The Titan Drowns: Time Travel Romance by Nhys Glover (highly recommended books .txt) 📕

future, Marco. My friends, co-workers really, my team… we come from the future, where the sinking of the Titanic occurred hundreds of years in the past.’

‘Hundreds? Hundreds of years ago? Petra, that is not possible…’

‘Pia. My name is Pia. It is possible Marco because I am here. We are all here on a mission to save some of the victims of this terrible calamity. We are going to save you.’

‘Me? You are going to save me from what? I do not need saving!’ Confusion was giving way to anger and he felt more in control when he was angry. But he didn’t know where to direct the anger. Not at Petra… Pia, he couldn’t direct it at her. So, where? At this crazy story she was telling. That was the only place.

‘Yes, you do need saving, because the stewards will keep all the restaurant staff below decks until it is too late for you to get on a lifeboat. You will die with them unless you come with me.’

That rang true. He could imagine those arrogant pricks keeping them down below so that they didn’t get a chance to take places that they believed belonged to the English or Americans.

But if she knew what was going to happen, why didn’t she do something to stop it? Why sit back and let all those people die?

‘Tell the Captain. Let him know about the iceberg.’

‘We cannot. And, in actuality, he will be told, but he will not take steps to safeguard against it because he puts too much faith in this unsinkable Ship of Dreams. We cannot change history. It is not possible to change history. But we can offset some of the losses. We have come to rescue the forty-eight children in third class that didn’t survive. We have come for pregnant women who do not make it to the life boats.’

‘I am not a child or a pregnant woman,’ he pointed out stonily.

‘That was why I was so upset the other day. I thought you would have to remain and I could not bear to feel as I do about you and have to watch you die.’

‘But you said I was to be rescued…’

‘Because of how I feel about you. The team have agreed to include you in our number. You wanted to take me to the Wild West; well I want to take you to a far better place than that. I want to take you to my home. Will you come with me?’

For all the confusion in his mind, the last question seemed to ground him, bring him back to what was important. Would he go with her? Yes, anywhere. If that was to New York or some future place hundreds of years away, he would go with her.

‘Yes.’

‘Yes?’ she repeated in surprise.

‘Yes, I will come with you. I will go anywhere you want as long as I can be with you. I have roamed Europe, restless and unfulfilled for fourteen years looking for something that seemed just out of reach, until I met you. Being with you makes me feel content, complete. I will follow you anywhere.’

Her wide mouth broke into a stunning smile then, and he had to reassess his description of her. She was not just pretty, she was beautiful. And she glowed as bright as the rising sun that was only now lightening the ship around them.

‘No more questions? You do not need to think about it?’ she asked cautiously.

‘No. Just tell me where I have to be and I will be there.’

She threw herself into his arms, covering his face with joyous kisses until he kissed her back and turned the kiss into something deeper, richer and all encompassing.

‘Hey you two, none o' that!’ The cockney voice broke into their private world and had them jumping apart. They looked up to see a crewman staring down at them with a grin.

Hurriedly, Marco climbed to his feet and then helped Petra to hers. Pia, her name was Pia, he reminded himself in stunned amazement.

‘I better go,’ he said reluctantly after the crewman had moved off with a laugh.

‘Okay. Come to the cabin on your break.’

‘I am not permitted into the cabins.’

‘Or you will lose your job? You do not have to worry about that anymore.’

‘No. I suppose not. Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I am more than sure. I will be waiting for you at three. Do not tell anyone what I have told you.’

‘Sí, I will not, and sí, I will be there. With rings on!’

‘Rings?’

‘Sí, is that not the saying?’

‘Oh, no, you mean bells on. You will be there with bells on.’

‘Bells? Why would I wear bells?’

Pia laughed at him and gave him a quick kiss. He tried to deepen it but she was gone before he could react. With a happy laugh, she ran off down the deck, her blonde hair blowing wildly around her. He had never seen anything so glorious in his life.

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Three

 

Lizzie

 

On her way back to her room after breakfast, Lizzie found Lucy sobbing quietly into a handkerchief outside her door.

‘What is it Lucy?’ she asked urgently, putting a comforting arm around the girl. She looked behind for Karl, but saw that he was detaining her roommate so they could have a moment alone.

‘I can’t come, Ma’am. I’ve thought it through a hundred times and I can’t come.’

‘What? Why ever not?’

‘My place is here. If… if the ship is going to sink, then I have to do what I can to save the passengers in my care. I can’t just run away.’

