Chapter 1 #3
It had been a year since their last trip to New York, and Victoria was eager to see Delphine again.
She had almost no friends her own age. Literally all the girls she had been presented with had long since married and had babies.
Victoria was the most beautiful and had remained on the shelf.
No one could understand why. It made no sense.
But her father knew why, and so did she.
Alfred knew that he had made her life far too pleasant at home.
He fed her mind, and she was a dutiful, loving daughter who would never abandon him.
Victoria knew that in addition to her love for Alfred, she had no desire to be controlled by a man, relegated to a circle of docile, submissive women, and risk her life having a baby every year.
She couldn’t think of anything worse, or more terrifying.
With her father, she could speak her mind and be who she was.
She didn’t have to pretend to be mindless and frail, and think of nothing but her hair and gowns and children.
There were other intelligent women in their social circle, but most of them hid their opinions and their knowledge behind a veil of demure behavior that Victoria found oppressive.
She wasn’t brash or rude, but she wasn’t afraid to show her intelligence and opinions, which most men did not appreciate, though she expressed them respectfully and politely.
Only her father did. They both loved their conversations.
“Your mother was very much like you,” Alfred said one night, when he was thinking about Philippa.
He still missed her, and had never met another woman like her, with her spirit and bright happy ways, except their daughter, who kept her mother’s memory alive every time he looked at her, or laughed at something cynical she said.
“She was an independent person, just as you are,” although Philippa had been only twenty when she died, and Victoria was three years older now than her mother was then.
“I used to feel bad for her at times that I was so much older, but I realize now that she wouldn’t have been happy with a younger man, someone her own age.
I think she would have been bored. She wasn’t quite as studious as you are, but she read a great deal.
I used to pick books from my library for her to read, and she loved it, just as you did when you were younger.
Now you read more serious things than I do.
” Alfred smiled proudly at Victoria. “I’ve never enjoyed science the way you do, nor had your memory for every battle in every war in history, right back to Roman times.
” Victoria also loved Greek mythology, an interest he shared with her.
She had learned a great deal from her father, and soaked up knowledge like a hungry flower thirsts for rain.
Without saying more to her father about it, Victoria wrote to the White Star Line and asked for a brochure of the new ship they were launching in April.
A packet arrived two weeks later, and the ship looked splendid in the photographs.
It was an elegant vessel, beautifully decorated with a stately dining room and luxuriously appointed staterooms in first class.
When her father was in a good mood one night after dinner, she showed him the brochure and the photographs, and he had to admit the RMS Titanic looked magnificent.
“Am I to deduce that you want me to take you to New York?” he teased her. “Because the sea air is good for me, is that it? And I suppose it has nothing to do with seeing your friend Delphine there, going to the parties she invites you to, and shopping with her.”
“Actually, not really, Papa. She’s expecting a baby very soon, and staying home most of the time, but she’s very bored and said she hoped we’d come over soon, before the baby is born, because she’ll be even more stuck at home after the baby arrives.
At least she goes for a walk every day now, and we can go out for lunch, although Frederick treats her like an invalid and wants her to stay home in the country, which she calls prison. ” Victoria felt sorry for her.
“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” Alfred smiled at his daughter.
He had made a world traveler of her, and enjoyed traveling himself.
He had gone to Asia once as a young man, and had found it fascinating.
India, China—he had had his share of adventures before he married Philippa.
Victoria had his wanderlust and loved traveling by ship to far-off places, and in Europe.
She wanted to go to really exotic places one day, but her father was no longer well enough to travel in rugged circumstances.
She would have liked to go to Asia and Africa, but she couldn’t do that now with him.
New York on a brand-new ship was enough of an adventure for them.
He was happy to indulge her and take her to New York to see her friend.
And they were both excited by the new highly modern ship.
She had written to Delphine to tell her she was coming, and Delphine could hardly wait to see her before Frederick took her to their estate in Newport, Rhode Island, and locked her up until the baby came, and for several months thereafter until she was fit again, while he stayed in the city, and spent late drunken nights gambling and carousing with his friends.
Delphine hated that part of her pregnancies, when she was trapped in the country for months with her children, who were all barely more than babies.
She’d had three children in four years, and now her fourth.
And while she was confined to the country for months, her husband led the life of a free man.
It was things like that that had persuaded Victoria she never wanted to marry.
Men had so much more fun and freedom, and a better time generally than women, who were housebound so much of the time and prisoners of their own bodies that betrayed them with confinements, pregnancies, childbirth, and all the unpleasant things that happened after.
A baby seemed like very small consolation for all the other disagreeable penalties of womanhood.
As long as Victoria didn’t marry, she didn’t have to deal with any of it, and she pitied her friends who did.
Poor Delphine, who had been so slight, with a tiny waist, was corseted to the teeth now, with the weight she never quite lost after each pregnancy.
Victoria hoped she hadn’t gained more in the past year.
She had become quite round after the last child.
But she still had a lovely face, and she had red hair and green eyes, as did all three of her little daughters.
* * *
Alfred had booked very grand staterooms for them on the Titanic, side by side, and there were rooms in steerage for Bridget, Victoria’s maid, and Robert, his valet, whom they were taking with them.
The White Star Line sent them a list of passengers, and Alfred was very pleased to see that he knew a number of them, Jacob Astor and his wife among them.
There were a few he wanted to avoid, and some he would enjoy chatting with, and one he hadn’t seen for far too long and was eager to smoke a good cigar with while they caught up.
Bertram Banning lived in the north, and Alfred hadn’t seen him in several years.
Because he didn’t go to their club as frequently as in previous years, Alfred didn’t run into people as he used to.
He had always enjoyed going to his club, and Victoria encouraged him to go when he felt better.
But he was delighted at the prospect of meeting friends on the ship, and even new people, and he loved the idea that Victoria could enjoy the company of some young people her own age, although most well-born women of her age were already married by then.
He hoped she might meet some young couples who would introduce her to men the right age for her.
He wanted her to meet suitable men now. He didn’t know how many more years he had and he didn’t want to leave her alone in the world, since they had no living relatives except each other.
* * *
Alfred and Victoria boarded the ship on April tenth in Southampton, having taken the boat train from Waterloo Station in London.
They were in a first-class carriage and their maid and valet were in a separate car for third-class passengers.
The train ride took two hours. Their trunks had been sent ahead, taken by their servants, and delivered to their cabins, where several stewards and maids had unpacked them so everything was ready for them when they arrived on board.
Alfred was invigorated by the sight of the ship, and excited to be there, and Victoria made sure that he was wearing a warm scarf and his warmest coat, and stood out of the wind when they were leaning on the rail, observing the activity on the dock.
The dock had been specially built the year before to accommodate the Titanic’s deep keel.
They watched the gangplanks being removed and stowed, and it was breathtaking as they left the dock.
The ship’s architect and the head of the White Star Line were on board for the maiden voyage.
Alfred and Victoria had both found letters from the captain in their staterooms inviting them to dinner on the first night.
There was a list of the ship’s varied entertainments, at what time tea was served in first class in the afternoon, at what time the dining room opened, and where the different bands played at night, with space for the first-class passengers to dance.