Page 71 of The Missing Pages
As I pushed in the opposite direction of everyone, a steward stopped me and reminded me to put on the life vest I was carrying in my arms.
“Won’t help much sir, unless you put it on,” he said.
After I hastily slid my arms through it and tied the cord around my waist, he told me I was heading in the wrong direction. “Sir, please go that way.” He pointed to where all the others were walking. “We’re trying to make sure everyone goes to the top deck.”
I didn’t listen to him. I pulled away and accelerated my pace. I was nearly running by the time I reached Ada’s cabin.
I knocked. I rapped. But no one answered. I called out her name. I drummed on the door again, this time harder.
“Sir.” Another steward passing stopped me. “All of the cabins have been evacuated. Please follow everyone to the deck. They’ve already begun preparing the lifeboats.”
Panic flooded through me as I realized that Ada and I had now become separated. I could not let her think I had forgotten her, even for one moment.
I walked as briskly as I could toward the grand staircase. I darted toward every female I saw who shared her auburn hair, her height, her narrow build, hoping it was her.
As I climbed the stairs, pushing past the gridlock of passengers, I finally spotted her.
“Ada!” I hollered over the crowds.
My heart was racing as I lunged toward her. My hand reached out to touch her shoulder.
“Ada,” I exhaled again, nearly collapsing over her in relief. “Thank God.”
The woman turned around, but her face was not Ada’s. Her eyes were not the slate-blue shade of Ada’s. I cannot remember their color. But to this day, I remember their fear.
It was now nearly twelve thirty, and the crew had already started preparing the lifeboats and shooting emergency flares into the night sky. I did not know it at the time, but history would record that First Officer Murdoch had launched the second lifeboat from the starboard, albeit only half full and carrying several male passengers.
Yet all I can remember is seeing throngs of first-class passengers crowding the smoking lounge and the rotunda outside the dining room, as the string quartet played on, serenading the guests. The ladies in their fine dresses and their husbands enjoying a convivial cigar, all of them wary about being sent out into the lifeboats where they’d be forced to endure frigid temperatures without knowing if or when another boat would rescue them.
I entered the first-class lounge and scanned the faces there, hoping maybe Ada was staying warm inside with the others.
But beneath the still canopied light of the chandeliers, I could not find her anywhere.
I went from one crowded area of the ship to another. I continued my search for Ada, but still to no avail.
“Harry!” A hand reached out to touch me. It was Lucile Carter. “Your parents have been looking for you. Your mother is frantic.”
Lucile, wearing a fur coat over her nightgown and clutching a bag of valuables, was walking in the direction of the B deck. Mr. Carter was a few paces behind her.
“I’ll find them soon,” I promised.
I knew my parents were together. Ada, however, was all alone. I would not rest until I knew she was safe.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
The cold chill of impending winter had arrived on campus, and Violet couldn’t wait to get home for Thanksgiving and curl up into her childhood bed for a few days and relax. Since her last conversation with Madeline, she’d started to think more and more about the mysterious second key. Ithadto belong to something.
“It sounds crazy,” she told Theo when she ran into him next. “But you were there and witnessed it too. Harry said it has to do with love.”
“I was there. But I’m not quite as convinced about all the rest.”
“Meet me there again tonight, then,” she insisted. “I’ll bring the board. I want to ask another question and see if he answers. I have to figure out if he’s really trying to communicate with me.”
“All right,” Theo nodded. “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m curious. I told you that my mother believes in all this kind of stuff. Her psychic even predicted I’d get into Harvard.”
“Really?” Violet chuckled.
“Yeah, but with my dad and grandfather both having gone here, is it really all that impressive to be able to predict that?”
