Chapter 3

It was Saturday, April 13th, 1912. Regina unlatched the gate to go down into third class and the steerage men on the deck below stopped what they're doing and stared at her. She made her way to the social center of steerage life, the third class general room. It was stark by comparison to the opulence of the first class, but it was a loud, boisterous place. There were mothers with babies, kids running between the benches yelling in several languages and being scolded in several more. There were old women yelling, men playing chess, girls doing needlepoint and reading dime novels. There was even an upright piano and Neal was playing around with it.

Emma was sitting at a table drawing when she noticed the hush that fell over the room. Regina felt self-conscious as the steerage passengers stared openly at her as if she were royalty. Some looked on with resentment, others with awe. She spotted Emma and gave a little smile, walking straight to her. She stood to meet the woman, smiling.

"Hey, Emma." Regina greeted.

"Hello again." Emma nodded.

"Could I speak to you in private?" Regina folded her hands in front of her.

"Uh, yes, of course, after you." She motioned ahead and followed, glancing over her shoulder at Ruby and Neal as she walked out with her leaving a stunned silence. Emma and Regina walked side by side. They passed people reading and talking some of whom glanced curiously at the mismatched duo. Emma felt out of place in her rough clothes.

"Miss Swan I –" Regina began.

"Emma." She corrected.

"Emma…I feel like such an idiot. It took me all morning to get up the nerve to face you."

"Well, here you are."

"Here I am. I – I wanted to thank you for what you did. Not just for pulling me back. But for your discretion."

"You're welcome, Regina."

"Look, I know what you must be thinking! Poor little rich girl. What does she know about misery?" Regina frowned and looked around the deck.

"That's not what I was thinking. What I was thinking was, what could have happened to hurt this girl so much she thought she had no way out." Emma looked at her curiously.

"I don't – it wasn't just one thing. It was everything. It was them, it was their whole world. And I was trapped in it, like an insect in amber. I just had to get away, just run and run and run and then I was at the back rail and there was no more ship. Even the Titanic wasn't big enough. Not enough to get away from them. And before I'd really thought about it, I was over the rail. I was so furious. I'll show them. They'll sure be sorry!" She said in a rush.

"Uh, huh, they'll be sorry. Of course…you'll be dead." Emma nodded. Regina dropped her head. Her hair fell into her eyes.

"Oh God, I am such an utter fool." She muttered.

"The penguin last night, is he one of them?" Emma asked. Regina looked up in confusion.

"Penguin? Oh, Leopold. He is them." She said.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Emma questioned with a hint of regret in her voice.

"Worse I'm afraid." She showed her the engagement ring, a sizable diamond.

"Look at that thing! You would have gone straight to the bottom." Emma said. They laughed together, and a passing steward scowled at Emma, who was clearly not a first class passenger, but Regina just glared him away.

"So, you feel like you're stuck on a train you can't get off cause you're marrying this fella?" Emma clarified.

"Yes, exactly." Regina nodded.

"So don't marry him." Emma suggested innocently, as if it were the only clear solution. Regina shook her head and turned away.

"If only it were that simple."

"It is that simple." Emma insisted, following behind her.

"Oh, Emma, please don't judge me until you've seen my world." She pleaded.

"We'll I guess I will tonight." She smirked. Looking for another topic, Regina indicated to Emma's sketchbook that she had tucked under her arm.

"What's this?"

"Just some sketches." Emma answered. Regina motioned for it.

"May I?" The question was rhetorical because she had already grabbed the book. She sat on a deck chair and opened the book. She flipped through the pages carefully. Each work was an expressive little bit of humanity; an old woman's hands, a sleeping man, a father and daughter. Some loose sketches fell out and were taken by the wind. Emma scrambled after them, catching two, but the rest were gone, over the rail.

"Oh, no! I'm so sorry! Truly!" Regina said.

"Don't worry about it, plenty more where they came from." She snapped her wrist, shaking her drawing hand with a flourish. "I just seem to spew them out, besides, they're not worth a damn anyway." For emphasis she threw away the two she caught, they sailed off into the wind.

"You're deranged." Regina observed. She returned to the book, turning a page.

"Well, well…" She had come upon a series of nudes. Regina was transfixed by the languid beauty Emma had created. Her nudes were soulful, real, with expressive hands and eyes. They felt more like portraits than studies of the human form…almost uncomfortably intimate. Regina blushed, closing the book slightly as some strollers went by.

"And these were drawn from life?" She asked, trying to sound like an adult.

"Yep, one of the great things about Paris, lots of girls willing to take their clothes off." Emma said honestly. Regina scrutinized Emma seriously for a moment before facing the book again. She studied one drawing in particular, the girl posed half in sunlight, half in shadow, her hands lie at her chin, one furled and one open like a flower, languid and graceful.

