No Greater Love (3 page)

“You’re beginning to sound like Uncle Rupert.”

“Never mind that. You stay right here until Father tells you that you can board the ship,” He glanced over Edwina’s shoulder then and saw Alexis shrinking back against her mother’s skirts, and the nurse struggling with the two younger ones, both of whom were crying. “Go help with Teddy. Oona’s trying to help Mother organize
the bags.” And their father was in the process of dismissing Lord Hickham’s drivers. It was the kind of situation George normally liked, utter chaos, which would allow him to disappear and do exactly what he wanted.

“Do I have to?” He looked horrified at the prospect of having to baby-sit when there was so much to discover. The
Titanic’
s awe-inspiring hulk stood next to them at the pier and all George wanted to do was get on her to discover all her secrets. He had a lot of exploring to do, and he could hardly wait to start. There was not a moment to be wasted.

“Yes, you
have
to help.” Phillip growled again, pushing George in the direction of the younger ones, as he went to assist his father. He noticed out of the corner of his eye then that Edwina was having something of a time with Alexis.

“Don’t be silly.” She was kneeling next to her on the pier, in the elegant new blue wool suit that she’d worn when she’d gone to meet Charles’s parents. “What is there to be afraid of? Look.” Edwina gestured toward the huge ship. “It’s just like a floating city, and in a few days we’ll be in New York, and then we’ll take the train back to San Francisco.” Edwina tried to make light of it, and make it sound like an adventure, but Alexis was clearly terrified of the awesome mass of the ship, and she dived into her mother’s skirts and began to cry again as she pulled free of Edwina.

“What’s the matter?” Kate glanced over at her oldest daughter and tried to hear what she was saying above the din as the band playing on the bridge launched into ragtime. But aside from that, thus far there had been very little fanfare. The White Star Line had apparently decided that too much fuss would be vulgar. “What happened?” Kate was trying to calm Alexis.

“She’s scared,” Edwina mouthed, and Kate nodded.
It was always poor little Alexis who was terrified of new events, new people, new places, and she had been afraid coming over on the
Mauretania
, too, and had asked her mother repeatedly what would happen if she fell in the water.

Kate stroked her silky golden curls with her thinly gloved hand, and stooped to whisper a secret to her. Her words brought a smile to the child’s lips, when she reminded her that in five days it would be her birthday. She was going to be six and her mother had promised her a birthday party on the ship, and another when they got back to San Francisco. “Alright?” she whispered to the frightened child, but Alexis only shook her head as she started to cry all over again and clung to her mother.

“I don’t want to go.” And then before she could say more, she felt herself gently scooped up in powerful hands and lifted onto her father’s shoulders.

“Sure you do, sugarplum. You wouldn’t want to stay here in England without us, would you? Of course not, silly girl. We’re all going home now on the most wonderful ship ever built. And you know what I just saw? I saw a little girl just about your age, and I’ll bet that before we get to New York you two are best friends. Now, let’s go aboard and see what our rooms look like, shall we?” He held her firmly on his shoulders and she had stopped crying by then as he took his wife’s arm, and shepherded his family up the gangplank. He set Alexis down when they were safely on board the ship, and she clung tightly to his hand as they walked up the grand staircase to the upper deck and peeked in the gym windows at the much-talked-about electric camel.

People were roaming everywhere, looking at the handsome decor, the beautiful wood paneling and wood carvings, the detailing, the elaborate chandeliers, the
draperies, the five grand pianos. Even Alexis was quiet as they walked around the ship, before going to B Deck to their staterooms.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Bert said to Kate, and she smiled. She loved the idea of being on shipboard with him. It seemed so cozy and safe and romantic, suspended between two worlds, with everyone comfortable and well taken care of. For once, she was planning to let Oona chase after the children more than she usually did, and Kate was going to relax with her husband. He had looked particularly enchanted when he saw the gymnasium, and peeked into the smoking room, but Kate grinned and wagged a finger at him.

“No, you don’t! I want to spend some time with you on this trip.” She moved closer to him for a moment and he smiled.

