AN UNEXPECTED TURN
Chapter Fifteen

"Gwen?" a voice called out.

Gwen stirred only a little from her sleep, she was having a wonderful dream and now it was all coming to a end.

"Gwen were at the station," the voice said.

Gwen opened her eyes to see Peter and Colette; she looked at her feet and saw Matthew standing there.

"Are we there already?" Gwen asked in a soft whisper.

"Yea Gwen you have you wake up!" Matthew said.

"Ok," Gwen said with a laugh as she got to her feet.

Gwen got her bag down and the four got off of the train, first before finding out any information about Will and his family they got something to eat. Or at least her siblings ate, once she reached the little shop to buy some bread it all hit her. Will grew up here, and now here she was to see his parents.

"So Gwen do you know where we could find anything about Will?" Peter asked.

Gwen shook her head as the thoughts went away and looked at her brother.

"I do not have the faintest idea as to where to look. I suppose we shall have to ask someone," she replied.

"Well maybe ask the man who sold us the food," Colette noted.

Gwen looked to the man who seemed to be busy with baking the bread.

"Perhaps," Gwen replied.

She stood slowly and walked to the counter.

"Excuse me sir," she said.

The man rolled the dough once more and then wiped his hands and looked at Gwen.

"Yes miss?" he asked in a deep Scottish accent.

"Sir I was just wondering, would you happen to know anything about the Murdoch family? If they might have had a grave set up for their son William," Gwen asked.

The man looked at her.

"Well Samuel and Jane live over in Oakland cottage now. I do believe a grave was set up in the cemetery for Will. It's a shame about what happened. Did you know him?" the baker asked.

"Well yes sir, I in fact met him on Titanic. I was with him when he died," Gwen answered, this time softer, as if she were not trying to wake a baby.

"Oh miss, I'm so sorry you had to go through that all. Good to know Will was not alone when he died. But anyway miss, if you just go out the shop and walk up the path a little you will see an old church and then a cemetery. They have his grave over there," the man said.

"Thank you sir," she replied.

Then she turned around and sat back down with her siblings.

"I think I will need to go to his grave by myself. I realize he is not actually in there, the sea was his grave but I just need to go to his grave by myself," Gwen said to them. Peter and Colette nodded, understanding.

Once they finished the bread the four thanked the baker again and then left in search of the cemetery.

A few minutes later, after stopping only once to ask a man if he knew where to go they found the old church. Peter and Colette hugged her and then the three went and sat down on a bench that was outside the church. Gwen walked slowly to the cemetery, it was relatively small. Finding him should not be to hard, for starters the ground would still all be fresh, as would the head stone. The stone would be new and clean. Not like all of the old stones that were either falling apart or leaning over. After about ten minutes of looking she found it. As she thought the stone was still fresh and clean.

On the front it read these letters in a fancy script.

WILLIAM MCMASTER MURDOCH
Born: February 28th, 1873
Died: April 15th, 1912
Will was a wonderful man who
Will be missed by all
RIP

Gwen read in silence, 'He was a wonderful man and he will be missed especially by this woman who loves him,' she thought.

As Gwen stood in this spot she thought about everything that had happened on the ship.

Here she was a girl who just went on this ship to spend time with her father, then she found out she was to marry Bruce Ismay. The Slime Ball that he was, then she met Will. Because of Bruce, she met him the night that they announced her engagement and since she first laid eyes on him she had some sort of feeling there for him. They started up a friendship which quickly turned to love. What went from being one quick fleeting kiss turned to passionate loving kisses. And he saved her, Bruce was taking advantage of her and he came to her rescue. Like a prince she always read about in one of her storybooks. After they had taken their relationship to the next level she slept and he went onto his duty. When she awoke she went to Molly's suite and then she felt the shudder. The shudder that would change her life forever. They caught back up with Will just to find out it was a iceberg that had caused the shudder and the ship would sink. Then as everything was complete panic and they fought to get the boat off of the ship Will must of panicked. He put the gun to his temple and shot himself.

