Maggie turned to her aunt. ‘Yes. Did ye not feel the shuddering? The lights have been off. I was callin’ but none of ye would wake.’ She turned back to Harry then, looking at him seriously, intensely, as another steward ran along the corridor behind him. ‘Harry?’
‘You need to go up,’ he announced slowly, trying to regulate his breathing and lowering his voice, not wanting to cause a panic. ‘There’s a problem with the ship and you need to go up now. Y’know. To the lifeboats.’
Maggie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘Lifeboats?’ She said this louder than she’d intended to; loud enough for the others in the cabin to hear. ‘I thought they’d maybe run out of coal for the boilers or hit a whale, but…..lifeboats? What’s after happenin’?’
‘What’s that y’re sayin’ about lifeboats?’ Peggy had joined Maggie and Harry at the door.
Harry looked at the two girls, wondering how much to tell them. Wondering what the words he was about to say would mean for their plans of a life in America; what they would mean for their lives full stop. It was as if everything had suddenly changed for all of them, for everyone on this ship.
‘They’ve hit an iceberg.’ He closed his eyes briefly, unable to look directly at these two girls who he’d shared such fun with in the few, brief days they’d known each other. He felt as if this were somehow all his fault.
‘An iceberg?’
‘Yes Peggy. And it’s done plenty of damage by all accounts. The ship’s taking on water.’
He continued to tell them everything in a rush, suddenly relieved to be able to share his knowledge. ‘You’ve got to go to the upper decks straightaway - and put on your life jackets. It isn’t safe to stay here girls. Honestly, you have to believe me. I heard the Officers themselves saying. There’s ice all over the decks up there and you should see the iceberg, it’s as big as a mountai n and….’
‘You can still see the iceberg?!’
‘Peggy, be quiet now.’ Kathleen was up and had heard every word Harry had said. ‘How bad is it?’ she asked, pushing her way in front of the girls to talk to him directly, her blanket wrapped around her to hide her modesty from the young man. ‘How bad is the damage? Will the ship go down?’
‘Go down?’ Peggy was horrified by what she was hearing. ‘But this ship’s unsinkable. I read it in the adverts in the papers.’
Ignoring Peggy, Harry responded to Kathleen’s questions as he knew she needed him to, with stark, honest facts. ‘It’s the starboard side, Miss. Too many of the watertight compartments are damaged. I heard someone say two hours.’
Kathleen listened and nodded calmly. ‘Thank you. For coming to alert us. It was very good of you, sure it was.’
Putting her shoes onto her bare feet and grabbing her coat, Kathleen turned then to the three girls. ‘I must go and tell the others. Wait for me here. I won’t be long.’ There was a certainty to Kathleen’s voice which Maggie had heard many times in her life, most recently on the morning just four days ago when they’d left Ballysheen. ‘It is time,’ she’d said, the words sending a shiver down Maggie’s spine with their finality and purpose. It was the same finality and purpose she heard in her aunt’s voice now. ‘Gather your things together and be ready to head up on deck as soon as I get back.’
She turned then and Maggie watched her stride purposefully along the corridor. It struck her how less imposing she looked in just her nightdress and coat. No swishing, fashionable skirts. No carefully styled hair. Her aunt looked, for the first time in Maggie’s life, like the middle-aged woman she was. The vulnerability frightened her.
‘Girls, listen.’ Harry stepped into the cabin, pushing the door almost closed behind him. The three girls huddled around him, all previous thoughts of flirting and playfulness gone from their minds. ‘This is really serious. The ship is going to sink and the nearest boat is too far away.’ The girls stood in shocked silence. ‘As soon as she comes back,’ he added, nodding in the direction Kathleen had just gone, ‘make sure you go up to the decks straightaway. Do you understand?’
‘Yes Harry.’ Maggie spoke, barely a whisper escaping from her terrified voice. ‘We understand. Will ye be goin’ to tell the others, so? There’s a family of nine in the cabin next to us and they’ve a small baby.’ He nodded. ‘It sleeps in a suitcase,’ she added, a fact which had troubled her every night, especially since she’d seen the opulence in which the First Class passengers lived on board this ship.