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and now used them as pillows. Lord, please don’t let anything befall this ship. Without enough life boats or preservers, we’d drown.
    Unaware of her sister’s thoughts, Isabelle continued on in a whisper, “You ought to go get in line for the women’s necessary so you can remove your bustle. Even though you’re slender as a sapling, the extra inches the bustle adds are ones you don’t have. There aren’t even two feet of space between our bunk and that one.”
    Grasping at a chance to cheer up her sister, Millicent whispered, “What a grand idea! It’s the horsehair roll, so we can take turns using it as a pillow.”
    “Millie!”
    “Millie?” Frank, Isabelle’s husband, squeezed in through the door and turned sharply toward them. “How did you shock Isabelle this time?” Deep worry grooves around his mouth returned as soon as his fleeting smile left.
    “Isabelle and I are . . . solving problems. I’m sure if we put our heads together, we’ll all find ways to make the journey tolerable. After all, it’s one slim week, isn’t that right, Frank?”
    Isabelle’s husband nodded. “Be glad Millicent came along, Isabelle. Had we gone ahead, I’d have refused to send for her. There’s no way I’d allow your sister to travel like this alone and stuck in the single women’s compartment.”
    “It would have been better if she took that position with the Grants. She could have saved up, and we would, too. Then she could have come second class.”
    “I can’t believe you said that.” Millicent popped up and swung around to face her sister. Her bustle caught on the post of the next bunk and slung her back to sprawl across Isabelle’s lap.
    Isabelle gasped.
    Millicent burst out laughing and straightened up. “See? You would have missed that if I weren’t here. With me along, you’ll be entertained the whole voyage.”
    A squabble broke out nearby. Frank muttered, “We could do with less entertainment.”
    “You’re the only family I have.” Millicent decided sitting on the bunk with her sister was the only sensible option. She gave Isabelle a meaningful look. “We promised each other—”
    “That we’d always stay together,” Isabelle finished.
    “And we will.” Millie leaned forward to look at her brother-in-law. “So I’m warning you both here and now, you’re going to hurt my feelings if you say anything more about wishing you’d left me behind. Why, I’ll be downright cranky.”
    A wry smile eased some of the tension from Frank’s expression. “I doubt you’ll have a single cranky hour in your whole life.”
    Millie laughed. “So what did you find out?”
    The worry lines returned. Frank cleared his throat. “The single men’s compartment and the single women’s compartment are on either side of the engine. We’re at the back. There’s a tiny deck at the stern for steerage.”
    “We’ll let the men get windblown back there.” Isabelle scanned the dank area. “I suppose Millie and I can sew in the dining room between meals.”
    “I’m sorry, lamb, but this is it. There isn’t a dining room or any other space whatsoever.”
    Isabelle stared at the next triple bunk. “The way these are stacked—” her voice cracked—“I’m going to have nightmares about being trapped alive in a coffin.”
    “No you won’t. Will she, Frank?”
    Frank stroked Isabelle’s cheek. “We’ll pray about it.”
    Lacing her fingers with Isabelle’s, Millicent nodded.“God will grant us fortitude. Besides, there’s no way you could be dead and hear all this noise.” In addition to the engine’s pulse, babies cried, children whined, and adults talked.
    Off to the left, a woman laid her baby on the bunk and started to change his nappy. Isabelle blushed. “There’s no privacy.”
    Millicent patted her sister’s hand. “I’ve thought that through. Frank was a genius, claiming the corner for us. Ours are the only bunks that flatten up against the wall. We can fold them out of the