Alphabet Steps

Ill Fated Voyage

Lisa Scott-Lee sighed as she looked bored out to the sea beyond the first class dining area. Her father spoke on telling her the engagement was a beneficial one to the family but the idea of leaving her family tore at her heart. "More tea Miss?" A waiter said with a small smile as Lisa shook her head slightly and ventured a look at a small girl who was sat primly at the table with her mother. She remembered times like that back before the family company lost a lot of money and she soon became relied on to make a match for the financial benefits as opposed to the love match she had her heart set on. 

Claire shivered as she looked at her elder brother Lee who had insisted that they share a cabin. She had hoped she might have some time to herself but Lee was protective to the extent of smothering. Still the connecting room to their bathroom was occupied by two sisters. Faye was a ballerina and her elder sister Clare was chaperoning her to New York where she was going to audition for a Ballet School Place. Clare was quiet but Faye had immediately started to talk to them and Claire had not missed the exchanged looks between her brother and the blonde. Faye had shown off her dancing in the 3rd class common area an Italian Immigrant been her willing partner as she spun elegantly as a gaggle of musicians played a Irish Reel. 

Ian Watkins was a young steward embarking on his first transatlantic journey He was from a small Welsh village but his Aunt had family in Liverpool and had suggested he look to White Star Line for a job. She knew he'd be bored in the small Welsh mining town and sensed he'd at least find adventure and new places on ships. He had been deemed too clumsy for first class stewarding and if he was honest he was glad of it. Whilst the White Star prided itself on the best service possible it was a little more relaxed in the lower classes. He smiled as he watched a blonde with cascading ringlets be twirled around expertly by a Dark Haired Man. A stark contrast to the stiffness of First Class. 

"What was that?" Lisa asked as she was awoken on the old April night by a slight shudder. 
"I should imagine it was a propeller blade or similar M'am." The ladies maid said as Lisa looked slightly unsure at the maids words. She took a seat at the dressing table of her room and sighed as she untied the bundle of love letters from Johnny, the young man she had fallen for back home.

"Come we need to get to the deck." Lee urged as Faye looked round wildly.
"I can't find Clare. I can't leave her." Faye argued as Lee grabbed her arm no longer caring for proper decorum. The situation was beyond that. True the staff may be trying to maintain a calm demeanour but he could see there was more to the ships judder than they were letting on. "Lee, how are we going to get up to the upper decks, besides no one's looking particularly worried at the moment." Claire ventured as she tugged on her coat which Lee had instructed her to do. "They don't want to worry us, last thing they need is a riot on their hands. We need to get as high up the decks as we can." Lee mused as Faye struggled against him. "I need to find my sister. Do....don't make me go."
"I won't bu..but Faye please listen to me, this is bad." He said as he led her along the corridor past door after door of cabins. 

"Sir where are you going?" A young blond steward asked as Lee glowered at him.
"To second class, I believe that...that I need to get my family to the upper decks." Lee answered as Faye still tried to get out of his strong hold. "I'm not sure your lady friend there wishes to go." The steward said as Faye shook her head.
"No, I want to find my sister." Faye said as the blond steward looked at her and the expression on his face chilled her. "I wouldn't advise that Miss, not now." He uttered as Claire gaped slightly taking in what he was saying. "Whe..where's best for us to go?" Lee asked desperately. "There is nowhere, not yet. But best position yourselves as close to a gate as possible." The steward said as Lee nodded feeling his younger sister clutch his hand as if they were once more children.

"Miss, your jacket and a glass of whiskey, it may be cold up on deck." The waiter said as they stood in the large dining room of first class. "On deck?" Lisa asked as her father simply shook his head. "It'll just be a precaution my darling. We'll be tucked back in our beds in an hour or so I should imagine." Anthony stated as he smoked his pipe idly unaware of the rapidly escalating issue. 

"I'm not keeping them locked there. I won't. They're people too. Sure they don't have first class tickets but they have a right to get a chance to survive." Ian argued with the higher up steward who seemed to think it was fine for them to condemn an entire group of people to a certain death simply on the purchase of their ticket. "There are not enough life boats for all." The man hissed as Ian nodded.
"Be that as it may, they have a right to try." He muttered as he turned the key in the metal gate and unlocked the gate separating the 3rd class passengers from the upper decks. 

