Mr William McMaster Murdoch, once again, rose to a fine morning aboard the RMS Titanic. It wasn't nearly time for his shift but he enjoyed breakfast with his colleagues but that being said, he had noticed that Mr Charles Herbert Lightoller had obtained a wee bit of a disgruntlement of sorts and it showed up more prominently when Mr Wilde was about. The way Lightoller glowered at the man when all he did was offer him tea presented Murdoch with a distinct decision to make every morning: To tell Mr Lightoller to pull his socks up and get on with it for there was nothing to do but deal with it (and perhaps mention that there was no fault to lay on anyone – Mr Wilde was just lucky) or he could laugh and laugh and laugh but choosing one of those would lead to a glare from either Wilde or Lightoller. Having experienced both, he thought it best to delegate days as to whose side he'd be on. It would ware off later as it always did. This particular morning, he opted for telling Lightoller to pull his socks up.
He sat down with his crew minus the Captain, for he had been called to an urgent meeting by Mr Ismay, just in time to see Mr Wilde sigh and offer tea to all including Lightoller, his face already bracing itself for Lightoller's glare of death. It came as expected accompanied by a curt, "No, thank you, Mr Wilde."
Mr Murdoch accepted gratefully and so Mr Wilde left for tea with a limp smile and a shrug,
"Good Morning, Will, by the way,"
"Aye, Sir," Murdoch liked Wilde even if Lightoller didn't. He was a kind and gracious man and if all was truly lost, then it could be relied upon that the Captain had the right of it, Mr Wilde was very good at his job and he worked hard to gain that reputation too. He also never failed to address him as a close friend rather than a colleague.
"Still not so fond of our Chief Officer, are yoo," Murdoch didn't look at him as he began to butter his bread, yet still amused.
He could see Lightoller look at him out of the corner of his eye for a long a while but the man gave up when Murdoch refused to look back,
"No. You think it's because he knocked us out of our positions-"
"I do think that, I also think it silly,"
"Pity...No, Mr Murdoch," Lightoller sighed, looking down at his empty tea cup, "the answer is much simpler than that,"
Murdoch looked up across the table straight at young Mr Moody who also, was waiting patiently for the truth, alongside Mr Lowe,
"I do not like him,"
Just then Mr Wilde returned with their tea and as Mr Murdoch took his cup from the Chief Officer's hand, he was asked,
"Who was that young man you were talking too yesterday? You seemed rather intrigued by him," Mr Wilde took a sip of his tea while staring over the rim of the cup expectantly.
Murdoch hesitated for a moment, unsure of the implication. He cocked his head subtly; took a sip of his own tea that was proceeded by a lick of the lips and a nod of approval before he responded,
"Third class passenger, a woman, I might add, begging yoor pardon. Taro, I think her name was,"
"Unusual name…familiar…unusual attire," Wilde frowned,
"Aye, she's from Ireland. Young too,"
"Traveling alone?"
"Indeed, Sir,"
"Brave for a woman to be traveling alone,"
"Yes, Sir,"
"The men's clothing help, no doubt," Lightoller piped up then, clearly interested in Mr Murdoch's unusual discovery. They were sailors, professional, gentlemanly sailors. Though women were not strictly forbidden, their lifestyle made it hard to lure such a complex species in so when the topic of 'meeting someone' came up, it always sparked interest. Murdoch could see Moody and Lowe lean in to listen and he felt a certain feeling of pride that it was he who had met someone, not them.
"What do you mean, Mr Lightoller?" asked Wilde. Lightoller threw a dirty look at him before answering the question in the interest of the others rather than him,
"Mr Wilde, here, mistook this young woman for a man. Surely if one man did then many do – traveling must be easier when your identity is less desirable to people who wish to cause you harm. If you understand,"
They nodded, all in agreement of Mr Lightoller's statement. It made perfect sense and once again, Mr Murdoch found his thoughts drifting, pleasantly towards the conversation Taro and himself had had the day before.
"So what's on your mind, then, Mr Murdoch, Sir?"