"Why did you shoot yourself?" she asked out loud.

Of course no answer came, in this cemetery she was alone. Except for maybe those who were resting under ground.

"Can't you just send me a sign or something?! I need to know why you did it!" she said, this time a little louder than before. "You told me you loved me! I had a intimate relation with you, then you shoot yourself? Why?! If you truly loved me you would not of done it. You would of fought, to be on a lifeboat with me. We could of spent the rest of our lives together! But you shot yourself, and now here I am. In this little old cemetery in your hometown. When I return to Liverpool I will live my life raising my brother and sister. But I wanted to live my life with you, raising our children. I never wanted this life. I always thought of raising Matthew and Colette if something ever happened to my father but on the ship I thought if something happened, you'd be there to help me raise them and eventually help me raise our own children. But not like this, never like this. Can you not just send me some sort of sign?" she said partly to the grave stone and partly to the sky.

As before nothing happened.

This time instead of speaking again she broke out into silent sobs. Falling to the ground in sobs, uncontrollable sobs which just kept coming. She continued with the crying but was stopped when she heard a woman’s voice.

"Excuse me?" the voice said.

Gwen wiped her eyes and turned to see a older woman.

"Oh, yes?" Gwen asked back.

"Are you alright?" the woman replied.

"Oh yes, or at least I hope I will be," Gwen answered.

"How did you know William?" the woman asked.

"Oh well I met him on the Titanic. Over the few days we were on ship we grew very close," she answered.

"Really?!" the woman exclaimed.

"Yes ma’am. How did you-"

"I'm his mother, Jeanne. But you can call me Jane. Oh you knew Will on the ship!" she answered before Gwen could finish her question.

"Oh my word," Gwen said breathlessly as she stood up.

Gwen sighed at the dirt that was now on her gown but decided to brush it off later.

"You were sobbing quite extensively there. But I was not listening but as I entered the cemetery I overheard the last parts of what you were speaking. By close did you mean a intimate relationship? For when you said you wanted to spend the rest of your life with him I thought that sounded as if you two were in love," the woman replied.

Gwen was silent as she looked at her feet.

"Well the truth ma’am is yes. I fell in love with your son on the ship and he fell in love with me. Your son saved my life from the wrath of Bruce Ismay. In more ways than one, and I loved him for that. His death has truly broken my heart, and loosing my father to the sea did not help my heart either," Gwen said.

"Oh miss, I am so sorry. I am glad to know my son was not alone in his grief that night. Was he alone?" his mother asked.

Gwen looked at the woman.

"Pardon?" Gwen inquired.

"When he passed, was he alone?" his mother asked.

Gwen was silent, did this woman know that Will shot himself? She decided that if she did she would not let on that he did.

"He went down with the ship, like a gentlemen. I stayed with him for as long as I could, but he wanted me on a boat and the last I saw of him he was helping people. He put the others before his on life. You truly did raise a fine man," Gwen answered.

His mother smiled slightly as she blinked away tear.

"You have truly achieved a task at trying to mend my heart by telling me that, I shall always miss him but you have helped with that," his mother replied.

Gwen tried to force a smile.

"Gwen?!" a voice called.

Gwen looked at the gate to the cemetery and saw her little brother running to her.

"Matthew? What’s the matter?" she asked.

Her brother ran and grabbed onto her leg.

"You were in here for so long I was scared that something had happened to you," he said in a small voice.

Will's mother looked from Gwen to the child.

"Matthew sweetheart I told you and Peter and Colette. I'm visiting Will," she said as she picked him up.

"Who's this?" his mother asked.

"This is my little brother Matthew. He was waiting with my brother and sister," Gwen answered.

"Oh alright, would you care to come by our cottage? I would very much like to speak with you some more," she said.

Gwen thought for a moment.

"I do not see why not," Gwen replied.

His mother then laid some flowers down that she had brought for Will on his grave then after saying a silent prayer the three walked to the front of the church and retrieved her two other siblings. Then they all walked in silence to Mrs. Murdoch's cottage.

Chapter Sixteen
Stories