Titanic 2012 Part 13

Checking my watch, I realized it was nearly lunch time, and would be a logical reason for Maddy not to be in her stateroom. We were also due into Cobh. I located the lifts and took one up to D-deck.

The dining saloon was already busy, and it took me a moment to locate her. She was seated at a table for two near one of the windows, studying the menu. The sun streamed through the gla.s.s, glinting off the highlights in her auburn hair, making them burn like tiny flames. Her expression was so calm, so placid I began to wonder if she'd really suffered as the bleary-eyed man in steerage had purported.

Realizing I made an odd picture standing in the middle of the saloon floor, I pushed all doubts from my mind and closed the distance between us. She didn't see me until I was right in front of her.

Her smile was tinged with sadness and regret, yet I also detected a hopeful quality, which buoyed my spirits beyond measure. Perhaps the situation was not as bleak as it seemed.

"Hi, Maddy.... Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm better, thanks," she said. "Would you like to sit down?"

She indicated the seat opposite her own, and I slid into it, grateful the unpleasant scene I'd antic.i.p.ated had not materialized. And though I was ecstatic to be with her, I restrained myself. Something inside me, call it the voice of bitter experience, told me to play it cool.

An awkward moment pa.s.sed, while she toyed with the swizzle stick of her Gimlet, eyes downcast.

"I want to apologize for what happened, Trevor," she said, finally meeting my gaze. "I acted like a silly schoolgirl. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course I can," I said. "If you can forgive me."

She frowned, puzzled. "For what? You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then what happened, Maddy? Why'd you act like that?"

We were interrupted by a steward approaching the table to take my drink order. "Would you like some wine?" I asked her. She nodded, distracted by something outside our window. I turned to the steward.

"Robert Mondavi, Coastal, 2006."

"Very good, sir," he said. The steward turned and left, and I leaned closer to Maddy, catching a whiff of her subtle perfume. "What happened? Tell me."

She reached across the table and took my hand in hers. "I guess you took me by surprise when you said you were falling in love with me."

"And I'd say you amply returned the favor when you kissed me. That still doesn't explain why you ran off."

The wine came at that moment, and I sat back with growing impatience while the steward opened the bottle. For once I found the whole ritual excruciating.

I waved away the cork and bade him to fill both gla.s.ses, relieved when he finally left the table. I estimated we had five minutes before the steward returned to take our food orders. She sipped her wine and I could tell she was reticent to continue.

"Maddy, if I came on too fast, I'm sorry. I suppose with everything that's gone on, and the romantic mystique inherent with this s.h.i.+p, it didn't seem too out of place to tell you what I was feeling. I forgot we'd just met. To me it seems as if we've always known each other."

Her hand tightened on mine and she inhaled sharply, her eyes closing. A moment later they opened, focusing their emerald brilliance on me. "I feel the same way, Trevor. Felt it the moment I first saw you at the bow. And that's why I ran. I came on this voyage to put everything behind me. My life had turned to h.e.l.l, and the last thing I...expected was you."

"You were about to say 'the last thing I needed,' right?"

"Two days ago, that's what I would have said. Now...I don't know what to think."

She picked up her gla.s.s and guzzled half its contents in one swallow. If my feelings were mixed before, they were now totally mired in confusion. She was telling me she felt the same way I did, yet she wasn't happy about it, and that disturbed me, profoundly. The man in steerage had called her a flake. Could he have been right?

For a split second I considered standing up and walking out, following the advice of the tiny inner voice that always warned me to run from potentially dangerous situations. The problem was that tiny voice had steered me wrong more than once, and I wasn't about to risk losing something good just because it wasn't easy.

"Can we talk about it?"

She shook her head.

"It's not that important, Trevor. I've come to terms with it. Had the whole night to think it through."

A vivid image of her lying on the bed in her tiny claustrophobic room flashed through my mind.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked.

"How about we just pick up from before all this happened. Can we do that?"

"I can, if you can," I said, managing a smile. I decided right then whatever had caused last night's misunderstanding would not happen again. It was obvious to me that she'd suffered some kind of trauma, perhaps even been a.s.saulted by a man. And if that was the case, it was not only understandable that she would be skittish, but also would be unwilling to talk about it. She'd come on the voyage to cleanse herself. And I had no desire to raise the ghosts of the past with her. I only wanted to point the way to a happier future, a future I hoped would see the two of us together.

