Carpathia (12 page)

  The knock came again, and she tried to ignore it. She was so worn, so tired, so overwhelmed she thought she might never rise from the bed again.

  "Miss Seward?" a voice said.

  "What is it?" She sat up on the bed now, struggling to not be irritated with one of the fine people on this liner that had rescued her from the wreck.

  "I'm sorry to trouble you, miss."

  "No." Lucy rose and went to the door. "It's no trouble. You've been so kind to me."

  She opened the door, and the steward who had escorted her to the room stood there, a look of contrition on his face. "My apologies, Miss Seward, but these two gentlemen insisted–"

  Before the man could finish, Lucy shoved past him to find Abe standing in the hallway just beyond. She threw herself into his arms and held him as if he might somehow try to slip away. He kissed her on top of her head and wrapped his arms around her and held her just as tight.

  "It's all right," Abe said. "We're safe now. We made it."

  "We?" Lucy pushed back so she could look up into Abe's face. "Do you mean you and me, or–?" She stumbled over her words, her voice thick with emotion.

  Abe held her by her shoulders and craned his neck down toward her. "What is it?" he said.

  "Quin." Lucy wiped her eyes, removing tears she hadn't realized were there. "What happened to Quin?"

  Abe grimaced, and Lucy felt her heart shrivel up and fall out of her chest. "What happened to him?" She couldn't force her voice above a whisper. "You were with him."

  "Oh," Abe said, surprised, "he's fine. He made it to the ship with me." He shrugged to explain. "Well, not exactly fine. He picked up a bit of frostbite. Doctor Griffiths, I think it was, wanted to get a better look at him."

  The tears flooded Lucy's eyes this time, blurring her sight. She broke down against Abe's chest, and he held her in his arms again, keeping her on her feet.

  "He's going to live, Lucy," Abe said. "The doc just wants to make sure he keeps all his toes. Do you want me to take you to him?"

  Lucy's throat had closed up, and she found she couldn't speak. She just nodded up at Abe, and he escorted her up through the decks to the first class dining room once again. The room was crowded and noisy with huddled and shivering survivors. They finally reached Quin sitting in a far corner of the room, wrapped in a thick blanket, his feet soaking in a tub of steaming water.

  When Quin spotted Lucy, he shot to his feet and staggered toward her, leaving a trail of small puddles behind him. She dashed forward and grabbed him in her arms, lending him what strength she had so that he might not topple over on whatever ruin the freezing waters had made of his feet. He held her tight and kissed her on her face, his lips still cold against her flushed cheek.

  Quin shuddered into her arms with a deep sigh. "Thought I might never see you again, Luce."

  "Thank God," she said. "Thank God."

  "God had nothing to do with it," Abe said from behind her. "You can chalk up our survival to our man Quincey here."

  Lucy gazed up at Quin. "What happened?"

  "Well," Quin said with a half smile, "it's a hell of a story."

  "Mr Harker!" the doctor called to Quin from across the room. "If you'd care to be able to count to ten on your toes again, I suggest you get your feet back into that tub."

  "Yes, sir!" Quin called back. He let Lucy and Abe help him back to the chair he'd been sitting on, and he slipped his feet back into the tub, wincing as they entered the hot water.

  "Does it hurt?" Lucy asked.

  "Only like I caught it in a bear trap. But it's really just the right foot, after all. I have a spare." Quin tried to reassure her with a smile, but she could see the pain in his eyes. She reached out to hold his hand, and he squeezed it with tender gratitude.

  They told each other then what had happened to them since they'd separated. Lucy went first and finished fast. The boys' story was more complicated, and they went on at length, with Lucy gasping in sympathetic horror for them at several points in their tale. When they got to the part at which they'd made it onto the overturned lifeboat, she interrupted them.

  "But what happened to Quin?" she said. She couldn't understand how it could have gotten so bad for him. If Abe had made it through the ordeal intact, how was Quin in danger of losing toes – and on just one foot?

  "Go ahead and tell her." Abe gestured for Quin to take over the story. "You're the hero, after all."

