Echoes of Titanic

by Mindy Starns Clark

  She and Walter talked for several minutes. The man sounded weary but assured her he was doing well. He thanked her numerous times for what she’d done to save the company and his life. She thanked him in return for his own efforts on B & T’s behalf, not adding that she hoped the days of banning her from that company were a thing of the past.

  “We can discuss the details later,” he told her as they were wrapping up the call, “but before we hang up, I thought you’d like to hear some good news. Between the efforts of you, your grandfather, and myself, we were able to secure enough votes to gain control of the company and avoid Pamela’s takeover attempt. As soon as Lou showed up today, I was going to tell him that we would be turning down his offer. My mistake was in letting him come upstairs with me before I did so. So much for trying to be polite.”

  “I’m so sorry for what you went through,” Kelsey whispered, tears filling her eyes.

  “What’s done is done,” he replied. “We’ll pick up and move on from here. At least I didn’t suffer the same fate as poor Gloria. I just wish we could have stopped this in time to save her as well. And remember Kelsey, she hid those bonds, so ultimately, at least, she tried to do the right thing. She knew those bonds would give you the funds to buy back control of the company and stop both Pamela’s takeover and Lou’s merger.”

  Once they ended their call and Kelsey hung up the phone, she dried her eyes and then looked around to see that Cole was waiting for her nearby, standing at the railing overlooking the water. Behind him was the bay and a thousand sparkling lights beyond.

  Moving toward him, Kelsey could feel her heart swell with love and regret and hope all at the same time. She stopped just short, but then he opened his arms to her and she moved into his embrace. They were such a perfect fit together, like two pieces of a tightly molded puzzle. Looking into his eyes, she could see so much there. Peace. Passion.

  Love.

  “Remember when I told you I was almost engaged a while back but it didn’t work out?” Cole whispered softly, gazing down at her as he gently brushed a lock of hair from her cheek.

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  “Would you like to know why it didn’t work out?”

  Again, she nodded.

  “Because the night I proposed, she told me, ‘You’re still in love with Kelsey Tate.’ She turned me down. She said she wouldn’t go through life with a man whose heart wasn’t a hundred percent hers.”

  Kelsey swallowed hard. “That must have been devastating for you,” she managed to whisper.

  Placing his hands on each side of her face, Cole looked intently into her eyes.

  “Not at all,” he replied. “Because the moment she said it, I knew it was true. I’ve been trying to get over you for five years, but I should have known I never could. I love you, Kelsey. I have never stopped loving you.”

  “I love you, Cole. I always have. I always will.”

  The words had been said. There was no turning back now.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, he leaned his face down toward hers, both of them closing their eyes as their lips met. Their kiss was tentative at first, as if testing new territory, but then memories began to return, that delicious, familiar feeling of his mouth on hers, the kiss growing longer and deeper and more fulfilling than any they had ever shared. When it was over, he pulled her even closer and they simply clung to each other, two lost souls who had finally made their way back together, two broken hearts that had found healing in the arms where it had all begun.

  “So what now?” she asked, praying this wasn’t some momentary passion that he would later regret.

  “I say we pick up where we left off.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” she said, realizing how perilously close they had come to missing this second chance.

  “This time around,” he added, “we’re a little older, hopefully somewhat wiser, and, when those inevitable conflicts arise, more willing to find a meeting point rather than walk away. I know it’s been a long time, and that people can change a lot in five years, but somehow I just feel it won’t be all that difficult to catch up. Who knows? Maybe someday soon we can come back here and I can take a cue from your brother’s playbook.”

  She chuckled softly, daring to dream. “Sounds good to me.”

  Pulling her even closer, Cole pressed his lips to her forehead and gently kissed her there.

  “Poor Gloria. She paid a heavy price for trusting Lou,” she said. “But I take comfort in the fact that at least she had an eleventh hour change of heart. Lou said it was Adele’s diary that did it. I just wish we could have found a way to prove Adele’s identity once and for all. The diary will help, but it may not be enough to counteract the damage done by Rupert’s claims.”

  “I guess we may never know for sure,” Cole said, holding her tight.

  “I guess you’re right,” she replied, resting her face against his chest.

  At least now they knew how Gloria died, and why, and who had killed her. They had answered a myriad of questions, found the bonds, and managed to save the company.

  Most importantly, along the way, Kelsey had come back to God.

  Tonight Cole had come back to her.

  As she looked out at the water and the sparkling lights of the shores beyond, she remembered the Bible verse Jocelyn had referred to in her letter to Adele.

  All streams flow to the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

  Life was coming full circle.

  Cole Thornton still loved her.

  She had found strength and peace in relying on God.

  Despite all they had been through, she had managed to rediscover her faith, her need for balance, and her true love along the way. For her, that was more than she deserved, and far more than she’d ever had the right to expect.

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-THREE

  April 15, 1912

  ADELE

  Adele knew she had to find Jocelyn. As she scrambled up to climb out of the lifeboat, an officer pushed her back onto her seat.

  “Sit down and don’t move!” he shouted at her. “You’re unsettling the boat!”

  Crewmen were in her way, pulling on the lines, as she tried again.

