Chapter 13
Before Stanley had any opportunity to lower his hand on me, Henry swung his arm back and landed a swift punch in his face. He clapped a hand over the injured area and stumbled backwards, clearly blindsided.
“Don’t you ever raise your hand towards a woman again in my presence, especially the woman I love.” Henry shouted angrily, his green eyes blazing. I couldn’t help the rush of giddiness that ran through me during that particular sentence. I knew Henry loved me, but it felt nice when he openly bellowed it to the world. Even if he just punched someone.
Stanley wasted no time and lunged at Henry, the two tumbling onto the ground in a tangle of angry limbs.
“Stop...stop!” I don’t know why I bothered yelling, they probably didn’t even hear me. Fortunately a pair of stewardesses scurried by in that moment. As soon as they got a glimpse of the fight they rushed over and pulled them apart. They struggled to continue fighting at first, but it didn’t last long.
Stanley yanked himself from the arms of the stewards and reached out a hand towards me. “She’s my fiancée,” He announced, hoping that the stewards would take his side and send me off with him. But they looked rather unconvinced. One of them turned to me questioningly.
“Is this true?” All eyes turned to me as they waited for answer. Stanley glared at me threateningly, while Henry looked on encouragingly. The difference between them was clear as day: one of them fought against me, and another fought for me.
“No,” I answered decidedly. “I am nothing of his.” For once, Stanley was wise enough to realize this was a losing battle. He shook his head in disdain before storming away, presumably towards the promenade deck. The stewards disappeared swiftly afterwards, but not before handing Henry a lifejacket and imploring him to put it on.
He listened to them begrudgingly, securing the life preserver while muttering things under his breath. If the decks felt crowded before, not it was worse. The people who were lazing around were finally starting the realize the danger and were cramming their way on deck. Walking felt difficult, it I quickly realized the ship was at an incline. It wasn’t too harsh, but a quick look at the bow showed that the water was quickly overtaking the ship, sloshing over the very top of it. Once we made it out of the promenade deck we pushed our way to the second-class decks, following the clusters of people towards the nearest available lifeboat.
“I need women and children, women and children!” I was jostled to the front of the group and instantly arms shot out and helped me into the lifeboat. The boat seemed to be occupied to capacity, but I kept my sights on Henry and reminded him of our compromise. The officer who helped me into the boat appeared to recognize his status, and immediately encouraged him to join me.
“It’s the last position in this lifeboat, sir.” He said quietly. Henry understood the urgency of the situation and stepped forth immediately. I felt a bubble of relief at the thought of having him beside me and knowing he would live.
But he didn’t climb into the lifeboat.
I blinked dumbly as he stood in front of me. Wordlessly, he reached for my hand and quickly plucked my engagement ring from my hand, throwing it overboard mindlessly. Wasting no time, he produced another ring from his coat. This one contained a large emerald flanked by small, swirling diamonds. The color of the emerald reminded me of his eyes, which were presently looking at me intently.
“Now you’re mine,” He whispered quietly. “Forever. I love you.” Then he placed a chaste kiss on my knuckle...and took a step back. Suddenly his intent was clear: Henry wasn’t planning on coming with me.
“No!” The words were ripped from throat and before I realized what was happening my body was already lunging out of the lifeboat. I wouldn't let him die...not alone, at least. Unfortunately, the hem of my dress was caught around my foot, which gave enough time for the passengers on the lifeboat to pull me back.
“Henry, please...don’t do this to me again.” He met my eyes and gave me a small, resigned smile, before helping the last person (who would be replacing him) into the boat. It was a young mother from third class, who was clutching on to her wailing infant. As I watched the terrified mother try to appease her baby, it occurred to me that Henry had just traded his life for that of two people. A very small part of me felt proud of him, but I mostly felt an obvious dissatisfaction. I almost felt bad for wishing Henry was here instead.
The lifeboat was lowered, but Henry remained motionless. “Promise me you’ll try!” I shouted, oblivious to any other person around us. “I don’t want to be alone.” The second part came out as an unintentional whisper. He seemed to understand it anyway, because a second later his green eyes hardened determinately and he mouthed, “I’ll try.”
We rowed for a long time before it was far enough to be considered ‘safe’. But the whole time, the Titanic sank lower and lower into the sea, like a broken bath toy. The sunken half was completely submerged, this being apparent by the light still shining from the portholes underwater. It gave it a haunting glow, giving light to a portion of the endless sea. It continued to float at an unnatural angle—the stern of the ship high in the air—and then the most sickening sound I ever heard: a crunching, metallic sound. The Titanic, the biggest manmade ship in the world, snapped in two pieces.
The lights flickered unsteadily a few times before giving out for good, plunging everyone in dark terror. The bow was swallowed by the ocean, leaving its other half floating almost unnaturally. But then again, nothing about this was natural. The ship faded into the water peacefully, leaving everyone in the water to God’s mercy. That’s when the shouting started. From this distance, they all morphed into one loud, disturbing sound that reverberated in your mind. No amount of turning of covering your ears would make it fade.
It was then I felt true helplessness. Being from a privileged background, taking action towards something was never very difficult. But no amount of money or titles meant anything in the open sea. And it hurt all the more because even though I tried not thinking about it, I knew that one of those people could very well be Henry. He could be injured, or freezing, or both.
After what felt like forever, the shouts stopped and the begging silenced. Most of us were nodding off uncomfortably, but it would only take a particularly cool breeze to remind us exactly where we were: at the ocean’s mercy. I caught the officer in charge looking towards the silenced sea of people forlornly.
“You should go back.” I murmured quietly. He shot me a surprised look.
“If you’re just saying that for your man, you should know he’s probably dead.” He said gruffly. “Even if he wasn’t, finding him would be like finding a needle in a haystack.”
“He isn’t dead.” I said, more confident than I felt. I felt something that could only be described as a sense of denial. It hasn’t really sunk in that he might be dead (no pun intended).
“And how do you know that?”
“Because he said he would try: which is more than I can say for you.” He flinched at my cutting tone, and then became pensive.
“I’m going to try.” He muttered decidedly, jumping on his feet and shouting out orders. We were split up into other lifeboats, and it struck me how most of the boats were not very full. I tried to keep the retreating lifeboat in my sights, praying that Henry would be one of those fortunate enough to be rescued...if anyone was still alive.