The White Empress Read Online Free PDF Page B

figures meant nothing to her but she could not envisage anything bigger than this magnificent white liner. With a surge
     of emotion she wished with all her heart that she could change places with one of those elegantly dressed women high above
     her, laughing and shouting, about to take the trip of a lifetime.
    ‘Where’s she going, Joe?’
    ‘To Quebec in Canada.’
    Even the very name ‘Quebec’ sounded exotic.
    ‘And after that she’ll sail the Pacific Ocean, to Japan and China, Australia and New Zealand and all the islands.’
    Her estimation of him rose higher as he reeled off the names of places she had never heard of. ‘Oh, Joe! I’d give anything,
     anything to sail on her!’
    ‘You’ll not see her in Liverpool again. After this voyage her home port will be Southampton.’
    Her face fell. ‘Never?’
    ‘Cheer up, Cat, there will be other Empresses.’
    ‘But not like this one. Never like this one!’ Now she understood his hopes and dreams, for sights like this were the stuff
     that dreams are made of. She remembered their conversation and one word rang in her head with the clarity of a bell. ‘Stewardess’.
     The tide of excitement surged again. ‘Joe, they carry stewardesses, don’t they?’
    ‘Of course they do, who do you think looks after all those rich women and . . .’ He broke off, suddenly remembering that it
     was he who had planted that word in her innocent mind. ‘I told you, Cat, forget it! It’s not for the likes of you, nor me
     either if it comes to that! It’s a dream, nothing more! I wouldn’t have brought you to see her if I’d have realised that—’
    ‘It’s not a dream, Joe! It’s not! I won’t let it be just a dream!’
    He took her by the shoulders and shook her hard. ‘Stop it! Stop it! It’s a dream beyond your reach! Settle for what you have!’
    She had learnt early in life that tears seldom solved anything so none stung her eyes, but they scalded her heart for he had
     forced her to face the truth. ‘What have I got, Joe? I’ve got nothing! My Pa’s a drunk, Ma’s ill, we’ve got no money, no home,
     nothing! You can’t settle for nothing, Joe Calligan! I won’t! I won’t let it be just adream, I’ll make it happen! I’ll find a way! One day I’m going to sail on a White Empress and not just as a stewardess, I’m
     going to be a chief stewardess!’
    He cursed himself aloud. This was all his fault. He’d filled her head with dreams, dreams of a life she would never know.
     Places she would never see. A position in life that was totally unattainable for a poor, ignorant Irish slummy. He looked
     steadily into the green eyes fringed with dark lashes. A hard light shone in them. A light he recognised with a deadly clarity.
     It was raw, unquenchable, inexorable ambition and determination. Her face was implacable, her features as though carved from
     granite, and he shivered. The light in her eyes frightened him. He’d seen it in the eyes of ruthless men. Hard, embittered
     men who pitted their existence daily against the elements. But he had never seen it in the eyes of a woman, let alone this
     slip of a girl who barely came up to his shoulder. He shivered again. Her name suited her. It was very apt, she reminded him
     of a cat. Those feral eyes, the feline grace with which she moved, the thick mane of tangled curls.
    ‘Then God help you, Cat Cleary, and I mean that!’

Chapter Three

    E LDON STREET RESEMBLED THE streets that ran off O’Connell Street in Dublin. Rows of small, narrow houses the back yards of which contained the privy
     and the midden, only separated from the back yards of the houses that backed on to them by a narrow alley. An alley filled
     with decaying rubbish through which mangy dogs and cats rooted for anything edible.
    When they had been built they had been of red brick but a thick, continuous rain of soot, emitted from the three tall chimneys
     of the Clarence Dock Power Station – known as the Ugly Sisters – had