The waiter arrived with the first course, a lobster salad, and in spite of all that had gone on, and the tension I was feeling, I was hungry.

After a few bites and half a gla.s.s of the Mondavi, I felt comfortable enough to risk some innocent conversation.

"I'm curious about what you do for a living, Maddy. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say you were an artist, maybe a painter or a sculptress."

"You're not far off," she said. "I went to the Parsons School of Design in New York and I had my own business."

"I'm impressed, an interior decorator."

She wagged a slender finger at me, her eyes twinkling with humor. "Shame on you, Mr. Hughes. House painters call themselves 'decorators.' We prefer the term designer. It's more prestigious, and more accurate."

"I stand corrected, Ms. Designer."

She giggled, and my heart soared. The happenings of the previous night now seemed even more hazy and unreal.

"So, what kind of designing do you do?"

"Did. Mostly high-end office s.p.a.ce. Companies contacted me when they were moving into new quarters and I would work with them to give them a decor reflecting their corporate image."

"Sounds rather stifling, creatively, I mean."

"You'd be surprised," she said, becoming animated, her hands waving in the air in synch with her words. "Unlike residential, where one usually has to deal with a wife who thinks she knows everything better than you, the CEOs I worked with gave me a few parameters and let me run with the ball. It was wonderful experience and terrific fun."

"And they liked what they got?"

Maddy gave me a sly smile. "It got to the point where I had to turn away business. I suppose I could have hired additional staff, but I didn't want the pressures of running a really large business. I liked the hands-on aspect. It's why I got into it to begin with."

"I'll bet being on this s.h.i.+p is especially fun for you."

"You mean because of all the different styles?"

I nodded.

"One of the things I learned at Parsons is what we know as the Victorian and Edwardian styles are amalgamations of everything that came before them. They were great at stealing a little of this and a little of that and reconst.i.tuting those bits and pieces into approximations of their own. This s.h.i.+p is the ultimate expression of that ideal."

"Whoa, hold on," I said, laughing. "What are you talking about?"

Maddy leaned back in her chair, indicating the dining saloon with a sweeping gesture. "This room is what many would call Jacobean, relating to James I of England. And the influence is definitely there, but like the rest of the s.h.i.+p everything's been altered to fit the times, in this case 1912."

"If you had so much fun, Maddy, why'd you stop? Burnout?"

She folded her hands in her lap and sighed. "Of a sort. Let's just say that I'm no longer suited for it."

I was about to probe further, my curiosity aroused, when our main course arrived: Capon with an orange glaze. I silently thanked whatever deity reigned above that the voyage would be over in less than a week and I could stop eating all this super-rich food.

During our meal, the s.h.i.+p anch.o.r.ed off Cobh, and it was after lunch, during a stroll around the Boat deck, that we spotted a launch heading out from the docks toward us, weaving through the crush of boats filled with sightseers. When it drew closer, I saw a solemn group of men and women gathered near its bow. A moment later, the launch throttled back and pulled up alongside.

"What's going on, Trevor?" Maddy asked.

I didn't answer her right away; instead, I moved toward the wheelhouse. We met Captain Pierce walking out.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hughes," he said, a gentle smile playing across his face. "I trust you and your lady friend are enjoying the voyage?"

"Very much, sir." I introduced him to Maddy, and he took her hand and kissed it in the continental way. She beamed, enjoying the attention. "By the way, I just saw a launch pull up alongside. I didn't think we were taking on any more pa.s.sengers."

"We're not," Captain Pierce said. "The Mayor of Cobh wishes to present Mr. Astor with a token of his town's appreciation. The ceremony's due to begin in a few moments in the First Cla.s.s Lounge. Would you care to accompany me?"

"We'd be delighted," Maddy said.

The captain held out his arm and Maddy took it, shooting me a surrept.i.tious wink when they began walking toward the entrance that would take them to the Grand Staircase. I smiled, and followed.

To my surprise, the First Cla.s.s lounge was nearly filled to capacity, the other pa.s.sengers having known what I had not. As for the Mayor and his entourage, they stood near the back, talking animatedly with Harlan. The three of us made right for the group, stopping a few feet short of them. The captain excused himself and went over to them.

Harlan took this as his cue.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?"

His voice had not been loud, but the room's clamor instantly fell to a murmur.

"I want to thank you all for coming. As you know, we have anch.o.r.ed off the coast of Cobh as a part of our retracing of the t.i.tanic's original route. Back in 1912, this was the last stop she made prior to heading for New York...and her rendezvous with destiny.

