The Time-Traveling Fashionista (19 page)

They ran to the next door. “You must be joking. It is scientifically impossible for this boat to sink,” said a bespectacled
man in the next cabin before slamming the door in their faces.

To her surprise, Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon opened the next door Louise pounded on.

“My dear, what in the heavens is the problem?”

Louise couldn’t help but notice Lady Lucy was wearing a fabulous mauve silk kimono-style bathrobe with black piping, one of
her signature designs.

“Lucile…”

“Please, doll, call me Lucy,” she interrupted, holding her kimono closed.

“Okay, Lucy, the
Titanic
is going to sink, and as my dear friend, I am begging you to trust me on this one.”

Lucy cocked her left eyebrow skeptically. “Don’t you think we better wait for the captain to make that assessment?”

“Please, you are too talented to die. The world needs more Lucile designs,” Louise pleaded earnestly.

She paused and looked deeply into Louise’s eyes. “You’re right. If we waited for men to call all the shots, we would all be
at the bottom of the sea. And I did hear the most peculiar rumbling noise just now.”

“Who’s at the door?” Louise heard Sir Cosmo call from inside the stateroom.

“It’s the first mate,” Lady Duff-Gordon yelled into the room, winking at Louise. “Get your life jacket on, Cosmo, we’re getting
off early!”

She turned back toward Louise. “I should know better than to travel by sea, since I was almost shipwrecked as a child.”

“Thank you for believing me and saving yourself,” Louise said gratefully.

Lucy gave Louise a reassuring look and headed back into her room shouting, “Cosmo, get my squirrel coat—we’re getting off
this damn boat!”

Louise smiled with relief. Maybe she had just saved the life of one of her all-time favorite vintage designers.
How cool was that?

With a renewed enthusiasm, she continued down the hallway, banging on the other closed doors. Unfortunately, the rest of the
passengers were either already at dinner or ignoring her warnings.

“Go to the upper deck? I’ll catch a chill, it’s absolutely freezing tonight,” answered a woman in a dressing gown, her face
covered in a seaweed green face mask.
Slam.

“It doesn’t feel like we’ve hit anything. You women always overreact. Take a sedative!” a mustached man declared.
Slam.

“This isn’t working,” Louise said helplessly to Anna. No one else wanted to believe that the slight jar they had felt earlier
had actually had a serious impact. It seemed as though even Mr. Baxter had stayed in his stateroom. And it wasn’t helping
that the crew must have been hiding the full truth so no one would panic. Unless they also didn’t realize how dire the situation
was yet.

“I’ll find Christopher on the upper deck. He’ll alert the crew,” Anna decided.

“Good idea. And I’ll go down to the lower deck to find the dress. It’s my only hope of getting back to my real life. I’ll
meet you on the upper deck as soon as I can.”

In the stairwell, as Louise and Anna gave each other a quick hug before splitting up, Louise knew there was a chance she would
never see her friend again. But they had to risk it.

“Do you know where the laundry room is?” Louise asked a crew member who passed by her on the concrete narrow stairwell.

“Down the stairs, two flights, and then take a left, ma’am. But I would advise not going down there. Please return to your
stateroom.”

“What on earth for, has something happened?” Louise asked innocently, hoping someone would finally admit to what she already
knew.

“No need for alarm, ma’am,” he replied politely, completely avoiding the question. “But please return to your room and put
on your life belt.”

Louise ignored the officer and pushed her way past him downstairs. She didn’t want to be placated; she wanted to hear someone
finally start speaking the truth. Quickly making her way down two flights of stairs into a part of the ship she had
never visited before, she opened the first door on her left and accidentally walked into what must have been a third-class
cabin. The room was plainly furnished with two sets of wooden bunk beds, a simple oak desk and chair, and a white porcelain
sink. It wasn’t even as big as Miss Baxter’s closet.

A mother was sitting on the edge of the bottom bunk in a white life jacket over a dark wool coat, zipping up the life jackets
of her two children. Louise leaned against the doorway for balance; the rocking motion of the ship was much more pronounced
down here.

“I’m sorry, I was looking for the laundry,” Louise said.

The mother looked up, a thinly masked fear in her eyes. “Down the hall, take a left. You should find it three or four doors
down.”

“Thank you,” Louise said.

