BETWEEN TWO HEARTS
Chapter Nine

April 15, 1912
1:15 AM

After several twists and turns, Siobhan found herself and the group in the midst of the First Class dining saloon. When she turned around, she saw that the group was in awe at the splendor that surrounded them.

"Is this really First Class?"

"Aye, Catriona. It is. It is indeed First Class."

"Come on," Siobhan said suddenly. "We’ve got to go."

At that moment, the group took off through the dining hall and reached the Grand Staircase. "Oh, wow," she heard the group say as they arrived at the entrance to C-Deck.

"Come on," their leader said. "I need to stop by my room for a quick second. I need to get something that’s important to me. Quite important. Come on." With that said, she took off down the hall towards her room.

It only took them a few minutes to get to her room from the C-Deck of the Grand Staircase. "Siv," Owen said. "The ship is tilting. We’ve got to get up top."

"Hold on," she said. She opened her door and quickly went to her dresser. She knew exactly where to go as she opened her top drawer, drew out a necklace, and quickly put it on. She didn’t care if it was clashing with her outfit or not.

"Come on," she said while shutting her door. She began to take off towards the Aft Grand Staircase while the group behind her followed. "It was my mother’s," she said to the group when they reached the Aft Staircase. "I got it when she died."

They all began to journey up to the top of the staircase, but it only went as high as A-Deck. Siobhan let out a quiet curse and then she ran into the first door she saw–the door to the First Class smoking room. Their group followed her into the room, solely depending on her to lead them where they needed to go.

"Siobhan?"

She stopped running as she heard her name from someone not in her group. She turned and saw her uncle.

"Uncle Thomas?" She ran forward to give him a hug.

He embraced her in his arms. "Why aren’t you off on a boat? I told you to be back by 1:30…it’s that now and you’re not up on the boat deck!"

"We’re going up there now…but why aren’t you getting on a boat? You should get off, too."

"Siobhan, there are just some things you won’t understand."

"No. Thomas Andrews, you are getting in a boat."

"Don’t pull that kind of voice with me, Siv! You know that whatever I say pretty much takes higher authority over your commands."

"But Uncle…"

"No. No buts…Siobhan, it’s time for me to move on. Titanic is sinking–a part of me is dying and it’s time for me to go with it."

"But what about Elba? Aunt Helen?"

"They know how much this means to me. Yes, I will admit that it will hurt them at first, but they know that I want to just go with my life…my sweat and blood was put into this ship, Siv. You have to understand that."

The redhead looked close to tears. "Uncle Thomas…you can’t do this. I won’t let you. I’m staying here."

She took a seat in one of the chairs. The group who was standing behind her looked at each other. "I’m not leaving you, Uncle…Dad."

"Siobhan Rhiannon Andrews, you had better get on up to the boat deck with your friends." He sat down next to her. "I’m not making a request of you…this is an order. You are too young to have your life cut down. I have lived my life, done what I have needed to do. It’s time for me to go."

"Siv…come on. We have got to get going." Owen came up behind her and took her shoulders. He tried to pull her back, but she didn’t move.

She broke herself away from the grip of her friend and threw her arms around her uncle. "Good-bye," he whispered in her ear.

She pulled away and looked like she wanted to cry, but she held back her tears. He reached behind him and gave her a glass of reddish liquid. "Here. Drink this. It will help with the water." Indeed, it was brandy. He offered her friends glasses, too. They all finished the drink rather quickly and began to head towards the entrance to the verandah. After one last look back at her uncle, she went through the door. He closed his eyes and turned back to the painting–after all, he was getting ready to eternally be with his life’s dream.

As soon as they got outside on A-Deck, Siobhan cursed to herself. "We need to get up to the boat deck, but there is no entrance near here."

"There’s one down a deck…at the Second Class staircase."

"But how will we get down there?"

Owen climbed over the railing. "We jump," he said, right before he jumped and landed. He narrowly missed a group of people who were trying to get up to the boat deck. He stood up and held out his hand to the next person. "Come on…I’ll catch you."

Siobhan climbed over the rail and jumped down into the arms of her waiting friend. Following the example of the makeshift leader, the group followed her down to the lower deck. "Okay," she said after everyone had gotten down. "Come on. Let’s go before all of the boats have left." They all began to run into the port side door of the Second Class stairs. Before Siobhan went inside, she noticed that there was a lifeboat lowering right behind them. She didn’t think about staying before then, but she also didn’t realize that the lifeboat being lowered was Boat 14.

Owen flung the door open and the group ran out onto the boat deck in the midst of the confusion. The group followed behind and saw that a lot of the boats had been lowered and there were precious few boats left. "They’re gone!" Owen turned to the others.

Siobhan turned around and saw a familiar figure off to the starboard side of the ship. "Moody!" She ran forward and called out his name again.

"Siobhan Andrews…why are you not on a boat?"

"Never mind that…where’s Harold?"

He pointed down to the boat that was just pulling away from the ship on his side. "You just missed him."

"You mean he’s already gone?" A sense of dread filled her mind as she turned to the group…she might never see her love again and it was all her fault for not listening to her uncle…not to mention the man standing right next to her.

"Jim…are there anymore boats still waiting to be loaded?"

"There should be some more up front. If they’ve set off boats 1 and 2, then we will get down the collapsible boats. I will probably need some help, though."