"As a gesture of goodwill and appreciation, the mayor and a delegation from the town have come aboard to bestow upon us a token of their esteem. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you the Mayor of Cobh, Brendan Donahue."

The room filled with polite applause and the Mayor, a heavyset man of medium height with the bright smile of a professional politician, walked up to Harlan bearing a bronze plaque. The Mayor beamed and nodded at the crowd, clearly in his element. When he began to speak the clapping subsided. For me it made little difference, as the man's accent was so thick it made what he said nearly unintelligible. I caught his last few words, where he echoed Harlan's words about "the town's highest esteem," and watched while he shoved the weighty award into Harlan's hands.

The applause erupted and Harlan hoisted the plaque over his head for all to see. On it was a silhouette of the t.i.tanic and the dates 1912-2012. The rest was too small to read from where I was standing, but I got the basic picture. Harlan handed off the plaque to a waiting steward and was about to shake the Mayor's hand, when a second steward blundered through the crowd, his face dark with worry. He went right to Harlan, leaned in and whispered in his ear. Harlan frowned, then motioned for Captain Pierce to join him. The older man strode quickly over and the whispering continued. The captain's expression turned grim and he nodded once, sending the steward on his way.

The noise level in the room had increased in direct proportion to everyone's curiosity. Harlan raised his hand for quiet.

"I regret to inform you the planned tea and reception for our honored guests is canceled. We will be weighing anchor in ten minutes. An announcement will be made at dinner this evening. Good day."

Harlan stalked off, leaving the Mayor fuming and the rest of us bewildered. I went over to Captain Pierce who was giving orders to one of the bridge officers.

"What's going on, Captain?" I asked.

He turned to me, looking about ten years older than he had a few minutes before. "I'm sorry to say one of our pa.s.sengers has pa.s.sed away."

"My G.o.d, who?"

"Mrs. Bates.... Apparently she had a heart attack."

Maddy groaned. "Oh, no, not now."

I shot her a puzzled glance, then returned my attention to the captain, who looked as if he would rather be anywhere other than where he was. And while I felt sadness for Mrs. Bates, who'd been a delightful old lady, this sudden turn of events bothered me for a different reason.

"I don't mean to pry, Captain, but shouldn't we be arranging to offload the body for an autopsy? There must be procedures for this sort of thing."

Captain Pierce looked off in the direction Harlan had disappeared, his mouth tightening with displeasure. "All I can tell you is that Mr. Astor has ordered a burial at sea. Now, if you'll excuse me."

He moved off and I started after him.

"But wait a minute, we're not at sea-"

Maddy grabbed my arm. "Let him go, Trevor, he's got a lot on his mind."

I turned to her, the rush of anger dissipating when I saw the look of sadness and gravity in her eyes. I sighed, shaking my head. "I feel terrible about Mrs. Bates. But this isn't right, Maddy."

"You're right, it isn't. But whatever it is you want to do isn't going to bring that old lady back."

"That's not the point-"

"It's exactly the point, Trevor. She's gone. And she was right where she wanted to be when it happened."

"How do you know that?"

She reached up and caressed my face.

"Because I'm exactly where I want to be," she said, coming into my arms. "Will you walk me to my stateroom? I think I'd like to lie down for awhile."

The crowd had thinned to a trickle of people and we took one of the lifts down to E-deck. When we drew in front of her door, she pulled the heavy skeleton key from inside her purse. I took it from her and unlocked the door. While not nearly as austere as the accommodations in steerage, Maddy's second cla.s.s stateroom was still far more utilitarian than my suite. Still, it boasted two comfortable-looking bunks.

"Are you going to be all right?" I asked, giving her back her key.

She took it and nodded. "I'll be fine. It was just a shock to hear about Mrs. Bates. I liked her. She had a lot of spirit."

"That she did," I said, remembering her puckish behavior at dinner. G.o.d, had it only been the night before?

A moment of awkward silence pa.s.sed between us, a moment fraught with tension of another kind. We both recognized it and instinctively knew the time was not right.

"Uhh, maybe I'd better go."

Maddy's generous lips curled into one of her sly grins. "Only if you know what's good for you."

"All too well." I leaned down and kissed her. It had none of the desperate urgency from the night before, but was somehow even more erotic. I pulled away from her when I felt a stirring I knew I couldn't act upon.