“But, ma’am, I would recommend you go back up to your room. I’m not sure what’s going on, but look.” Just as she pointed down,
Louise realized that ice-cold water was creeping over her feet. “We are going to wait here for instructions from the crew.
You should probably do the same.”

The ship was already taking on water. They must not have much time left!

“No, come with me.” Louise knew that if the third-class passengers stayed in their rooms, they would never get off alive.
“I’ll take you to the upper deck. It’s not safe down here.”
The mother picked up one of the children and Louise the other.

Louise quickly walked them back the way she had come, knowing that to leave without finding the dress was taking a big risk,
but she had to do it. If this woman was willing to listen, Louise had to save her.

“But how come you’re not wearing a life vest?” the little boy in Louise’s arms asked her as she adjusted him on her hip, and
continued climbing the stairs.

“I’m still looking for mine,” she replied, thinking that the pink evening dress would be a lot more helpful to her than any
flotation device.

After three grueling flights of stairs, they made it up to the top deck. The air was bitter cold, and Louise clutched the
shivering child tightly to her chest and looked out at a perfectly calm sea. The deck was still fairly deserted, and she immediately
spotted Anna talking excitedly with Christopher across the way. Crew members were rushing by, but there still were only a
small scattering of passengers by the lifeboats.

“Anna!” Louise cried, rushing over to her friend. “Will you please take care of them?” she asked, handing over the child in
her arms. “The water has already started flooding the lower decks.”

“Of course,” Anna replied, taking the trembling boy in her arms.

“Follow me!” Christopher exclaimed. “You three will get to go for a ride in the little boats. Doesn’t that sound fun?” he
asked the kids, trying to keep them calm.

The kids nodded, wide-eyed. This was still like a game to them. They were too young to know to be scared.

Louise caught sight of Lady Lucy and Sir Cosmo, who were two of the first passengers on the upper deck. Lady Lucy was now
wearing a sapphire blue head wrap and her long squirrel coat over her robe. Louise smiled at her pink satin slippers peeking
out from under her fur. If Lucy Duff-Gordon was going down, she was definitely doing it in style. Even on the eve of a shipwreck,
staring at this glamorous woman, Louise couldn’t help but notice she was underdressed for the occasion.

“I need to go back down,” Louise said as she turned back to Anna. “I still haven’t found the dress.”

“Be careful.” Anna gave her another hug. “You were right. This is serious.”

Louise returned to the now-crowded stairwell. She was relieved to see that many of the passengers were finally wearing their
bulky white life jackets on top of their overcoats and making their way up the concrete stairs with their families to the
outer decks.

As Louise got lower into the belly of the boat, the water level began to rise. By the time she reached the bottom deck, it
was rushing up to her knees. She once again took a left down the flooded corridor. She needed to find that dress.

She turned down another hallway and started trying the heavy brass door handles. A doorknob on her left pushed open, heavy
with the rising water; she slipped in, shutting it behind her.

The electric lights were low and flickering, but still working. She had walked into what must have been the laundry
room. Big, industrial, washing vats lined one wall, and hanging from the ceiling were racks and racks of clothes!

Louise began frantically searching the racks, pulling dresses and coats down into the water in the process. The laundry room
was completely flooded now; hatboxes and button-up shoes bobbed by her legs. Clothes that she had yanked down were sticking
to her calves like clingy pieces of seaweed. It was getting harder to wade through the knee-deep icy water. But where was
her dress?

And then, in the dim, flickering light, Louise saw a blob of bubble gum pink float past, the skirt fanned out in a sweeping
arc. The gold thread and tiny silver beads gave the dress a shimmering glow. In that moment, it really did look like it had
magical qualities. Her fingers tingling with cold, she picked the dress up off of the icy skin of the water. She had found
it. She pushed her way back through the now almost thigh-deep water, holding the soaking wet garment to her chest like a life
preserver.

She hoped Anna was okay.

Louise waded out into the hallway, which was now overflowing with passengers trying to push their way to the exit.

“What’s happening?” “Have we really hit an iceberg?” “Are we sinking?” Frantic questions were hurling through the air.

“Everyone stay calm! We need to get up to the lifeboats!” Louise shouted, trying to calm everyone down, feeling like a
flight attendant on a crashing airplane. Her voice was drowned out by the cacophony. When she reached the stairwell, a cascade
of bitterly cold seawater rushed toward her.