14 April 1912

Will and I were running through Dalbeattie, laughing happily. Suddenly Will pulled up and turned to stare at me. His laughter became maniacal, blood started pouring out of his nose. I screamed as he suddenly began morphing into Bruce Junior. He grabbed at my arms as I turned to run.

I ran as fast as I could, through the town which seemed to join onto the Southampton docks. I ran past the Titanic officers who all called to me - "Ada! Ada! Ada!" The docks joined onto Titanic's boat deck. I kept running, just hoping I could get away.

Molly Brown pulled me towards a bench, where my sister was sitting. My sister looked up, smiling eerily at me, "It's too late, Ada. They're gone. They're gone. It's too late."

I sat bolt upright, breathing heavily. I could feel the perspiration all over my body. I was trembling uncontrollably – that awful, awful dream. Those dreams had stopped, I hadn't experienced any like that for years.

I slowly edged myself out of bed, feeling incredibly unnerved. I didn't want to think about the dream, but I was having trouble putting it to the back of my mind. I hated having dreams like that, especially when I had no one to talk to about them. I had never mentioned that to Will, and I didn't want to. Not yet.

It was light outside, my clock said that it was seven o'clock. Plenty of time to get ready for breakfast then! I contemplated waking Lizzie, but decided it would be cruel to do so. She needed her sleep much more than I needed a corset. I could do without this once – it wasn't as though I really wanted to wear one anyway.

But what does one wear to a first class hymn service? I briefly browsed through my closet, trying to find something suitable. Not a dinner dress – although I had plenty of those. Will had really gone overboard with buying dinner dresses, especially considering the fact that if I had gone to dinner every evening and had worn a different dress each time, that should only be five dresses. Not ten or more, which was the number I had now.

My eyes finally settled on a pale pink dress, which was suitably plain – I didn't want to wear anything which would draw attention to me. I would probably need some gloves, which were in a drawer somewhere. I rummaged around until I found a pair of beautiful cream gloves, which had never been worn. They were so perfectly clean and crisp...it was almost a shame to use them now.

I selected a hat from the top of the closet, a brown one with pink details. Beautiful. That was when I had to stop myself – I was behaving like I was choosing an outfit to dress up a porcelain doll. I didn't need to make this much effort just to go amongst those people. They would never see me again, so what did it matter? Still, Will had spent so much money on these clothes...I would wear them, but I had no intention of putting anymore effort into it.

"Miss Ada?"

I almost jumped out of my skin with fright. I turned to see Lizzie standing there – she looked like she had been up and ready for work for hours. It hit me – of course she had. She thought that I expected it of her.

"Yes, Lizzie?"

"I'm sorry, Miss, I thought you might need some help getting dressed."

"Well, I -"

She looked at me earnestly. She wanted to help, the poor girl. She was being paid to help and that was what she intended to do.

"Very well. But please, Lizzie, I asked you to call me Ada!"


During the service, I couldn't help but reflect on Will's attitude to what had happened. He had been furious at first, then upset, then angry...and then oddly calm. The calmness actually bothered me more than the rage. He had arrived to walk me to the service, presented me with daffodils – although where he had managed to find daffodils I did not know – and had not mentioned Bruce Junior or anything connected to that awful incident. It was strange, and I couldn't help feeling that something had happened last night when he had gone to find that man.

Still, as long as the rest of the voyage was peaceful, I would be be perfectly content to just stay close to Will. I had seen the Ismays almost as soon as we entered the room, but we had both ignored them and I hoped it would stay that way. Just Will and I, so we could both try to put this horrid voyage behind us.

At least the singing was decent. When Will and I were in Dalbeattie, we had attended a church service. God, it was wonderful entertainment! They had chosen a selection of hymns to sing throughout the service, which wasn't particularly remarkable. No, the problem with them was that their congregation couldn't hold a note between them. The women were shrill, the men just too loud, almost shouting. Some weren't trying, some obviously considered themselves to hold great talent. Will and I were forced to leave early, abandoning all hope of taking that particular service seriously. We stood outside in hysterics for ten minutes, before hurrying away so we weren't caught by the people as they swarmed out at the end.

Will nudged me gently, bringing me back into the present. There seemed to be a small disturbance just outside, but a man who I had often seen with Mr Hockley hurried to sort it out. I suddenly realised that I had been silent for a while, and quickly looked at the paper to see where we were. Will pointed to the line and I joined in, my voice sounding somewhat dull.

"Oh, hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea..."


At the end of the service, Will took my arm and led me over to the side of the room. I looked up at him, puzzled. I had been expecting to leave straight away.

"Sorry about this, lovvie -" he paused and looked down at me. "Sorry, Ada...I must have a word with the captain."

"Will, I don't mind if you call me that. Honestly. I was being...silly...the other day."

He opened his mouth to reply, but froze before he spoke. I followed his gaze and watched, in horror, as Bruce Junior approached us.

"Miss Banks, Mr Murdoch. I am so dreadfully sorry for intruding in this manner, but I have been giving your suggestion quite a bit of thought."

I looked at Will, a frown creasing my forehead slightly. Suggestion? What suggestion? The creature looked at me and laughed softly.

"You haven't told her! Hah! Well, never mind. All I wanted to say, Will, is that I refuse. Downright refuse. Because, my good man, if you ever dare to mention this to anyone...I will ruin you. No one will believe you and I will make sure that you never work with the White Star Line again – or any other reputable firms, for that matter!"

Will scowled at him, slowly slipping his arm across my shoulders to reassure me. I huddled in gratefully. Bruce Junior sneered at us.

"I must dash. By the way, Miss Banks, you look simply exquisite this morning."

He walked away and I looked up at Will.

"You told me you hadn't seen him!"

"I didn't want to worry you, Aid. If I had told you there was an ultimatum hanging in the air you probably wouldn't have slept last night."

I considered this for a moment. "Very well. What was your 'suggestion'?"

"I said to him that if he would leave the White Star Line, give up his inheritance and stay away from us, I would not report him."

"You didn't think he'd go for that?"

"I hoped he would have the decency to at least agree to leave us alone," he shrugged.

Molly Brown walked past and Will caught her attention.

"Molly, could you walk Ada to her room, please? I need to talk to the captain and I might be a while."

Molly smiled in greeting, probably a bit wary of me after the previous day. I followed her to the door, but paused and briefly looked back at Will. He was standing alone, looking utterly melancholy. My heart went out to him, but now I had the horrible feeling that he would keep important secrets from me. I didn't really know how to feel, and when Molly pulled my arm gently I needed no further encouragement to leave him there alone.


A/N - I'm glad I've got this one out now! This chapter has been sitting here for the last few days and I'm sorry about that. I had some laptop problems for a couple of days, then had a little bit of coursework to do. Anyway, I enjoyed writing this chapter and I'm looking forward to getting started on the next one!