Free Unsinkable by Lynn Murphy Page B

you walk to, Carrington?”
     
    “Why does it matter?”
     
    “It matters,” her mother said between clenched teeth, “Because you have been gone for hours. Have you been with Beckett MacKenzie?”
     
    “And I thought you wanted me to be with Beckett MacKenzie.”
     
    “Not in the middle of the night. Not where anyone who is anybody could have seen you with him. You claim you want nothing to do with a man like Alastair, who has a fine reputation and then you disgrace us by doing something like this.”
     
    “I haven’t disgraced you Mother. And no one saw me. Everyone but you is still asleep.”
     
    “Does it not bother you that people will talk?”
     
    Carrington sat on the bed. “No. And just for the record, I love Beckett.”
     
    “You put far too much emphasis on the idea of love and romance, Carrington. That’s why you have all these notions about traveling and adventure. Life isn’t about love and adventure.”
     
    “Without someone to love, without dreams, what’s the point of being alive, Mother?”
     
    “I can see that he won’t be good for you. He’s too much of an idealist, a dreamer. Really, writing a novel? Stay away from him.”
     
    “I won’t. I told you. I love him.”
     
    “Your father will be speaking to his father. This little ‘affair’ is over, Carrington.”
     
    “It’s not an affair, Mother. And he is good for me. He understands me. For the first time in my life I have someone who sees me for what I am, for what I want.”
     
    “Listen to yourself. You sound like something in a tawdry novel. Stay away from him.”
     
    “That’s a bit hard to do, Mother. We’re seated at the same table, we’re on a ship, which despite its size is still a ship. I can’t possibly stay away from him without causing a scene and having people talk.”
     
    “I won’t have it,” Rose said.
     
    “I’m an adult, Mother. It really doesn’t matter what you want.”
     
    “Get dressed and wait for me before you go to breakfast. And don’t plan on missing the church service.” Rose went to the door that connected their staterooms. “I am so disappointed in you, Carrington.”
     
    Carrington didn’t answer and didn’t look at her mother as she swept dramatically through the door and closed it.
     
                              *******
     
    Beckett had just finished dressing when there was a knock at his door. He opened it and invited his father in.
     
    “I have just had a conversation with Wilson St. Clair, Beckett,” Jackson said, closing the door.
     
    “And?”
     
    “According to him your behavior last night was less than discreet.”
     
    “It wasn’t.”
     
    “So you didn’t spend the night with his daughter?”
     
    Beckett looked his father in the eye. Lying wouldn’t go over well. He knew his father well enough to know that. “I did, but I was very discreet.”
     
    “This is a ship, Beckett. We are in first class, along with some very important people. Do you want people who can help your career advance to be gossiping about you? Do you want Guggenheim and John Jacob Astor talking about you in the smoking room this evening?”
     
    “Mr. Guggenheim,” Beckett said, “is on board with his mistress and Mr. Astor has been abroad for several months, hoping that when he gets home people will stop talking about the fact that when he married his wife she was only seventeen. I hardly think they care if Carrington and I were alone for a few hours.”
     
    “Her parents certainly care and they are the type who can make trouble for you if they want to. It might be best to end this relationship now, before it becomes a scandal.”
     
    “A scandal? I’m not married and neither is she. What’s scandalous about it?”
     
    “Beckett, I really don’t care if you have…the occasional romantic indulgence. But you must learn to be discreet about these things.”
     
    Beckett fought to control his anger. “The way you are,