"You liked this woman, you used her several times." She remarked. Emma leaned forward.

"She had beautiful hands." She explained.

"I think you must have had a love affair with her…" Regina was fishing for an answer to a question she didn't know how to ask.

"No, no! Just her hands." Emma laughed.

"You have a gift, Emma, you do. You see people." Regina said.

"I see you." Emma said looking at the other woman in the morning sunlight. Her skin had taken on a golden tone, and her eyes were bright. Her long black hair hung poised around her shoulders.

"And?" Regina prompted.

"You wouldn't have jumped." Emma said.

-The Heart Will Go On-

It was a great deal later and they were still together, no one really seemed to care that Regina had spent her entire day with Emma. They strolled along the deck, past people lounging on deck chairs in the slanting late-afternoon light. Stewards scurried to serve tea or hot cocoa.

"You know, my dream has always been to just chuck it all and become an artist. Living in a garret, poor but free!" Regina confessed. Emma laughed.

"You wouldn't last two days. There's no hot water, and hardly ever any caviar."

"Now you listen here, I hate caviar! And I'm tired of people dismissing my dreams with a chuckle and a pat on the head!" Regina's anger came and went quickly.

"I'm sorry, really, I am." Emma bowed her head.

"Well, alright. There's something in me, Emma. I feel it. I don't know what it is, whether I should be an artist, or a dancer or a moving picture actress. I just, there's something else besides this porcelain doll." They leaned against the rail, shoulder to shoulder, as the evening sun set and the ship's lights came on. It was a magical moment. Perfect. The sound of someone clearing their throat came from behind them and Regina and Emma turn around. Cora, her friends and Belle Brown stood as if waiting for an answer to an unasked question.

"Come now, Regina, it is time to dress for dinner." Cora grabbed her daughter's elbow roughly and steered her forward.

"I hear you will be accompanying us to dinner this evening, how charming." Cora commented at Emma before stalking off and taking her daughter with her. Belle stepped forward and snapped her fingers in Emma's face, drawing her attention from the retreating Regina.

"What are you planning on wearing this evening?" Belle asked. Emma looked down at her clothes, a pair of slacks, men's boots and shirt and a red leather jacket. She looked back at Belle. She had not thought about that.

"I figured." Belle said, gesturing her forward.

-The Heart Will Go On-

Dresses and petticoats and corsets were draped and strewn across Belle's suite by the time Emma was dressed. Belle was tightening a fastener on the bodice of her dress and she looked up at the woman and smiled. She had been bathed and her hair styled and dressed in women's clothing.

"My, my, my, you shine up like a new penny." Belle grinned proudly.

-The Heart Will Go On-

The sky was purple, shot with orange, in the west and the sound of classical music drifted across the main deck. Emma walked along the promenade looking stunning in her borrowed dress, right down to her pearl necklace. A steward bowed and smartly opened the door to the first class entrance.

"Good evening, Madam." Emma played the role smoothly, nodding with just the right degree of disdain. She stepped in and her breath was taken away by the splendor spread out before her. Overhead was an enormous glass dome, with a crystal chandelier at its center. Sweeping down six stories was the first class grand staircase, the epitome of the opulent naval architecture.

And the people: the women in their floor length dresses, elaborate hairstyles and abundant jewelry, the gentlemen in evening dress, standing with one hand at the small of the back, talking quietly.

Emma felt like she was playing dress up and she wasn't even doing a good job at it. She didn't know how to stand in a corset or walk in heels. The pearls around her neck felt heavy and her golden curls seemed too simple. Emma descended the staircase. People watched her with mild confusion, probably wondering where her escort was.

Leopold came down the stairs, with Cora on his arm, covered in jewelry. They both walked right past Emma, neither one recognizing her. She didn't have time to be amused because just behind Leopold and Cora on the stairs was Regina, a vision in red and black, her low-cut dress showing off her neck and shoulders, her arms sheathed in white gloves that came well above the elbow. Emma was hypnotized by her beauty. As Regina approached Emma she imitated the gentlemen's stance, hand behind her back. Regina extended her gloved hand and Emma took it, kissing the back of her fingers. Regina flushed and glanced around nervously, no one seemed to pay them any mind. She smiled at Emma.

"I saw that in a nickelodeon once, and I always wanted to do it." Emma smirked.

"Leopold, surely you remember Miss Swan." Regina reintroduced the woman.

"Swan! I didn't recognize you. Amazing. You almost pass for a lady." He chuckled in surprise.

"Almost." Emma agreed sourly. The party descended to dinner and they encountered Belle Brown, wearing a green beaded dress, tight and showy. Her brown hair was swept up in a simple bun. Belle grinned when she saw Emma, and as they were going into the dining room she walked next to her, speaking low.