  Quin blushed. "I didn't do anything heroic. I just defended myself."

  Lucy's eyes widened. "Against who?"

  "More like what," Abe said.

  Quin shrugged. "There was a shark. It knocked up against the boat, and one of the men on top of it tumbled into the water. That's how we got from under the boat to on top of it. Everyone up there was too distracted watching the man fall victim to the shark."

  Lucy covered her mouth with her hand. She hadn't considered the possibility of sharks. She wondered if it was natural for them to swim in such cold water, but perhaps the presence of so many bodies swimming in the open sea had called them there.

  "How horrible," she said.

  "Certainly," said Abe, "but we weren't too proud to take advantage of it. We got up on that boat in a heartbeat or less."

  "And after the shark had its fill, it went away?"

  "Not exactly," said Quin. "We'd thought we'd escaped it, but the boat kept sinking lower and lower as the night wore on. And then the wind picked up as the dawn crept toward us, and that brought waves with it as well. They started lapping over the top of the boat."

  Lucy gasped. She knew that Quin and Abe had survived, of course, but she felt the echo of the terror they'd endured.

  "That wasn't the worst of it. Mr Lightoller, the
Titanic
's second officer, was atop the boat with us, and he knew how to handle that trouble. He showed us how to move back and forth on the boat to adjust for the waves as they came. I can't tell you how long we spent going to and fro like that, each time worrying that this might be the wave that finally capsized us for good."

  "How did you have room to do that?" Lucy looked at both Quin and Abe. "I thought you said the boat was almost too crowded for you to get on it."

  "That had been true at the time," Quin said. "But some of the men there succumbed to the cold. They collapsed right there on the boat, and nothing we did could revive them. When the waves came, many of them slipped overboard before anyone had a chance to grab them, and they disappeared into the sea."

  Abe rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Maybe that's what brought the shark back. Or maybe it was a different shark. I couldn't say for sure. We never saw it."

  "Then how do you know it came back?" Lucy felt afraid to ask, but she had to know.

  "It bumped the boat again, just when we were moving about it to avoid an incoming wave. It hit hard. Hard enough to knock me off the boat."

  Lucy stared at him and then at Quin. "But you're fine, while Quin here's the one who's hurt."

  Quin demurred. "It's only a touch of frostbite, the doctor says."

  She narrowed her eyes at him. "The point stands, I think."

  Abe gestured toward Quin. "He went in after me."

  Quin busied himself with inspecting his thawing foot. Lucy squeezed his hand in gratitude and pride.

  "You'd have done the same," Quin said. "I saw you go in, I went to help you back up."

  "And that's when the shark attacked," said Abe. "It grabbed Quin by the foot and pulled him under."

  Lucy stared down at Quin's foot. Other than a bit of paleness to the skin, it seemed unharmed.

  "It's still there," Quin said. "The beast had a good grip on my sole, but I kicked out at him and pushed as hard as I could to get free. I got my wish when my foot slipped out of my boot."

  "And you managed to scramble back onto the boat?"

  Quin inclined his head toward Abe. "He was there to help me up."

  "And the shark never came back?"

  Abe shook his head. "Old Quin here must have kicked some sense into the beast. I'd say thank God for that, too, but we all thanked Quin instead."

  "I just got lucky," Quin said. He squeezed Lucy's hand once more. "We all did. We're every one of us fortunate to be alive."

  Lucy leaned over and kissed Quin on the cheek, which felt warmer now. "I'm just glad those troubles are finally over – at least for us."

 
 

 
 
 

Quin slept most of the day. He awoke to find the sun slanting in through the porthole of the cramped but very welcome cabin the stewards had assigned to him and Abe, and for a moment he could pretend to himself that they were still aboard the
Titanic
. The
Carpathia
wasn't nearly as well appointed a ship, but if he kept his eyes on the ceiling and the porthole, he could almost manage to convince himself it was real.

  "Almost seems like it could all have been nothing more than a nightmare, doesn't it?" Abe said.

