Well, Elaine couldn't be sure that's actually what had happened just because they had passed an iceberg. But if that was the case, she better be safe than sorry. She did the math in her head and even though she was mad at him, she still knew his schedule by heart. Actually, being mad at him was the last thing she was right now. She finally changed her mind and wanted to talk to him.
"I'm sorry, miss, you can't go through here." She was stopped by a steward before entering officers' quarters.
"I need to speak to officer Lowe, please—" she still tried to go past him.
"He's off duty right now, miss, you can try and speak to him later."
"No, you don't understand, it's an emergency—"
"I'm sure it's nothing, miss—"
"What's going on there?!" it was an unfamiliar voice coming from behind them that caught them both off guard. The man walked up to them.
"This lady tried entering officers' quarters, sir." the steward explained.
The man looked at distressed Elaine and back to the steward. "I'll handle it, you're dismissed." he waved him off.
The steward nodded his head and left. The man looked after him until he was out of sight and then turned towards Elaine who watched him with big terrified eyes.
"Chief officer Henry Wilde." he introduced himself. "How can I help you, miss?"
"Please, sir, I need to speak to officer Harold Lowe. There's been an emergency." she pleaded.
He let out a deep breath and seemed to think about it. "I'm afraid I can't help you with that, miss. Let me walk you back to your class. First class, I assume?" he took her by the arm and started leading her against her own will towards the 1st class entrance.
"Yes, but that's beside the point—" she tried to pull away.
"You can find him tomorrow afternoon when he is on his rounds again. Young lady like you should be asleep when his next rounds start." he joked and chuckled for himself.
Elaine was only growing more impatient. "Tomorrow might never come! I saw the iceberg!"
That made him stop in his track and look at her. While he was thinking of his next words, she looked behind him and spotted someone.
"James! James!" she called and broke away from Wilde's grip running towards him.
"Elaine! Wh-What are you—you shouldn't be here." he was overwhelmed by the crowd and commotion around him.
"James, please! I saw the iceberg, I need to talk to Harold, please!"
"I-I-"
"I don't want to do it later, I need to speak with him now, please." she pleaded.
She almost got to him and he almost nodded his head when the order was shouted to him.
"Moody! Crew's meeting, captain's quarters now!"
He looked distressed from Elaine to officer who shouted his order. "Aye aye, sir!" he shouted in response and looked back into Elaine's pleading eyes. "I-I'm sorry, Elaine. You'll have to do it tomorrow." and with that he turned around and ran inside.
Elaine was left there standing alone. She felt even more betrayed. Oh God, how stupid she was. If only she talked to Harold when she had a chance. She started making her way towards her room when she overheard boatswain and captain's conversation. Mr. Wilde and Mr. Andrews were with them as well.
"Boiler room 6 is flooded 8 feet above the plate and the mail hold is worse. She's all buckled in—" said boatswain.
"Can you shore up?" captain cut in the question.
"Not unless the pumps get ahead." answered boatswain.
"Have you seen the damage in the mail hold?" asked Mr. Andrews.
"No, she's already underwater." boatswain replied.
Oh God, this is bad, thought Elaine. She better hurry and tell her family about it.
She was met with Charlie standing outside her door. She looked at him in confusion.
"Good evening," he greeted her nonchalantly "we've been looking for you, miss." and opened the door for her.
Her whole family was inside, seated in the sitting area. Well, everyone except Estella.
"Elaine!" it was Philip who first noticed her and caught everyone's attention. They all looked at her expectedly.
"Something serious has happened." she started.
"Yes, it has." confirmed Kenneth. Elaine looked at Edward, but he didn't meet her gaze. "Both my daughters have disappeared tonight." Kenneth went on.
"I sent you to look for your sister and then you disappeared as well." said Elizabeth, holding her head.
"Now that one is back, we could get the idea where the other might be." Kenneth said, holding a drink and waving his arms around.
"Estella is fine. I was just with her in her room." she somehow mustered against her lips. She caught Edward smirking. "But," she quickly went on before anyone could cut in "that's not what I wanted to tell you."
