Alice was stunned by how fine the Titanic was. She, along with many other passengers, could hardly believe it was a ship until she looked out over the railing at the seemingly endless ocean they were crossing.
The common room she shared with her family was of the utmost elegance. The room was decked with ornate wooden paneling, the finest furniture, and paintings more beautiful than any Alice had ever seen. And to think, she had yet to lay eyes upon her room!
"Ma'am, I trust you'll find all your belongings in place," said a steward by the name of Ernest Owen Abbott to Alice as he turned a key in the gilded lock of the door.
The wooden door swung open, and Alice could do nothing to stifle a gasp.
It was amazing, to say the very least. She hurried to the large, oak bureau and threw open the drawers to find all her gowns already inside, plus a few new outfits she made a mental note to thank Esme for.
A silver vanity stood beside the door, complete with a towel, and a porcelain bowl and pitcher already filled with water. On top of the vanity was a music box Alice recognized from her younger years in the Cullen household.
Alice noticed a grand canopy bed pushed up against the far left side of the room and a small table with two cushioned chairs. There was a large armchair in one corner of the room with a small library of books beside it.
"Oh, and, Mrs. Cullen requested these be given to you." Mr. Abbot pulled a deck of cards from his pocket. Alice stared wide-eyed. She hadn't known Esme was aware she could even play cards.
Alice smiled and accepted the deck. "Thank you, Mr. Abbot," she said. "The room is beyond wonderful, and I'm sure the cards will come in handy."
"Will you be in need of any further assistance, ma'am?"
"Not at this moment, thank you," Alice said. "Everything is perfect."
"Right, then," he said. "If you need me, I'm sure Mr. or Mrs. Cullen would be happy to show you where to find me."
He bowed to her and ducked out of the room, but before he could close the door, Bella hurried inside.
"Miss Brandon," Ernest said in greeting, bowing again. Bella managed a quick nod in acknowledgement before she turned back to her sister. Alice heard the door click as the steward left the room.
"Oh, Alice, isn't it absolutely beautiful?" Bella squealed, clasping her hands together. "I just can't believe it!"
"Magnificent," Alice breathed. "I trust your room is just as nice."
"Nice? Alice, it's wonderful!"
Alice smiled at her sister. Her eyes fell on something silver atop the dresser. From the angle she was sitting, she couldn't make out what it was.
"Alice, do you mind if I ask a favor of you?" Bella said, her voice softening as though she wanted no one else to hear.
"Of course not, Bella," Alice said. "Anything you need."
Bella smiled. "Edward has a friend in steerage," she said hurriedly. "He's invited the two of us to a party after dinner, but I just know Esme wouldn't let me go!"
"Don't be so quick to assume, Bella," Alice laughed, holding up her cards.
"That's different," she argued. "Esme doesn't mind if we're not completely prim and proper among family, but going to this gathering would mean risking the chance that someone in first class would see us! Esme would never allow it."
Bella took her sister's hand. "Please, Alice, oh, please cover for us," she begged. "I'll - I'll sit through an entire game of Bluejacks with you!"
Alice laughed. "Blackjack, love," she corrected. "And that's not necessary. Of course I'll help you. You and Edward just sneak of after dessert; I'll think of something to say to Esme."
Bella threw her arms around Alice. "Thank you so much," she said. "I promise I'll make it up to you!"
And with that, Bella hurried out of the room with only a fleeting wave in Alice's direction. Alice noticed that her hairdo was coming undone. She'd have to fix that for her sister before they went to dinner.
Alice slipped out of the common room and into the corridor, which was an adventure in itself. She reminded herself to keep her hands calmly at her sides and her back straight, as she was surrounded by first class men and women who would expect only the best behavior amongst their own kind.
Alice couldn't help but admire every single thing that lay about her. The doors were all identical, made of polished wood that reflected the light. The smooth carpet felt soft underneath her slippers, and the walls were adorned with the kind of hands Alice imagined would work on the elaborate gowns she owned.
She tried not to stop so as to see as much of the ship as she could before dinner, but every little thing about the ship was calling out to her. Alice walked by a wonderful library, filled to the very ceiling with more books than she ever imagined existed. She made a mental note to go back and spend some time in it before the voyage was over.
Once she noticed that she was about to pass the same elevator for the second time, she stepped inside.
"Down, please," Alice said primly, giving the attendant a smile. He raised his eyebrows.
"Down?" he questioned. "Are you certain, ma'am?"
"Quite certain," she answered, her brow furrowing. "Why do you ask?"
"If I was to take you down, it'd be into second-class," said the attendant. "Pardon me for asking, miss, but is there any particular reason you'd like to leave your first class accommodations?"
