No Greater Love by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online

But Kate didn’t really mind. She liked taking care of the children herself, actually she preferred it. She noticed though that it was even colder than it hadbeen earlier, as she took out extra blankets and tucked the children in more warmly.
    When they went to the A la Carte Restaurant that night, and stepped outside for just a second to get some air, it seemed to be absolutely freezing. They were chatting on the way to dinner about Phillip’s having found a girl. For several days, he had been staring at her from the deck above. She was in second class, and she was a lovely-looking girl, but there was no way he was ever going to meet her. She had glanced shyly up at him several times, and he dutifully went back to the same spot every day in the hope that he would see her again. And today, Kate feared that he had caught a dreadful cold standing out in the freezing weather. But the girl had apparently been a great deal more sensible, or perhaps her parents were. She hadn’t shown up, and Phillip had been depressed all afternoon, and finally decided not to come to dinner at all.
    “Poor thing,” Edwina sympathetically said to her mother as they took their seats at the table. Her father was having a word with Mr. Guggenheim, and then stopped briefly to say something to W. T. Stead, the well-known journalist and writer. He had written several articles for the Winfield newspaper in San Francisco several years before. And then finally, Bertram joined them.
    “Who was that man you were talking to, dear?” Kate was curious. She had recognized Stead, but she didn’t know the other man.
    “Benjamin Guggenheim. I met him in New York a number of years ago,” he explained, but on this subject he did not appear to be expansive. And Kate knowingly wondered if it was because of the woman he was with, a striking blonde, but something told her she was not his wife, and when she asked, her husband did not look inclined to discuss it with her.
    “Is that Mrs. Guggenheim?”
    “I don’t believe so.” The subject was closed, and Bert turned to Charles and asked if he had correctly guessed the day’s run. It was five hundred and forty-six miles that day, and Bert had not guessed it correctly yet, but Charles had, and had won a little money doing so, on the first day.
    The crossing had actually been a wonderful opportunity for them to get to know each other. And thus far, Bert and Kate liked what they had seen of Charles, and knew that their daughter was going to be very happy once they were married.
    “Can I interest anyone in a brisk walk?” Bert suggested when they left the nightly concert in the reception room, but when they set foot outside, it was much too cold. It was absolutely glacial, and the stars were shining brightly.
    “My God, it’s cold,” Kate shivered despite her furs. “It’s unbelievably cold tonight.” But the night was crystal clear, and what none of them knew was that the radio operator had gotten warnings from two more ships, during dinner, about nearby icebergs. But all concerned were certain they had nothing to fear.
    It was ten-thirty when they went downstairs to B Deck, and Bert and Kate chatted softly while they undressed, as Charles and Edwina continued talking over champagne in the parlor they all shared.
    It was eleven when Kate and Bertram went to bed, and turned off the light, at approximately the same moment that the nearby
Californian
radioed the
Titanic
about the ice they had just seen. But the
Titanic’
s radio operator, Phillips, was frantically exchanging personal messages from the passengers to the relay station at Cape Race in Newfoundland. Phillips had sharply told the
Californian
not to interrupt him. He had dozens of messages from passengers yet to send, and he had heardabout the ice before. But this time he did not think it necessary to warn the captain. The captain had seen the same messages before, too, and had not been impressed by them, so the
Californian
rang off, and did not