Chapter 1 #4
Second class was several decks below them, and boarded further down the dock from the first-class passengers.
And steerage had cabins shared by a number of people, many of them servants of the people traveling in first class.
There were roughly two thousand, two hundred passengers and crew on board, approximately three hundred and twenty-five in first class, two hundred and eighty-five in second class, and seven hundred and ten in third class, with a crew of nine hundred.
The crew was impeccably trained, and the ship was a marvel of modern machinery, exquisite taste, and magnificent décor.
Victoria and Alfred had traveled to New York on the RMS Cedric the year before, the largest passenger ship afloat at the time, and the Titanic was infinitely more beautiful.
Victoria and Alfred stood at the rail until they were well out of the harbor and headed toward the sea.
Alfred had begun to feel the chill air by then, and went to his stateroom to warm up.
It was palatial in size, and Victoria’s was almost as large.
She stayed on the deck longer and watched young couples stroll by.
She had worn a fur coat and a beautiful new hat, and several men glanced admiringly at her as they walked past, with their wives’ hands tucked into their arms. At last she went to check on her father, and found him dozing in a chair in his stateroom, and she went to take off her hat and coat, and change out of her traveling dress of heavy black wool with a high neck and skirt to her ankles.
She looked very fashionable and striking in a full-length sable coat.
She changed into a navy velvet tea gown that showed off her tiny waist and slim figure, and found her father awake when she checked on him again.
He insisted on going to tea with her. He was excited about seeing his friends on board, and caught a glimpse of one he had hoped to see, as the stewards poured their tea and served beautifully made watercress and cucumber tea sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, and slices of lemon cake.
It was just what they needed to renew their energy.
Alfred noticed that Victoria was wearing sapphire earrings and a necklace, a set that had been her mother’s and that he had given her on their honeymoon.
It had been a favorite of Philippa’s. The sapphires were the same color as her eyes and Victoria’s, and suited Victoria with the fashionable blue velvet dress.
As they finished their tea, Victoria noticed that the man her father had signaled to from across the room had finished his tea as well, and stood up from the table where he had been seated alone.
He had acknowledged Alfred’s wave, but hadn’t walked over, and seemed reticent to approach as they got up to leave and Alfred beckoned him over.
He was a great bear of a man, very tall with a powerful build.
He had kind eyes and a gentle expression, and he was formal and polite as he greeted them both, shook Alfred’s hand, and bowed his head to Victoria in a formal greeting and called her by her title of Lady Victoria.
He was struck by how beautiful she was, and how unassuming she appeared as she greeted him.
Alfred introduced him as Bertram Banning.
Although he was impeccably dressed, well-spoken, and extremely polite, Victoria could sense that he wasn’t of their same social set, and he was deeply respectful of both of them.
He looked like a nice man, and he joined them in the grand saloon and sat with them for a few minutes. They agreed that the ship was a wonder.
“I can’t wait to walk from one end to the other and discover everything. I want to go swimming tomorrow,” she said, and both men smiled. For an instant she looked like an excited child, whereas a moment before she had seemed to be a very elegant, poised adult.
“I haven’t seen you in dog years,” Alfred said to his friend, whom Victoria had never met before.
She was sure he had never come to the house.
She knew everyone who did. She stood up to leave them, so that they could enjoy each other’s company and repair to the smoking lounge, where men could smoke cigars and drink port or gin or brandy or whatever they chose, and tell stories suitable only for men’s ears, out of earshot of their wives.
The smoking lounge looked like a men’s club and served the same purpose, with wood-paneled walls and an exclusive male atmosphere, with cigar smoke and male laughter heavy in the air.
Victoria left them and took a quick turn around the deck, but it got chilly quickly.
They were in the open ocean by then, and she returned to her cabin to read for a while and Bridget, her maid, came to help her dress for dinner.
She was the youngest maid at the house, an Irish girl who had begged to go on the trip.
She had relatives in New York who worked in one of the grand houses.
Her sister had gone from Dublin to New York, and was a maid, while Bridget worked for the Oldbrookes in London.
She helped Victoria put on a black satin evening gown, and diamonds she had brought to wear with it, that had also been her mother’s.
Alfred seemed tired on the way to dinner, in white tie and tails.
There was one informal evening listed when gentlemen could wear black tie, instead of white tie and tails, but she knew her father would think that too informal.
There was one gala night, when everyone would be dressed to the nines and would dance until all hours.
“Who was your friend today, Papa?” Victoria asked him as they strolled toward the dining room, down wood-paneled hallways, as exquisitely gowned and bejeweled women exited their cabins with their equally elegant husbands.
The children were in separate cabins down another hallway being tended to by their nannies, and being put to bed at that hour.
The ocean was calm, and the giant ship cut smoothly through the water.
Victoria had brought her sable coat in case she wanted to go for a walk on deck after dinner.
“He’s a good man,” her father answered her.
“Bert Banning. He’s the most important mill owner in Manchester.
He came up from nothing, relatively speaking.
His grandfather bought some mills years ago, and his father made them profitable on a modest scale.
Bert turned them into a gold mine. He owns more mills than anyone up north.
I think he produces very fine silks, wool, and cotton.
He ships all over the world. He went to Cambridge, and he’s a member of my club, but they all treat him like a pariah because he’s in industry.
No one will speak to him. He has one of the largest estates in the North.
I hear it’s a beautiful place. They’re such damn snobs at my club.
I make a point of sitting with him at dinner when I’m there, no one else will.
They don’t speak to him. He says he doesn’t care.
He’s pleasant and polite to everyone. I can’t say the same for some of my friends.
It’s damn embarrassing the way they treat him.
It’s incredible how rude some well-bred men can be at times.
They call themselves gentlemen and behave like pigs.
He never reacts to it. He’s unfailingly polite to everyone.
He’s more of a gentleman than they are. He’s a good man, wonderful to talk to, and very smart in business.
I don’t like his politics, but it gives us something to talk about.
He’s in favor of the Labour Party of course.
He’s twenty years younger than I am, but I enjoy his company. ”
“Then why have you never had him to dinner at the house?” she asked him.
“He wouldn’t come. He likes to say he knows his place, and he respects the upper classes but doesn’t consider himself one of them.
He has better manners than they do. I’m ashamed of my own kind sometimes.
He told me once that a mill owner he did a favor for, one of us, got him accepted as a member of the club, to repay the debt.
The members knew it and ignore him completely.
I think I’m the only member who speaks to him.
He says he likes the club anyway. He’s honored to be a member, and it’s a peaceful place for him when he’s in London.
“He lives in Manchester, where his mills are. He’s a smart man to have turned a business into an empire.
I admire that,” although Lord Alfred had never worked a day in his life, nor had his friends.
They had inherited everything they had. Victoria respected her father for what he said about Bert Banning.
She liked the fact that despite his title and his upbringing, her father wasn’t a snob.
Neither was she. She admired intelligence, good manners, and kind people.
After dinner at the captain’s table, Victoria took her father back to his stateroom, where Robert was waiting for him to help him undress and get into bed.
She left him then, put on her sable coat, pulling it tight around her neck, and took a turn around the deck.
She stood at the rail for a few minutes, watching the moonlight on the water, until she got too cold.
It was a beautiful night, and she walked slowly back to her own stateroom, happy that she had talked her father into coming on the ship’s maiden voyage.
It was an adventure. She could tell the crossing to New York was going to be fun.