"For exploration's sake, I suppose," Alice sighed contentedly. "If second-class is my next stop, then perhaps I'll go into steerage after that. I'll wander the deck last, just before I go to dinner."
The attendant chuckled bemusedly at her and closed the elevator door, pulling a lever to take them down.
"You're quite different from everyone else, miss," he noted.
Alice laughed. "Well, isn't everyone?"
"Good point, ma'am," said the attendant just as the elevator hit the second-class floor. He wheeled open the door.
"Thank you, sir," Alice said, curtseying slightly and hurrying away, not noticing the amused look the man aimed at her back.
It didn't take long for her to note the differences between first- and second-class. It was not to say that second-class wasn't fine, because it certainly was. She saw a library almost like the one in first-class, but with noticeably less books, and a barber shop as well. The doors and walls were a plain white, but a painting was hung every so often to break the plainness.
"Ah, excuse me, miss, the elevator to the first-class level is over that way."
Alice wheeled around to see a man in a white vest and black slacks, motioning to the direction she'd come.
"Yes, sir, I'm well aware," she said, nodding politely and turning away to continue walking.
She wasn't sure how he'd known she was a first-class passenger. Looking around, she saw not much difference between the first- and second-class people. The men were dressed in identical suits to the ones she'd seen outside her common room, and the woman's gowns still were expensively made. Alice stopped in front of a glass case containing blueprints of the ship.
She tried to focus on the dim reflection of herself she saw in the case, and that of the girl behind her. If she looked closely, there was a difference. Her own gown had a skirt that was significantly larger, with far more detail put into it. Alice was also wearing a matching, custom made hat, whereas the other woman's head was left bare.
Alice wasn't sure why she found the new realization to be so unsettling. In an attempt to feel like she stuck out a bit less, she pulled off her gloves and necklace, tucking them into a pocket Esme had requested be put into her dress, just in case.
"Excuse me, sir!" Alice called out to a nearby steward. The way he wheeled around and immediately at attention made her uncomfortable. "What's the quickest way to steerage?"
"Steerage?" he asked, visibly surprised. "Ma'am, dining for first-class passengers starts - "
"In a bit over an hour," finished Alice. "Yes, sir, I'm quite aware. I'm skilled in using clocks to tell time, you see," she joked, pointing to the grandfather clock just a short ways away.
"I beg your pardon," he said, bowing slightly to her. He pointed to his left. "If you go to the very end of the corridor and turn to your right, you will see a stairwell. Take the stairs down, then turn left and take the stairs you will see there. That will lead you straight to steerage."
Alice nodded her head. "Thank you, sir," she said, smiling and turning away, looking down at her feet subconsciously as she repeated the directions to herself.
"Right, take stairs, left, take stairs," she whispered. "Right, take stairs, left take stairs; right, take stairs, left take - Oh!"
Alice, in her haste and distraction, crashed into a man. The books in his hands cascaded to the floor, and he let out a slight grunt.
"Oh, dear, I'm terribly sorry!" Alice said fretfully, bending down to scoop up as many books as she could. "I should've been watching where I was going."
In the instant his hand touched hers, it was as though an electric shock pulsed through her. The force of it baffled her, causing the two books she managed to pick up to fall back down on the floor. From the way his hand jostled slightly, she near convinced herself he'd felt it, too. She looked up at the man she'd bumped into, feeling as though she'd seen him before, or at least seen him coming.
A smile broke out upon his face as she took him in; blue eyes that put the night sky to shame, honey blonde hair that curled messily around his face, and a warm grin.
"Quite alright, miss," he said. Alice noticed a slight Southern twang in his voice. "I should be apologizing to you. I had these books stacked up so high, I couldn't see a thing."
"But, I - "
"Ah, ah, ah," he interrupted her. "A gentleman never lets a lady take the blame." He winked. Alice rolled her eyes as she tucked the last three books he hadn't already taken under her arm.
"Quite the gentleman, then, are we?" she mused. The man chuckled and stood, extending his hand. She took it almost cautiously, as if afraid she'd feel the sudden shock again, and allowed him to help her up.
"Well, I'd like to think so," he said, offering to take the books from her hands. She switched the stack from the arm she'd had them under to the other one.
"Do you mind my asking where you're heading with half the first-class library in your hands?" Alice asked. She could tell he was a first-class passenger; even though he wasn't dressed in a suit, the subtly extravagant green vest spoke for itself. The sleeves of his white collared shirt were rolled up to the elbows and his tie was slightly askew and loose; this on top of the fact that he was carrying a mountain of books in the second-class floor gave Alice the impression he wasn't one of the stuffy lawyer type she saw so often. The observation allowed her to relax.
