THE SHIP OF DREAMS
Chapter Thirty

Mac and Anastasia followed Michael and Callista to their cabin so they could discuss the situation without worrying about waking Fabrizio. The girls clambered onto one of the spare bunks, Michael took the chair, and Callista stood in the center. "What are we going to do?" Anastasia asked. "Aren’t we going to save him?"

"Yes, but it isn’t safe to do so right now."

"What?" Michael cried, hopping to his feet. "You’re not just going to leave him there! They’ll throw him into jail when we get to the states, and then what?"

Callista glared at Michael. "I already know that. But it’s going to be very difficult to get him out, as there is a guard who will be sitting in the room all the time."

"Why can’t we just create a diversion, startle the guard so he runs out of the room, wait until he’s far enough away, run in, and shut the door?"

Anastasia and Mac glanced at each other. "That’s pushing it. I know that when they go to jail in New York, sometimes they can get out on bail. We could always send for rubles from the Tsar, and then we can convert it to American money."

Callista sat down on the bunk opposite them and folded her arms. "I mean, as long as Sam didn’t actually kill anybody, he’ll be safe, right?" Michael asked Mac, who nodded.

"Assault is bad, but murder is always worse."

Callista sighed.

"It is my fault, Callista. I’ll never forgive myself for having let it happen." Michael lowered his head, and she sighed.

"Well, what’s done is done," she replied, and Michael bit his lip. He’d never felt more embarrassed in his life, but all that could be done now was to try to get Sam out of jail.

"It’s a little after eleven," Mac told everyone, pointing up at the clock on the wall. "11:15, actually. I’ve never been allowed to stay up past ten."

Anastasia giggled. "If this were any other occasion and you were just disobeying your father, he’d have you grounded forever!"

Mac smirked. "Probably. Should we go back to our cabin or just—stay here?" She glanced at Michael, who was gazing out the window into the pitch-black night. Callista thought for a moment, fingering a loose strand of her almost white-blonde hair.

"I think you had best get back to your cabin, as Fabrizio is technically in charge of you. Michael, I will let you return them," Callista added when Michael started to chime in, and the girls blushed a little as he nodded to them.

"Come along then, ladies." He shuffled them through the door.

"I’m not the least bit tired, though," Anastasia told Mac as they walked at a quick pace.

"Me, either. But we probably will be once we lay down," Mac replied.

"Maybe." Anastasia doubted that, but she kept her mouth shut. They reached their cabin at last, bid Michael good night, and shut the door behind him.

"Bon nuit!" Anastasia giggled, once the girls were in their nightgowns, hair brushed, and under the covers.

"Pantalon de smarty," Mac replied, sticking her tongue out, and the two attempted to go to sleep.

*****

Sam continued to lean against the pole meanwhile, watching as Lovejoy reached into his pocket and took out an extra pack of bullets. The pistol they would fill lay on the man’s lap, and Sam felt his heart racing. Would he be executed for this? he wondered, a bit angry that Callista had not even attempted to rescue him yet. He closed his eyes and banged his forehead lightly against the pole, letting out an irritated sigh. He knew Michael was young still, that the boy needed to be trained further, but he wanted to wrap his hands around the teenager’s throat and strangle him at the moment.

Another sound startled Sam out of his thoughts, and he saw that Lovejoy had placed a single bullet at one end of the desk, letting it roll down and into his hand with a small plink. Neither of them said a word, and it was probably the silence that was the worst of all. If he had his choice, he’d be calling him very nasty names in Russian, English, French, and German, but he did not want to get himself into further trouble.

All you have to worry about is what the Tsar will do to you when he finds out about this, he thought, and that alone made him sick to his stomach. Then again, he’d only been doing his job, though perhaps a little too well. He gazed up at the tiny porthole window, trying to let his mind turn to something else.

*****

Rose took the long, somewhat painful trek back to her stateroom at 11:30, wanting to check on Coddie Anna. Jack was currently asleep, which she preferred him to be at this point, because to be awake caused him a lot of pain. Though she hated the thought of leaving him, the opportunity to stand up and stretch her legs was certainly a relief.