“You mean Charles and Edwina aren’t the only young lovers on this ship?” he whispered to his wife, as he continued to hold Alexis’s hand.

“I hope not.” Kate smiled meaningfully at him, and gently touched his cheek with the tips of her fingers.

“All right, everybody, what do you say we go to our staterooms, unpack a little bit, and then do some more exploring?”

“Can’t we go now, Dad?” George pleaded. He was about to burst with excitement, but Bert insisted that it would be easier if they let the little ones see their rooms and settle in, and then he would personally escort George on his adventures. But the temptation was too much for George, and before they reached B Deck, two floors below the gym, George had disappeared and Kate was worried about where he had gone to, and she wanted Phillip to go and find him.

“Let him be, Kate. He can’t go far. As long as he doesn’t get off the ship, he’ll be fine, and he’s much too
excited to be on it to get off for anything in the world. I’ll go and look for him myself once we get settled.”

Kate hesitantly agreed, but she was nonetheless worried about what mischief he might get into. But as soon as they saw the lovely staterooms Bertram had reserved for them, they were all far too happy and distracted to think of anything else, and everyone was delighted to see Charles when he arrived a few moments later.

“Is this it?” He stuck his handsome head in the doorway of the main parlor, his dark hair perfectly groomed, his blue eyes dancing as he saw his future bride, and she leapt to her feet as she saw him and ran across the small private sitting room which Kate and Bertram planned to use, if they wanted to get away from the children.

“Charles!” Edwina blushed furiously, as she flew into his arms, her hair the same color as his, her eyes an even deeper blue, and everything about her attesting to their happiness as he swung her right off the floor while Alexis and Fannie giggled.

“What’s so funny about that, you two?” He loved to play with the little girls, and he thought Teddy was the sweetest baby he had ever seen. He and Phillip were good friends, and even wild George amused him. It was a wonderful family, and he was deeply grateful to have found Edwina. “Have you seen the doggies yet?” he asked the girls over their sister’s shoulder. Fannie shook her head, but Alexis looked suddenly worried. “We’ll go visit them after your naps this afternoon.” He was almost like a father figure to them, just as Edwina was like another mother.

“Where are they?” Alexis asked worriedly, anxious about the dogs now.

“In cages way, way downstairs, and they can’t get out,” Edwina reassured her. Alexis would never leave the stateroom for the rest of the trip, if she thought
there might be a danger of running into a dog lurking in the hallways, outside their cabin.

Edwina turned the children over to Oona then, and followed Charles to his stateroom. Her father had reserved him a lovely room, and away from the children’s sharply probing eyes, he pulled her closer to him and kissed her gently on the mouth, as Edwina caught her breath, forgetting everything but the powerful presence of her future husband. There were moments, like this one, when she wondered how they would ever wait until August. But there was no question of that, even on this most romantic ship. Edwina would never have betrayed her parents’ faith in her, nor would Charles, but it was going to be difficult to restrain themselves until mid-August.

“Would you like to take a walk, Miss Winfield?” Charles smiled at his fiancée as he tendered the invitation.

“I would love to, Mr. Fitzgerald.” He laid his heavy coat down on the bed, and prepared to stroll outside on the deck with her. It wasn’t particularly cold in port, and he was so happy to see her that he could think of nothing else. They had only been apart for a few days, but every hour seemed too much to them now, and she was glad he was going back to San Francisco with them. It would have been unbearable if he hadn’t. “I missed you terribly,” she whispered as they walked back up the grand staircase to the Promenade Deck just above them.

“So did I, my love. It won’t be long now before we never have to be apart again, not even for a moment.”

She nodded happily, as they wandered past the French “sidewalk café” with its little “boulevard” in front, and the rapid-fire chatter of the French waiters, as they glanced over at Edwina and smiled in admiration.
Many of the first-class passengers seemed to be intrigued by the little “bistro.” It was a novelty that existed on no other ship, like so many other features of the
Titanic.

They walked on to the forward half of the Promenade Deck then with its huge glassed-in section that allowed one to look out over the sea and be sheltered from the weather. “I have a feeling we’re going to find a lot of little cozy corners of our own on this ship, my love.” Charles smiled and pulled her hand more tightly through his arm, and Edwina laughed as he said it.

