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

The girls sat quietly at her side, each holding a hand, for a few minutes. ‘She’s gone,’ Lily whispered, and Emma nodded.

‘Yes. It was peaceful. We can be glad of that, at least.’ She tucked the blankets up around Ma’s chin, not wanting just yet to cover her face. ‘I’ll go … for the undertaker, tomorrow.’

Somehow, neither of them wanted to leave the front room that evening. They sat until the early hours beside Ma’s dead body, talking in low voices about what needed to be done, reminiscing on the good times before Ruby died, when Ma was fit and healthy, and even before then when Pa was alive and they lived on the Isle of Wight.

‘It was that ferry, you know,’ Emma told Lily, ‘the ferry across to Cowes that we took when I was 4, when we first moved to the island. Before you were born. That was when I first decided I wanted to go to sea.’

‘And you did.’ Lily smiled sadly.

‘And I shall again,’ Emma said, glancing at Ma as though she expected a nod of approval.

‘What? When? I thought …’

‘When you go on the hospital ship, I shall go too. They’ll need cleaners as well as nurses. I shall get myself a job alongside you.’ Emma smiled what she hoped was a confident smile.

Lily crossed the room and hugged her. ‘Thank you. It will be nice not to be alone. And I know Ma would have wanted us to stay together. I’ve heard there’s a call for nurses and staff for voyages to the eastern Mediterranean this autumn. Shall we apply for jobs on those?’

‘Yes, we should. Which ship is it, do you know?’

‘A White Star ship, called the Britannic,’ Lily replied.

Emma felt dread clutch at her heart but she forced herself not to show it. Britannic. Britannic! Why did it have to be that ship, of all the liners available? Olympic and Titanic’s third sister ship.

Chapter 23

Harriet

I am delighted to find someone in England whose family tree overlaps with my own. I always knew my grandmother was English but she was not in contact with any of her English family, and as a child I didn’t think to question her about it or ask for their details. I realize now I should have paid more attention to her stories of her younger life – isn’t that always the way? From what you’ve entered on Ancestry I think you and I may be second cousins. My grandmother was Ruby Higgins, and she was a survivor of the Titanic disaster of 1912. She came to New York aboard the Carpathia and never went back to England. I would love to hear back from you, and hear any tales you remember from your own grandmother.

Robert Connolly, Oakland, New Jersey

Harriet had to read the message several times before it sank in. So Ruby had not died on the Titanic, even though she was listed as lost. Somehow she had survived and stayed in New York, and had a family. Harriet couldn’t help but wonder why she had never gone back to Southampton. Had she fallen out with her family, perhaps? Presumably Emma and Lily and their mother had not known Ruby had survived – they must have believed she was dead. They’d even put a notice in the paper – Harriet recalled seeing that fact on the Encyclopedia Titanica website. Emma had been rescued. Harriet’s research had found that all survivors were picked up by the Carpathia – so why had Emma not found Ruby on board the rescue ship? Harriet recalled a scene near the end of the film Titanic, where the character Rose hid under a shawl, turning her face away, as her hated fiancé called out her name on board the Carpathia. Could Ruby have deliberately hidden from Emma? Perhaps they’d argued. It was a harsh thing to do to your sister. Harriet knew the lists of survivors and dead were not a hundred per cent accurate, and there was disagreement about exactly how many people had been on board the Titanic. So it was possible that somehow Ruby’s name had not been added to the list of survivors and instead she’d been presumed dead. No, not possible – it must be what had happened. Robert Connolly, her second cousin, was living proof.

She considered how best to reply, and in the end simply responded with her email, phone number and the words: Hello second cousin! How wonderful to hear from you! Yes, I think we have an awful lot to talk about. Are you free to chat, perhaps via WhatsApp if you use that? Harriet Wilson.

Within minutes a reply arrived with Robert’s phone number. She entered it on her phone and set him up as a WhatsApp contact, sending a first message. With the time difference to New Jersey and the cost of international calls to the US, using WhatsApp for calls would work out much better. Robert replied to her message, suggesting a call later that day – evening in UK time, mid-afternoon for east coast US. Harriet responded with a thumbs-up and grinned. How exciting, finding a whole branch of the family she hadn’t known existed! She couldn’t wait to hear what Robert remembered of his grandmother’s stories. Meanwhile, she spent some time jotting down notes of her own memories of Gran’s stories. Robert would certainly want to hear them.

At the agreed time that evening, with a glass of wine to hand for fortification purposes, Harriet called Robert via WhatsApp, on a voice-only call. He answered quickly, as though he’d been waiting with his phone in hand.

‘Hi there, cousin! Shall we make this a video call, or would you rather not?’ His voice was confident, friendly, with an east-coast American accent. She imagined him saying cawfee for coffee, Noo Yoik for New York, etc.

‘Hello! I’m happy to do a video call if you are.’ Harriet touched the relevant button on her phone and propped