  “But I have to get out!” she cried. “Please let me through!”

  “You can’t do that now!” another one yelled. “Sit down and be still, or you’ll kill us all!”

  Stunned, Adele did as he said, gripping tightly to the side as she felt the jerky back-and-forth motion of the lifeboat being lowered to the sea. Down and down it went toward the black water below. She looked to the ship, the commotion and noise nearly unbearable. She heard the piercing screams and cries. She saw the debris that rained down around them. She felt the shame of what she had done, and it gripped her heart like a vise.

  In a moment of anger, she had abandoned the person she loved most.

  When they finally landed on the water and were free of the doomed liner, she could see swimmers in the swells, trying to move toward them. But the cold water made them lethargic, and few got very far. None reached them before the crew started yelling for someone to grab an oar and pull.

  She and the girl beside her both sprang into action, quickly grabbing the closest oar and pulling on it together. At first it seemed as if they were getting nowhere, but they pressed onward and gradually made progress. They rowed and rowed until a crewman said they had gone far enough. Then they released the oar and sat back in their seats. Adele looked at Titanic, its lights blazing, its orchestra still playing, its passengers leaping and falling into the water.

  She couldn’t watch any longer. She turned her attention to a sobbing old woman near her, trying to give her some comfort. A cold chill settled upon them as they floated aimlessly in the vast ocean. She thought of the bonds, safely hidden away in her hand muff, and wondered if the technology those bonds backed would end up saving her or not.

  Had other ships heard the distress
calls from Titanic’s wireless system? If so, were any of those ships on their way? Adele wondered if they would ever be found or if they would simply float here until they had all frozen to death.

  Then she heard a sound like a distant explosion, and she jerked her head up. The crash and crunch of metal rang across the water as if the great ship were splitting in two. No one said a word or made a sound.

  All they could do was watch in horror. Suddenly, the lights blinked and went out. The stern began to rise in the air, higher and higher until it was nearly vertical. They all looked on in shock and awe. Then it began its final descent.

  Adele could barely make out the silhouette of the sinking ship in the distance. As it slowly lowered straight down into the sea, she thought absurdly what a contradiction it made—the movement of the ship itself so smooth and graceful, but the sounds so horrifying and wrong. The screech of metal. The cries of the doomed.

  She closed her eyes, listening for the voice of Rowan, the voice of Jocelyn, in the crowds, but it was a cacophony of screams. Soon the sounds lessened.

  Eventually, they ceased.

  “God help us,” the woman next to her whispered, but Adele didn’t know if she was asking God to get them to safety or if she was begging His forgiveness for having left others behind.

  God help us, Adele echoed in her mind, her own meaning clear. She hoped desperately that Jocelyn had made it, but somehow in her heart she knew she had not. Holding in her sobs, Adele looked up at the starry sky, at the endless black horizon. For the rest of her life, she would have to live with the truth of this night.

  Jocelyn was dead because she let her walk away.

  CHAPTER

  FIFTY-FOUR

  Chelsea Piers, New York

  April 15, 2012

  Nine days later, Kelsey sat on a folding chair on the very pier where Titanic should have docked so long ago. Sadly, the great ship had never made it to these shores. On its way here, out in the frigid north Atlantic Ocean, Titanic struck an iceberg and sank less than three hours later. This ceremony was but one of the many events being held around the country—and indeed the world—to commemorate the anniversary of the historic event that had happened one hundred years ago on this day, when the unsinkable ship had sunk. Though they had had other options, this was the event Kelsey’s family had chosen to attend, mostly because of the ease of logistics for wheelchair-bound Nolan.

  A chilly wind blew off the Hudson River, undermining the sun’s efforts to warm the participants who had gathered at Chelsea Piers for the occasion. Several hundred people had turned out for it, and as each speaker took his turn at the dais, loved ones huddled together to ward off the chill. To Kelsey’s left was Cole, looking incredibly handsome as usual in a black double-breasted coat over a dark gray suit and maroon tie. To her right was Grandpa Jonah; her parents, Nolan and Doreen; and finally Matt and his new fiancée, Tiffany.

  As chilly as it was, something about the cold seemed right to Kelsey. A number of descendants of Titanic passengers had turned out for the event, and together they were all feeling just a fraction of the cold that had been experienced by their forebears that fateful night so long ago.

  The ceremony itself was lovely, with uniformed officers of the coast guard in attendance and several prominent speakers, including a Titanic historian; a representative of Harland & Wolff, the company that built Titanic; and even the mayor of New York City. Near the end, a commemorative marker was unveiled by two members of the coast guard as a bugler gave a painfully perfect rendition of “Taps.” Watching the tribute and hearing the mournful music played, Kelsey found herself rifling her pockets yet again for tissues.

  Finally, a Navy chaplain took the podium and offered a prayer to close the somber ceremony. Cole took Kelsey’s gloved hand in his as they bowed their heads. After a beat, she reached out and took her grandfather’s hand as well. He gave hers a tight squeeze in return, the three of them linked not just by love but by their faith.

  When the prayer was over and the crowd began to disperse, Cole put his arm around Kelsey’s shoulders and drew her a little closer.

