BETWEEN TWO HEARTS
Prologue
April 15, 1912
3:00 AM
The cries of the passengers began
to subside gradually, leaving the only sound of the night to be the little
splashes of those just barely hanging on to dear life. The passengers in the
half-submerged Collapsible A lifeboat could only hope that they would stay
afloat until a rescue ship came along. One was on its way, or so whispers had
said.
Even though the majority of the
passengers on board the collapsible were third class and male, there was one
female third class passenger on board and very few crewmen. Everything that
would have helped them was submerged, so they were basically stuck with very
few provisions and no oars.
One of the men turned and looked
over to the side when he heard a splashing sound next to the boat.
"Siobhan," he said, suddenly standing up. There were shouts as more
water came in and one of the crewmen commanded him to get back down.
"But you don’t
understand…this is my friend, Siobhan Andrews…we have to help her." He
pointed back to a body of one of the passengers, most visibly dead. "If we
put him overboard and bring her in, we will be losing some of the weight that
is weighing us down into the water…"
However, the seaman knew that the
woman who he was speaking of was indeed the niece of Thomas Andrews, the master
shipbuilder. There was talk amongst the crew over the past days of the
beautiful Irishwoman who did not believe in class distinction even though she
was sailing in First Class with her uncle. "Make it so," he said.
"Slowly put the body overboard and then bring her in." There was a
cry from another one of the passengers, who seemed to have a bond with the
person who had died. "You will restrain yourself, sir," he said,
"or you will be joining him. Siobhan," he said turning to her. The
stories were true--she was a head-turner, but it was apparent that she was in
an immense pain from the cold. "We need you to hold down this side so we
can keep the boat at an equal level." She nodded and prepared herself to
climb up and hold down the boat, whimpers already coming from her direction.
The exchange took place
successfully. She took a seat next to her friend, who gave her his jacket in an
attempt to get her somewhat warmed. She tucked her feet under her legs in order
to get them out of the cold water.
"I’m so tired, Owen…"
"Don’t say that,
Siobhan," he said turning to her. "Lowe would not want you to say
that. You must stay awake until at least morning. A rescue ship is on its
way."
She smiled as best as she could
when he mentioned Lowe. The last few days were so magical, and he played a big
part of that. "Did Moody make it?"
"I don’t know," her
friend said ominously. "All of the boats were gone when I made it up to
the deck. They were trying to get these boats off of the decks…"
She nodded, not really listening
to the story. Her only true father was gone, many other people were dying as
they spoke, and she was trying not to become one of them. She focused her mind
on recalling the events of the past days in an attempt to keep her mind active…