Unsinkable (17 page)

There were flowers in bloom and butterflies dared to dart happily about as if her world had not ended in April.

How long would she come here, she wondered. How long would she keep hoping that he would come home, come to find her?

As she always did when she sat here, she allowed herself to day dream about the days aboard the ship. She knew that she had made them more romantic and more significant in her mind than perhaps it had been in real life. But it was all she had left.

A smile crossed her face as she remembered Beckett sitting beside her on the deck, sharing his hopes and dreams with her.

 “Carri?”

No one ever called her that but Beckett.

She turned and saw him standing there. She must be dreaming. But it was just the way she had written it in the book…

She jumped to her feet and threw herself in his arms. He was here, he was real, and he was
alive
.

“Beckett…” She was laughing and crying at the same time. “How…oh I don’t care.”

He kissed her again and again. She didn’t care that they were in the middle of the park and there were people everywhere.

“I’m feeling a little dizzy,” he said when they came up for air. “Can we sit down for a minute?”

She picked up the book and they sat back on the bench.

“You still have the book,” he said.

“When we were in the lifeboat Molly said I should write in the book that you were safe. So I did.”

“And today? Because I felt as if I had to be here. That there wasn’t any other place I should go this morning but this exact spot?”

She nodded. “I wrote that part when we were on the Capathia
.”

“Who else was with you on the
Carpathia?
”

“Just Molly and Mother and your mother.”

“Our fathers and Warren?”

She shook her head and hated seeing his sad expression.

“Where were you, Beckett? What happened?”

“Warren and I finally decided our best chance of survival was to jump off the ship before it sank. We said our goodbyes and jumped. I remember hitting the water and being so unbelievingly cold and then sinking under it. It seemed like an eternity before I was able to reach the surface again. By then the boat was sinking. I just kept thinking that I had to swim away from it, so I swam.”

“The water was freezing.”

He smiled at her concern and brushed her face with his hand. “
I
was freezing. Somehow I managed to find a piece of wood to climb onto that kept me out of the water and floating. I don’t remember anything after that, until I woke up on board a boat.”

“What kind of boat?”

“Just a fishing boat. They said that I slept for nearly a week waking only for a few minutes at a time to drink something. I don’t remember any of it. When we got to land, they had me taken to a hospital. I had contracted pneumonia and according to the nurses, I nearly died.”

Carrington moved closer to him. His arm went around her shoulders as he continued his story.

“It was only two weeks ago that I was able to tell anyone who I was and what had happened to me. I was only released to travel this week.”

“Your mother must have been so shocked and happy to see you.”

“I sent her a cable. I didn’t want to just show up on our front doorstep.”

“You didn’t cable me.”

“No,” he said, kissing her forehead and pulling her to him. “Because all the time I was sleeping, I kept imagining seeing you again, just this way. Just the way you wrote it.”

“Since it was in the book, I don’t suppose you could have done it any other way.”

He took her face in his hands. “I love you Carrington. Please say you’ll be my wife. And I don’t want to wait for any society wedding, either.”

“Yes, Beckett. I will marry you. As soon as possible.”

He took her hands and pulled her to her feet and kissed her the way he had the last night on the
Titanic
.

She reached for the book and handed it to him. “I kept it safe.”

“You kept
me
safe.”

He tucked it in his pocket and took her hand. Suddenly it seemed right for the world to be filled with sunlight and flowers and butterflies. Her world had started turning again. Beckett was here with her.

“What now Beckett? The job at the bank? Writing? Do we stay here or do we travel?”

Beckett considered that question as they walked through the park. “Does it matter as long we’re together?”

All the things she had thought she wanted, all the reasons she had gone aboard
Titanic
being defiant and angry about had ceased to exist.

“No,” she said. “It doesn’t.”

He stopped walking and took her in his arms. “But just for the record,” he said, “I don’t see us leading an ordinary life.”

She smiled up at him and then he kissed her again.

To Molly Brown, stop. 1340 Pennsylvania Street, Denver Co. Stop. Got married yesterday. Stop. On our way to Denver to tell you the whole story. Stop. Then..Maybe Egypt. Stop. Much love, Carrington and Beckett.

M
olly read the cable again and smiled. Beckett and Carrington were married and on their way to see her. She couldn’t wait to hear what had happened to Beckett. Egypt. Carrington would finally be getting her chance to explore the pyramids.

Egypt.

She took the cable and went ran up the stairs.

“Hey, JJ! What do you think about taking a little trip?”

Author’s Note

I am not an expert on the
Titanic
. I have written a work of fiction set on the unsinkable ship. I have taken liberties with the characterization of historical characters to make them work in the story. 

The timeline of the events of the actual sinking are more or less accurate as they are outlined in
Unsinkable
. Please know that I was writing Carrington and Beckett’s story first and the story of the
Titanic
as a backdrop to their romance.

It is true that Margaret Brown, the Astors and several other first class passengers on board the ship had come from a trip to Egypt. Molly brought on three crates of Egyptian antiquities that she had planned on donating to the Denver Museum. She carried a small good luck ushabuti onto the
Carpathia
and gave it to the rescue ship’s captain, who kept it in his possession until he died. There was also a rumor that there was a mummy on board the ship when it sank, but there was not anything on the cargo manifest to suggest that this was true. However, William Stead did share a similar story while on board the ship and it haunted those who survived for the rest of their lives.

The sinking of the
Titanic
remains a great tragedy that could have been prevented simply by having enough lifeboats on board to accommodate all passengers. Why the ice warnings were ignored is a mystery.

Molly Brown did not get a happy ending with her husband in real life; they remained estranged until their deaths. However, I thought that someone with so much courage and who helped so many deserved a happy ending.

If you enjoyed
Unsinkable
consider writing a positive review on
www.amazon.com
. Check out Lynn Murphy’s other books at
www.booksbylynnmurphy.com
.

To read an excerpt of Lynn Murphy’s novel
Terezin Twilight
please turn the page.

Terezin Twilight

                 by Lynn Murphy

Copyright by Lynn Murphy, 2012. No portion of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the author except for a brief quote in a review.

For Amy, who is also drawn to the stories of the Holocaust.