“So is George. He already got lost on the way to the staterooms. That child is hopeless. I don’t know why my mother doesn’t throttle him.” Edwina looked exasperated at the mention of her brother.

“She doesn’t because he’s so charming,” Charles defended him. “George knows exactly how far to go.” She couldn’t really disagree, although at times she would have liked to strangle him herself.

“I suppose so. It’s amazing how different he is from Phillip. Phillip would never have done anything like that.”

“Neither would I as a child. Perhaps that’s why I admire him now. I wish I had. And George will never have to regret missing anything he ‘should have done.’ I’m sure he’s done it all.” He laughed and Edwina smiled happily up at him, as Charles put an arm around her shoulders and they watched the huge ship slowly pull away from the dock. She found herself praying that her father had been right, and George hadn’t left the ship during his brief excursion. But somehow, like her father, she suspected that he wouldn’t, there was too much to see right here, without leaving the ship. And as they looked down, the ship’s fiercely resonant whistles gave a blast, rendering all conversation impossible. There was
a real feeling of excitement in the air, and Charles pulled her into his arms again and kissed her gently as they listened to the whistles just above them.

Assisted by six tugs, the mammoth ship crept out of the slip and into the channel, headed for Cherbourg, where they were to pick up more passengers before going on to Queenstown and then the high seas and New York. But within moments, there was a brief interlude of excitement that those below were unaware of, but the passengers on deck watched with amazement as the huge ship glided past an American and a British liner, tied up at the quay due to a recent coal strike. The American Line’s
New York
had been moored to the White Star’s
Oceanic
, and the two small liners stood side by side, rendering the passage for the
Titanic
extremely narrow. There was a sudden sound of what seemed almost like pistol shots, and with no warning the lines tying the
New York
to the
Oceanic
gave way, and the
New York
drifted toward the
Titanic
to within a few feet until it looked as though she would ram the
Titanic
portside. With a series of quick maneuvers, one of the tugs assisting the
Titanic
out of the harbor passed a line to the
New York
and deckhands were able to stop her drift before she collided with the
Titanic.
The
New York
was then towed away, and the
Titanic
was able to steam out of port and head for Cherbourg. But it had been very close, the
Titanic
had almost been rammed. And it was a most impressive series of maneuvers that had spared them. The passengers who had seen it all felt as though they had witnessed an exhibition of remarkable skill. But the
Titanic
seemed invincible, invulnerable to all. The
Titanic
was four city blocks long, or eight hundred and eighty-two feet, as Phillip had precisely informed them earlier, and she was anything but easy to maneuver.

“Was that as close as I thought it was?” Edwina inquired, mesmerized by what she had just seen, and her fiancé nodded.

“I believe so. Shall we have a little glass of champagne at the Café Parisien to celebrate our safe departure?” Edwina nodded happily and they headed back to the “sidewalk café,” where, within minutes, a breathless and slightly rumpled George managed to find them.

“What are you doing here, Sis?” He appeared on the “boulevard” of the café, with his cap askew, his shirttails out, and one knee of his trousers filthy dirty. But he had never looked happier in his life.

“I might ask you the same question. Mother was looking for you everywhere. What on earth have you been doing?” Edwina scowled at him.

“I had to look around, Edwina.” He looked at her as though she were extremely stupid, and then cast a winning glance at Charles. “Hello, Charles, how are you?”

“Very well, thank you, George. How’s the ship? Sound? Are you pleased with her?”

“She’s great! Did you know there are four elevators and they each go nine floors? There’s also a squash court, and a swimming pool, and they’re carrying a brand-new motorcar to New York, a Renault, and there are some pretty fantastic machines in the kitchen. I couldn’t get in to steerage when I tried, but I checked second class and it seems all right, there was a very nice girl there,” he reported, as his future brother-in-law looked vastly amused, and Edwina was horrified at the performance of her younger brother. He had absolutely no self-control, and wasn’t even embarrassed by his disheveled appearance.