  Quin looked over to see his friend getting dressed in a suit with a distinctly American cut to it, nothing like what he'd been wearing the day before. "Where did you get the fresh clothes?" Quin lay under his sheets in nothing but his underwear, and he felt the lack of his own clothes sharply.

  "Some of the passengers and crew pitched in their spares," Abe said. "Damn kind of them, don't you think?"

  Although he'd paid it no notice at the time, Quin's clothes had been torn and ruined last night, as had Abe's. When the steward had taken their garments to dry them out, Quin had assumed he would have to wear them for the remainder of the voyage and be grateful for it. He'd never expected anything else.

  "Very," said Quin. He slipped out of his bed and found another set of clean clothes waiting for him, hanging in the wardrobe. He took them out and held them up to his shoulders.

  "They're even my size."

  "The steward checked the labels in the clothes we gave him." Abe tapped his temple. "Sharp folks, these."

  Quin glanced around and spotted a clock. It showed the time to be a quarter to five. "It's time for dinner already?"

  "That's what happens when you sleep away the bulk of the day."

  Quin started to object to the implication that he was lazy, but Abe put up a hand to stop him. "It was the longest night of our lives. You more than earned it. I'd have been happy to let you sleep all the way until tomorrow morning."

  Quin began getting dressed. After having spent so long in icy rags, it felt wonderful to slip into clean and dry clothes. "Can I join you for dinner?"

  Abe laughed at Quin's formality. "Could I stop you?"

  "Not if Lucy's going to be there."

  Abe arched an eyebrow at that. "Do you have plans for our young lady tonight?"

  Quin faltered. He'd been about to talk to Abe about his feelings for Lucy back on the
Titanic
, but somehow he'd never gotten around to it. They'd been far too busy trying to stay alive instead.

  "Abe," Quin said. "I tried to tell you this back on the Promenade Deck, but I…" His voice trailed off. How could he do this to his friend? To the fellow with whom he'd been through so much?

  "It's all right, Quin." Abe spoke in a gentle voice. "I know you love Lucy."

  Quin froze with one leg in his borrowed pants. "How?"

  "Anyone who sees the way you look at her knows, my friend. There's no way to miss it."

  Quin winced and then resumed dressing. "Do you think she knows?"

  Abe shook his head. "She's probably the only one who doesn't, I'd think. She's as sharp a girl as I've ever met, but like most of us she has a blind spot when it comes to herself."

  Quin regarded his friend. "I'd like to tell her. About how I feel, I mean."

  "Of course you would."

  "Will you object?"

  Abe put his hands in his pockets. "Would it stop you if I did?"

  "I don't think so. No."

  Abe rocked on his heels for a moment, letting Quin stew. "Then what would be the point in me trying to stop it?" he finally said.

  "I don't want to do it without your blessing."

  "She's my girl, Quin. If you're going to confess your love to her, I can't give you my approval."

  Quin's face fell. "I have to do this. I don't want to lose your friendship, Abe, but I–" He stopped and reset himself.

  "When we were out there on that lifeboat, when that shark came after us, hell, throughout that whole night, we had so many times when I thought we might die. When I was sure of it. And do you know what went through my head every damn time?"

  "Get me out of this bally water?"

  Quin shook his head without a hint of a laugh. "I thought about Lucy every damn time. And I cursed myself for being such a coward about baring my heart to her."

  He pointed out of the room's porthole. "While we were out there on that overturned lifeboat, I made myself a promise. I said that if I got through that – if I survived – then I'd find Lucy and let her know what's in my heart. I'd let her know and let her decide what to do about that."

  Abe grimaced as he nodded at Quin. "I know. I understand why you have to do this. I just can't give my blessing for it. I love her too, Quin."

  "All right. That's what I expected to hear."

  "And that doesn't change your mind at all."

  "Should it?"

  Abe waited in silence as Quin finished getting dressed. Quin felt good about the conversation. He'd finally spoken about his love for Lucy out loud. To her boyfriend no less. He'd half-expected it to culminate in a fist fight.

  "No matter what happens between Lucy and me, I don't want this to end our friendship," Quin said as he buttoned his borrowed jacket.