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The Third Son of a Duke

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We have characters by the bucketful on this ship, after all, there are 1400 of them plus the crew.  In second class, knowing the classes don’t mix, there are 235, yes I have the name and age of everyone travelling, and it was a lot of single people, at least 67 young ladies between 18 and 30. 

And no, it was not like a modern-day cruise with people getting drunk, acting stupid or cabin hopping.  This was 1914, and there was a modicum of decorum observed.  This didn’t mean that people didn’t meet and talk, dine or do rounds of the promenade or shelter deck together.

There were families, there were people travelling to Australia and back, the forerunning of what might have been cruising, but that was mostly those travelling in first class.  There were about 360 of them, and they had the best of everything.

Still second class had its own lounge, dining room, music room, and smoking room.

Of course, the protagonist and my grandmother meet, talk, she is reserved and cautious, he is not the usual aristocratic arse that behaves like he is entitled, it’s more he’s travelling second class to keep a low profile and not have anyone guess who he is, and cause a fuss, or derision.

That lasts until he is boarding when the captain of the ship, and friend of his fathers, sends the second mate down to get him squared away and ship shape.  Damn, there goes his anonymity.

And it had to happen in front of the girl in the blue hat, and another, the other protagonist, only he doesn’t know it yet.

The girl in the blue hat is my grandmother.

The second protagonist, well, she’s going to shake the trees and see what falls out.

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1930 words, for a total of 13665 words.