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

‘We’ve done our bit. It’s too dangerous. All hope is lost now.’
    May turned her back. She couldn’t bear to watch any longer as she nuzzled the baby into her chest, trying to blot out the cries.
    ‘For God’s sake, help them!’ the woman next to her cried out. ‘Have you no hearts?’
    ‘Shut up! You’ve got your bairn. We can’t take on any more, we’ll capsize.’
    ‘Save your strength, lady, it’s going to be a long night,’ a hoarse voice ordered.
    The girl in black slumped forward, silently shivering as they watched two funnels of the great leviathan collapse. The ship was snapping in two, one half slipping underwater, the other rearing up like a pointing finger before it slid smoothly into the deep as if it was the most natural thing in the world. May rocked her baby back and forth, grateful for the warmth and comfort of her.
    If Ellen was safe there was hope for Joe too, May reasoned. Her heart lightened at this thought. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil , she prayed for those lost souls, trusting Joe must be on another lifeboat. She looked up again and strained to listen as the watery screams grew fainter. There followed an awesome silence.
    ‘They’re all gone,’ whispered the young woman next to her. ‘Their pain is over, but ours is only beginning, I fear. The crew didn’t mean to shout at you. Fear makes us do terrible things. Thank God your baby is safe. Come on, chaps, row us to the other boats. Someone out there must be looking for us.’
    ‘Aye aye, lady, they will that, and all the boats must stick together,’ shouted the sailor in charge of their lifeboat as the lantern swung slowly across the prow.
    Soon they made a silent flotilla of bobbing boats strung together like toy ships on a great millpond. Slowly the dawn was breaking. May had never felt so cold. Somehow the baby slept on. Hours went by when there was nothing but ice and the lapping of the oars on the water. She felt the chill numbing all sensation in her limbs. It was hard not to drift into sleep. In her mind’s eye she could see Joe swimming, being lifted into a lifeboat, alive out there just as she was, searching, praying they would soon be united. She clung to this hope like a life raft.
    ‘Keep awake, everyone. Don’t go to sleep or you might not wake up,’ a warning went out. It was hard not to surrender to sleep, to blissful ignorance, but May was on guard, watching for any change in her baby’s breathing. Every time her head nodded she jerked it back. Then suddenly there were shouts of a light on the horizon, a real light this time, not a false dawn, and a rocket arced into the night sky.
    ‘They’re coming! Look over there; a ship is coming! Wake up! We’re saved!’

14
    Celeste tried to coax her frozen limbs back to life. For a few precious minutes she’d held the baby girl for the mother while she rubbed her icy hands and tried to thaw them. How could a baby sleep through such drama? She had no idea what a miracle child she was. Had it really been the captain who’d saved her? He had made no attempt to rescue himself.
    ‘About bloody time!’ shouted an old lady with a shawl round her head that ‘she’ no longer bothered using to conceal the beard on ‘her’ chin: another spineless wonder who had jumped ship to save his skin, Celeste thought, sickened. How she despised such cowards, along with the woman who edged herself away from the mother and baby as if she suspected they had fleas.
    Celeste watched the chunks of iceberg all around them, transfixed by the beauty of the growlers. As the sun rose they sparkled like jewels, among them the monster that had caused the disaster. How cruel was nature in bringing them so low with such magnificence.
    The sea began to swell and toss them from side to side as if to challenge this rescue attempt. The ship was coming closer. Celeste wrapped her own dry blanket round the baby. How had it come to this?
    ‘Are