Disclaimer: I don't own Titanic or the Mandie Series

Note to Readers : The questions Cassandra is facing will be answered in this mystery story.

Prologue

My name is Cassandra Shaw or Cassandra Elizabeth Talitha Shaw, but my close friends call me Cass. Today, I received word that my only living relation has died: my loving Grandmary or, as she was known by many, Mary Taft, the wife to a late senator out of Boston. My entire life now seems to be turned upside down as I have no family to speak of. I have a vast inheritance, since my mother's passing, followed by my stepfather's in a buggy accident when I was but seven years old. It was rumored by my mother that Grandmary had, or even has, a brother. This is one reason I'm heading back to Boston in hopes to find my missing family if there ever was any. Part of me thinks it was just a story and the other part wonders whether it is true and not? When the name Joseph is ever brought up or spoken of Grandmary would change the subject almost in an instant.

I never spent much time with my Grandmary or any family for that matter. After my mother died, I was shipped off to a girls' finishing school in Europe. Now that word has come to me of her untimely death, I am to travel home to America to attend to my Grandmary's final wishes and estate. Which is quite large, mind you.

I will also be attending my best friend's wedding as her maid- of- honor. Rose Dewitt Bukater is my best friend. Our mothers were best friends, although that seems hard to believe. With the way Mrs. Dewitt Bukater treats my poor friend Rose, I find it hard to believe that she is anyone's best friend, especially my mother.

I will be in attendance on the Titanic's maiden voyage with Rose's mother, who I call Aunt Ruth, even though she is not my aunt. I am also being escorted by a hot-headed steel tycoon, a man Rose despises, and I don't blame her one bit. Mr. Caledon Hockey is a person I have no intention of being around for one second longer than he is forced upon me. I feel ever so sorry for my best friend Rose as everyone tells her, "Rose I wish you were more like Cassandra is. Such a graceful young lady who will make some man a fine wife someday." That was one remark that our Headmistress at finishing school always made towards Rose when I was present for a society tea where Rose met Mr. Caledon Hockley. Or it was a more arranged tea for young ladies to meet possible husbands by arranged marriage. Many men find me a beauty, and I don't think of their tastes as flattering or agree with their ideas of a proper young lady. I may be a wealthy heiress but I am a native of North Carolina, and I just want people to accept me for me. I don't let people know it, but I love to fish and hunt. Or at least I did with my stepfather until he died along with my mother.

We are to set board the ship of dreams as some call her, and I don't see it. Since she is, after all, a ship. We will all get to America at the same time. Also, after spending a lot of times on ships they aren't that fascinating any more. My Grandfather Taft owned the Cunard passenger company until his death. Whatever will await me on this voyage home can't be as bad as my Grandmary's death. I never really saw much of her except when she wanted to see me. I was the one who always came to her beck and call when it was our time for holidays from school. Now I'm returning home to Boston, or not as I should say. I can say that I'm the wealthiest orphan in America at sixteen. With the Shaw and Taft millions combined, men will be lining up to court me, is what my headmistress has told me. Men wanting to marry me just for my money? What a disgrace this world is coming to!

In two weeks, I'll be home, wherever that may be. I still wonder what's the missing piece to my Grandmary's family, and I feel like something was lost or was not known. I hope to find out once I get back to Boston and go through her papers and get to the bottom of there being no family to speak of. I need a guardian, and I hope to find a male relation willing to take me on or at least care for my needs. With all the millions, I don't think I'll have much of a problem in that department. The one thing I know is Grandmary spoke of a brother Joseph and that she never saw him again after she left England. Something seems fishy about that story her father, or was it her stepfather, told her, then in turn, to me over the years about this mystery man Joseph. He could be my only hope for a guardian as Grandmary said he was quite younger when she left England. I was quite young when I heard the story only once from Grandmary after my mother died.

If this Joseph has died and has any sons that have survived him, then I shall need to locate them and ask for some form of guardianship if it is found most suitable for me. The headmistress said I'm more than welcome to stay, but I think she really means that my money and I are more than welcome to grace her fine establishment.