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Invited
Meg had just dozed off when a knocking on the cabin door jarred her awake. The family had come back briefly after breakfast, delivering the promised food stuffs, and then set out again. This time, Ruth was determined to see an “ocapus,” and even though her parents warned her that Uncle Charlie probably wouldn’t be around to help her find one, she was hopeful he would show up.
She wasn’t the only one.
But Meg was fairly certain when she reached the door, it wouldn’t be him on the other side. Pulling it open to find Jonathan standing in the hall, therefore, was not disappointing.
“I think you should come with me,” he said, not even bothering with a greeting.
Meg ran a hand through her disheveled hair. “Does he want to see me?” she asked, confused.
“Not necessarily,” Jonathan admitted. “But I think you should still come with me.”
“To Charlie’s stateroom?&r
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Even at this distance the piercing nature of Charlie’s green eyes locked on Meg in such a way made it very challenging for her to think, and even under normal circumstances it was extremely difficult for her to tell the story of what had brought her to this point. She wasn’t quite sure what to say or where to start. She certainly didn’t want to rehash exactly what she had conveyed to Molly. Rather than starting at the beginning, she decided to start at the end. “The reason I told you I wasn’t good enough for you, the other night, after the dance, was because it’s true. I haven’t been good enough for you for quite some time. And over the years, that knowledge has caused me to make some terrible decisions, many of which, I’m afraid, were made without even taking you into consideration, for which I’m truly sorry, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I don’t think I ever really saw you as a person until I glimpsed yo
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Meg had gone to bed fairly early that night. After returning to the cabin, she’d gone over everything with Kelly, cried some more, and then read for a bit before falling asleep around seven o’clock. Her exhaustion from the night before had caught up to her at last. A few hours later, a strange sensation jarred her from sleep, and even though she had been resting quite some time, she was suddenly wide awake.She glanced around the darkened room and realized everyone else was still sleeping soundly. The idea of rolling back over and returning to sleep seemed like a good one, but the uneasiness in the pit of her stomach stayed with her, and she decided to go out and investigate.Taking the extra time to change into clothes, she pulled her shawl around her as well and went out into the hallway. There were a few other passengers out and about, all of them with curious expressions on their faces. “Did you feel something, too?” she asked another woman,
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Once Kelly realized she was slowing their progress by continuing to fight her husband, he was able to get her through the crowd and up the Boat Deck much more quickly. He was quite surprised at how few people were actually present atop the Boat Deck. Though there were quite a few First Class passengers, particularly women, he saw very few Second or Third Class passengers at all.They were approaching the bow of the ship on the starboard side when Kelly spotted Jonathan and Charlie, who were walking quickly toward them, as if they had already seen the family from afar. “Charlie! Jonathan!” she yelled. “Thank God we found you. Do you know what’s going on?”“Apparently, we’ve struck an iceberg,” Charlie replied. “We were told to make our way up, but it really doesn’t seem to be all that serious. Where are Meg and Ruth?”“Ruth took off again, and Meg went back to find her,” Daniel explaine
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“Charlie!” Ruth yelled.“Let’s get you out of there,” he said.“It’s locked,” Meg reminded him. The water had risen so high, she could no longer even see the keyhole.“It’s a good thing I have this, then,” he replied, pulling the gate open and showing her the key he had used to do so.“A key! Where did you get a key?”“Come on,” he said, taking Ruth out of her arms and pulling her back the way he had come. “We need to get you two to a boat immediately.”The water on E Deck was rising, but they were able to walk out of the deepest part fairly quickly. Charlie seemed to know exactly where he was going, and Meg held onto his hand and let him lead her.“I need to go back to the stairwell and see if I can find Daniel,” she explained.“No time for that,” he said dismissively.“But I promised him I
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