"Ain't nothing to it, is there, Emma?" she asked.

"Yeah, you just dress like you're attending a funeral and keep your nose up." She scoffed. Belle chuckled.

"Remember, the only thing they respect is money, so just act like you've got a lot of it and you're in the club." She advised. They entered the swirling throng and Regina leaned close to Emma pointing out several notables.

"There's Countess Rothes. And that's Thomas Astor, the richest man on the ship. His little wifey there, Ashley, is my age and in a delicate condition. See how she's trying to hide it. Quite the scandal." She narrated nodding toward another a couple. "And over there that's Sir Frederick, and Katherine Midas, she designs naughty lingerie among her many talents. Very popular with the royals." Leopold was engrossed in a conversation with a group of men and Regina pivoted Emma smoothly to show her another couple dressed impeccably.

"And that's Phillip James and his mistress, Madame Aurora, Mrs. James is at home with the children, of course." Regina whispered. Leopold, meanwhile, was accepting the praise of his male counterparts, who were looking at Regina like a prized show horse.

"She is splendid."

"Thank you."

"Leo is a lucky man. I know him well, and it can only be luck." Cora stepped over, hearing the last statement, she took Leopold's arm, somewhat coquettishly.

"How can you say that? Leopold White is a great catch!" She grinned at him. The entourage strolled into the dining room and took their seats at a grand table. Everyone assumed that Emma was one of them. She never faltered even though she was nervous. They thought new money, obviously, but still a member of the club. That was until Cora leaned forward and smiled coyly.
"Tell us of the accommodations in steerage, Miss Swan, I hear they are quite good on this ship." She pretended to be interested when really she was just pointing out the rank that Emma held.

"The best I've seen, Ma'am, hardly any rats." She answered. Regina motioned surreptitiously for Emma to take her napkin off of her plate and she did so.

"Miss Swan is joining us from third class. She was of some assistance to my fiancée last night." Leopold staked his claim, again. People started to whisper, Emma became the subject of furtive glances.

"How do you take your caviar, ma'am?" A water asked. Emma lifted her hand.

"No caviar for me, thanks." She turned to Leopold. "Never did like it much." She looked at Regina, pokerfaced and Regina gave a small smile.

"And where exactly do you live, Miss Swan?" Cora tried again to push her back into her place.

"Well, it's a big world, and I want to see it all before I go. My father was always talking about going to see the ocean. He died in the town he was born in, and never did see it. You can't wait around, because you never know what hand you're going to be dealt next. See, my folks died in a fire when I was eight, and I've been on the road since." A few gasps were heard at the young age of abandonment but she pushed on. "Something like that teaches you to take life as it comes at you. To make each day count." She looked at Regina. Belle raised her glass in a salute.

"Well said, Emma." She smiled. Regina raised her glass, looking at Emma.

"To making it count." She said. Everyone raised their glasses and repeated the phrase. Cora was annoyed that Emma had scored a point and she pressed the woman further.

"How is it that you have the means to travel, Miss Swan?"

"I work my way from place to place. Tramp steamers and such. I won my ticket on Titanic here in a lucky hand at poker." She glanced at Regina. "A very lucky hand."

"All life is a game of luck." A man said.

"A real man makes his own luck." Leopold interjected. After the meal was served and they ate until they were full a waiter arrived with cigars in a humidor on a wheeled cart. The men started clipping ends and lighting. Regina leaned over to Emma.

"Next it'll be brandies in the Smoking Room." She said low.

"Well, join me for brandy, gentlemen?" Leopold stood.

"Now they retreat into a cloud of smoke and congratulate each other on being masters of the universe." Regina narrated. Emma snickered quietly.

"It was good of you to come, Miss Swan, will you be extending your stay with the ladies?" Leopold drew attention to the guest again. Emma stood and shook her head.

"No, I believe I will be heading back." She said.

"Probably best, it'll be all fashion and child rearing, wouldn't interest you." He smirked. Emma swallowed hard and nodded again. The gentlemen exited and Regina turned to Emma.

"Must you go?" She looked on pleadingly.

"Time for my coach to turn back into a pumpkin." She leaned over to take her hand. Cora watched with disgust as the other woman kissed the back of her daughter's fingers in a gentlemanly display. What she didn't see was Emma slipping a folded note into the palm of Regina's hand. Cora scowled as Emma walked away across the enormous room. Regina covertly opened the note below table level. It read: "Make it count. Meet me at the clock."

Shortly after she excused herself. She crossed the A-Deck foyer and spotted Emma at the landing above. Emma had her back to her, studying the ornate clock with its carved figures of Honor and Glory. It softly struck the hour. Regina swept up the staircase toward her. She turned and smiled at her.

"Want to go to a real party?" She tempted.