The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott Read Free Book Online Page A

rich? Oh yes, she hoped they would talk again. He was obviously cultured; he would know so much more than she about books and music and plays. Still, she would have been tempted to linger longer with him just now if it hadn’t felt faintlyimproper. And why did she have the excited thought that he felt the same?
    She hurried down the stairs, consoling herself with the anticipation of a singular pleasure ahead—for in her cabin was one of the most beautiful gowns she had ever imagined, let alone owned.
    Just before leaving for dinner, Lady Duff Gordon had lifted a beautiful silk dressing gown wrapped carefully in tissue paper from her trunk and handed it to Tess. It was made of fabric as billowy as smoke, an artful weaving of one deepening color, starting from a bodice of palest lavender to a skirt of regal purple. “Here, dear, something elegant and pretty for you,” she had said.
    Tess was stunned. “For me?”
    Lady Duff Gordon, looking pleased with herself, was already heading out the door, leaving behind a rich aura of perfume. “Why not?” she sang out over her shoulder.
    Tess took the gown to the light, examining its worksmanship with awe. Such artful seaming. Then she wrapped herself in her fairy tale. She put on her lovely gown and twirled to the music, pretending that she, too, was on the dance floor, with Jack Bremerton, wishing only that her mother could see her now, this minute, here on the cusp of a new life filled with immense possibility. She must write home as soon as they arrived in New York. She had scribbled down her family address at the Cherbourg dock for one of Madame’s employees, asking him to tell her parents where she was going, but his attitude had been slightly disdainful and Tess, drifting off into sleep shortly before midnight, wondered if the message had ever been sent.… Her eyes closed. Time enough to think about that in the morning.

I t wasn’t much of a jolt. More like a slight bump, that was all.
    Nothing alarming. At first, the hum of the ship’s engines continued. Then a sudden silence; they had stopped.
    Tess lifted herself up on one elbow, instantly drawn out of a deep sleep. Strange, when you knew something was wrong. Her skin tingled; her muscles tensed. Once before, the night her mother’s last baby died, she had awakened like this, already fully sick at heart. Then it had been a thin, tired wail that warned her; tonight, a bump. She jumped from bed, fully awake, and dressed quickly. Whatever was happening, she had better be ready for it.
    A few cabins away, Bruce Ismay stiffened at the sound. He knew the rhythms of most ships, and there was something not quite right about that bump. It was nothing, probably, but he didn’t like it. He checked the time on his pocket watch. They certainly didn’t need any delays, not at this point. He decided to go on deck and hunt up Captain Smith, just to make sure all was in order.
    Jean Darling shook her husband awake. She had been cold, shivering in a terrible dream where she was running somewhere and slipping, and something was chasing her, and then came that jolt, as if the ship were shivering, too. Jordan put his arm around her and tried to draw her down with him into the warm pillows, but she pulled back.
    “Jordan, let’s get up,” she whispered.
    “Why?”
    “I want to be dressed properly if something is happening.”
    He laughed. “Now that’s a novel way of telling me you’re intimidated by the presence of Lucile Duff Gordon on this ship.”
    Jack Bremerton felt it and didn’t care. He sat at the desk in his cabin, poring over the pile of business documents he had brought with him, already impatient for the crossing to be over. He wanted nothing more than to immerse himself in the Ford Company’s details and get to California, away from the sticky mess of his personal life, which probably proved the truth of his soon to be ex-wife’s accusation that he was always running away. He was giving her plenty of money with