The White Empress (23 page)

After wandering the streets for a few hours they went their separate ways. Marie and Brian to find a restaurant that had been
recommended, David and Cat to one of the beaches just beyond the city.

‘I would have brought my swimming things, if I’d known. The ocean looks so inviting,’ Cat sighed as she sat down, her back
resting against the trunk of a gently swaying palm. She closed her eyes, letting the warmth of the sun and the sound of the
surf wash over her. The sun was already sinking. When she was with him the hours just seemed to fly.

‘I wanted some time alone with you, Cat.’

She opened her eyes to find him leaning towards her. She smiled, her heart in her eyes.

‘There is something I want to tell you. I was going to leave it until the end of the Cruise, but . . .’

She sat up, puzzled by his serious expression. ‘What?’

‘I’ve been offered promotion. Second officer. It’s not often someone as young as me is given such a chance, but it won’t be
on the
Britain
it will be on the
Empress of Japan
.’

The breeze was suddenly cold. The sound of the surf beat against her ears and her heart plummeted. The tears started in her
eyes.

He took both her hands. ‘It’s a chance I can’t pass up, darling! You do understand that, don’t you?’

She nodded miserably. It was all she could do.

He took her in his arms. ‘Cat, I love you! You mean everything to me, but you do understand how hard I’ve worked for this?
I do have to justify the promises I made my parents, the pride they have in me. It’s difficult being an only child. The pressures,
usually absorbed by brothers and sisters, are concentrated on me. I love you and I don’t want to be away from you!’

‘Oh, David!’ she choked. She was losing him. She knew it. She felt it and the thought terrified her. They would seldom see
each other and . . . An even more terrifying thought took hold of her. What if he found someone else? There were other girls
– stewardesses – much prettier, better educated! He would see them every day! What if he forgot about her? What if he really
wasn’t serious about her?

‘Darling, Cat! Don’t cry! I hate to see you upset, it
won’t be forever! And in the long run it will be for us.’ He wiped her eyes with his handkerchief but she continued to stare
at him pathetically. He traced the shape of her lips with his finger and then kissed her, gently at first, but then with more
passion. She responded with every fibre, driven now by fear. His lips burned the skin of her throat, his fingers were gently
caressing her neck, then her breasts.

Despite her longing she instinctively drew away from him. ‘No! No, David! It’s wrong, especially now!’

‘Cat, don’t you understand? I love you and I want to marry you! I want you to be my wife, I want to love and cherish you forever!
Will you marry me, Cat?’

The fear evaporated as she uttered a strangled cry of joy. How could she have doubted him? Then she was in his arms and he
was covering her face with kisses.

‘Say yes, Cat? Say you’ll marry me?’

‘Oh, David! David! Of course I will! Oh, I will and you’ll never regret it!’

‘Neither will you, my love, I’ll make you the happiest girl on earth! Anything you want will be yours, that’s what I meant
by my promotion being for us in the long run.’

A little dart of fear niggled as she thought about their separation. She was being a fool! He wanted to marry her. He wasn’t
interested in anyone else. She clung to his lips, her heart racing.

‘But let’s keep it a secret for a little while, at least until I’ve told my parents. You know how the crew gossip and I won’t
have you talked about, not like that.’

Oh, she loved him for that too. It was so characteristic
of him. He wanted things done ‘properly’, he wasn’t going to make her a target for idle speculation. She couldn’t fight her
longing and now was there really any need to? Her head was swimming as she felt his body close to hers, his hands moving over
her shoulders, the thin cotton blouse falling, just as she was falling, sinking into the warm darkness of the tropical night
as she gave herself willingly to him.

She lay in his arms, her eyes closed, her senses saturated. ‘I’ll always remember this night, David.’

‘So will I, Cat. This feeling of love is like a blossom and as I was the first to gather that blossom, I will protect it!
Trust me, darling!’

She stroked his hair. She did trust him. He was so strong and honourable. Passionate, yet gentle and sensitive.

‘We’d better be getting back,’ he sighed, ruefully.

She sat up and adjusted her clothes. At his words some of the euphoria disappeared and down over the years, unbidden, came
a whispered warning.
Never marry a sailor, Catherine
. ‘Oh, David, I wish we could just stay together as we are now!’