It was so cold outside when she left the hospital wing that she felt her breath being sucked away. She wrapped herself in her pale pink and black overcoat, her hair blowing with the wind. She knew that Cal would be in bed by this point, so that, at least, was somewhat of a comforting thought.

She gently pushed open the door to her daughter’s room, tiptoeing over to the bed and flipping on the little lamp on the desk. Coddie Anna lay tucked beneath the covers, so that Rose could only see from her nose to her forehead. She watched the child’s chest move in a steady up and down motion, and smiled to herself when Coddie’s feet occasionally wriggled near the edge of the bed.

"Nuuurm," Coddie Anna murmured as Rose bent over to kiss her cheek, and the girl turned away, bundling more deeply into the covers.

"I’m sorry, Coddie Anna," Rose whispered, feeling guilty that she hadn’t been spending enough time with her child on this voyage. "I will make this up to you, I promise."

"Mmmkay," Coddie Anna croaked, and Rose raised an eyebrow.

"Are you awake?" she asked, and Coddie Anna turned her head, her brown eyes fluttering open.

"Maybe."

Rose sat down, grinning. "You’ve been awake this whole time, haven’t you, you silly goose?" She watched as Coddie sat up, grinning playfully.

"How is Jack?" she asked, rubbing her eyes and gazing around the dimly lit room. Rose frowned.

"He’s not any better, I’m afraid."

"Oh."

"Are you angry with me for spending so much time with him?"

"I don’t know," Coddie Anna replied honestly.

"I see you’ve become rather friendly with Cal." Rose hated to say the words, but it was true.

"He does love you, Mama. He just doesn’t know how to show it," Coddie Anna told her. "Why can’t you give him another chance?"

Rose sighed. "I’ve given Cal many chances, Coddie Anna. To accept the engagement in the first place was more of Grandmother’s decision than mine. I’ll admit I did not expect to find Jack on the Titanic, but things happen for a reason."

"Do you really love Jack? You haven’t known him for more than two days," Coddie Anna pointed out, and Rose wet her lips. She refused to tell her daughter about their excursion in the backseat of the Renault.

"I am falling in love with Jack."

"How are you going to tell Cal? He’ll be really upset if you say you don’t want to go ahead with the marriage."

"I’ll have to think of something."

"I just don’t want to see you get hurt, Mama." Coddie Anna still couldn’t bring herself to like Jack. There was just something about him that seemed so…she couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but it made her feel very uncomfortable. Still, her mother was so happy with him that she decided that if she were going to forgive anyone, it would be her.

Rose stroked Coddie Anna’s hair with the palm of her hand. "Go back to sleep, sweetheart. I’m sorry I woke you."

Coddie Anna nestled back under the covers. "Are you going to stay with Jack all night?" she asked, and Rose wet her lips.

"I think it is better if I do. I’ll be back to take you to breakfast first thing in the morning, however. You still have to tell me all about the ball."

Coddie Anna beamed. "I will! Good night, Mama." She yawned, closing her eyes, and Rose went to flip the light back off. She left the cabin, and just as she was standing on the deck, she gazed ahead. She could see an outline of an enormous shape coming closer and closer by the second, and her eyes widened with horror.

"What in the name of heaven is that?" she asked, dashing a few inches closer. She didn’t need an answer, for the terrible scraping jolt that threw her off her feet occurred merely two minutes later.

*****

"Ah!" Anastasia screamed as she felt the entire cabin give a violent movement, and she grasped the bars connecting her bed to the one above her to avoid flying out. Fabrizio and Mac yelped as well, but Mac was the only one who ended up on the floor.

"Mac, are you all right?" Anastasia yelled over the loud rumbling that followed for another couple of minutes. Mac propped her body up with her elbow, and her limbs ached from hitting the wood.

"Yeah. What the heck was that?" She forced herself to her feet and hopped onto the desk chair to peer out the window. "Can’t see anything…it’s really dark! Wait! Holy cow! Look!" She pointed, and Anastasia climbed down from her bunk to join Mac on the chair.

