No Greater Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

dinner, they sat in the adjoining reception room, where they listened to the ship’s band play for hours, and finally Kate yawned and admitted that she was so tired she could barely move. It had been a long day, and she was happy to stroll back to their staterooms with her eldest son and her husband. Edwina andCharles had decided to stay a little longer, and Kate had no objection to it. And when Phillip checked and found George sound asleep in bed they were all relieved to realize that he was no longer on the loose.
    At noon the next day, they made their final stop, to pick up steerage passengers in Queenstown, and suddenly as they watched the passengers boarding, from high up Oona gave a squeal and clutched the railing of the Promenade Deck.
    “Oh, my Lord, Mrs. Winfield! It’s me
cousin
!”
    “How on earth can you tell from here?” Kate looked unconvinced. She was a very emotional girl, and not without a vivid imagination. “I’m sure it can’t be.”
    “I’d know her anywhere. She’s two years older than me, and we was always like sisters. She’s got ginger hair, and a little girl, and I see them both … Mrs. Winfield, I
swear
it!… She’s been talking about coming to the States for years … oh, Mrs. Winfield.” There were tears swimming in her eyes. “How will I find her on the ship?”
    “If that’s really your cousin, we’ll ask the purser. He can check the third-class passenger list, and if it’s she, she’ll be on it. What’s her name?”
    “Alice O’Dare. And her daughter is Mary. She’ll be five now.” The information wasn’t lost on Kate. If she was two years older than Oona, she’d be twenty … with a five-year-old daughter … she couldn’t help but wonder if there was a husband, too, but she didn’t want to offend Oona by asking, and she correctly assumed that there probably wasn’t.
    “Can I play with her little girl?” Alexis asked quietly. She was feeling better today. After a night in a cozy bed, the
Titanic
didn’t seem quite so scary. And all the stewards and stewardesses were so nice to her that she was actually beginning to enjoy it. And Fannie thought itwas fun too. She had crept into Edwina’s bed that morning, and found Alexis already there, and pretty soon Teddy had climbed into bed with them, too, and a little while later, George appeared and sat on the edge of Edwina’s bed, tickling all of them, until their squeals and gales of laughter finally woke Oona. She had come running, and then grinned when she saw all of them. Just as she smiled from ear to ear when she found her cousin’s name on the passenger list. There it was, plain as day. Alice O’Dare. She went to tell Edwina, while she was dressing for dinner at the A la Carte Restaurant with Charles and her parents.
    “Miss Edwina … I was right … it was my cousin coming on the ship today. I just knew it. I haven’t seen her in four years and she hasn’t changed a bit!”
    “How do you know?” Edwina smiled at her. She was a sweet girl, and she knew that Oona was genuinely fond of the children.
    “One of the stewardesses stayed with the little ones for an hour during their naps, while I went down to steerage to see her. She was on the passenger list, the purser said, and I had to see her.” And then, as though to defend herself, “Mrs. Winfield knew. I told her and she said I could go.”
    “I’m sure it’s all right, Oona.” It was an odd position for Edwina sometimes, neither mistress nor child, and she knew that Oona and others in their house sometimes saw her as a spy, because she might mention something to her mother. “Your cousin must have been very happy to see you, I’m sure.” She looked kindly at the girl, feeling light-years older. And feeling relieved and happy, Oona smiled.
    “She’s a beautiful girl, and little Mary is so sweet. She was only a year old the last time I saw her. And she looks just as Alice did as a child! Ginger hair like fire.”She laughed happily, and