Women and Children First (29 page)

Mr Frank came into the kitchen holding a newspaper. ‘Your article’s on page five, John. I thought you would like to see it.’

Reg sat at the kitchen table to read, with Alphonse peering over his shoulder.

‘Millionaire’s wife gave up her place in lifeboat’, the headline read. Underneath, the article claimed that Mrs Grayling had been seated in a lifeboat that was full and ready to be lowered when a young woman who was pregnant and carrying a small child appeared. ‘Give my place to her,’ Mrs Grayling had cried, and leapt out of the boat. ‘I will find my beloved husband and our fates will be entwined for ever.’

Unbeknownst to her, though, her husband had been ordered to board a lifeboat on the other side of the ship, and so she drowned while he was saved. All this was witnessed, according to the reporter, by a first-class steward called John Hitchens, whom they had befriended on board. In a unique twist of fate, the story continued, after the
Carpathia
docked Mr Grayling bumped into John, who was limping along the street on badly injured feet, and offered him work at his luxury mansion, which is when the truth came out.

Reg winced. ‘That’s not what I said at all.’

‘Reporters write what they want to write. They want everything to be a sensation,
n’est ce pas
?’

‘I just hope Mr Grayling doesn’t mind. I’d better apologise to him.’

Far from minding, Mr Grayling seemed very pleased when he read the newspaper. ‘Well done, John. I appreciate it.’

I bet you do
, Reg thought.
Especially if I’m helping you to cover up a murder.

Molly had many more questions, though. She seemed to have got the bit between her teeth. ‘Did you even see Mrs Grayling near the lifeboats?’ she wanted to know, and Reg admitted that he hadn’t. He mentioned knocking on the door of their cabin and getting no reply, then trying the handle and finding it locked.

‘That sure is suspicious.’ Molly frowned. ‘Where the heck was she?’

‘It might be possible to work out which lifeboat she was on,’ Reg mused, ‘because I saw Mr Grayling and Miss Hamilton getting onto Lifeboat 5, which was quite an early one to launch, and he says he put Mrs Grayling in a boat on the other side
before
that. Hang on a moment.’ He ran all the way up to his room at the top of the house and retrieved a page he had torn out of a newspaper that estimated the time at which each boat had been lowered and who had been on them. He sat down beside Molly at the kitchen table and they pored over it together.

‘Boat 5 was lowered from the starboard side at twelve-fifty-five, according to this,’ he told Molly. ‘The first one to leave the port side, at around the same time, was Lifeboat 6. Look, it was full of women: Helen Churchill Candee and Elizabeth Jane Rothschild.’ He read a few more names from the list.

‘My sister works for the Rothschilds,’ Molly said thoughtfully. ‘She’s a maid, like me. She wasn’t with them on the
Titanic
, but she can probably ask Mrs Rothschild if she saw Mrs Grayling on the lifeboat. I think they knew each other.’

‘What harm can it do?’ Reg agreed.

‘I’m going to see my sister on Sunday so I’ll ask her then.’

Suddenly Alphonse banged a mixing bowl down on the table, making them jump. ‘This is gossip,’ he snarled. ‘I hate gossip in my kitchen. It makes the sauce curdle. Don’t you have any work to do?’

Molly stuck out her tongue at him. ‘Who got out of the wrong side of the bed? Don’t get grouchy with me.’ However, she rose to her feet and picked up her dusters. ‘I guess I’d better get going with the upstairs.’

‘Here!’ Alphonse threw a sack of peas at Reg. ‘Shell these. It will keep you out of mischief.’

Reg pulled out the first pod and split it with his thumbnail, then scraped the peas into a pan. He didn’t like the awkward atmosphere between them so he tried to explain. ‘Molly’s getting a bit carried away with this mystery,’ he said. ‘I expect there’s a completely rational explanation.’

‘All I know is that it is not your business, and it is not hers. You have not worked in a house like this before, but I am telling you it is best to keep out of other people’s
affaires
or you can get yourself in
beeg
trouble.’

‘I agree. You’re right. I will.’ They carried on working in silence but Reg sensed that Alphonse was still cross because he continued thumping pots and pans with gusto. He and Molly had better avoid discussing Mr Grayling’s private life in front of him in future. Alphonse seemed to object to it.

