AN ADVENTURE TO REMEMBER AND A MEMORY TO FORGET
Chapter Six
I did not want to part company
with Harry, but dinner was announced and I had to go. Reluctantly, I watched
him shut the door behind me and I found Belinda who helped me get dressed. I
had another beautiful deep purple gown with black sequins. The sleeves were
capped. Belinda pulled my hair all the way up this time and she stepped back so
I could admire myself in the mirror.
"Thank you Belinda. As
always, you did a terrific job." I was sincere in my words.
"You’re welcome, Miss. Miss
Shannon wants you to see her before you leave for dinner. She is quite upset
she is not going." Belinda excused herself and I walked towards Shannon’s
room. I knew she’d be upset since Father wanted her stay in our suites with Melissa
and Belinda. She wasn’t old enough to go. Father promised he’d leave early and
come spend some time with her, but she was still mad.
I walked into her room and found
that she got mad and took it out on a chair which was thrown across the room.
"Shannie? Where’d you
go?" I couldn’t find her.
"Go away!" She yelled
from the back of the room. I found her hiding under her bed, wearing only her
underclothing. She had taken her dress off.
"Why are you under the bed?
You’d better come out of there and at least put on your night outfit before
Father finds you. He’s going to be mad at you if you’re not dressed."
"Good. Let him get mad. I
don’t care. I want to go!" She was really angry.
"Shannie, I don’t want to
go. It’s going to be boring talk. It always is. If I were you, I’d be jumping
for joy that you don’t have to go. You get to stay in our suite and play games
with Melissa and Belinda. Who knows, Franklin might even stop by for a special
visit."
She crawled out from under the
bed.
"Tory, I love you." She
hugged me. I hugged her back. She walked back to her dressing closet and got
out her night dress. She was just finished putting it on when Father walked in
to get me.
"Victoria, we must go.
Dinner is served at six. Shannon, I expect you to behave when we are gone and
mind Melissa and Belinda. I’ll be back in a couple hours and we’ll read some
more of that book you brought."
"Yes sir. I’ll be good. I
promise." Shannon hugged Father and he turned to me.
"Shall we, Miss
Metcalfe?" He smiled and held out his arm. I held on to his and we walked
towards the grand staircase.
We met up with a few of Father’s
friends on the way down to dinner.
"Caledon." A dark
haired man with a lady about my age turned around to face us.
"James! What a remarkable
voyage this is. I see you have brought one of your lovely daughters." He
turned to face me. "And what is your name, Miss."
"Victoria Anne Metcalfe. I
am Father’s oldest. My sister is back in our state rooms."
"Ah. I see. I am Caledon
Hockley and this is my fiancée Rose DeWitt Bukater and her mother, Ruth."
He gestured towards a bored looking girl with a glazed over expression on her
face about my age and her mother.
"Pleasure to meet you
both." I had said barely half a dozen words to Caledon Hockley and already
I didn’t like him. He rubbed me the wrong way. I hoped we didn’t have to sit
with them.
"James, why don’t you and
Victoria join all of us at our table in the dining room? We can always discuss
some business." Cal was smiling. He had an evil smile. I wanted to slap it
off of him. But I refrained when my father agreed that we could sit with him.
Wonderful I thought. Just wonderful.
Father escorted me in the dining
room and seated me next to Rose who hasn’t said one word since we met in the
hallway. She had a far away distant look about her. She also seemed genuinely
unhappy. I couldn’t imagine why. She was a beautiful young girl with a
handsome, yet arrogant fiancé.
"Sweet pea?" Cal was
talking to Rose.
"What?" She was
uninterested in conversation.
"Would you like the fish or
the lamb for dinner?"
Rose rolled her eyes and said
something, yet I couldn’t make it out. Cal went on and ordered fish for the
whole table. I almost said I didn’t like fish, but Father would not approve.
I’d just choke it down with a lot of water.
The main course was served. As I
picked up the silverware, I noticed that it had never been used. I was the
first one to ever cut my fish with this silverware.
Rose sat silent all throughout
most of dinner. Father and Cal talked business and Rose’s mother talked with
the Countess of Rothes who was seated with us. I looked at the clock on the
wall. It was almost eight. I excused myself from the table under the pretense
of going to check on Shannon.
"Father, I told Shannon I’d
check on her before you got there. May I be excused?"
Father nodded and I excused
myself from the table.
"Mr. Hockley, it was a
pleasure meeting you and your fiancé and future mother in law. I should hope we
can do this again."
"Of course we can. How about
tomorrow at lunch?"
I wanted to shove a fork down my
throat and gag myself, but politely said "Sounds like a plan. Thank
you."
And with that, I left. I noticed
Rose left right after me and ran past me. I figured she was heading to her
state room to lie down.