‘Darling, so do I but things change. Sooner or later promotion would have come and with it separation. But it’s for us, don’t
you see that?’

She stared out over the now darkened beach and inky ocean. She was seeing months and months of loneliness.

He drew her to her feet and held her closely, trying to lift the sadness he had glimpsed in her eyes. ‘What about your ambitions?
How often have we talked about them? Chief stewardess, have you forgotten that?’

‘No. Oh, I know I’m being stupid, David! But I love you so much and I can’t bear to think of being away from you. My ambitions
don’t matter any more!’

‘But they should, Cat. I persuaded Aunt Eileen to give you the Princess. I’m trying to help you.’ He didn’t understand this
facet of her character. When he had first met her that had been the one thing that had impressed him. Her ambition and her
determination, both of which he had watched grow with a certain amount of pride. He had thought the fire of ambition that
consumed him, burned in her also.

‘Your aunt has many years with the company still, what chance is there for me? I’m far too young, I’ve only just been promoted
to first class.’ The words came out slowly, with an edge of coolness that she didn’t feel inside.

‘You don’t have to wait for her to retire, there are other Empresses, other ships!’

She shook her head. There would never be another ship like the
Empress of Britain
, not for her. Just as there would never be another man like him, and he wanted to marry her. That was her only ambition now.
To be his wife. She smiled up at him.

‘That’s better. I don’t want to see the future Mrs Barratt looking so sad. We have years ahead of us, Cat, we don’t have to
settle for second best, either of us!’

F
OR THREE LONG YEARS
she had lived with those words and the hopes and dreams they both shared.
Oh, she had missed him when he had left to join the
Empress of Japan
, but they had written, they had managed to meet – snatched hours – in Liverpool and Southampton. She had lived only for those
hours. Absence did make the heart grow fonder, she told him. In return he assured her all the waiting would be worthwhile,
that the separations were the true test of their love. To her consternation he revealed that he had made a promise to his
parents the day he had embarked on his career. A promise that he would never marry until he had command of his own ship.

‘You never told me that when you asked me to marry you, David!’

‘Cat, does it matter so much? We’re young, our love is strong, so strong it’s survived all the heartache of separation!’

‘But why didn’t you tell me?’

‘Because it’s not important – not to us! We have something so very special that it will survive anything! But I do owe it
to them, just as I owe you the life I’ve promised you and it’s a promise I won’t break. I don’t break promises, Cat, not to
the people I love. Cat, I love you so much, you do believe me, don’t you?’

She loved him far too much not to believe him and he was looking at her with the light in his blue eyes that she thought of
as ‘special’, reserved only for her and she couldn’t resist that look. But she still wished he had told her about it earlier.

She had been to tea twice since that first time, and knowing his mother, she realised that she would never allow him to forget
that promise. She had begun to realise, too, that his mother tended to dominate him, as she did his father. And this was a
side of him that surprised her, that she had never seen before. He had always been so self-assured and assertive, but on those
occasions, apart from ‘Yes, Mother’ and ‘No, Mother’ and ‘Of course, Mother’, he had hardly spoken at all. Only Miss Sabell
appeared to be totally unperturbed or in awe of her sister. Cat had realised early that the redoubtable Marjory Barratt was
going to be a force to be reckoned with and she remembered and understood now the conversation she had had with Miss Sabell,
about ‘pressure’.

There had been a wonderful Christmas in Sydney, the day the two Empresses sailed into the harbour, side by side, accompanied
by a flotilla of small craft, and fire ships, their hoses spraying jets of sparkling water. The noise of the small craft blared
out their welcome, the
Empresses answered with full-throated blasts. It seemed like the whole of Sydney had turned out to greet them.

The White Empress had become her home; she knew every inch of her from bow to stern and she loved that ship. There had been
parties on board both ships, parties on the beach, barbeques and dances, and they had made love with a passion never before
experienced, knowing how precious their time together was. It had been that Christmas, too, that Marie had announced her engagement
to Brian Rothwell.

Brian had been Marie’s first boyfriend, but she didn’t regret the fact that she had never had a succession of them, as her
sisters had. At first she had been a little shy with him, but no one could stay shy with Brian for long. His natural sense
of humour saw to that. He came from Aintree and his father had a small but thriving factory beside the railway line and shunting
yards, manufacturing containers, mostly of tin. Their interests were similar, their backgrounds were similar and neither had
wanted to stay home and work in the family business. Close friendship had deepened to love and, with the approval of both
families, they had become engaged.

