CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
IT WASN’T THE BOOK THATIHAD TO GO BACK FOR.ISTILLhad the Little Bacon in my breast pocket all along. And it wasn’t the bejeweledRubaiyatin the boat’s safe. I went back for Ada. I had to make sure I had done everything I could to ensure that she was not still on the ship.
My father must have suspected that I was searching for a woman. After all, he was a man of details and would have thought it out of character for me to have left them without any explanation hours earlier at the beginning of the evacuation. I’m certain he noticed how distracted I had been throughout, with me constantly scanning the crowds as we tried to get my mother to a lifeboat.
After my mother was on board the lifeboat and the crew began the difficult task of maneuvering into the sea, Father turned to me.
“Harry, whomever she is… go to her,” he implored. His typical formality had vanished and now he surrendered to his emotions. He opened his arms to me and embraced me. “I want you to know it has been an honor to be your father.”
“And I your son,” I replied, pulling the distinct scent of his pipe tobacco that lingered on his lapels deep into my nostrils as we parted. As I left him by the port-side railing, I took his words to heart, and pushed through the swarms of people, navigating the chaos and the fear to search for the woman I loved.
By this time the deck seemed even more chaotic than ever, countless second- and third-class passengers desperate to escape the doomed ship having also now flooded the upper deck, only to discover the truth—the White Star Line had failed to provide enough lifeboats for all passengers.
With each passing minute, the bow of the boat was sinking deeper and deeper into the water. As I scrambled with the others on deck toward the boat’s stern, I caught sight of something in my peripheral vision that at first I believed to be a mirage. Behind one of the white columns I spotted a flash of dark purple. It was the same unmistakable hue of Ada’s plum-colored coat. The one she had worn when we had first dined at Delmonico’s and later when we traveled from London to Southampton together in the car. It was so distinct, so unmistakably Ada’s. And yet as I moved closer, I saw it was not her at all beneath the drape of woolen cloth. Rather, it was a tall woman with black hair!
I approached her. She was holding the hand of a frightened toddler in a cotton nightdress, and the little girl had what looked like Ada’s scarf wrapped around her shoulders to keep her warm.
In the frenzy, with little time to spare, I blurted out my question to the young mother, inquiring if the coat was hers.
“No, sir,” the woman who was wearing Ada’s coat replied. “A kind lady offered it to me because me and the wee ones were shivering.”
The woman and child looked scared to death. I knew I had to help them.
“Please!” I shouted over the screams filling the air. “Come with me!” Even if I might never see Ada again, I wanted to make sure I tried to get this mother and her child to safety if it were at all possible.
I stepped out from beneath the overhang and strained to see if I could see any lifeboats left at all.
While all of the wooden crafts appeared to have launched, in the distance, it looked like Lightoller and some other crew members were hastily trying to hang a collapsible life raft from divots.
“No, we can’t, sir! That lady has my baby! She’s trying to convince someone on the crew to let me and the bairns board a lifeboat, despite us being third class ’n all!”
Now I understood that Ada wasn’t only trying to keep the woman warm. She had hoped that her elegant coat might convince one of the stewards the young mother was a first-class passenger and allow her to board a lifeboat.
Knowing now how we were all linked, I was adamant that they should come with me. And then I saw Ada rushing toward us.
She was holding the woman’s infant in her arm, her breath ragged from running.
“You came back for me,” she cried, as she handed the woman her baby and embraced me.
“I’ve been searching every inch of the ship for you,” I said as I folded her tightly to my chest.
“Forgive me, Harry. After they told me to leave my cabin, I didn’t understand how dire the situation truly was. I thought I should try and get theRubaiyatfrom the safe…”
I looked at her incredulously. “You went back for the book?”
“Yes, it was entrusted to me, Harry. I promised Quaritch I would take care of it.” She was rushing to tell me everything. “But it was pointless. I was unable to get anyone to help me. So that’s when I started toward the main deck, only to find myself drawn into Lolly’s ordeal.”
“Stop, we have no time, it doesn’t matter. We need to get all of you to a life raft immediately.”
I hoisted Lolly’s toddler daughter in my arms. I knew if I carried the child, we could get to the collapsible faster.
By now the incline toward the stern had grown even steeper. People were beginning to fall down, furniture was beginning to slide toward the bow. The lights of the ship were flickering.
With the child in one hand and Ada’s in the other, I led them toward Lightoller.
“Sir!” I said. “I have two women and two young children here! Can you please take them?”
He and another member of the White Star crew were wrestling with the ropes, preparing to set it off to sea. But the raft was jostling violently against the deck, which was no longer parallel to the sea and was instead tilting upward. Nearly twenty people were huddled on the boat.
