He left them alone again then.
‘Right then,’ Peggy announced, standing up and grabbing her coat. ‘You heard what he said. Let’s go.’
Maggie was anxious. ‘But, she said to wait here.’
‘I don’t care what she said Maggie. She might have got held up somewhere, or caught in a crowd. Y’heard what Harry said about the corridors getting blocked and I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the way this ship’s leanin’. There’ll be water creepin’ in here soon and I’m certainly not plannin’ on hangin’ around just so as I can say I touched a bit o’ the Atlantic Ocean. Come on, we’ll find her.’
*
Kathleen could sense the look of panic on her friend Maura Brennan’s face and noticed how she instinctively placed her hand on her swollen belly.
‘We’ve to gather our things Maura,’ she explained to her again, ‘and make our way to the upper decks. I’m tellin’ everyone to meet in the dining room first, so we know everyone’s accounted for. Y’know, like we did on the train journey down.’
‘Should we dress?’
‘Coats and shoes – and hats. It might be chilly up there.’
‘It will be OK Kathleen, won’t it? They’ll be sendin’ a boat to rescue us?’
‘I’m sure they’ll be doin’ their best Maura, yes. Now don’t be standin’ here chattin’ and get to the dining room. I’m going to wake the others.’
From cabin to cabin, Kathleen moved quickly, efficiently and calmly, passing on the information about the iceberg and the need to get up on decks. As ever, she was purposeful and pragmatic, reminding the others in her group to take their cases and to put on their lifejackets.
As the minutes passed, she could feel the sense of panic spreading throughout the ship. Raised voices, orders being shouted, people crying, others calming them, children being soothed as they tried to understand why they had been taken from their beds in the middle of the night. The corridors were becoming crowded with people trying to carry their luggage; cases of all shapes and sizes and entire trunks being pushed along. Bodies were pressed against the walls to let others pass. Kathleen realised it was becoming chaotic, and it made her nervous.
Having passed on the instructions to the Ballysheen group and sure that they were moving to the dining room, Kathleen returned to her own cabin to collect the girls, holding onto the walls as she walked down the noticeable slope.
Her feet felt the water first, the shock of the icy cold causing her to jump. ‘Oh, Good Lord above,’ she cried out, realising that the water was already flooding the forward cabins at the front of the ship. Splashing through the ankle deep water, she shouted ahead, an urgency to her voice. ‘Girls, come along now. We must hurry.’
Pushing open the door to cabin 115 she stopped dead. It was empty. The girls had gone. Just Peggy’s hat and Maggie’s small black case remained on their beds.
CHAPTER 23
It was a strange scene which met the three girls as they arrived at the dining room with people sitting about with their luggage as if they were waiting for a train. What was usually a room full of neatly ordered rows of tables, the relaxed chatter and the clink of cutlery on china filling the space between them, was now a room full of tension and praying and anxious conversation.
Maggie watched as men paced the floor, rubbing their stubbled chins in thought and nervousness, feeling as if they should be able to rectify this situation. Some were bent down on their haunches, asking others what they had been told, trying to glean whether they knew any more than they did before returning to their own families and relaying the latest information and rumours. The only certainty was that nobody really knew what was happening. Some had been told there was nothing to worry about, while others had been told the ship was sinking. What they all seemed to agree on was that they should wait there for further instruction from the crewmen or Officers. They were familiar with awaiting instruction in their life, so that is what they did now.
Amongst the men, women sat in groups reciting Hail Marys, mothers wrapped blankets around their small, confused children, soothing them, trying to dispel their fears, although Maggie could tell by the look in their eyes that their own fears were as real as those of their children. Those who could not understand or speak English sat in huddled, private groups unsure of what to do or who to ask. Someone was playing the piano; others were taking advantage of the confusion and taking a drink from the bar. It struck Maggie that the tables were all laid out neatly for the morning breakfast service; the crisp, white, linen tablecloths and the neatly arranged place settings at odds with the confusion and disorder going on around her. She had admired all of these small details over the last few days – now it seemed ridiculous that a ship which was sinking with thousands of people on board still looked so neat and tidy.