Moody's deep, assured voice and boyish face drew Murdoch away from Taro once more and he gazed at Moody, thoughtfully,
"Giant squids,"
Silence prevailed over the small table as the strange comment sunk in. Murdoch had no doubt that every officer around said table was now thinking about the possibility of giant squids and in that silence, only his awkward slurp of tea was heard.
OoOoOoO
Charlotte was up early too and up, take note, to a better start. No slamming doors, no falling out of beds, no spilt jam on pyjamas although no pyjamas to spill jam on was a let-down having forgotten to put them in her bag once she'd taken them off the morning of departure. No sore heads either, the bruise was there but the size of her head was back to normal.
She thought of Mr Murdoch – he was the first thought to come knocking at her door that morning too, which contributed to the feeling of well-being tremendously. She was reminded about how she should have told him that she had seen him in the paper about a month before Titanic was set to leave. Him and the others – she couldn't remember their names as she couldn't remember his but that had struck home when he had reminded her of it, so she figured should she ever meet the others that the same occurrence would occur again. With men such as them, names would not be an issue – it was remembering who belonged to them that would cause confusion.
Anyway, the point was, if she had told him, it would probably make him feel proud which is what she felt all of them should have been feeling. She trusted them. She would tell him today if she saw him again. Which, rather unexpectedly, she did.
"Mr Murdoch!" she proclaimed as he rounded a corner she was about to round too. He seemed equally as taken aback as she did given his sudden pause in stride when his eyes found her.
"Miss Taro, what a pleasure," his look of shock slowly dissipated into a warm smile. He was not particularly handsome, nor was he horrendously ugly. He lay perfectly in between the two extremes. He had the look of a man with a warm heart; hard working and gentle as well as a good sense of humour. He was charming – and that was the alluring factor about him. If not for that, Taro wouldn't have been considering giant squids all night…or so she told herself.
"Up a little early, aren't yoo?"
He locked his hands behind his back, waiting for a descent reply as if to assess whether it was worth an A+ or not. Taro in response dropped her head and looked at him from beneath her eyebrows, unintentionally giving him full view of her bruise,
"New –"
"Whatever happened to yoor head? You have a right foul shiner there," he indicated where though, of course, she already knew,
"Ah…aye, I fell out of bed the other day. My head hit the side table,"
"Bad start then, that day, no doubt,"
"No doubt,"
"So it wasn't the giant squids that were bothering yoo,"
She chuckled at the memory,
"No, but I still wonder,"
"And yoo should do too. Loch Ness monster I'm a little sceptical about but squids in the sea, must be so,"
"Alright, Mr Murdoch, ye win," she waved a hand dismissively. The monster, yes she knew would probably never make it to the sea without being seen at the least but she couldn't think of any other sea monster that might come up and eat them alive.
"Do I?"
"No Loch Ness monster in sea, aye, ye win,"
"Ah, right,"
There they stood in silence, content in each other's company. Her eyes drifted to a crevice in the floor and there they lingered as she considered it. But it was not long before a strange feeling crept up through her spine leading her to lift her eyes to where Murdoch's watched in wait. A pensive look on his face as he, like her over the crevice, considered her.
"What?"
"Nothing at all, Miss,"
With that he bobbed his head and on he went. He was gone by the time she thought to say anything but said it when he had gone anyway,
"Well, goodbye then," and so she moved on too, glancing down at the crevice one last time. That was going to bother her.
She made her way onto the boat deck and made her way to the foremost railings again to attempt another look – she would not be conquered by such an impossible idea. They said the ship could not sink and although the obvious truth was that it could, she chose to believe that it would be more difficult to sink it and therefore help would come within the required time.
But alas, her courage failed her and she turned quickly on her heal when she peered over it.
"Oh no, no," she muttered to herself, "No, no, no, no,"
"So, I've met someone. Saved her life the night before last, went to dinner in a first class dining room and then went to the party in steerage with her. Gonna tell her today, I think,"
Jack was another passenger she had met. Fabrizio and he were a team; they were the two that she'd met when she first boarded, the two Kings of the World. She sighed when she laid eyes upon his love-struck, puppy face,
"Who is and what is that?"