They both saw the dark shape passing by, and Anastasia’s mouth fell open. "Oh, my…"

"I think that’s…an iceberg." Mac gulped, feeling her heart beating very quickly. "We’ve hit an iceberg! I heard they were out in this area of the ocean."

Fabrizio had climbed down from his bunk and was standing behind the girls. He was taller than both of them together, and shook his head.

"What’s going to happen?" Anastasia whispered, and suddenly the engines came to a complete stop.

"I don’t know," Mac admitted, scratching her head and glancing at the clock, which read 11:40. They’d only been asleep for twenty minutes.

"This ship is unsinkable, right?"

"The brochure says so," Mac agreed. "Oh, no…my father! What am I going to do? I want to make sure he’s all right!"

"Well, we won’t do anything until we find out what’s happening," Fabrizio told them.

"Plus, after what happened up in first class, I don’t think it’s safe for us to go back now," Anastasia added, and Fabrizio gave her a strange look.

"What happened in first class, eh?" he asked.

Mac blinked. "Well, I’m not sure if we should tell you or not." She hesitated. "But we got into a fight with Rose’s daughter Coddie Anna. She doesn’t like us, and she saw us coming back over the rail after the party. Michael’s…friend…he tried to rescue us, but he kind of threatened Rose’s fiancé, who came out and hurt Ana, and then he was arrested."

"Arrested! Quello terrible!"

Anastasia blinked. "What?"

"That’s terrible…you don’t speak Italiano, no?"

She shook her head. "I’m afraid I don’t. I only know how to speak French, Russian, English, and German."

"That’s all right." He grinned. "But maybe we should try to go back to sleep, and see what happens from there?"

Mac gulped, not sure if she could sleep at all at this point, at least not until she discovered what had occurred as a result of the collision. She cringed as she climbed back onto the bed and lay back against the mattress, staring up at the wooden base above her.

*****

Rose groaned as she eventually stood again, and it took a moment or two before she could get over the shock of the jolt. They’d hit an iceberg! She remembered going on a small tour of the ship on the first or second day of the voyage, and the captain had mentioned that there were sightings of ice nearby. She hurried to the hospital wing, wondering how Jack had fared due to the jolt, and found him wide awake.

"Rose?" he croaked, coughing and wheezing. "What—happened?"

She took his ice cold hand and smoothed his damp hair away from his eyes. "We’ve…" She paused. The last thing she wanted to tell him was that they’d hit an iceberg.

"Rose, something’s happened. Tell me the truth." He sounded so weak and tired that Rose wanted to burst into tears.

"Oh, Jack, we’ve…we’ve hit an iceberg. I saw it on my way back."

Jack’s eyes widened. "An iceberg?"

"You shouldn’t be talking," Rose pointed out. "You need to keep whatever strength you have to fight this." She kissed his forehead, which was still warm.

"Mac…" Jack began coughing again, and Rose had to ease him into a sitting position so she could rub his back soothingly. He leaned against her, shivering with more chills.

"Jack, I wish you would feel better."

"I’ll be fine," he promised, trying to smile. "Eventually."

Rose managed a chuckle. "Lay back down and try to rest, sweetheart."

He did as she told him, and closed his eyes as she began to blot his face and neck with a damp cloth again. She leaned down to whisper, "I love you, Jack," into his ear. He opened his eyes and touched her cheek with his fingers. He wanted to say "I love you" in return, but he was afraid. He was afraid to open his heart completely yet, not after what had happened to Alyiah. Still, Rose had lost her spouse also, and felt it was all right to move on.

It is time to open your heart again, darling. A familiar voice spoke inside of his heart, and he breathed softly. It is time to let go of me.

I will never be able to let go of you, he replied, and felt his stomach twisting into knots. Not my wife.

I will always be yours, but you must live life while you still are in it.

"I…" Jack began to speak, and Rose stared down at him.

"What is it, Jack?" she asked, not sure what he was trying to say. "I love you, too, Rose," he managed to respond, and Rose opened her mouth and closed it.

"I know." She smiled at him, and then urged him to go back to sleep.

Chapter Thirty-One
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