I made my way up the grand
staircase and admired the woodwork on my way up. But I was looking forward to
meeting Harry.
I waited up on deck where we met.
Finally, I heard that voice.
"You’re late." I turned
around and there he was.
"On the contrary Mr. Lowe. I
am on time. It is you that is a minute late. I’ve been waiting. It is never
polite to keep a lady in waiting."
"I know you haven’t been
waiting very long. My room is right over there and I could see out of the port
window." He pointed over his shoulder to a few doors behind the wheel
room.
"You have caught me. I
confess, I was just now here. Dinner ran late."
"I can forgive you, but
don’t let it happen again!" He laughed while all the time trying to be
serious. "Care for a walk? It’s not very cold yet."
"I’d love to." He took
my arm and we walked around towards the back part of the ship.
"Enjoying your first voyage
on Titanic?" He asked.
"More than you’ll know. The
present company I am in has helped tremendously. Other than a boring dinner
with some of Father’s friends, it has been a wonderful time."
Harry looked at me. "This
has been one of my more pleasant trips as well." He stopped, looked at me
and kissed me again. "And that, is why the trip is so pleasant for me.
Wouldn’t you agree?" He stopped to ask me.
"Very much so." I
leaned in and kissed him again. We were interrupted by shouts from the back
part of the ship. Harry saw two crewmen run past him. Even though he wasn’t on
duty, he still took me back to the back part of the ship. We stood back out of
the way so we wouldn’t be seen.
"What made you think you
could put your hands on my fiancé?" It was Cal! He was speaking to the
blonde guy Harry and I saw earlier in the day.
"That’s Cal Hockley! We just
had dinner with Rose, his fiancé, her mother and him. What’s going on!" I
told Harry.
"I don’t know. Looks like
that blonde kid tried to attack his fiancé."
"Look at me you filth!"
I couldn’t see what was going on, but Harry, being taller than I was, could see
more than I could.
"Cal! Cal!" Rose
started yelling. "Stop it! It was an accident. Stupid really. I was
leaning over and I slipped." She stopped. I could tell she was lying. But
I wanted to hear what was going on. She continued. "I wanted to see the
uh…the uh…" she was making a whirling motion with her hands.
Cal interrupted, "The
propellers?"
Rose continued, "Yes, the
propellers, and I slipped. And I would have gone overboard, but Mr. Dawson here
saved me and almost went over himself."
"She slipped?" I turned
to Harry. "Can you even see the propellers from over there?"
He shook his head, "It’s too
far down and the water is too dark. She’s lying, but I don’t know why. Unless
the blonde kid tried to attack her and she doesn’t want him to get into
trouble. I couldn’t imagine what else it could be."
We had missed what the other
gentlemen had said. Rose and Cal began to walk off when Cal turned around to
the blonde guy.
"Why don’t you join us
tomorrow for dinner? Regale our group with your heroic tale?"
He must have said yes because Cal
and Rose walked off. I heard him mutter "This aught to be
interesting" as he walked off. Rose saw Harry and me and her face went
white. She wanted to say something to me, but just looked at me. I guessed
she’d see me tomorrow.
"Exciting huh?" Harry
looked at me.
"I’d like to know what
happened. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow."
"Look at you! Your lips are
almost blue! I can’t believe I forgot to give you my jacket. You must be
freezing." He took his jacket off and put it around my shoulders and
rubbed my arms with his hands. "Better?"
"Almost. My face is still
cold."
He took his hands, rubbed them
together to make them warm and put them on my cheeks. He brought his face in
close to mine and kissed me. This time he used his tongue in my mouth which
shocked me, but I did what he did. We stumbled a little bit and he braced me
between a large pipe and himself so we wouldn’t fall. We kissed for a long
while before we broke away.
"I’d better get you inside.
I don’t want your father getting all worried about you. I’ve got to hit the
sack anyway. I come on duty at seven. It’s not that far off." He turned
around and started to lead me back towards the front of the ship where my
entrance to the hall was to my suites.
"He should be with Shannon,
my sister. I doubt if he’ll even notice when I come in." I didn’t want to
leave him. I was walking slowly to spend all the time I could with him.
"Still, I don’t want to get
myself in trouble. Nor do I want you in trouble either. I’ll be off tomorrow
around the same time. Want to meet, same place, same time?"
"I don’t know. I’ll have to
check my schedule. I might have…" I trailed off when I saw Harry begin to
laugh. "Of course. Same place tomorrow, same time."
We arrived at the entrance door
to the hallway where my suite was.
"Then I shall see you
tomorrow. I look forward to it." Harold kissed me one more time and opened
the door.
I kissed him back and agreed to
meet him tomorrow.
I was looking forward to it.