"Steerage," he answered. "A friend of mine is down there, you see. His wife is a very keen reader, and he asked that I bring down a few of my favorites for her."
Alice laughed. "Two things. One," said she, holding up a single finger, "I believe a few, by definition, is more than two, but less than ten. You've at least twelve books in your pile, sir." She giggled and held up another finger. "Two, you're going the wrong way. Staircase to steerage is to your left. I could show you, if you'd like."
The man grinned; Alice noted the unique way in which the smile hit his eyes. "That'd be wonderful, ma'am."
"Here, just, let me take a few more of those books," Alice said, pulling away four more from him. "I can't bear to see you looking so uncomfortable."
He laughed. "As you wish, miss," he said as she started showing him the way. "So long as you'll let me do you a favor in return."
"And what favor would that be?" Alice asked amusedly, barely turning her head to look back at him.
"I could introduce you to my sister," he said as they neared the end of the corridor. He turned to the right, following Alice's footsteps almost exactly without even trying. "But I'm not sure that would be a very nice favor."
Alice laughed, remembering Rosalie and how she was supposed to keep an eye out for her at dinner. Alice didn't think she'd be very hard to spot.
"You could always let me borrow one of these books," Alice told him, remembering that he'd said they were his. "I'd love some new reading material."
"You read?" he asked.
"Now, why is that so surprising?" Alice huffed. "Do you think it improper for a woman to read?" She slurred the word as she took the steps going downward two at a time. She turned sharply to the left, silently noticing that this corridor was completely void of people.
"Who am I to judge what is and isn't proper?" the man shrugged behind her. "It was merely a question. And I'd be very happy to loan you one of my books, but I was thinking, perhaps, a slightly bigger favor was in order."
Alice could see the stairwell just a few steps in the distance. "What kind of slightly bigger favor?"
The man took hold of one of her arms, spinning her to face him. He was smiling.
"I could… escort you to dinner," he offered.
Alice allowed herself a slight grin. "Thank you, but I can very well escort myself," she said. "But, you are more than welcome to join my family and I for dinner." She twirled a golden lock out of his face with her finger.
"I'd be delighted," he said, letting her go. They went down the final staircase, and she slowed her pace enough to let him walk alongside her.
As soon as they were among people, Alice noticed a startling difference. The walls and floor were white and barren in steerage, and it certainly did not look like this area of the ship got as much maintenance as the rest. Alice could feel the eyes of a woman piercing into her back as she walked. She instinctively cringed into the man beside her.
"I feel like they're all silently judging me," she whispered. The man chuckled.
"Relax," he advised. "I'm pretty sure we're more amusing to them than anything else. I mean, first-class passengers in steerage. That's about the funniest thing you'll get on this ship."
"There have to be other funny things," Alice said, more to herself than anything else. "Like the fact that the man staying down the corridor from my family and me misplaced his wig, and I saw his wife's dog wearing it just before I left. And the way the elevator attendant asked all those questions was quite funny."
"I stand corrected," the man chortled. "Certainly, there are many other funny things on the Titanic."
He stopped abruptly and turned towards a door.
"I believe this is it," he muttered softly to himself. "Here, let me take the books. You wait right here; I won't be long."
Alice handed her small stack to him and he grinned before turning away and knocking as best he could. She could see the silvery blonde hair of the man who opened the door briefly before both him and the man she'd been with disappeared behind it. Alice could hear the voice of, who she assumed was, the woman the books were meant for.
Despite her fine garbs and obvious difference in appearance from those in steerage, Alice felt slightly less uptight and worrisome there than she did in first-class with the Cullens. She observed a woman who very much resembled her mother wearing a dusty brown dress with her hair pulled back into a messy bun. The woman was carrying a small boy dressed in the same brown color, and Alice could hear her whispering tales of America to the boy who stared up at his mother in wonder.
Alice's mind flitted back to the silver object she'd spotted atop her dresser for only a moment, before the man reappeared from the doorway.
"That didn't take very long, did it?" he said, his hair slightly more tousled than it had been originally and his breath coming in shorter pants. Alice looked at him wonderingly.
"Charlotte and Peter have a daughter," he said, answering her unspoken question. "Her name is Scarlett; she's just turned five. She gets very excited when she sees me." Alice joined in his laughter briefly before sighing.
"I'd love to meet her," she said longingly. "I love little girls."
"Would it be out of line for me to say that I wish you'll have one of your own someday?"