She had been overjoyed but she couldn’t help envying Marie as she showed off the the emerald and diamond ring. She wondered
why David had never mentioned becoming engaged. After all, people did have long engagements and it would make their relationship
more – she searched for the right word – solid? No, it would show everyone that they were deeply committed to each other.
In particular his mother. She had come to realise that the one flaw in his nature – and it had taken her a
time to admit that he had any flaws at all – was his subservience to his mother. At first she had told herself it was because
he loved and respected his mother that he acquiesced to her demanding nature, but she was no fool. In time, even her love
for him could no longer hide this trait in his nature and it disturbed her.

‘But, Cat, we
are
deeply committed!’ he argued when she broached the subject.

‘I know, but if we were engaged it would be seen to be more – official!’

‘I don’t know what’s the matter with you, Cat. You still love me don’t you?’

‘Oh, of course I love you!’

‘You’ve always been so content, until now.’

She had lost her temper with him then, knowing it was fear of announcing this step to his mother that made him so reticent.
But in the end she had her own way.

They bought the ring, a diamond cluster, in Sydney and the announcement was the excuse for yet another party.

‘Happy now?’ he asked her as they danced on the promenade deck of the
Empress of Britain
, surrounded by revellers from the crews of both ships.

‘Yes.’ She nuzzled his ear. ‘But for one thing.’

He held her away from him. ‘What?’

She smiled. ‘The fact that tomorrow we will be parted again. You sail tomorrow night or have you forgotten?’

He held her tightly as they danced away the hours.

She had always saved most of her money, but Marie was a born spendthrift. When they sailed she vowed to Cat she was a reformed
character. From now on she
would save hard and the only way she knew how to would be to increase the allotment to her mother.

‘I’ll send her two thirds of my pay. That way if I can’t get my hands on it, I won’t spend it, will I?’

‘That’s sound enough reasoning, for you.’

‘You will be my bridesmaid, won’t you?’

‘What about Doreen and Marlene?’

‘Oh, they’ll have to be matrons of honour, seeing as how they are both married. I’d thought of sweet pea colours. Pale blue
crêpe de Chine over lilac satin for those two, a delicate shade of pale pink over azalea satin for you. And white satin and
Guipure lace for me!’

‘You’re going to bankrupt your dad at this rate!’

‘But you will be my bridesmaid?’

‘Of course I will, even if I have to wear my uniform!’

‘God forbid!’

After that Marie had started to save her money, buying only useful household items and talking of little else than setting
up home with Brian next Christmas, but the ache in Cat’s heart grew. Her letters to David became more heart-rending.

She had visited more countries than she had ever hoped or dreamed she would. From the Far East to the shores of the Mediterranean.
From South America to South Africa and a million and one islands in between.

Then there had been their meeting in Southampton last June, when he had told her that there was a chance of him being transferred
back to the
Empress of Britain
. She had been ecstatic. The separation would be over, at
last they could think of the future. Even the ominous rumblings in Europe, that stemmed from the rise of Adolf Hitler, could
not spoil her hopes.

She had lain next to him on the bed in the flat he had ‘borrowed’ from a friend, sated, and dreaming of all the nights they
would spend like this. After that she had taken more interest in all Marie’s wedding plans, thinking soon it would be her
turn, despite Miss Sabell’s veiled warnings. She didn’t wear her engagement ring during working hours and the chief stewardess
had mentioned the fact.

‘Very wise of you. It did cost rather a lot of money and could be damaged while working. I think it would also be wise not
to wear it on your next visit to my sister, either. She takes David’s career very seriously, if you follow my meaning.’

She had nodded, feeling rebellious.

‘Everything comes to those who wait, so the saying goes, I believe. He’s very highly thought of in the higher echelons of
the company. I think you’ll find he is worth waiting for, he will probably be the youngest captain in the company – in any
company.’

