Free The Girl Who Came Home - a Titanic Novel by Hazel Gaynor

anything else she might need assistance with.
    ‘ Wonderful,’ she enthused, standing up to shake the man’s hand. ‘Edmund needs his daily constitutional you know, just the same as we do, don’t you sweetheart.’ The dog raised its head and patted its tail enthusiastically on the deck. ‘And since my aide is suffering with the seasickness, we had to find an alternative arrangement, didn’t we Edmund? Yes we did, didn’t we?’
    Robert winced at the ridiculous affectations Vivienne added to her voice whenever she addressed the dog, as if it was a small child who may one day talk back to her. The raised eyebrows between the two stewards didn’t go unnoticed by him.
    ‘ Well, I’ll leave you to it then,’ the First Class steward said, turning to leave. ‘I must go and start preparing for evening dinner service. It wouldn’t do to keep the First Class passengers waiting now, would it! Good day to you.’
    Vivienne laughed at the joke. ‘Oh, yes. Very good.’ She turned to the other steward. ‘Right then, Mr….’
    ‘ Walsh,’ Harry prompted, already taking a dislike to the woman and her dog. ‘Harry Walsh.’
    ‘ Yes, indeed. Well, Mr Harry Walsh, Edmund would be very happy if you could take him twice around the ship,’ she continued, passing the dog’s lead to Harry. ‘The exercise is good for his legs you know. I would take him myself but we shall be called to dinner soon and I have some business to attend to with my ladies. Come along then Robert, I think I’ll die of thirst if I don’t have a gin and tonic before dinner.’
    Robert gave Harry a simpering, half-smile before following his fiancée inside to the reception area at the bottom of the Grand Staircase where pre-dinner drinks were being served.

    For his own part, Harry was quite pleased to have the opportunity to stroll around the First Class decks and have a proper look at the luxury which had been talked about and boasted about by the ship’s designers. He also knew his mother would be very keen to hear all about how the other half live, so he paid attention as he walked along, the small dog trotting along beside him.
    It was everything he had imagined it would be, and more. From the boat deck, standing between the first and second funnels, he could look right down through the massive wrought-iron and glass domed skylight onto the spectacle of the Grand Staircase, which swept in graceful arcs down to the lounge and beyond, all the way down to E Deck. He watched the passengers walk down the staircase, dressed in their finest dinner outfits, greeting each other and congregating in comfortable looking chairs at round, mahogany tables where they were served a drink before dinner.
    Walking down to the promenade deck a similar scene of opulence was repeated. He gazed into the ostentatious gentleman-only smoking room, admiring its sumptuous leather chairs and heavy wooden panelling. Further along the desk, he caught sight of the Palm Court with its delicate wicker chairs and dainty vases of flowers. He glanced into the Reading and Writing room as he strolled past, the huge bow window affording him a good look at the interior, painted in elegant white, luxurious curtains draped around the windows and a fire blazing in the centre of the room. This room alone was bigger than the entire downstairs of his own house.
    As he strolled, he passed several other passengers walking their dogs. In all the twenty three years of his life, it had never occurred to Harry that people might take their pet dog on a trip across the Atlantic, but as he was starting to realise, there was very little about this ship and its occupants which didn’t surprise him.
    Taking a second circuit of the decks, as instructed, he passed the rows of lifeboats which hung, covered in their white tarpaulins, suspended on ropes from the huge, steel davits. They were a strange, awkward, bulky sight amid all the lavish luxury and elegance. Harry almost wondered that they hadn’t been