  “You okay?” he asked quietly, offering up a clean tissue of his own.

  She accepted it gratefully and dabbed at her eyes, assuring him she was fine.

  “Such a needless tragedy,” she said, gazing out at the horizon and thinking of all the lives that had been lost that night for want of enough lifeboats. “I can’t imagine what those people endured.”

  Finally, they stood and began to mingle with the others, all of them agreeing that it had been a beautiful ceremony. Gazing around at her loved ones, Kelsey couldn’t help but think how grateful she was for each of them. How blessed she’d been—both with the family members who were here and those who had passed on before. Now that she had studied Adele’s diary at length, Kelsey felt a kinship not just with her own great-grandmother, but also with Adele’s father, Sean, and with her cousin Jocelyn and Jocelyn’s parents, Rowan and Oona.

  A hundred years ago, the two young women, cousins as close as sisters, had left their home in Ireland and all they had ever known and set off for America and the dream of a better life. Only Adele had made it here, but through the life she’d lived and the things she’d accomplished, she’d managed to leave a legacy for them all.

  Kelsey had given her Quarter Club pin to the police last week and was back to wearing Adele’s golden harp hat pin instead. Today, she had affixed it to the lapel of her navy blue wool coat. She touched the cold metal of the harp with her fingers now, still wishing they had been able to find concrete proof about Adele’s identity.

  A strong gust of wind sent many of the attendees toward the building at the head of the massive pier. There was to be a brief reception inside, and then the event would be complete. Kelsey’s group began moving as well, Matt taking the handles of their father’s chair to lead the way.

  As they neared the building, two women seemed to be waiting for them. Attendees of the event, one was about forty years old, wearing a black winter jacket. The other was a white-haired lady in an old gray tweed coat, balancing with the aid of a cane.

  “Excuse me,” the younger woman said as they drew closer. “Are you the Tate family?”

  Kelsey and the others stopped walking, several of them nodding.

  “Yes?” Grandpa Jonah said, moving forward to take charge of the situation.

  The younger woman smiled, introducing herself and the older woman next to her, who was her grandmother, saying that they had come from their home in western Pennsylvania specifically hoping to speak with the Tates.

  “My nana has something she’d like to give to all of you,” she added.

  Kelsey glanced at Cole, wondering what this could be about.

  “What sort of something?” Jonah asked genially. “Are you two descendants of Titanic passengers as well?”

  “Yes, we are,” the older woman said. “My grandmother’s name was Annie Devlin, and she and her husband and daughter were traveling in Titanic’s second-class section.”

  “Did they all survive the sinking?” Jonah asked kindly.

  “Annie and her daughter made it, yes. Annie’s husband did not.”

  Everyone nodded somberly, all too familiar with the thought.

  “Annie’s daughter, Daisy, was just six years old the night the ship went down. She and her mother were on one of the last lifeboats to leave the ship. The story of how they ended up on that lifeboat has been passed down through our family. Daisy grew up to become my mother, and she told the story to me. I have since shared it with my own descendants. Now I want to share it with you.”

  Interested to hear what she had to say but concerned about her father being out in the cold for too long, Kelsey suggested they proceed to the reception inside. They all moved together as a group into the building and followed the signs to the large room where the reception was being held. It was nothing fancy, just a few tables with finger foods and punch and a chance for attendees to mingle and to ob
serve the various nautical mementoes on display. Kelsey, Cole, Matt, and Tiffany rounded up enough chairs so that they could sit together in a circle with the two women. After supplying the older folks and themselves with some food, they all sat, and then everyone was ready to hear the rest of what she had come here to tell them.

  “The night the ship sank,” the older woman said, looking from one to the other, clearly in her element as a storyteller, “Annie clung to her husband and her little girl, watching as one lifeboat after another was lowered over the side of the ship. She couldn’t bear to leave her husband a moment sooner than she absolutely had to, but by the time he finally forced her to go, they realized it might be too late. With only a few lifeboats left, and hundreds of passengers crowding toward them, they feared that Annie and Daisy might not make it on one after all.”

  Kelsey listened, rapt. This woman’s words were far more real now that she had devoured Adele’s diary and experienced the sinking through her eyes.

  “Somehow, with Daisy in her arms, Annie managed to push her way through the crowds. As she got closer to a lifeboat, and it looked as if they might make it on after all, people began thrusting hastily scribbled notes toward her, people who knew they were going to die and wanted to send some final word to their loved ones. Annie did what she could and ended up putting six different envelopes in her bag. Soon she and Daisy found themselves at the edge of a lifeboat behind someone they had made friends with during the voyage, a young woman named Jocelyn.”

  More than one gasp could be heard around the circle.

  “Everything was so chaotic that night,” she continued. “The next thing my grandmother knew, someone had scooped up little Daisy and plopped her into the overcrowded lifeboat. Jocelyn climbed in next, but when Annie also tried to step aboard after her, an officer pushed her away, saying that the boat was overfull and in danger of sinking if even one more passenger forced their way aboard.”

  Kelsey glanced at her own mother, her pulse surging at the thought.