PROLOGUE
Before my voyage on Titanic, I was constantly referred to as "the Ellington girl", due to my family being quite wealthy. While my older sister Victoria Anne and my younger sister Elisabeth Charlotte bathed in the beauty of being a famous Ellington, I hated it. I hated my whole family for it, actually; everyone except my father Dave.
Father was an extraordinary man, to say the least. I've had eighteen years to figure out why he married such a wretch as Mother yet I still cannot understand it. They were two complete opposites but perhaps if Father had stayed around longer, his informal attitude would have worn off on Mother. Unfortunately, Father died when I was six years old in a car accident coming home from work one night. I can barely remember it now, but I was old enough at the time to know I had just lost a very important part of my life.
"There's more to life than riches and treasures, Kate." Father always told me that, ever since I was small enough to understand his words. Even though it's a general proverb, it always meant a great deal to me. No one else ever took it to heart, because even after Father died, Mother kept saying money was everything. I never believed her, though. Father taught me not to be like that. He taught me a lot of things, mainly because I was his favorite daughter.
After he passed away, I began to realize my place in the world. It wasn't with the children that I saw in books and papers, the ones that ran about liberally doing as they pleased. No, I was one of the children who were expected to sit straight at dinner, wear frilly dresses, and always stick their noses clear into the air. I was one of the children who didn't have any freedom.
Life went on after that, whether I willed it to or not. I was forced to attend fancy dinner parties with important looking strangers who always regarded me as "Miss Ellington." When I was still a child, I didn't understand much that was going on around me, but as I became older, it all became quite clear. Mother and my sisters enjoyed feeling like a prisoner trapped in a crowded room with hundreds of people who were all born with silver spoons in their mouths. I tried on several occasions while I was still young to tell Mother that I didn't want to get dressed up and go to another party, but it never did me any good. So, I began to accept the fact that this was my life, my destiny. I was fated to be this sort of person, and fate was not something to be reckoned with. I figured it was all the best to leave my life be.
I was fifteen when Mother introduced me to William Hollings. William was a good-looking boy two years older than me with sleek blonde hair and the dullest gray eyes I've ever seen. Even though every girl my age was raving about him at the time, I detested William. I could see right through him. Father always said that was a gift of mine. William's father, Robert, was the richest man in New York then and for quite some time after. Perhaps that's why Mother was always such good friends with him.
A year passed and since our meeting, William and I grew closer than I had hoped we would. He had this awful charm that he would turn on for me and I would melt right at his feet. I was so used to my high way of life and being around such superior people that I figured William was as good as it was going to get. Yes, I was in love with William then, and he with me. When I was sixteen, he proposed to me, and I, being the fool I was, accepted. Mother, however delighted she was, was not at all surprised. As I grew older and wiser, I realized that she and Robert Hollings had set the whole proposal up just to inherit more riches.
More time passed slowly by and I began to see William for what he truly was – filthy, lying, greedy scum. He was no better than Mother when it came to titles and assets. I became somewhat of a slave to him, but I never argued; it was my way of life, I supposed. William never regarded me as the love of his life, though, but I believe I returned the favor.
Nearing my eighteenth birthday, news of the wondrous ship Titanic struck London. Of course, Mother set out to buy the best first-class tickets she could for herself, Elisabeth, Victoria and her husband Charles, and I. Victoria, at age twenty-one, had been married to Charles for two years. Their relationship appeared to be based on more love and compassion than that of mine and William's. I never liked Charles, who was another pompous well-heeled individual. I don't think Mother cared for him much either, come to think of it. His nose was always stuck so high in the air I feared he would trip over his own feet, not seeing where he was going.
Mr. Hollings and Mother arranged the marriage a month before we left for Titanic. Everything would work out perfectly – we would leave from Southampton and sail to New York, where my fiancé would await me. The day after our arrival, I would be officially known as Mrs. Kate Hollings. Hundreds of invitations were sent out around to world to all the most famous and rich people you could think of. This wedding – my wedding – would be the wedding of the century, the papers said. It was an enormous deal. The ring on my finger weighed a great ton, too. It probably added on an extra fifty pounds.
The closer the date of my marriage became, the more I began to think about my life, which was something I hadn't done for years. Did I really want this? I thought. Is this right? Do I really love him? Would Father want this for me? But then, I admit, I became scared. I wasn't sure what I wanted or what was right. So I decided I would marry William and continue on with my life the way it was now. It wouldn't kill me – would it?
I remember sitting in my bedroom the night before we left for our journey. Stroking the ring on my finger and further pondering my decision, I promised myself something. I promised myself I would find out what Father's old saying really meant, for I knew that was what he would truly have wanted me to do.
"There's more to life than riches and treasures, Kate." I never would have guessed that those words held such strong a meaning, a meaning to save myself and to save others. I never would have even believed how stepping onto the Titanic would unlock that meaning and that it would change my life forever.