Connie’s Courage. Annie Groves

Ellie. The Titanic has sunk with a terrible loss of life.’ He kept hold of her hands, and watched her as she struggled to assimilate what he had said.

      ‘The Titanic … But no! That can’t be true! She’s unsinkable! It was in the papers! She cannot have sunk … Connie is on board her!’ Ellie protested pathetically, before catching her breath and denying frantically, ‘No, Gideon! No! No!’ Shocked tears streaming down her face, Ellie turned to him. ‘There will be survivors though, surely?’ she begged.

      Gideon felt the pity grip his throat. Connie had been a steerage passenger, but he couldn’t bring himself to remind Ellie of this, and take her hope away from her. But something in his expression must have betrayed him because suddenly she demanded, ‘You think that she’s dead, don’t you?

      Oh, Gideon! This is all my fault! I should have done more for her, Gideon. If I had she would never …’

      Gideon was not going to allow that!

      ‘Ellie, you have nothing to blame yourself for,’ he assured her immediately. ‘Connie was always headstrong and wilful, and you did your best for her.’

      ‘The family will have to be told,’ Ellie whispered, as though she hadn’t heard him.

      ‘I shall do everything that is necessary,’ Gideon assured her.

      ‘She might have survived. There will be survivors, won’t there, Gideon?’ Ellie repeated helplessly. ‘Such a new modern liner, there would have been lifeboats and …’

      Gideon said nothing. According to the papers there had not been enough lifeboats to hold all the passengers, and those travelling steerage, like Connie, would have had the least chance of surviving.

      As tears filled Ellie’s eyes, Gideon took her in his arms. ‘I’ll get young John round here, aye, and send a message to your father as well. And your ma’s family – the posh lot – will have to be told, I suppose.’

      Ellie couldn’t speak. How could it be possible that Connie could be dead, drowned? Wilful, naughty, reckless Connie. Connie, her little sister.

      ‘Well, what I want to know is, what on earth Connie was doing on the Titanic in the first place?’

      Amelia Gibson’s voice was sour-apple sharp as she looked accusingly at Ellie. Gideon had informed Ellie’s mother’s family, the Barclay sisters, of the news via Ellie’s aunt, Amelia Gibson, who was also their neighbour.

      Ellie shook her head and looked at Gideon. Connie had not been on the list of survivors posted by the White Star Shipping Line and published in the national papers, and nor had Kieron Connolly.

      ‘Well, if you want my opinion Ellie, it’s probably all for the best,’ Amelia Gibson was continuing virtuously.

      ‘All for the best!’ Ellie’s whole body trembled as she stopped her. ‘Aunt, Connie is probably dead. How can that be for the best!’ Tears welled in Ellie’s eyes.

      Immediately Amelia bristled and fixed Ellie with an angry glare.

      ‘I shouldn’t have thought it was necessary to explain my words to you. I refuse to sully my lips by discussing any of your sister’s disgraceful behaviour. She has brought shame on herself and shame on our family as well. If my poor sister had lived to see –‘

      ‘If Mama had lived, then none of this would have happened,’ Ellie couldn’t stop herself from bursting out.

      Ignoring her, Amelia continued grimly, ‘When I think of what she made your poor Aunt Jane suffer with her wilful ways. She and your Uncle Simpkins did their best for her, taking her in and giving her a good home, just as your Aunt Parkes did for you, and we all know how Connie repaid their generosity.’ Her thin lips folded in a forbidding line. She was a disgrace to our family. She could never have returned to live amongst decent respectable people!’ Amelia went on. ‘And, in my opinion, she is better off dead!’

      ‘Aunt, I won’t have you speak of her like that,’ Ellie protested immediately. ‘How can you say such things about her?’

      ‘I say them because they are true, Ellie! When a woman behaves as Connie has done and loses her reputation, she loses everything, and there can be no purpose to her continuing to live. Had Connie ever dared come to my door, I would not have let her in, and neither would any of my sisters. Indeed, I would not have spoken to her if I had seen her in the street. She was already as good as dead so far as I was concerned. I cannot understand why you waste your tears on her, Ellie, for she certainly did not deserve them.’

      After they had gone, Ellie wept in Gideon’s arms.

      ‘Oh poor Connie, Gideon … How could my aunt speak so, and be so cruel!’

      Gideon held her tightly.

      ‘I know that Connie did wrong, but …’

      ‘You would forgive her and take her in, I know that, Ellie, but there would be many people like your aunt who would not forgive or forget what she did, and who would shun her for it.’

      Ellie knew that what he was saying was true. But she knew she would have forgiven her sister had she done a hundred times worse, if only she could have her back alive and safe!

      There was a sudden commotion in the hallway, and her younger brother John came bursting in.

      The moment she saw John, Henrietta – Ellie’s stepdaughter, the child of her late husband and his Japanese lover – ran eagerly toward him. After her first husband had committed suicide, Ellie had made herself responsible for the frail Japanese woman who had travelled all the way from Japan with her young daughter to find the man she loved. But Ellie’s compassion and care had not been enough to heal Minaco’s broken heart. After Minaco’s death, and Ellie’s own subsequent marriage to Gideon, Ellie had insisted that they adopt the orphaned little girl, knowing herself how hard it was to grow up without loving parents.

      Henrietta was both pretty and sweet-natured, and Ellie and Gideon loved her as though she were their own child.

      ‘And how’s my beautiful girl, today?’ John asked Henrietta mock-severely as he set her on his shoulders. ‘Have you been good and learned your lessons?’

      As Henrietta giggled at his teasing, Ellie said quietly, ‘John, there is bad news about Connie.’

       THREE

      Someone was banging on her door. Reluctantly Connie opened her eyes and stared at it in confusion. Had Kieron forgotten his key again?

      Pushing back the bedclothes, she scratched absently at the marks the bedbugs had left on her skin, slid her feet to the floor, and stood up. To her shock, her legs refused to support her and she had to cling on to the bed. Her head muzzy with confusion, she went to unlock the door.

      ‘By Our Sainted Mary, so you are here after all then, are you!’

      Connie staggered back as Kieron’s uncle, Bill Connolly, thrust open the door and strode in. Connie had never liked him, and she knew that he returned her feelings.

      As he loomed over her, she could smell the drink on his breath and her stomach heaved.

      ‘Murdering bitch,’ Bill yelled at her. ‘Murdering whore. Sendin’ our Kieron to his death. It should have been youse who was drowned, not our Kieron.’

      He had slammed the door closed and Connie started to shiver, as she tried to make some sense out of what he was saying to her.

      ‘Drowned,’ she repeated uncomprehendingly, whilst she tried to control her nausea.

      ‘Aye, drowned, when he went down in the Titanic!’

      The room spun round and Connie struggled to grasp what he was saying.

      ‘Aye, and you were the one as sent ‘im to his