Turner - Unsinkable

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Unsinkable

ISBN # 978-0-85715-942-7

Copyright Paige Turner 2012

Cover Art by Posh Gosh Copyright April 2012

Edited by Laura Hulley

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the authors imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2012 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Total-e-burning and a sexometer of 2.

This story contains 141 pages, additionally there is also a free excerpt at the end of the book containing 8 pages.

UNSINKABLE

Paige Turner

The world had never seen anything like the RMS Titanicenormous, opulentand unsinkable. The Ship of Dreams.

Ted Dorling, confidence man, is looking for a new life in the New World, and relishes the opportunity to mingle with the great and the good of the day on board the RMS Titanic.

He expects to find fortune, and perhaps to find fame, but he doesnt expect to find love in the arms of dark-eyed cellist Robert Briceaux, one of the Titanics band of dedicated musicians.

When the ship strikes an iceberg close to midnight in the middle of the Atlantic, passengers panic and the crew try to keep calmas the band plays on. As the Ship of Dreams disappears into the calm, black waters of the deep, has Ted lost his new-found love to the icy embrace of the ocean?

Dedication

The romantic relationship between Ted Dorling and Robert Briceaux is entirely invented. However, many of the events described during the sinking of the Titanic were all too heartbreakingly real.

This book is dedicated to the memory of the brave men of the Titanics band, all of whom lost their lives, and only three of whose bodies were ever recovered. Wallace Hartley, Jock Hume, Wes Woodward, John Clarke, Georges Krin, Theo Brailey, Percy Taylor and Roger Bricoux. The band who played on.

Chapter One

The White Star Dock, Southampton

Wednesday 10 th April, 1912

10 a.m.

Robert was spun around in the crowd as a steward barged past him, so loaded down with cases and hatboxes that he could barely see over the top of them. He held his cello case closer to his body, protective of the instrument in this monstrous crush. His celloand his handswere the most precious things he had. So many people had wanted to see the launch of the RMS Titanic that tickets had had to be issued to keep the crowds under control. Robert could quite see why.

It was a bright, brisk April morning, and Robert had to squint against the sunlight as it struck off the myriad windows of the magnificent ocean liner. She was immense, making the other ships docked nearby look like toys beside her elegant bulk. The sheer size of her was enough to turn Robert into a bundle of nerves, and he peered anxiously through the throng, looking for the upright figure of Wallace Hartley, the band leader, with his long face, always composed, and his dark hair. Robert liked Wallacemost people did. He was a friendly, gentlemanly sort, and Robert would feel more at ease once he had found him. Failing that, though, hed be pleased to see anyone clutching a violin case, because that would mean hed found one of the other professionals who would be providing musical diversion for the passengers on the Titanics maiden voyage.

Hed been performing since he was a boy, but suddenly, amongst these hundreds of people, he felt a queer sort of stage fright that made him feel slightly ill.

Even a stranger would be a welcome sight. There was a kind of brotherhood among the musicians who played on the liners. They looked out for one another. They had to, with the agents giving them as few rights as possible and the White Star Line washing its hands of the whole affair. Still, there were dozens of cellists who would have jumped at the chance to take Roberts place on board the Titanic.

The porters were bustling around the dock. Near where he stood, a harried-looking pair were loading crate after crate of lettucewhat must be thousands and thousands of heads of the stuff. He thought about the other supplies that they must be loadingmagnums of champagne, barrels of oysters, sides of beef. As he watched in wonder, a small boy tried to sell him a postcard of the ship. It was a picture of the liner sailing out from Southampton, tinted with watercolours. He shook his head and the lad scampered away, unperturbed, to tug at the skirts of a stern-looking elderly woman in old-fashioned black bombazine.

The passengers and crew were all sorts, from babes in arms to the very elderly, and grubby-faced stokers still smelling of beer from their celebrations the night before to debutantes decked out in furs and jewels. But Robert couldnt see the other musicians anywhere. How could he expect to find anybody in this insane crush?

As Robert pushed his way towards berth forty-four, he was startled when a pleasant voice called his name and he turned to see a young man juggling the handles of two violin cases in one hand and extending the other in enthusiastic greeting. Robert fidgeted where he stood, like an excited kid.

A gangling kind of chap, with curly blond hair, pale eyes and a friendly grin, he seemed to give off a sort of contagious energy that Robert immediately found appealing.

Still, he heard the caution and reserve in his own voice when he confirmed, I am Robert Briceaux. He felt a little self-conscious about his French accent, which was still very pronounced even after his time with an English orchestra. Still, hed been told hed been selected for this voyage partly to add a sense of authenticity to the Caf Parisien, where he would play as part of a trio, so perhaps it was just as well that hed never been able to get his tongue around the plummy vowels and clipped consonants of the British upper and middle classes.

John Hume, the curly-haired youth went on gaily, only do call me Jockabsolutely everybody does. Im first violin. Ive already met Westhats the other cellistso when I saw you struggling with your kit I knew it must be you.

Robert found himself swept along in Jocks wake. He envied him his effortless, effervescent self-confidence. The crowds seemed to part for him as he gestured expansively with his free hand, babbling with good-natured excitement about the expense and glamour of the ship they were about to board, from the thousands of pieces of silverware to the fully-equipped gymnasium and the heated, salt-water swimming pool.

Robert didnt suppose thered be a great deal of time for them to explore the ship in between playing, and in any case he wasnt the best of swimmers, but Jocks excitement was palpable and Robert found his spirits lifting. Jock seemed like somebody whod be easy to get along with. He hoped his other companions would be as agreeable.