When she had first suspected she was pregnant she was shocked, then frightened, but after confiding in Marie – whom she swore
to secrecy – she felt a new thrill, for as Marie had said ‘You’ll be married before me now and I’ll have to have three maids
of honour!’ She had lain awake picturing his face, his expression, when she told him. He would be surprised, then he would
smile and take her in his arms and kiss her and tell her that she was infinitely more dear to him. And that even
though his mother would be extremely upset, she would have to come to terms with it.

Shelagh Cleary leaned against the wall, just out of sight of the policeman on the dock gate. Her once rounded figure was becoming
overblown, but she still considered herself attractive. Men seemed to like a woman with some flesh on her bones, as opposed
to the skinny young girls who often came to The Barracks. Her hair had been peroxided and was painstakingly curled and waved.
The use of heavy make-up and rouge disguised the lines that had begun to appear, at least from a distance, and most of her
clients, as she preferred to call them, didn’t look too closely at her face. They were more interested in her other attributes.

She was used to her lifestyle now. It was easy money and just as easily spent. It was a damned sight easier than slaving in
a factory for a few bob a week and the lad was no problem, there was always someone to keep an eye on him. From time to time
she had heard of her sister – she numbered among her clients men from the crews of the Empresses. At first she had tried to
block Cat’s very existence from her mind, but that had proved impossible. Then as she realised that her sister was quickly
rising in her chosen career, her hatred and jealousy had taken hold of her. She wouldn’t admit it, but she would have swopped
places with Cat without any hesitation, for at heart she wanted the one thing she would never have and that Cat appeared to
have in abundance. Respect.

When she had heard of her sister’s attachment to the
young second officer, who had been described to her as ‘the rising star in the company’, a black hatred had consumed her,
but it was one of her regular clients who had given her the information that she was about to use to gain her revenge.

She ignored the suggestive remarks of a couple of deck hands, she wasn’t in the mood for that type of business today. Then
she saw him. She had seen him before, but he had never noticed her. She stepped forward, smiling like a cat about to savour
a saucer of cream.

‘You’re David Barratt, aren’t you?’

She ignored his icy glare.

‘Just got yourself engaged, I hear?’

‘Clear off before I call the police and have you arrested for soliciting!’

She threw back her head and laughed. ‘I’m not trying to pick you up, luv! Now would I do that to my own sister’s fiancé?’

He stared at her hard.

‘You heard me, it is Cat Cleary you’re engaged to, isn’t it? I always said our little Cat would do well for herself!’

‘Who the hell are you?’ he snapped.

‘Hasn’t she told you? I’m her sister. Shelagh. Shelagh Cleary, but these days I call myself O’Mara. Mrs O’Mara. It’s for the
boy’s sake you see.’

‘When . . . when did you come back from Dublin?’ he stammered, feeling as though this common tart was an apparition.

‘Back from Dublin? God ’elp us, it’s years since I left
Dublin! Since we all left Dublin! What’s she been tellin’ you, she was always a sneaking little cat, that’s the name I gave
her when we was kids. Did she tell you that?’ She caught hold of his arm, he had gone very pale. ‘’Ere, you look as though
you could do with a drink, luv!’

In a daze he let her steer him across the road and into the lounge bar of the Caradock and it was she who ordered and paid
for the drinks. Two large whiskies.

‘’Ere, get this down you, you look terrible!’

She watched him toss down the drink, then drained her own glass. Oh, revenge was sweet. She could almost taste it. It was
Cat who had turned her into a whore, so she only had herself to blame.

‘Oh, yes, she was always a quiet one, was our Cat. Proper little Miss Prim and Proper, butter wouldn’t melt in ’er mouth!
Like ’ell it wouldn’t! After the old woman she worked for – in service she was – died, she got all kinds of ideas, especially
after she took up with that Gorry girl! We weren’t good enough for her then, and after all Maisey and me did for her!’

‘Maisey?’ he repeated, dully.

‘Maisey O’Dwyer. We lived with her in Eldon Street. All of us, Ma and Pa, me, Cat and our Eamon. God, but there were some
fine bust-ups in them days, I can tell you! Then she took up with that Stephen Hartley.’ She waited for his reaction. This
had been her trump card. It was from him she had first learned of how Cat had met David Barratt. What Cat saw in this man
she didn’t know. He looked like a stunned cod fish. ‘I think we’ll ’ave another! Got a ten bob note on you, I’m a bit short
right now?’