JOHN AND MIRIAM
Chapter Eight
There was a party in steerage the following
night. John and Miriam brought Mary to the party with them, and Kiran
volunteered to watch her while the two danced. After making several rounds of
the dance floor, John and Miriam were hot and tired-footed, so they sat down
near Kiran and the children for a while. John got himself a beer, but much to
his surprise, Miriam refused to drink one herself.
"Not as good as champagne, huh?" he
teased her.
Miriam laughed. "Actually, I never liked
champagne either. Or wine. Or brandy. Alcohol just never tasted good to
me."
"Probably for the better. You'll never
wake up with a hangover that way."
"Well, just don't drink too much. If
Mary is tired enough to go right to sleep later..."
John was about to reply when he noticed two
people from first class entering the room. He stared, as did many others.
"What are they doing down here?" he asked, not sure he liked the idea
of the staid, snotty upper class members coming to a steerage party.
"Maybe they want a thrill...no, wait! I
recognize them! That's Rose Bukater, and the guy with her is the one who saved
her from falling overboard last night," Miriam replied.
A few people still stared hostilely at them,
until a little girl ran up to the young man and reminded him that she had been
promised a dance. Recognizing him now, the party-goers went back to their
celebration.
Miriam watched as Rose grabbed a mug of beer
and gulped it down. Grinning, she remembered similar shocking behavior on
occasion in boarding school.
"I take it you know her?" John
asked.
"We weren't really friends or anything,
but yes, I know her. We went to boarding school together. I see she hasn't
changed a bit."
Rose was protesting loudly as the young man
pulled out onto the dance floor. "No, Jack! I couldn't possibly,
Jack!" she shouted, grinning in delight the whole time.
Jack, Miriam thought. Rose's fiancé would be
livid when he found out that she was dancing with him.
"Her fiancé is going to be upset if he
finds out about this," Miriam commented, watching the pair whirl around.
"Her fiancé? Wasn't that the gentlemen
you gave the one-fingered salute to a few days ago?" John asked.
"Oh, yes. And I still don't see what she
sees in him."
"You said that he was a former suitor of
yours."
"Yes."
"Did you like him?"
"Only at first. Once things got a little
more serious he started to act like he owned me. He tried to control where I
went, how I acted, who I saw. I didn't like it, so I broke off the
relationship. He kept trying to continue it for a while, until I confronted him
in public. It wasn't a pretty scene, and my parents were so scandalized that
they sent me to Europe post-haste."
"Didn't they send someone with
you?"
"They sent a maid, but she married
someone in Germany and stayed behind."
"I noticed you didn't have anyone along
when we met."
Miriam shook her head. "The ship docked
in France, and from there, after touring Paris, we headed to Berlin in Germany.
My maid, Judith was her name, met a man in Berlin and fell in love with him. I
headed to Britain shortly after their wedding."
"Where you met me."
"Right."
John turned his attention back to Jack and
Rose. Rose was now attempting to stand on the points of her toes. After
succeeding for about two seconds, she fell into Jack's arms. John noticed the
enormous diamond ring on her finger and pointed it out to Miriam.
"That may be what she sees in him."
"What?"
"Money. Look at the size of that
diamond."
Miriam looked, then glanced at her plain gold
band. "I think I got a greater treasure."
John raised an eyebrow. "How so? I'd bet
that ring is considerably more valuable than yours."
She smiled at him, seductively. "She may
have a diamond ring, but she also has him. I, on the other hand, have a plain
gold band--and you. You're the greater treasure."
John laughed. "You are something else,
Miriam. You wander around Europe, either alone or with only a maid, and not
just in the finest neighborhoods either, you marry a man that you know won't be
accepted by your society, you accept another woman's child as your own, and you
are willing to cross the ocean in steerage, even though you don't like
sailing." His brow furrowed. "Why don't you like sailing, by the
way?"
Miriam thought a moment. "I think it's
because of a bad experience I had when I was a child. I was about three years
old one winter when I decided to go outside and play without my nanny to watch
over me. She was taking a nap, and apparently assumed I was, too. I went
outside, and noticed that the fish pond was frozen over. I tapped on the ice,
and then decided to see if I could walk across it. There were still some fish
moving under the water, and I liked the idea of standing over them. I walked
out a few feet, and discovered that the ice wasn't all that solid. I fell right
through, and my clothes were so heavy that they pulled me right down. I would
have drowned if the man shoveling the snow off the walk hadn't heard me scream
and come running. I survived, and my parents forgave my nanny for letting me
outside unattended, but I have been afraid of water ever since. I never even
learned to swim."
"But what does that have to do with
boats?"
"Boats float over deep water, and I'm
always afraid of falling overboard or being trapped on a sinking ship..."
Miriam noticed another man from first class
peering down the stairwell--Spicer Lovejoy, Caledon Hockley's faithful
manservant. His eyes lit on Rose for a moment, and his mouth tightened. Then,
as he turned to go back up the stairs, he noticed Miriam watching him. She
smiled sweetly and waved. Lovejoy rushed back up the stairs.
"What was that all about?" John
asked, noticing Miriam's wave.
She burst out laughing. "That was Spicer
Lovejoy, Caledon Hockley's servant. Apparently Mr. Hockley is trying to keep a
close eye on this girlfriend, too. Lovejoy tried to keep an eye on me when I
was with Cal," she explained, noting John's puzzled expression.
A new dance was starting up. John, distinctly
uncomfortable at discussing Miriam's ex-suitor, grabbed her hand. "Come
on, let's dance."
And as they joined hands with other people
and whirled around the room, Miriam forgot all about Caledon Hockley and Spicer
Lovejoy, forgot about everything except the thrill of the dance, and John's arm
around her waist.