"I’ll do what I can." She turned to her friends. "The slant of the decks is getting to be quite prominent. See if you can somehow get into a lifeboat. If not, try and stay out of the water for as long as you can…it is cold out there." With that said, she gave Owen and Catriona a hug and set off with Moody down towards the bow of the ship.

"Damn it…they’ve sent off the last of the boats."

"Not quite." Moody motioned up to the collapsible boats, which were being uncovered by a few of the seamen. Siobhan didn’t say anything, but she climbed up the ladder to the top of the group of rooms for the officers and select crew. Of course, even while the ship was sinking, she got a few looks from the remaining First Class ladies for her vulgar behavior.

"We need to get this boat down."

"Moody…which one is this?"

"It’s Collapsible Boat A. Come on…we’re going to need to think of a way to get this down."

With that said, they joined some of the AB Seamen and tried to think of a way to get the boat down from the roof of the boat deck cabins.

"Should we lower it with a rope?"

"What about using the oars?"

"They’re too weak…we won’t be able to do it."

"We’ve got to try."

Siobhan looked over the side and noticed that the forward well deck was completely under the water. We have to do something soon, she thought to herself. Turning around to the boat, she saw that some of the crew had set up oars in an attempt to act as a sort of ramp.

People started to scamper as they noticed that the ramp was being formed, and in turn, they all backed away. They watched with anticipation as the crew--plus one--got ready to retrieve salvation…quite possibly their salvation.

"Steady!" Chief Officer Wilde looked over at the crew who had the makeshift ramp all ready. Looking back at the crowd, Siobhan noticed that he was beginning to grow a little bit antsy.

"Siobhan!"

She looked over when her name was called, and she saw that Moody was holding a rope that would hopefully be used to help lower it.

"Siobhan, I’d actually feel better if you were down on the deck. You can help facilitate things after everything gets ready…but you are going in this boat. I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to the girlfriend of my best friend."

She did not know what to say to that, but quietly went down the ladder to the deck. Down there, she was approached by an older redheaded woman who was going on in Gaelic. Her Gaelic was rusty, but she could pick up that she basically wanted to know what was going on. She began to console the woman by telling her that another boat was getting ready and she would be able to get on it when it was time.

All of a sudden, a crash came from behind her, sending a shock through her. "Oh, my!" The boat had crashed violently down onto the deck, and luckily it had made it down right side up.

"Okay," she heard the chief officer call. "Let’s get the boat hooked up and swung out!"

Siobhan saw out of the corner of her eye that the crowd was pushing up behind him. Ready or not, they were just about ready to rush what would become their savior.

Wilde seemed to have felt the growing anticipation behind him, because he whirled around with his pistol, ready to fire. The miscellaneous crew had tried to keep the men back as best as they could, but it became quickly apparent that they would not be able to do it for much longer.

He raised it above his head and fired twice, drawing a sudden silence out of the passengers.

"I’ll shoot the first man who tries to get past me." He had his gun cocked and pointed at the passengers, who had gone quiet but were still jostling. He was overly anticipating the rush onto the boat and, to some extent, was over anticipating the inevitable.

The next events happened so fast that barely anyone could realize what was happening until it was too late. The crowd surged forward in one area, pushing a man out in front of the group. Of course, with Officer Wilde being on high alert, he didn’t realize what had happened until it was too late.

A shot rang through the air and, after it caught the attention of everyone around, revealed the motionless body of the man. Soon after, two cries filled the air and out came a boy and a woman–presumably the family of the fallen Third Class passenger. They were wailing in a language that Siobhan didn’t recognize and, glancing over at Officer Wilde, she saw that he was completely shocked.

"Henry."

She took one step towards him in an effort to console him, but she did not see the hand with the gun ready to fire again. The eyes of the chief officer moved over to her.

"Siobhan!" Moody saw what was happening and quickly pulled her back. Wilde turned to Murdoch and gave him one last salute.

"Henry…no!"

It was too late…he silently set the barrel of the gun to his temple and, before the crew could stop him, he pulled the trigger. The body fell off the side of the deck into the water, and the people who knew him as more than Officer Wilde stared in disbelief.

All of a sudden, Purser McElroy shouted to the crowd. "Women and children! Quickly…women and children!" Madness erupted as the passengers moved forward to claim a spot on Collapsible Boat A.

Officer Moody let go of his charge. "Go on and get in…I’ve got to help with the davits so we can get the boat off." She nodded as he began to head over to the boat.

She noticed that the band had begun playing a hymn, which she recognized from her childhood as Nearer My God to Thee– it was a favorite of her mother’s before everything…turned bad.

Cries began to fill the air as the seawater engulfed the first part of the boat deck. "Cut the ropes! Cut the ropes!" The crew became frantic when this happened, because it was almost inevitable that the ship would drag the boat down with it.

Siobhan backed up when the edge of the water engulfed the deck where she needed to go. She knew that she couldn’t stay there, but in a way this would have been her last hope. Backing up, she caught the eye of her friend. He sawed through one of the ropes and turned to her. "Siv…go!" No one had ever called her that besides those whom she was closest to…and yet she did not protest it. With one last look at her friend before he got out of the boat to help with the last rope, she began the long run upwards to the highest part of the deck which she would be able to get to.

Chapter Ten
Stories