The Hawthorns Bloom in May by Anne Doughty Read Free Book Online

advertisements when he was last here. He said a touch of Louis Quinze and potted palms would be quite an experience after years of travelling steerage. It would be something to remember.’
    Tears sprang to Rose’s eyes and trickled unheeded down her cheeks. First Hugh and then Sam. The very thought of losing her own brother after the loss of their dear friend and son-in-law. It was just too much for her. She sobbed and Sarah comforted her.
     
    By the end of the day, everyone knew that the big ship, such a part of life since her launch the previous year, had indeed gone down, but it was an enormous relief that all the passengers were safe. A list of ships in the area, many of them with familiar names, were said to have come to her aid. Some of them were White Star liners, like the
Titanic
herself. Others had been built in Harland and Wolff’s yards in Belfast where she too had been built. But
Titanic
was lost. The ship launched with such pride andcelebration less than a year ago lay some two miles below the Atlantic waves.
    Rose and John sat silent by the stove after their evening meal. The daily paper had no knowledge of what had happened in the early hours of the morning on the other side of the Atlantic. They were both fully aware that whatever messages were being tapped out back and forth across the ocean no further news would reach them till the
Belfast Newsletter
arrived in Banbridge on the earliest of the morning trains.
    ‘D’you remember Sarah and Hugh taking the children to see her?’ Rose asked suddenly, breaking the heavy silence.
    ‘Aye. An’ wee Hugh was that excited he couldn’t eat his breakfast,’ replied John, looking up at the clock, as if it would tell him something he needed to know.
    ‘When they got back he tried to tell me how big she was and he just ran out of words,’ she said smiling sadly. ‘Then he said it would hold everybody in Banbridge and they could go for walks along her decks just like we do on Sundays.’ She paused. ‘How many would there be on board, John?’
    ‘Some say two thousand, some says three. Wee Hugh isn’t far wrong, though, she’s the biggest ship that’s ever been built. It’s an awful blow for all those that wrought on her, never mind the White Star Line and the owners.’
    ‘But how would you get them all off and on to other ships?’ Rose demanded, thinking of the huge cliff that towered above them when they’d gone with Richard and Elizabeth to the launch.
    John rubbed his chin and studied the toes of his shoes.
    ‘Ye might be able to get another ship alongside if the big ship’s engines weren’t runnin,’ but more likely ye’d have to lower the lifeboats and move people that way. It wou’d depend on the sea too, if it was rough. It wou’d be a hard job with childer and older folk.’
    ‘And it would be cold, wouldn’t it?’
    ‘Ach yes, sure it’s only April. There’s talk about icebergs, so it must be,’ he said, standing up and putting out the gas lamp on his side of the fireplace.
    ‘And we’ll go to our nice, warm bed and pray those poor people are safe,’ she said, her voice wavering.
    ‘That’s all we can do, love,’ he said kindly, as he lit a candle to see them upstairs to the large, new bedroom where they now slept.
    But Rose’s mind was still racing. For a long time she lay motionless, reluctant to disturb John, who’d fallen asleep within moments of getting into bed. Then she slid out gently, drew on her dressing gown and tiptoed barefoot to the window. She drew back an edge of curtain and saw the moon appear through a mass of racing storm cloud. Fora moment, it beamed a cold, silvery light over the familiar fields, then, as the clouds closed over again, the details of the landscape were blotted out, only the shape of the little hills, dark upon even darker, rolled away to the horizon. She looked in vain for a light, a friendly signal in the empty space. But it was late and all their neighbours were in bed. There was no