Love & Tragedy

Summary:

J Bruce Ismay, meets a beautiful, interracial girl, named, Vidalia Dawson - a girl who has NO idea, at the moment she boards Titanic, that she's related to Jack Dawson. Both Ismay and Vidalia find an amazing love together but together, they also face GREAT heartache and sadness on their voyage on the doomed R.M.S. ship.

Bruce Ismay had just come from talking with EJ Smith and Titanic, shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews Jr. They were discussing about how great the first day of the sailing voyage was going. Bruce had been encouraging EJ to speed up, as it would make GREAT headlines, if Titanic arrived in New York much earlier, but from EJ's response, Bruce could tell, he still had much convincing to do with EJ. As Bruce walked to his room, he thought of how he was in need of an assistant, someone who could be a servant to him, bring him his meals, when he didn't feel like leaving his room, bring him his newspaper in the mornings, clean around the room, help pick out his best suits to wear around the ship. He was definitely in need of a servant. He had put in the request for one, minutes after he stepped aboard the ship. And as he walked into his room, there she was. She was dusting all around the room, in a long, floor length, 1900's lavender colonial dress, her long, silky, black length hair was flowing effortlessly on her shoulders. As Ismay walked closer to her, he was able to take a better look at her, she had the most beautiful, smoothestskin. However, he could tell she was poor third class. Ismay raised an eyebrow at her.

"Excuse me, WHAT are you doing in here?" Ismay asked coldly.

The girl looked up at him, he could tell she was no more than twenty-four, twenty-five, with her big, bright, sparkling, hazel eyes. She looked at him humbly and nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Ismay, I was told you required a servant." The girl said.

Ismay frowned with confusion and shook his head with a brief smile.

''YOU'RE my servant?" Ismay said with disbelief.

The girl looked down with an offended frown and blinked twice.

"Well, yes, I am," the girl responded in a low tone, "I'm the BEST servant you'll ever have, Mr. Ismay, I promise. Truth be told, I asked if I could be your servant. I've always admired your work with Harland and Wolff."

Ismay looked at her faintly and briefly smirked. He was impressed, but not that impressed.

"Well, what's your name?" Ismay responded strongly.

"Vidalia Dawson," the girl responded with a slight curtsy bow she made in front of him.

Ismay looked at her with intrigue.

"Vidalia," Ismay asked with curiosity filling his voice. "Well that certainly doesn't fit a name for someone third class."

Vidalia giggled slightly.

"Well, yes my father was half Irish," Vidalia replied. "However, I didn't know much of him, all I knew was that, he was my father, and he lived in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin with his son, that's all."

Ismay stared at the young girl, in silence for the moment, her beauty was captivating to him, also it amazed him that she spoke with intelligence that was very rare for any girl he'd seen. He nodded and hesitantly extended his hand to her.

"Well, it's—pleasant meeting you." Ismay said with a slight coldness.

Vidalia shook his hand and politely smiled.

"Yes, indeed, you as well, Mr. Ismay." Vidalia said with a pleasant tone. "and I've spent many months learning all about you, you're the chairman of The White Star Line and you're the owner of this beautiful, luxurious ship, you were born in Crosby, Lancashire, a small town near Liverpool."

Ismay stared at her with perplexity and looked down briefly, scoffed and smiled.

"Well, you do know a lot," Ismay said lightly, with a brief laugh, "that's impressive."

Vidalia nodded and smiled politely.

"Well, I require nothing less in cleaning, than what any other servant would do," Ismay said coldly, as he walked past her and started circling around the room.

Vidalia nodded and smiled politely again.

Ismay stared at her with even more intrigue. He raised both eyebrows, smiled briefly and nodded.

"Very great," Ismay responded. "Well, I require coffee and my morning newspaper, please. I will be out on the deck of my stateroom awaiting it."

Vidalia nodded with a happy smile.

"Yes, Mr. Ismay, right away, sir." Vidalia said as she quickly dashed out the room.

Ismay glanced back at the door Vidalia left out of and scoffed with a brief smile. Despite just meeting her, one thing he could pick up on was that she definitely was happy to be a servant. He'd never seen such a happy servant…or such a beautiful one for that matter.