"Well, the girl Tommy said I'd have angels flying out of my 'arse' before I'd meet her. Anyway –"
"Oh, right, the one with fire on her head,"
"Yeah –"
"She stands out in a crowd, that one,"
"Yeah, I know. But…wow…you know?"
"No," Maybe
"Well –"
"Yer going to tell her how ye feel, is that right?"
"Yup," he stood, rocking too and fro on his heels with one hand in his pocket and the other carrying his ever present sketch book.
"Good fer ye, mate, absolutely well done." She made to carry on past him but paused, "That's really quite admirable," and she meant that with all her heart. Jack was a strong lad, brave, grown up with a rough life but he'd done his best and what he had to show for it was his art which in honest truth, spoke a thousand words more than a lengthy description. She and Jack carried on towards the others who she would undoubtedly have met in the end; Tommy and Fabrizio. They greeted her enthusiastically and so the day wore on with talks of adventures and art and where they wanted to go and what they should do together when they had arrived. The possibilities were endless really and each one made Taro smile with excitement.
"Ye should find yerself an American man!"
Tommy's sudden comment caught her off guard and her mouth dropped. Taking a moment to recover from the shock, she smirked,
"That's fonny, Tommy, truly, I'm laughing inside,"
"What's wrong with American men, huh?" Jack shoved her lightly but enough for her to sway slightly off balance though her smirk merely turned into a grin.
"They talk like ye," she winked,
"Full o' shite, ye mean," that one was Tommy and that was him done for the day, Fabrizio and him chuckled endlessly while Jack merely put his hands behind his back and gazed at her with dismissive amusement, ignoring the others. His intense gaze was boring into her and she gave in to the inevitable,
"Ah, no worries, boyo, it's not being American tha's the problem; it's the notion of being told to meet someone at all. Not like ye, my friend," she shrugged, "But it's getting on, ye should hurry op and go tell Rose how ye feel soon if yer going to tell her today,"
Jack nodded, considering both statements.
It was late afternoon when he finally moved off to try his luck and Fabrizio had seen the girl of his dreams walk past too so he was gone within a heartbeat. It was just Tommy and Taro in the end, chatting away quietly about life stories and such. Tommy was fun, full of cynical beans but fun, a go getter of sorts with a temper as foul as the dogs that came to do their first class business on the third class deck, which was often and it drew equally as foul looks from the third class passengers, including Tommy and Taro…often.
"Bastards,"
"Well, now we know where are in the scheme of things,"
Tommy snorted,
"Because I forget," he put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a scowl. Taro had nothing to say about it other than watch him smoke. She was thinking most profoundly about something or another when Tommy broke into her thoughts,
"There's the Officer doing his rounds again,"
She looked up and over to where he was looking amazed by the fact that she was hoping to see Murdoch, amazed that she was hoping to see anyone at all, let alone he.
"Tha's Murdoch,"
"Oh you know 'im?"
"Met him, know him? Probably not,"
"Well he must know ye, here he comes,"
"What?" she looked over to see exactly that. Mr Murdoch was approaching with a purposeful stride in his step. He was soon joined by another Officer, one more stern looking and ever so slightly taller.
"Ohp, there's two of 'em! What have ye done?" Tommy looked at her incredulously but she didn't have an answer, instead she watched their approach with wonder, running through all the things she might have done wrong: 1. Spilt water on the floor, 2. Spilt jam on the floor, 3. Didn't tell him about the crevice on the floor?
She narrowed her eyes, her face showing the absurdity of every thought that crossed her mind – 4! She was caught sneaking up onto first class decks in the middle of the night, which she had done…twice. Her face settled with realisation and let her head sag to one side,
"Miss Taro,"
"Afternoon Officers,"
"Aye," Tommy tossed his head in a manner of greeting which indicated he didn't much care for the incident but the Officers were polite enough to respond to it with their own pleasant greetings.