"Stay with me." Lee said as he tugged both girls along. He hated that Faye was clearly upset she hadn't got her sister with her but he knew the small chance they had of getting to the lifeboats. Deep down he also knew he had little chance of survival, still if Claire had Faye with her he'd feel somewhat happier. They'd both have someone else to focus on and he sensed Faye would protect his younger sister.

"Father please." Lisa sobbed as she was bundled into a lifeboat along with some other first class women and children. "Now my dear, don't cry. I have had a fine life, a good innings and I have 4 wonderful children who will carry on the name. Tell your Mother my last thoughts were of her." Anthony said as he held his only daughter's cheek gently and kissed her temple as the boat was lowered into the waters.

"Lee there's no boat this side. None at all." Claire screamed over the din of yells and weeping. "Then we'll try the other." Lee said with more hope in his voice than he felt. Faye was sniffing and he felt slightly bad for not letting her go back in search of her elder sister. "Your sister isn't stupid Faye, she'll have made her way up deck." He reasoned as Faye's blonde hair whipped in the windy night air, a loose ribbon was tying it back but had slipped down and though she must have been around 17 she looked for all the world like a small child. 

"Claire get in the boat." Lee said gently as Claire shook her head tearfully.
"No Lee, you're the only family I have left in the world." Claire said biting her lip as a woman tugged her hand softly. "Come on lovely." She said gently as Lee smiled softly at his sister.
"Go, go on, I'll get a boat in a bit once all the women and children have got a space."
"Lee I'm not a child. You have next to no chance of getting a space on a boat."
"And you have a space hmm, now go. Faye now you go." He urged as Faye shook her head, blue eyes flickering hopefully that she might spot her sister. "No, we swore to our parents we wouldn't leave the other."
"No offence I doubt your folks thought this would happen." Lee said as he felt the urge to simply pick her up and place her on the lifeboat. "I hate to think she's on her own."
"From what I know of your sister Faye she won't be alone. She'll be trying to calm other's down or help people." Lee said having been witness to Clare's willingness to help when a young mother had been taken ill with seasickness. Clare had looked after the young sons of the woman so she could stay in the cabin. 

"Faye please this is the last boat." Lee reasoned as Faye shook her head, the tears illuminated as the sky was lit up by torches and rockets trying to alert any boats nearby to come to the sinking ship. It was noticeable now the decks no longer level as water flooded the compartments weighing the ship down. "No, I won't I can't leave her." Faye sobbed as Lee gently took our a hanky from his pocket and wiped at the falling tears. "She wouldn't want this, you to give up the chance to live. She's proud of you, so proud and that chance to dance in public, on the stage she'd not want you to give that up. Please, go with my sister. She'll need someone too." Lee said gently as Faye chewed her lip. 

Lee sighed as he looked at the 2 girls huddled together in the boat, two blonde heads leaning against one another. One with a mess of golden curls, the other straight hair up in a bun. They'd look after one another he was sure of it. "You got them into a lifeboat then?"
"Eventually yeah." Lee said as he smiled slightly at the steward from earlier who had told them to stay by the gates. Somehow even though they had been the first by the gates Claire had slipped in the mayhem and by the time they had got her up they were far back in the crowds. He could see the destruction and chaos around him and as much as it unsettled him he felt accepting that he would meet his fate on the ship. He'd seen the shock of people jumping into the ocean and he sensed he would not last long in the ocean waters. 

2 years later.

Faye took her final bow to standing ovation as the title role in the Sleeping Beauty Ballet. The newspapers had fallen in love with her story of surviving on the Titanic. She smiled to the front row where her biggest fan sat, Claire had arrived with her in New York from the tragedy and whilst Faye had lodgings in the Ballet School Claire had found a job in a Bakery where she was lauded for her cakes.

A dark haired woman smiled as she rose to give an applause. Her husband Johnny took her hand and gave a gentle squeeze as he knew the tragedy had hit her hard too. Loosing her father in such a way had made Lisa stand up for herself and tell the wealthy man she was engaged to that she didn't love him and that she'd rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. For now they were blissfully unaware of the pending dark days of World War 1 slowly creeping upon them. 

May have been flicking through channels over Christmas and found a old favourite. poor boys left on the boat but a sad realistic fact. In fairness not sure Faye and Claire would have had a seat either but I couldn't kill them off too. Ironially once I put the text and the title in it added up to a word count of 1912. Freaky or what!!!