It was about ten minutes later, when Vidalia walked out on deck rolling a cart with porcelain cups on it and a tall, white, porcelain coffee pot on it. Next to the coffee cups was a folded newspaper. Ismay was sitting in a chair on the deck of his room, staring out endlessly at the bright, blue ocean, as the bright, warm sun glistened the waves just right. He stared at her as she placed a cup and a dish on the table in front of him and began pouring coffee inside it. When she missed the cup and accidentally spilled coffee on the table, his eyes widened with upset. He stared at her coldly. She gasped loudly and looked at him with embarrassment.

"Well GOODNESS, you've stained this perfect table cloth." Ismay scolded coldly.

Vidalia quickly put the coffee pot down on the table and grabbed a medium sized napkin on the cart beside the newspaper and began wiping the coffee off the table cloth.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Ismay." Vidalia apologized sincerely. "It—it was a mistake. I—"

"You're darn RIGHT, it was your mistake!" Ismay yelled angrily. "A simple cup of co—"

"I know I'm sorry, Mr. Ismay." Vidalia apologized again, her face slowly forming into a look of guilt. "I was tired and I just lost my balance pouring—I'm sorry."

Ismay stared at her with observance. She did look slightly weak and tired, yes Ismay could tell around her eyes that she indeed look tired. He nodded with a look of seriousness.

"Sit down." Ismay said in a slightly commanding voice.

Vidalia looked up at him as she was constantly wiping the spilled coffee off the table cloth.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Ismay?" She responded.

"Sit down, in the seat over here." Ismay repeated as he carelessly pointed at the seat sitting right beside him.

Vidalia stared at him for a brief minute and then slowly went and sat down in the chair beside him. She sat on the edge of the seat. She didn't feel right sitting back in the chair and being comfortable around someone of J Bruce Ismay's stature, after all, she was a servant, nothing more. Ismay looked at her as he took a sip of his coffee.

"So tell me more of what you know of me?" Ismay asked lightly. "I'm curious, just how much more do you know. Its amazing that someone—well someone of your stature could know of who I am."

Immediately, Vidalia's face lit up brightly, this amused Ismay.

"Well, I know that you play amateur footballer, and that you played for the Liverpool Ramblers" Vidalia said. "Also I heard that you're a very nice, friendly and humble man and most of the female servants on Titanic have said that you're very handsome and well, if I may say, Mr. Ismay, they're quite right."

Ismay stared at her and then looked away and chuckled briefly.

"Well thank you, I suppose," Ismay said. "Flattery takes you a long way, well flattery and beauty, both of which I see you've successfully acquired."

Vidalia looked down and smiled, blushing heavily in the face. Was her ears deceiving her? Was J Bruce Ismay flirting with her? Oh, of course not, she was a servant, and he was just playing her a friendly compliment, nothing more. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Well, thank you, Mr. Ismay." Vidalia said politely. "Well I really should get back inside, I saw you hadn't quite become unpacked and so I should get started on doing that."

Ismay nodded as he grabbed the newspaper off the roller cart beside him, opened it up and began reading. As Vidalia walked to the door entrance that led back to the room, she stopped and she had a question in mind, she started not to ask him the question but Vidalia had always been bold, daring, her mother said she had picked that trait up from her father, Daniel Dawson. Vidalia turned and looked back at him.

"Um, Mr. Ismay, should I put away your wife's belongings as well?" Vidalia asked.

Ismay slowly lowered the newspaper and looked straight ahead at the ocean, not looking at her at all. He raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"I'm NOT married, Vidalia, if that's what you're asking." Ismay said almost coldly.

Vidalia looked down and tried to hide the small, faint smile that was creeping on her face, but she couldn't. Luckily Ismay didn't see the smile. She disappeared into the room and he lifted his newspaper back up and continued reading.

Why was she concerned whether he was married or not anyway? Was that her way of letting him know she was showing interest in him? Oh well, either way, Ismay could not show interest back, everyone on Titanic would look at him in poor taste, if he even THOUGHT of showing interest in her, so he couldn't, no matter how beautiful she was, no matter how bright and sparkly her big, brown hazel eyes were, no matter how beautiful, shiny and long her black back length hair was, no matter how smooth, soft and silky her skin looked, no matter how soft her pretty, pink lips were, he couldn't and wouldn't show interest, at all.