entire stack of linens.

  “I’m so sorry!” Isabella cried, righting herself and glancing momentarily at the jumble of towels on the floor. The maid looked annoyed but didn’t say anything as Isabella raced away. She ran past the main second-class dining room and circled back to the stairs, darting past a pair of crewmen. Climbing flight after flight, she found herself at the very top of the ship, the boat deck. She raced over to the rail and pretended to look casually out at the sea while she put on the green coat, steadied herself, and caught her breath. She stood there for several minutes, certain that someone would accost her at any moment.