‘But you will be helping the passengers. You will be helping forty-eight children, not to mention your own unborn child, to safety. We cannot do this without you. Would you be able to help that many people if you stayed?’

Lucy stopped crying and looked up thoughtfully. ‘I didn’t think of it that way. Do you really need my help?’

‘Of course. We are going to be moving all those children with only a handful of adults. They will be frightened and will not know what is happening. You must help us get them safely to the Portal and through to the other side. Karl says they are bringing several other stewards, too, just to help. It is your duty to help us.’

‘Yes ma’am, put like that, it is. But I won’t go through. I’ll stay and go back to help with the others once all the children are gone.’

‘As you will, Lucy. However, do remember that you are not solely responsible for this ship. There are other stewards who must do their part too. Once you have done your duty, you have every right to put your child first.’

Lucy looked unconvinced, but she wiped her eyes and gave a watery smile just as the termagant forced her way past Karl and headed towards them.

‘You two can get out of my way too. Who do you think you are, blocking the passageway so people cannot get where they need to go?’ Mrs Duncan complained waving them out of her way as if they were annoying flies.

Hastily, they stepped back and pressed themselves against the wall so that the large woman could pass by and enter their stateroom. She shut the door behind her with a resounding thud.

‘I will not see it as my duty to save that woman,’ Lucy whispered with a giggle.

‘No. The trouble is Karl says she is one of the ones who does get saved. She probably forces her way onto the first available lifeboat and be damned to everyone else,’ Lizzie whispered back.

‘I had better get back to work. Thank you, ma’am. I feel better about this all now. I didn’t like to feel like a rat deserting a sinking ship.’

‘You could never be a rat, Lucy. Even if you put yourself at the head of the line, you would be legitimately entitled to because of your child. Remember how important that child is to where we are going.’

‘Funny, isn’t it, Ma’am? I’m not married and I was thinking I might have to do away with it or give it away when it was born because I couldn’t keep it. And now there is this place that wants me because of my baby; a place that won’t see me as a bad girl. It all sounds so… perfect.’

‘It does, doesn’t it? Yes, that new world wants you and your baby. Just remember that.’

She followed Lucy back up the short passageway until she met up with Karl, who had been waiting watchfully for her. The breakfast crowd had drifted away up the stairs to their leisure pursuits, and for a few minutes they had the reception area to themselves.

‘Is Lucy all right?’ Karl asked, as he nodded to a woman who was one of the stragglers from breakfast. She was a tiny woman with sleek black hair parted down the centre and huge brown eyes that seemed to take in everything around her. Lizzie had seen her roaming the decks and the corridors at all hours of the day and night.

‘Yes. She had convinced herself that she had to do her duty and stay to help the passengers. I told her she would be helping passengers go through the Portal. I said we needed her to help with all those scared children.’

‘If Bart does his job there will be no scared children, just excited ones up for an adventure. They will not know what happens back here.’

‘They will one day.’

‘Yes, there will be a record of those last hours back home for anyone who wishes to see it – for closure. However, by the time the children are ready to watch that, they will have accepted their new life. Children are amazingly resilient.’

‘I suppose they are. I hope I am. Would you mind if I took a few moments to lie down on your bed? I am not sleeping and I am so exhausted all the time.’

‘Certainly. My roommate has gone up to the smoking lounge for the day. You will not be bothered.’ He opened his door and ushered her in.

Then, when he began to close her in, she got up the courage to speak. ‘Karl would you come in with me?’

His face was a picture of astonishment and eagerness. Clearing his throat, his skin turning bright pink, he stepped in after her and closed the door.

‘If I lie down, would you stroke my head for me?’ she asked, feeling like she was taking advantage of his good nature.

‘Of… of course. Do lie down.’

She removed her shoes and jacket and lay down on the top of the already made-up bunk. Karl took off his coat and sat down on the floor beside the bed. Then he lifted his hand and began to gently stroke her brow. It felt like heaven.

‘You know,’ she whispered. ‘Even if this all turns out to be a hoax, I am glad I met you. I have never felt as loved as I have in these last few days. I cannot regret that.’

‘I do love you, Lizzie.’ His voice was no more than a deep rumple in the air. She took comfort from it and the gentle, repetitive movement of his fingers on her skin.

‘I love you too.’

For a moment, his fingers stopped, and then they started up again.

‘A month ago, I did not have a friend in the world