The Lost Sister, Kathleen McGurl [best desktop ebook reader txt] 📗

it up against her fruit bowl, hoping that the angle was not too unflattering. As Robert’s picture appeared, she saw a pleasant-faced man with scruffy grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was wearing dark-rimmed spectacles that gave him the look of a kindly professor. She judged him to be a similar age to herself, perhaps a little younger.

‘Well, look at you, ma’am! My English cousin – I am mighty pleased to make your acquaintance!’ Robert gave her a mock salute and she laughed, already warming to her new relation.

‘You too! I must admit, I was extremely surprised to get your email. I thought Ruby had died on the Titanic.’

‘Yes, I saw you had put a date of death as April 1912. I nearly pointed that out in my first message to you.’

‘She’s listed as a victim of the disaster all over the place,’ Harriet said. ‘To tell the truth I only found out about her existence recently.’ She recounted the story of coming across the photo in her grandmother’s old sea chest, and of seeing Ruby’s name on the list of the Titanic’s dead at the exhibition and on the Encyclopedia Titanica.

‘Really? I’ve only ever glanced at that. Guess I should send them a correction,’ Robert said, his eyebrows raised. ‘We always knew Grandma had been on the Titanic, so I never felt the need to read through survivors’ lists and all. She talked about it plenty, how it had been her escape – excuse me, ma’am, I hope it doesn’t upset you, but Grandma said she’d had a hard time with her family back in England.’

‘It’s all right – it’s over a hundred years ago. I’m longing to hear all you can tell me about her. At two generations removed I won’t be offended if you tell me she thought my gran was a right cow.’

‘A right cow!’ Robert repeated, with a chuckle. ‘What a wonderfully English insult! She used to say she felt misunderstood. Bossed around a bit. As though nothing she did would ever be good enough. She wanted a clean break.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I think too, though she kept a little quiet about it, there may have been some scandal involving a man. Certainly my aunt was born within just five months of her arriving in New York.’

‘Oh! So she must have been pregnant when she left Southampton!’

‘I believe so, yes. So, let me tell you what I remember of her stories. They’re family legend. She was on one of the first lifeboats to be launched. When her lifeboat reached the Carpathia, a first-class passenger from that ship offered her the use of his cabin. She never left that cabin, until they reached New York. The passenger looked after her.’

‘That was kind of her.’

‘Him. It was a man – he was named Douglas Connolly.’

‘Connolly?’ Harriet frowned, putting two and two together.

Robert chuckled, a warm, throaty laugh. ‘That’s right. My grandfather. They must have hit it off on the ship. When they arrived in New York he offered her a room in his apartment in midtown Manhattan. He looked after her while she had her baby, in return for her “keeping house” for him. I always thought that might be a bit of a euphemism. We suspect Grandma batted her eyelashes at Grandpa from the moment she boarded the Carpathia. She was very beautiful as a young woman, and she could certainly turn on the charm when she needed to. Anyway, a couple of years later they married and then had two children together. My father was the youngest. My grandfather brought Ruby’s first child – my Aunt Margaret – up as his own.’

‘He sounds like quite a man.’

That chuckle again. ‘He was nice enough, what I remember of him. I think he was simply crazy in love with Ruby. He’d do anything for her.’

‘Do you remember much of Ruby?’

‘I do – she lived until I was in my late twenties. She was a real character. Forceful, lively, a woman who knew her own mind. Grandpa worshipped her but I think he didn’t always have an easy life with her – she could be quite demanding. Everything we did as a family we’d do with her in mind – making sure she’d be happy and looked after ahead of worrying about anyone else. But we all loved her, and when she died at the age of 91 we were all devastated. It felt like the heart had been torn out of our family.’

‘Wow. She sounds awesome. My gran was quite different – quiet, kind, caring, but happy to fit in with everyone else. She was probably the least demanding person I knew, but everyone was always happy to do anything for her. She was a very wise woman, always able to offer good advice. I still hear her in my head at times.’

‘Ah, that’s awesome. Did she tell you stories of her younger life? I guess not so much, if she never even told you she had a sister she thought she’d lost on the Titanic.’

‘She did – but as a child and young woman I didn’t really pay as much attention as I should have. I remember her talking about her later career on the Olympic – she worked on the Olympic on and off until it was retired in the 1930s. So did my grandfather, and they’d leave my mother, who was born in 1925, with my paternal grandparents if they were both at sea together. She always said she couldn’t work on another ship, so once the Olympic was taken out of service, she took herself out of service too. She’d laugh when she said this, but thinking back, there was always a kind of wistfulness about her when she spoke of life on board ship. I thought that was just because she missed it, but perhaps she was thinking of her lost sister.’

‘You believe she always thought Ruby had perished?’

‘She must have. Otherwise, in all those trips to New