THE DIARY OF MRS. TOMY RYAN
Chapter Four
We left the party and wound up on the
promenade. There seemed to be a whole sky filled with stars. No wonder Jack had
come out here to cool off from the party. It was beautiful, the way the stars
seemed to go on forever. Tommy seemed as moved by the beauty as I.
"In Ireland, I never took the time to
look at the stars very often. Too busy on the farm."
"What was it like there?"
"I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve
left that behind."
"I really should go in."
"Yes. I suppose."
As we were walking through the corridors, I
told Tommy a little about me, how my life had been growing up, and my sisters
and such. I was walking very slowly, not yet quite willing to let the evening
end. Tommy reached out and took my hand in his, and my heart started to race.
All too soon, we were at my door. I stopped and leaned back against it. Tommy
moved to stand in front of me, and placed one hand on my arm.
"Kate, what possibly could a girl like
you want with me?" As he said this, he brought his hand up and ran his
thumb down my cheekbone.
I felt frozen in place. I knew he was going
to kiss me. I put one hand on his chest to hold him back.
"Believe it or not, Mr. Ryan, I am not
one of those loose women who prey on men in third class."
"I had hoped you weren’t," he said
with an easy smile.
"If I fall in love, it will be for a
lifetime."
"Ach, Kate, I know that."
He leaned in to kiss me, and this time I
couldn’t stop him. It was a soft kiss at first, and it sent sparkles throughout
my body. I leaned in towards him, putting one hand into the back of his
gorgeous curls. I let him kiss me deeper, my fingers curling his hair, and I
felt more alive than I ever had before.
He moved his hand from under my face and put
his arms around me, pulling me closer to him. It was scandalous, us standing
there in the hallway, kissing like we were the only two people on the entire
ship. In fact, I had lost all sense of time and place. I heard someone close
cough, and pulled back from the kiss. I saw my steward standing there.
"Does Madame require any help?"
"No, I’m fine. Please mind your own
business." The steward raised his eyebrow and walked away.
"This isn’t proper, is it?"
"No, not really. I’d ask you in, but
that would be even less proper. Not that I really care."
"I’d better get back."
"Yes, that would be for the best."
I hesitated. "I’ll…I’ll see you tomorrow, won’t I?"
"Of course, Katie-girl. Come down and
find me."
I waited for another kiss, but he just smiled
and walked away. I fell back against my door, flustered. Turning around, I
unlocked my door. Inside, I put my purse down and sat on the bed. My head was
swimming with fragmented thoughts. I reached up and put my fingertips to my
lips. They still felt warm from his kiss.
My thoughts seemed to focus. I had just spent
the day falling in love with a man destined to die. For some reason, my
thoughts kept coming back to that one. As much as I tried to block it out, I couldn’t.
Tomorrow I was going to have to see what I could do to keep this ship from
hitting the iceberg. Yes, that was the only thing I could do. I didn’t know how
he died, so I couldn’t simply prevent that. I found that I could not stand by
and watch all these people die.
With that thought firmly in my head, I got
ready for bed. By the time I fell asleep, I had formulated a plan to change
history.