SHIP OF DREAMS
Chapter Sixteen
Anne checked Murdoch’s pocket
watch. It was 9:25 when the Carpathia docked at Cunard’s Pier 54, a rain was
still steadily falling, and there had been no sign of any guardian for Will.
She had asked if there would be family friends waiting to greet him, but was
told that the Rosters had sailed for New York alone, with no friends there. She
and her companions stared up at the Statue of Liberty. It seemed almost to mock
them. They had reached the United States of America, but at what cost? A
steward approached them.
"Can I take your name,
love?" he asked, clipboard and pen in hand.
"Megan Carter," Megan
softly answered. She tried to ignore the yachts, tugs, and other boats
surrounding the Carpathia. She blocked out the reporters’ voices as they
shouted questions through megaphones.
"Dawson," Rose replied.
"Rose Dawson."
Anne smiled gently at her
stepsister’s reply. She watched the remaining crew members of the Titanic
rowing the lifeboats to the White Star pier. It was their last task as the
Titanic’s crewmen. "Anne. Anne Murdoch. And this is Will...Murdoch.
William Murdoch II."
The steward thanked them and
continued on his way. The three women’s eyes opened wide when they saw the huge
crowd of people around the pier, and more yet in the streets leading to the
docks.
"There must be at least
fifty thousand people!" Megan exclaimed.
Anne excused herself to search
for Lowe. However, she could not find him, and thought he had perhaps left with
the other Titanic crewmen. Sadly, she returned to her friends.
*****
"What is it?" Megan
asked.
Rose glanced over at her with an
odd expression on her face. "There’s something in my coat pocket."
Her hand emerged to reveal a very large blue diamond. She gasped. "The
Heart of the Ocean!"
Anne stared at her stepsister,
awestruck. Her stepsister had, in her hand, a very rare, very expensive
diamond. She began to laugh at the absurdity of it all. It had been a tiresome
day.
*****
Anne descended the gangplank with
Will and Murdoch’s effects. With no one waiting for her, she felt slightly
lost, but was comforted by her two friends beside her. However, the magnesium
flashes of the reporters’ cameras made her angry enough to want to smash them
all in the street. It was raining slightly, which made the day even worse.
"What should we do?"
Megan asked. Suddenly, she found herself without any schedule.
Anne reconsidered her plans. Now,
she had no reason not to go to the Lewises. Except for the fact that Will was
still in her care, and she had not given the name the Lewises knew her
as...they would never know if she survived or not. Suddenly, a great weight
seemed to lift itself from her chest, and she smiled.
*****
The four found lodging in a small
hotel. It was clean and well furnished, but small. The four of them slept in
two separate rooms. Megan had originally volunteered to room with Will, but he
fussed if Anne left his sight, and so Anne and Will shared one room, while
Megan and Rose took the other.
Will slept soundly that night,
but only after being rather restless until one o’clock in the morning. Anne
spent the night singing lullabies to Will, one of which was Danny Boy.
It reminded her of Murdoch, and her voice had broken often throughout the song.
"Are you all right? You look
tired," Rose commented the following morning as they ate breakfast in a
small restaurant.
"Will kept me awake."
Anne sighed as she took a sip of her coffee.
"Which one?" Megan
gently asked.
"Both." Anne sighed
again, and she glanced down at the small child in the chair beside her.
"The Inquiry began
today," Rose informed them.
"The what?" Anne asked.
"The United States Senate
began an inquiry into the accident," Rose replied.
"Well, I don’t think they’ll
find anyone at fault. It was a complete accident." Anne shook her head.
She missed the look Rose and Megan exchanged. "A complete accident that
took hundreds of lives."
"What should we do
now?" Rose asked, in an effort to change the subject.
"I cannot and will not
continue to the Lewises. I don’t want to leave Will alone, nor do I want to go
at all. I did not state my name as Elizabeth Stewart, and so they will not know
if I survived," Anne stated. "However, I seem to recall a certain
friend of the family. He lives here in New York; it’s just a matter of finding
him. He wrote me once or twice in Barclay. Oh! I just remembered. I was to
write to Miss Temple."
"What’s his name, this
friend of the family?" Megan asked. "You can write to Miss Temple
later."
"John Trelawney. He’s a
rather wealthy man...and he owed my father a favor. Perhaps I will be able to
collect on that debt," Anne hoped.
"Brilliant! We can search
for him later today." Rose nodded. She knew the necklace would fetch a
pretty penny, but one of the many voices she’d been hearing in her head of late
had told her not to sell it. She felt selfish and guilty hoarding it, but decided
to listen to them, anyway.
*****
"Of course I’ll help you,
Elizabeth!" John Trelawney nodded as he clapped his large hands. He leaned
over his ornate desk and smiled at the three women opposite him. "James
was a dear friend of mine, and I’d gladly do anything for his daughter. How
much do you need?"
"Well…" Anne shifted
uncomfortably. She hated asking favors, and she especially despised asking for
money. But it was necessary. "My father handled my family’s financial
affairs, so I really cannot ask for a particular amount. I simply need enough
to sustain the four of us for a short while, until we make plans. I’ll pay you
back in full when I am able to."
"Nonsense!" John shook
his head as raucous laughter roared from somewhere deep inside him. "Your
father helped me out several times when I was in your exact predicament. Don’t
you mention it again. It’s the least I can do." John rose from his desk,
his tailored suit slightly tight across his rather large middle. "Now,
don’t worry about a thing. We’ll have it all sorted out by the end of the
day."
Anne opened her mouth to speak
again, but John was shaking his head and reminding her to think nothing of it.
She finally gave up and smiled instead. What luck!