The Lost Sister by Kathleen McGurl (i can read book club .TXT) 📕

she spotted a familiar figure waiting outside the hotel’s staff entrance. He was leaning against some railings, a straw boater perched on his head and a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, just as he had been when Emma had seen him once before. As she exited the building he pushed himself upright and came to walk alongside her.

‘Emma Higgins, isn’t it? I heard you were working here. Wanted to see you. Sorry to hear about Ruby – she was a great girl, she was.’

Harry Paine. Emma stared at him for a moment, unsure how to respond.

‘Listen, can I buy you a coffee? Wanted to talk to you, and here’s not so good. It’s about to rain.’ He gestured up at the sky, where indeed a black cloud was gathering.

Emma’s initial instinct was to tell him to go away, why would she want to talk to someone who had caused her family so much heartache? If it wasn’t for him, Ruby would still be alive. But she couldn’t help wondering what he possibly had to say to her, and there was only one way to find out. ‘All right,’ she said, guardedly, following him along the street and to a Lyons corner-house, the same one she’d sat in with Ruby, in another lifetime.

Once installed at a table with a coffee each, which Harry paid for, he took a deep breath. ‘Couldn’t believe it when I heard Ruby had gone on the Titanic and drowned. I’m honestly so sorry to hear that. I liked her a lot, you know.’

‘She thought you loved her,’ Emma said, unable to stop herself. ‘She was devastated when you brushed her off.’

‘I … I never lied to her. I was going to leave Dee. And be with Ruby. But then Dee told me there was another baby on the way. And … you must see, don’t you? I couldn’t leave Dee when she was expecting, and with all the other kiddies to look after. Wouldn’t have been right.’

Had Harry known that Ruby was expecting a baby also? Would Ruby have even told him, when she’d already decided to leave town? Emma suspected not. ‘None of what you did was right, Mr Paine. It wasn’t right to even start a relationship with my sister.’

He took a sip of coffee and lit another cigarette before speaking again. ‘Here, she didn’t go off on the ship to get away from me, did she? I didn’t drive her away, did I?’

‘Yes, I think you did. She loved you, she told me. When you dropped her she didn’t want to be here in Southampton any more, where she might bump into you on any corner.’

He looked down at his coffee cup for a moment. ‘I should have left her alone. Never meant to drive her away. Poor girl.’

‘You ruined her reputation. She was spat at, in the street. Her friends all dropped her.’

He shook his head. ‘People are so small-minded, aren’t they? I’ve had some of that myself.’

He deserved no comfort from her, Emma thought. None at all. She sipped her coffee and remained quiet, watching him as his discomfort rose. At least he seemed genuinely sorry for his part in Ruby’s loss. If it hadn’t been for him, Ruby wouldn’t have signed on with the Titanic, and Martin and Emma would have stayed with the Olympic. The world now would be a very different place for them all.

‘So, um, are you all right? You and your mother, and don’t you have another sister too? Keeping all right, are you?’

She raised her eyes to his and held his gaze until he looked away. Were they all right? Having lost Ruby, with Ma wasting away through grief, how could they possibly be all right? But she had no desire to open up to this man. ‘I suppose … we are as well as we can be expected to be.’

‘Terrible thing, the ship going down. I knew two chaps who were on board – stokers they were. Both lost. Good chaps, they were. Then I heard Ruby was on board.’ He frowned, then looked back at Emma. ‘Here, how come she drowned and you didn’t? Weren’t you together? Wasn’t it women and children first?’

‘It was. I couldn’t find her, when the ship was sinking. And believe me, Mr Paine, I tried to find her. In the end I had to hope she’d got on a lifeboat that’d been launched earlier. I was on the last one to launch. Not that it’s any business of yours.’ She was furious now, but determined not to cry. ‘I thank you for the coffee and now I must get home. It is not your fault Ruby died but it was certainly because of you that she decided to take the job on the ship.’

She stood up and put on her coat. ‘She wasn’t going to come back, you know. She was going to stay in New York, and have her baby there. Your baby.’ She watched the colour drain from his face, then left the coffee shop before he could say anything more.

Chapter 21

Harriet

A few days after the phone call from Davina, Harriet made a decision. It had been preying on her mind since talking to Davina. She took out a pad of writing paper – one she’d had for about fifteen years; it was so rare for her to write letters these days – found a pen and sat herself at the kitchen table to write to her brother, Matthew. Usually she only sent Christmas cards with a printed round-robin letter tucked inside covering the year’s news in a brief, superficial way. And she’d sent him a death notice when John died. Matthew had sent a letter of condolence card in return, but had not attended the funeral. To be fair, as Harriet had thought at the time, Matthew lived a long way off – in a small village on the Cumbrian coast. And, as he’d written in his Christmas card to