That evening, Mr Grayling and Miss Hamilton were dining out, so after the staff had eaten Reg was at a loose end. It was sunny so he decided to go for a walk in Central Park but by the time he crossed the street, he found he was sweating in the black jacket he wore to work, so he turned back to leave it at the house. He’d be fine in his shirt sleeves.

He entered by the back door and walked up to the cloakroom on the ground floor where outdoor clothing was kept. As he opened the door, Molly jumped back with a cry of surprise and Reg saw that she was holding one of Mr Grayling’s wallets in her hand.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

‘Mr Grayling … wanted me to find something …’ she began, stumbling over her words.

‘But he’s not here.’

‘He … erm, asked me before he left.’ Reg looked down at her hand again and saw that she was holding a dollar bill.

‘I’ll split it with you,’ she said quickly. ‘He never notices. He keeps wallets in all his coats and he never knows how much money he’s got in them. Here – you take this.’ She tried to thrust the money into Reg’s hands but he backed away.

‘I won’t tell on you, Molly, but I don’t want anything to do with this. You should be careful, because he could call the police if you’re caught …’

Molly cocked her head to one side. ‘You’re a nice guy, John. You’re a good influence on me. Look! I’m putting it back.’ She pushed the money into the wallet and replaced it in Mr Grayling’s coat.

Reg took his jacket off and as he stretched his arms up to hang it on a peg, Molly slipped her arms around his waist and pressed her body against him. ‘I like you,’ she whispered. ‘I like you a lot.’ Flustered, Reg was unable to move away before she leaned in and gave him a lingering kiss on the lips. She had a sweet smell about her, and her touch felt good, but when she tilted her head back to look at him quizzically, he said, ‘Molly, we can’t do this. I’m sure Mr Frank wouldn’t like it. It could get complicated.’

‘We don’t have to tell the world, do we? I like you, you seem to like me, and if we kiss and hug every now and then to make the day go faster, it’s not exactly a crime, is it?’

‘I have a girlfriend back home.’

‘Do you really? When are you going to see her? She’s on her way to visit you, is she?’

Before he could answer she kissed him again, and this time he couldn’t help responding. It felt wonderful to be in a woman’s arms. He’d been walking around for two months like an invalid or a person in a trance, but Molly’s kisses brought him to life. He gave in to the feeling and kissed her back.

A sign announced ‘Welcome to Saratoga Springs, district of Saratoga County’ and Juliette was surprised to find they were in a town, with hotels, shops, a racecourse and several bath-houses advertising health treatments with the local spring water. Southeast of the town there was a large lake and everywhere she saw pretty gardens in bloom. It seemed an attractive area, but quite different from the backwater she and her mother had been led to expect. Everywhere she looked there were fashionable ladies walking the streets shaded by parasols, and gentlemen standing beside the latest models of automobile.

‘Is this a busy place?’ Juliette asked their driver.

‘It’s quiet in winter,’ he replied, ‘but in summer it attracts many visitors from New York.’

Juliette and her mother exchanged glances. If that were the case, she would have to be a virtual prisoner in their home. She wouldn’t be able to come out to shop in the stores or sip a soda in a café for fear of being recognised by someone who knew of her connection to Robert. Besides, his sister would be arriving in a couple of weeks to spend the months of July and August there, so she certainly couldn’t risk going out then.

The house they pulled up in front of was isolated down a dirt track, within a large flower-filled garden. It had a shady verandah out front with a swinging seat on it, and inside the rooms were freshly painted and sunny. A local woman called Edna had been hired to shop, cook and clean for them, and she was waiting to greet them.

Juliette wandered from room to room. There was a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen and scullery, to which Edna’s room was attached, and a bathroom for her use; upstairs there were two bedrooms, a dressing room and a bathroom for her and her mother. This was to be their home for the next five months. It was neatly furnished and had electric lights, but it was much less luxurious than they were used to and suddenly Juliette realised, with a pang of guilt, what she was putting her mother through. Her predicament was entirely her own fault and it was fair that she should suffer, but her mother had done nothing wrong and she would be a prisoner in this place as well.
I must be nicer to her,
she reprimanded herself.
I must remember her sacrifice
.

Edna brought them tea on the verandah, and Juliette asked her mother about the relatives they had told everyone they were visiting.