"Not out of line at all," Alice said as they started walking aimlessly through the steerage corridor. "I wish for the same thing."
"The deck is this way," the man told her, urging her down a different corridor.
"More stairs," Alice mock-groaned when she saw the staircase. "Brilliant."
"I could make it more exciting for you," he said smugly, looking at her from the corner of his eyes. "Race you."
And he took off, with Alice laughing and picking up her skirt to follow him.
"Not fair!" she called out after him. "You got a head start!"
When she reached the staircase, he stopped and stood to the side.
"Alright," he said, motioning for her to pass. "Even the playing field."
"Really?"
"Not a chance."
He winked at her and threw himself up the stairs, jumping at least five steps in the process.
"Dammit," Alice cursed through her laughter, hurrying up the stairs as quickly as her short legs would allow.
She crashed into him as soon as she was on the deck, laughing as he held her arms to steady her with an amused grin on his face.
Alice stopped her laughter and sighed happily, pushing her nose into his chest for half a second to inhale briefly.
"Peppermints," she declared. "That's what my father smelled like. It's all I remember of him."
He spun her out of his grasp and the two walked in silence for a few moments, taking in the crisp night air.
"What happened to your father?" he asked her. Alice bit her lip. She wasn't used to talking about her parents.
"Both him and my mother died when my sister and I were young," she confessed to him. "A family they worked for as servants before we were born, the Cullens, took us in. Carlisle and Esme treat us as though we really are their family, and sometimes I feel like I am. Bella - that's my sister - is much more comfortable in the house than I am. She was only a couple months old when our parents died, you see. I was already nearing my third birthday. I understood that we didn't belong in a wealthy household, being treated as equals."
Alice cast her gaze downward at the black ocean beneath them. "Even after all these years, I can't help but feel that I should be serving them, not dining with them. I do what Esme will let me, which, admittedly, isn't much. But I try."
The man leaned against the rail, turning his back to the ocean and tilting his head up at the sky. Alice didn't turn; she kept her arms rested atop the railing, leaning into it and only slightly turning her head to him as he spoke.
"Did you ever think that you should stop fighting it?" he asked her. "That maybe Fate thrust you into this family because you were destined to be more than servants like your parents?"
"I don't see it that way," she said, shaking her head. "I feel like it was all chance that I ended up where I am."
"That's how everyone ends up where they are, isn't it?" he said with a teasing edge to his voice. "It's all chance; luck, be it good or bad.
"The way I see it, you're where you are because you've always been destined to be there. You don't have to be what your parents were. Hell, if I was, I'd be working in a farmer's market selling goat milk. I'd have never struck oil, therefore I wouldn't have had enough money to afford this trip."
New money, Alice said to herself. He didn't seem like the type, but who was she to judge a book by its cover?
"And if I hadn't boarded the Titanic earlier today," he continued, "Peter never would have asked me to bring books for Charlotte. And if Peter hadn't asked me to bring books for Charlotte…" He looked at Alice. "I'd have never met you."
"Well, then," Alice said coyly. "I'll say striking oil was the best thing that's ever happened to you." She turned around, but before she could get another word out, she saw Esme standing on the other side of the dock wrapped in her favorite shawl, smirking and motioning for Alice to join her.
"Oops," Alice muttered. "I have to go."
"Wait!" the man said, reaching out to grab her hand. "I didn't even ask for your name."
Alice looked behind her shoulder. Esme looked slightly impatient, and slightly smug. Alice couldn't decide which was worse.
"It's Alice," she said, squeezing the man's hand before letting go and slowly starting to walk backwards, her hands clasped behind her.
"I'll see you at dinner, then, Alice?" he said.
"Alice!" Esme called, a hint of a smile in her voice.
"I should hope so," Alice answered him, before wheeling around and hurrying over Esme.
"Sorry, ma'am," Alice said. "Esme," she corrected herself. "I lost track of time."
"I can see that," Esme laughed, starting back to the doorway that led to the first-class suites. "Tell me, love, who was that dashing young man you were with?"
"He's…" Alice started, thinking as hard as she could. "He's…" She pursed her lips. "He's a friend," she said, suddenly realizing that she had never asked for the stranger's name.
She looked down at her hand, feeling as though it were still pulsating from his touch, and for a brief second, Alice felt as though he'd never been a stranger at all.
A/N: I feel like I didn't put enough detail into this one.. and like I'm just totally writing it wrong. -headbash- I still hope you guys liked it, and even though I didn't get my target review amount for last chapter, I was really happy with the feedback I did get. (: Thanks, guys. Here's hoping this story will make it to twenty reviews by the end of the week! xoxo.