titanic (KennoYuna)

chapter 1

The gleaming white superstructure of Titanic rose mountainously beyond the rail, and above that, the buff-colored funnels stood against the sky like the pillars of a great temple. Crewmen moved across the deck, dwarfed by the awesome scale of the steamer.

Southampton, England, April 10, 1912. It was almost noon on sailing day. A crowd of hundreds blackened the pier next to Titanic like ants on a jelly sandwich.

A gorgeous burgundy Renault touring car hung from a loading crane. It was lowered toward hatch number two.

On the pier, horse-drawn vehicles, motorcars, and lorries moved slowly through the dense throng. The atmosphere was one of excitement and general giddiness. People embraced tearful farewells or waved and shouted bon voyage wishes to friends and relatives on the decks above.

A white Renault, leading a silver-gray Daimler-Benz, pushed through the crowd, leaving a wake in the press of people. Around the handsome cars, people were streaming to board the ship, jostling with hustling seamen and stokers, porters, and barking White Star Line officials.

The Renault stopped, and the liveried driver scurried to open the door for a young woman dressed in a stunning white and purple outfit, with an enormous matching hat. She was seventeen years old and beautiful, regal of bearing, with piercing eyes.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look any bigger than Mauritania."

A personal valet opened the door on the other side of the car for Park Jisung, the twenty-one-year-old heir to the elder Jisungs fortune. Jisung was handsome, arrogant, and rich beyond meaning.

"You can be blasé about some things, Yuna, but not about Titanic. It's over a hundred feet longer than Mauritania

turned and gave his hand to Yuna's mother, Tayeon, who descended from the touring car behind him. Taeyeon was a thirtyish society empress from one of the most prominent Philadelphia families. She was a widow and ruled her household with an iron will.

"Your daughter is much too hard to impress, Tayeon." He indicated a puddle. "Mind your step."

Taeyeon gazed at the leviathan. "So this is the ship they say is unsinkable."

"It is unsinkable. God himself could not sink this ship." Jisung spoke with the pride of a host providing a special experience.

This entire entourage of rich Americans was impeccably turned out, a quintessential example of the Edwardian upper class, complete with servants. Jisung's valet, Lee Taeyong, was tall and impassive, dour as an undertaker. Behind him emerged two maids, personal servants to Taeyeon and Yuna.

A White Star Line porter scurried toward them, harried by last-minute loading.

"Sir, you'll have to check your baggage through the main terminal, round that way-"

Jisung nonchalantly handed the man a fiver. The porter's eyes dilated. Five pounds was a monster tip in those days.

"I put my faith in you, good sir." He nodded curtly, indicating Taeyong. "See, my man."

"Yes, sir. My pleasure, sir."
Jisung never tired of the effect of money on the unwashed masses.

Taeyong pulled the porter back toward the cars. "These trunks here, and twelve more in the Daimler. We'll have all this lot up in the rooms."

The White Star man looked stricken when he saw the enormous pile of steamer trunks and suitcases loading down the second car, including wooden crates and a steel safe. He whistled frantically for some cargo handlers nearby, who came running.

Jisung breezed on, leaving the minions to scramble. He quickly checked his pocket watch.

"We'd better hurry. This way, ladies."

He indicated the way toward the first-class gangway. They moved into the crowd. Boa, Yuna's maid, hustled behind them, laden with bags of her mistress's most recent purchases...things too delicate for the baggage handlers.

Jisung led, weaving between vehicles and handcarts, hurrying passengers (mostly second class and steerage) and well-wishers. Most of the first-class passengers were avoiding the smelly press of the dockside crowd by using an elevated boarding bridge, twenty feet above.

They passed a line of steerage passengers in their coarse wool and tweeds, queued up inside movable barriers like cattle in a chute. A health officer examined their heads one by one, checking scalps and eyelashes for lice.

Jisung guided them out of the path of a horse-drawn wagon loaded down with two tons of Oxford marmalade in wooden cases for Titanic's victualling department.

Yuna looked up as the hull of Titanic loomed over them... a great iron wall, Bible black and severe. Jisung motioned her forward, and she entered the gangway to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread.

It was the ship of dreams...to everyone else. To Yuna, it was a slave ship, taking her back to America in chains.

Jisung's hand closed possessively over Yuna's arm. He escorted her up the gangway, and the black hull of the Titanic swallowed them.

Outwardly, Yuna was everything a well-brought-up girl should be. Inside, she was screaming.