The Captain's Daughter by Leah Fleming Read Free Book Online

you can. I taught you. The jacket’ll hold you up. You must try.’
    ‘I can’t.’
    ‘We can together. We didn’t come all this way to die like rats.’
    His words were stirring up fury in her. Die? Who said anything about dying? This was not how they were going to end their lives, thrown into the vast ocean. She could see what had happened to those who had jumped first. The water was full of floating life jackets with no life left in them. But Joe was right: they had to jump. They were going into the sea one way or another.
    ‘Hold my hand and good luck, but if luck’s not on our side, I’ll see you in paradise. No one will separate us there.’
    A wave rose from nowhere, washing over them, throwing them clear of the ship. The frozen water pierced May with icy darts, taking her breath clean away as she spluttered for the surface, her eyes searching in the dark for Joe.
    She tried to scream, thrashing in her clumsy effort to stay afloat. The jacket miraculously held her up. The roar of the rising water in her eardrums drowned out all coherent sound. Her arms were like useless propellers and the weight of her clothes impeded her limbs as she thrashed away from the ship. She had to keep sight of them but it was so dark, and she was so very cold.
    In slow motion she thought she saw an outline, a head, but there were so many people in the water, some face down, floating like flotsam. Then her limbs tried to swim, suddenly freed in a frenzy of panic, but they were like lead weights, her strokes powerless to propel her forward as the icy water held her in its iron vice. She gasped for breath and bobbed on the water, desperately searching for Joe. He was drifting further and further from her grasp. She paddled on like an automaton, using every last ounce of her body’s strength. She caught another glimpse of Joe’s head bobbing and little Ellen floating away like a bundle of rags on the surface. May tried desperately to catch up with them. Ellen was slipping out of reach and Joe’s head had suddenly disappeared. She must reach her baby. ‘I’m coming!’ she tried to yell but her mouth was filling with salt water, muffling her cries, choking her. She was starting to feel drowsy and limp, her hope ebbing, her efforts weakening.
    There was only darkness and death, empty faces with eyes staring up at the cruel stars. The water was awash with barrels, bottles, trunks, coal scuttles, plant pots, deck chairs. She couldn’t push past them, she couldn’t find Joe.
    ‘Take me now, pull me under, Lord,’ she prayed. What was the point of living if they’d gone ahead without her? ‘I’m coming! I’m coming.’ Her voice was getting weaker but the life jacket held her firm in its grip as she floated further and further from the spot where she last saw her family. Her fingers were numb, too cold to grasp the surrounding debris; lifebelts drifted by, useless, as the chill began to squeeze the life out of her. The light faded from her eyes and her voice was reduced to a whisper as she gave herself up to the sea.

12
    The lifeboat edged further into the wreckage and a torch was shone through the gloom to search for any survivors.
    ‘There’s one here! Her lips are moving. She’s just a slip of a thing.’ The sailor hooked the floating body closer to the side and another member of the crew helped pull her into the boat.
    Celeste forgot her own chill as she stepped across to help rub life into the girl. Her eyes opened briefly and she tried to shake her head, muttering words of protest.
    ‘No, no . . . baby’s in the water . . . Go and find them! Joe . . . Let me go!’ Celeste hurriedly covered her with a spare blanket. ‘No,’ the girl whispered. ‘Go back . . . my baby . . . Let me go . . . Joe, we’re coming.’ She tried to sit up, her hand rigid, her clenched fingers unable to point.
    ‘Put her down in the bottom with the dead one. Look at the state of her. She’s not going to last long.’
    ‘No, I’ll look