“Dominique?” Lucie called. “Do you have everything you need?”
“I do, thank you.”
Mrs. Jeffers sat on her bunk, sobbing, trying to tie her shoes.
Lucie grabbed Josie’s hand and dashed to Mrs. Jeffers. “Please stay calm. I’ll help with your shoes.” After Lucie did so, she made sure Mrs. Jeffers had her passport, coat, hat, and life vest, and sent her on her way.
Dominique struggled to help Frau Abrams to her feet, and Lucie rushed to the elderly lady’s other side and helped her up. Everyone else had left.
Lucie and Dominique edged Frau Abrams out the door, and Josie clung to Lucie’s free hand. The foursome worked their way sideways along the tilting passageway.
At the ladder, Lucie sent Josie up first, then Dominique, then Frau Abrams, with Lucie behind her.
With each step, the elderly woman gained strength. They climbed the last ladder and headed out onto the deck near the stern.
A half-moon cast eerie light over the slanting deck, and fires blazed in hideous orange by the bridge. The front portion of the ship sagged to starboard as if the ship had been twisted by giant cruel hands. Sailors shined flashlights and beckoned with directions Lucie didn’t understand.
Women dashed away from their lifeboat station on the starboard side and around the stern.
Lucie grabbed Miss Shepard’s arm as she passed. “What’s going on?”
“Our lifeboat—they let it down wrong and it shattered.”She jerked her head to port. “Come on! There might be room in another boat.”
Dominique and Lucie exchanged an alarmed look and followed the other women.
A net flowed down toward a lifeboat, and women scrambled down. Mrs. Jeffers tossed a suitcase into the boat. The sailor at the helm shouted what had to be a curse and hurled the suitcase into the ocean.
Dominique faced Frau Abrams and pointed to the net. “Can you do this?”
The woman couldn’t have understood the French words, but she nodded. With Dominique’s and Lucie’s help, she climbed over the side and worked her way down the net.
“Our turn.” Lucie kissed Josie on the cheek, swung her over the side, and helped her grip with her hands. “Just like the playground. You can do it.”
In the strange orange light of the fire, Josie’s eyes glowed with fear and determination. “I’ll be brave. I’ll be brave.”
Lucie and Dominique climbed down on either side of Josie, talking her down. Lucie latched her gaze on the rope and the child and the pregnant woman. Not on the sea. Not on the heaving dark sea below.
Soon the sailor in the lifeboat grabbed Josie and settled her in the lifeboat. Then he waved frantically at Lucie and Dominique and shouted.
Dominique’s mouth drooped, and her eyes grew wide and bleak. “There—there’s only room for one more. Only one, or the boat will sink.”
“Oh no!” Lucie spotted a sailor leaning over the railing above. “Ask him. Is there another boat?”
Dominique shouted at the sailor. He gestured angrily at the sea and shouted back.
“This—this is the last one.” Dominique’s face shattered. “You must go, Lucie. You must be with your daughter.”
“No...” Clinging to the net, Lucie stared at her friend, her heart writhing. She’d promised Paul she’d never be separated from Josie. But to abandon her friend to die? That would take every bit of discipline she had.
Dominique gave her a soft, sad smile. “Do not worry. Soon I will be with my Fabien.”
Their baby would too.
No, that couldn’t be the right decision.
Lucie clenched the rope.Lord, show me what to do!
Impulse swelled inside her, and Lucie worked Monsieur Meow from her pocket. “No, you will go.”
