Spirit of the Titanic Read Online Free PDF Page B

afternoon. Could it be that they recognized he was one of “them”?
    â€œWas there much trouble for you?” asked Maggie.
    â€œNot really, but we did our best not to draw any attention to ourselves. We lived in east Belfast. You never know how people will react, so it made more sense to pretend we were like everyone else on the street. Joseph was sent to the local school and Jim came with us to church on Sunday. He felt we had to be seen to fit in, for our peace of mind.”
    Kate looked over at Jim — who was blissfully ignorant of the attention he was receiving — unable to stop herself from saying, “Oooh, how romantic!”
    Isobel giggled, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t call it that, but I think I know what you mean.”
    Maggie hadn’t finished with her questions. “What about your families, they must have known?”
    Here Isobel took a second to remove an invisible loose thread from the cuff of her sleeve. Maggie became embarrassed as she immediately understood that the subject was no longer a laughing matter. “Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I’m too nosy for my own good.”
    Her younger sister nodded in vibrant agreement. However, Isobel rushed to put the blushing girls at ease again. “Ah, don’t mind me. Besides I didn’t have to tell you anything. It is sad, though. Nobody turned up at our wedding, after much abuse, from both sides, I might add. Plus it was made clear that we were no longer welcome in our own parents’ homes … even now, seven years later.”
    She glanced at the girls in turn, her voice cracking slightly, and murmured, “I mean, they’ve never even met the children.”
    Wanting to move things back onto a more positive footing, Maggie quickly offered, “So you decided to make a new life for yourselves, far away from angry relatives?”
    Doing her best to blink away her tears, Isobel forced out a genuine smile, and agreed. “Yes, that’s it. Just like yourselves.”
    The red-faced man was still singing away in the corner. The bawdy ballad finished, he had moved on to something more serious or sad, or both. To demonstrate his change of mood, he held out his hands in front of him, like he was begging for mercy, and closed his eyes as he struggled courageously, but in vain, over the higher notes. Therefore, he had no idea that he was the butt of many jokes throughout the room.
    â€œHis relatives are probably having a party in Ireland, now that they’ve got rid of him,” whispered Maggie.
    â€œJust a pity we’ve to listen to him now!” added her sister.
    Tears streamed down Isobel’s face, but this time, much to Maggie’s and Kate’s relief, they were of laughter.

Chapter Four
    T hat evening I decided, for a change, to have dinner among the wealthy in the first-class dining room. As soon as the bugle sounded out at 7:00 p.m., calling the diners to dine, I rushed to join them. The whole first-class experience fascinated me. For one thing these people with their top hats and sparkling jewels had paid a whopping £870 each for their first-class ticket. This meant, however, that they could use any of the facilities for free: the gym, the squash court, the swimming pool, the Turkish bath, and all the food they could possibly eat. I had never known such wealth existed. Of course, their section of Titanic , far away from the lower-class passengers, held the most incredible sights of the entire ship. Even the light switches, in the corridors and rooms, were very fanciful, compared to the switches in second or third class. They were made to look like porcelain ornaments on the walls.
    Each first-class compartment had its own luxury bathroom. In third class there were just two baths for hundreds of steerage passengers. This meant either getting up very early or else being prepared to stand in a long queue of men and women, hoping that whatever bath you finally got to use