‘I promised to write to Robert on arrival,’ she explained. ‘But what can I say? I suppose I must describe these elderly relatives we are supposed to be staying with. How can I not?’

‘I will have to do the same when I write to your father and brother. We should get our stories straight. I haven’t seen them since I was a child, but they are the son and daughter of my grandmother’s cousin and have lived in America all their lives.’

Together they invented a likely kind of house, very dark and brimming with antiques, and two frail grey-haired people, a brother and sister, seeing out their final days together.

When Juliette wrote her first letter to Robert, she merely said that the relatives were in poor health but had seemed pleased to see them and she devoted the rest of her letter to the journey, her first impressions of Saratoga Springs, and how much she missed him already. Her mother wrote to her father and brother to tell of their safe arrival, and when both letters were signed and sealed, their driver was despatched to town to post them. He lived above a garage down at the end of the track, just where it left the main road. They were keeping him on for the summer so that he could drive Edna to buy food. He’d pick up the newspapers and mail every day and be on hand to fetch a doctor if Juliette needed one.

‘I’m only just beginning to realise all the lies we are going to have to tell!’ Lady Mason-Parker exclaimed. ‘I must keep a note or I’ll forget.’

‘I’m sorry, Mother,’ Juliette said. ‘Truly I am. This has been horrid for you too, and we still have five months to go.’

‘I expect we’ll be able to sail back before the end of November. That will only give me a month before the wedding, though, so I shall endeavour to make most of the arrangements from here. We can do it together. We’ll get you a dress in New York and have it altered by our dressmaker at home once you lose the pregnancy fat. I hope Robert will be able to sail with us. He was so comforting on the
Carpathia
, and I know I will feel nervous getting on a ship again.’

‘I’ll ask him,’ Juliette promised, but her mind was on yet another lie she was telling. Her mother had no idea that they were already married. Would that mean they couldn’t get remarried in the local church at home? Would they have to confess to the vicar what they had done? Her mother would be devastated at the deception.

The day after their arrival, a doctor came to examine Juliette. He took her blood pressure, felt her stomach and asked a number of questions about her diet and sleeping patterns.

‘I’ve been getting a strange fluttery sensation in my belly,’ she told him. ‘But I expect it’s nerves brought on by the journey.’

‘On the contrary,’ the doctor said. ‘I expect what you can feel is the baby kicking.’

Juliette started back in her chair, open-mouthed with surprise. ‘Really? That’s the baby?’ Until that point she had given it little thought, but if it was kicking her from within, she would have to start accepting it was a real living creature.

‘These feelings will get stronger and more definite over the next weeks until it is too big to move any more.’

‘May I ask you a question? I think you understand my situation, that I am unmarried and the child is to be offered for adoption.’ He nodded, tight-lipped. ‘Will my future husband be able to tell I have had a child?’

‘That depends. If you give birth normally, there should be no visible signs, but if we have to operate to remove the baby by Caesarean section then there will be a scar.’ Juliette sighed. ‘It will also be important if you have children in the future to tell the doctor that it is not your first time.’ His tone made his disapproval clear. He would look after her physical needs but she couldn’t expect any sympathy.

In bed that night, she couldn’t sleep. The baby was kicking, and she stroked her belly trying to soothe it. Every letter she wrote to Robert that summer would contain yet more lies and glaring omissions. She wouldn’t ever be able to tell him what was foremost on her mind. There was nothing she could write that was true, apart from the fact that she missed him. And then after the baby was adopted and they were reunited, their marriage would be founded on a huge lie. When they had a child of their own, she would have to pretend to him that it was her first pregnancy. She would have to swear the presiding doctor to secrecy. And if, heaven forbid, she needed a Caesarean, she would have to keep her belly concealed or invent some other procedure that might have necessitated such surgery. A problem with her ovaries perhaps?

It all felt horribly wrong, but she knew that she had no choice. If it came out in society that she had an illegitimate child, she would be ostracised both in England and America. Robert would either have to divorce her or forfeit his own position, his business connections, and possibly his relationship with his family. In that situation he would surely divorce her. When he found out she wasn’t the honest, intelligent girl he’d thought she was, he would fall out of love faster than he had fallen into it.

There was no course she could take other than the one she was already on. She just wished time would speed up and the months would pass quickly so that it would all soon be over and she could relegate her pregnancy to the shadowy realms of ancient history.