"Miss Taro, this is 2nd Officer Lightoller," Murdoch introduced his colleague with a brief show of his hand as Mr Lightoller inclined his head, "Mr Lightoller, this is Miss Taro I was telling you about,"
The words were out of her mouth before she had time to stop herself or even conclude that it was the case at all,
"I'm sorry fer sneaking onto the first class decks, it will never happen again, I swear,"
The two men were silent; Mr Lightoller declined his head once again with a look of mild confusion while Mr Murdoch simply looked impressed,
"I was wondering who that was," he said thoughtfully, "But that will have to be dealt with at a later stage nou if yoo'd be so kind as to come with us, please, lass,"
She rose from her seat hesitantly, giving Tommy a wee look of what could only be described as an oh-shit-moment. He returned the look but did nothing to delay the process of whatever was to happen to her; instead he watched her go whilst continuing to puff away on his cigarette, hanging flaccidly from his lips.
"What have I done, Mr Murdoch?" She asked as they proceeded to the steps that lead up to the first class decks.
"Nothing that I know of," He winked at her but it didn't make the unpopular feeling of foreboding go away. Mr Lightoller was silent altogether, his stern face showing nothing whatsoever.
They made their way up the steps onto the first class decks and into a foyer with photographs all over the walls of famous sailors and the awards presented to them written beneath the pictures in memory of their heroism or the magnitude of their services and such. Mr Lightoller pointed at one of the smallest pictures withstanding the most awards by far, the most significant she guessed.
"Do you know who that is?"
"No idea,"
"You haven't looked,"
"Why should it matter? I don't know anyone past or present that relates to this,"
"Are you sure?"
"She's sure, Mr Lightoller," Mr Murdoch took a step forward, laying a hand on the small of her back, "We found this today. Look at the name,"
She peered down at the little photo, squinting slightly, due to its haze and spoilt complexion.
"Mr…Hen-har-Henry…T..Taro?"
"That's right,"
"So?"
"He looks like yoo,"
"How can ye tell?" She looked at him incredulously but Murdoch smiled and pulled out a piece of newspaper, handing it to her.
"This was taken recently, for yoor Grandfather was working well into his 80's. Before yoo ask, no, he was not a sailor at that age but he knew a lot so he was a consultant of sorts but back in the day when he did, well…yoo can see, he was a man to be noted,"
"How do ye know he was my grandfather?" she asked in wonder at the paper now crunching beneath her fingers.
"I asked Captain Smith on a whim and he led me into an entire tale about him ending with the words, 'I believe a relative of his is on this passage,'. Right then I knew it was yoo,"
"Indeed, I came purely for the sake of meeting you. He was a great man, admired by many," she glanced at Lightoller who was still looking down at the paper. But upon glancing over at Murdoch, his lovely eyes were firmly set on her.
"But I don't know him…"
"Aye," Murdoch nodded, "But yoo know that story. I would have offered to help yoo find him, but he's gone now, bless,"
"That story…" she knew it full well and it would have been nice to know him for the sake of family rather than fame and fortune.
"Aye, I don't think he knew of yoo. The way the Captain spoke of him, I don't believe he would have let yoo live on with the life yoo had If he could have changed it,"
Taro's gaze shifted between Murdoch and Lightoller with amazement as they both looked on in earnestness.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Lightoller uttered,
"Ye…yes…Aye,"
The next thing she knew she was flinging her arms around both of them but Murdoch was the only one who bothered to hold her back. In that little moment, however, Taro was flying. She heard, Mr Lightoller take his leave, politely prying himself away from her hold, and Murdoch nod against her shoulder but didn't bother to let go, to respond. Taro was flying because she was not just anybody, she had the blood of a "somebody" in her veins and that made her feel like she was a footprint instead of a stain.
"Well there yoo go, love, there yoo go," she heard him mutter softly.
She was being held by Murdoch too, of course. Somehow…she was flying and Giant squids had nothing to do with it.