"Oh?" questioned her father like the disappearance of her sister wasn't such a big deal to her.
Elaine's mind was racing. What did she really wanted to say?
That Estella broke off the engagement? According to their behavior, they knew nothing about it. So, Edward didn't tell them.
Or that Titanic had struck an iceberg and could potentially sink?
Maybe both? No, she could never do that to her sister. Besides, it wasn't her place to tell. Before she could say anything, someone knocked and busted in their room.
"Mr. Badour?" it was a steward.
"Can't you see that we're busy?" Kenneth asked sternly.
"Sir, I've been told to ask you to, please, put on your lifebelts and come up to the boat deck." he proceeded to enter the room.
"We are having the family meeting." Kenneth tried again.
"I'm sorry to inconvenience you, Mr. Badour, but it's Captain's orders." he walked towards the dresser and took out pair of lifebelts. "Now please, dress warmly. It's quite cold out tonight. May I suggest topcoats and hats?"
"Is this the emergency you talked about?" Kenneth asked Elaine, but didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he walked off.
The steward came back in the room they were all sitting. Seeing Elaine's distraught face expression, he approached her.
"Not to worry, miss. I'm sure it's just a precaution."
Elaine nodded her head and gave him a little smile as to reassure him as well.
Harold had been relived since 8pm that evening and was asleep in his cabin. As an officer, he didn't get much sleep since he only had 2 to 4 free hours between shifts so when he finally fell asleep, he was knocked out. The commotion and shouts from the outside woke him up some time later. When he was fully aware, he realized how unusually loud it was. He got up and went outside, stopping the first hurried seaman he saw.
"What's happening? What's this commotion all about? Are we having a lifeboat drill at midnight?!"
"No, sir! We hit an iceberg, sir!" the seaman said out of breath. Harold was ready to dismiss him, but the seaman said "And, sir? You're expected at crew's meeting."
"Very well." Harold nodded his head.
He went back to his room and got dressed in his uniform. As he was dressing up, he was thinking how he remained asleep during the collision. Ha, sixteen years at sea does wonders, he thought to himself and chuckled. He grabbed his revolver from the drawer and secured it before leaving the room and joining the other officers.
He found himself standing beside his friend James Moody, but before the two of them could emerge into conversation, the captain stormed in followed by Thomas Andrews and Bruce Ismay.
"This is most unfortunate, captain!" said Ismay.
He was being ignored while the captain helped Thomas Andrews to spread the blueprint across the table.
"Water 14 feet above the keel in 10 minutes," Andrews started explaining. "in the forepeak, in all 3 holds, and in Boiler room 6."
"That's right, sir." confirmed boatswain.
"When we can get underway, damn it?!" Mr. Ismay asked, impatiently.
"That's five compartments!" replied Andrews. "She can stay afloat with the first four compartments breached, but not five. Not five." he repeated. "As she goes down by the head the water will spill over the tops of the bulkheads at E deck from one to the next, back-to-back. There's no stopping it." he explained.
"The pumps." captain suggested. "We open the pumps—"
"The pumps buy you time," Andrews cut in "but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do Titanic will founder."
"But this ship can't sink!" protested Ismay.
"She's made of iron, sir." Andrews shot back. "I assure, she can. And she will. It is a mathematical certainty."
"How much time?" asked captain.
Mr. Andrews did calculations in his head before answering. "An hour. Two, at most."
They all gulped, distraught learning the news.
"And how many aboard, Mr. Murdoch?" captain questioned.
"Two thousand and two hundred souls on board, sir." answered Murdoch.
Captain was deep in thoughts. He was probably remembering his conversation with Mr. Ismay the day prior about increasing the speed. Mr. Ismay said it would make headlines if they arrived on Tuesday evening instead of Wednesday morning and surprise them all.
"Well, I believe you may get your headlines, Mr. Ismay."
Author's Note: Hello, my loves! First chapter of 2021, yay! I wish you all a happy new year! I hope you're all well and healthy and that you will enjoy this cahpter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I just wanted to inform you that we don't have many chapters left in this book ;( Leave me your thoughts and brace yourseves for the big finale xoxo
