morning without having to do more when I come back home.’
‘I swept upstairs and did all the grates this morning before I went out. While you were still abed,’ Emma replied. Part of her wanted to be furious at Ruby for suggesting she, Emma, didn’t do her fair share of the chores. But another part felt for her sister. Of course Ruby wanted more from life than to spend her days scrubbing floors. At 17 she deserved fun and happiness and sunshine and laughter. But with their father dead, their mother’s fading eyesight meaning she was struggling to sew her piecework, their little sister Lily’s precarious health requiring her to frequently spend days in bed … well, it was essential that Emma and Ruby have jobs and bring in some money. They’d both worked since leaving school at 14.
‘Yes, I know.’ Ruby leaned against Emma as a gesture of apology, and Emma smiled to show it was accepted. ‘But I wish there were some way out of this. Where’s my knight, riding over the horizon on his glossy black steed, come to sweep me off my feet and take me to his castle to live in luxury?’
Emma laughed. ‘You’ve been reading too many romances, Ruby. Life’s not like that.’
‘I know. I just wants something a bit different. Less scrubbing, more love and laughter with some lovely-looking fellow.’
‘You’re so pretty, Ruby, it’ll happen in time. You’re still young.’
‘Wish it would hurry up and happen.’
‘Ah, pet. Don’t wish your life away. Come on. Let’s go inside and make tea for us all. I have some news to share.’ Emma stood and held out her hand to haul her sister to her feet. Ruby followed her in, looking curious as Emma called for Ma and Lily to come to the kitchen and listen to what she had to say. As she passed through the hallway it dawned on her that her news would mean Ruby would have more work to do at home, as Emma wouldn’t always be there. With a pang of anxiety she wondered how her sister would take the news.
‘There’s a possibility of me getting a new job,’ Emma announced, when Ma, Ruby, and Lily were all sitting at the kitchen table, looking at her expectantly.
‘What, on top of the one you already have, in the Star Hotel?’ Ma looked surprised. Emma already worked six days a week cleaning hotel rooms.
Emma shook her head. ‘Instead of it. I wouldn’t be able to do both – listen while I tell you.’
‘Get on with it, then,’ Ruby said, rolling her eyes.
‘There’s a new ship coming in, next month. A big one. The biggest ever built, they say. It’s sailing down here from Liverpool, and then a week or so later it’s off on its first proper trip – the maiden voyage, they call it.’
‘So what?’ Ruby shrugged.
‘You want to get a job on it?’ Lily said, her eyes shining. ‘Will you be climbing the rigging?’
Emma laughed. ‘You’re right, Lils, I do want to work on it. But not on the rigging. She’s a steamship. An ocean liner. Her name is RMS Olympic.’
‘You, work on a ship?’ Ma said. ‘Doing what?’
‘As a stewardess, I hope. Looking after the rich people in their cabins. Or cleaning if I can’t get a stewardess job. Or in the kitchens.’
Lily looked vaguely disappointed that Emma wouldn’t be climbing the rigging. ‘Do you work on the ship when it sails away or only when it is in port?’
‘When it sails, dear Lily. The staff need to go on board before the passengers to make everything ready, and then stay on board as it sails across the ocean. All the way to New York, imagine that!’ Emma could barely imagine it herself. New York seemed so far away, but here was a chance that she might actually go there, herself, on board the world’s newest and largest ocean liner.
‘How can it go so far in a day?’ Lily still looked confused.
‘It doesn’t,’ explained Emma. ‘It takes many days to get there. But they think the Olympic might be able to beat the record and make the crossing faster than any ship ever has done before.’
‘Never mind about records and speed and whatnot. How are you going to get a job on board, I wants to know?’ questioned Ruby.
‘There’s interviews for posts on board starting next week, down at the docks. At the White Star Line’s shipping office. I have the right experience, and they need loads of people. I think I stand a good chance. And if they like me, I then sign on for the first voyage, and after that … well, who knows?’
‘How long would you be away for?’
‘About three weeks I think, for the first voyage, and then if I like the work and sign on for another, I’d be away again.’
‘Ems, don’t go! I’ll miss you!’ Lily climbed off her chair and clung to her big sister.
Emma wrapped an arm around Lily’s waist. ‘Ah now, pet. Just think of all the stories I’ll have to tell you when I come back! Three weeks would go by so quickly, and then I’d be home on leave for a few days or a week, before sailing again. You’re almost grown up now. And you’d still have Ma and Ruby here.’
‘Huh. Yes. Leave me with all the work, why don’t you? What if I runs off and gets a job on this ship as well, eh? What then?’ Ruby put her hands on her hips and glared at Emma.
‘Ruby, you need to be over 18 or they won’t employ you. But maybe next year …’
A thoughtful expression flitted across Ruby’s face, and Emma smiled. Her sister was always looking for more from life, adventure, something out of the ordinary, and this just might be the perfect solution. Let her, Emma, work on board ship first to find out what it was like, then if Ruby still liked the idea next year perhaps they could work together on board the Olympic or some other ship.
‘Well, I think it’s a marvellous idea,’ Ma said. ‘Is the pay good?’
‘Better than I am getting now, plus of course board and lodging is included. I’ll be able to save nearly all my pay and bring it home to you, Ma.’
‘Oh, no you won’t. Your pay is your pay. All I will need is a tiny bit to cover your food when you’re back home, and the rest is your own. You earn it, you keep it, lovey.’ Ma nodded decisively and folded her arms across her chest.
Emma smiled. One way or another she’d get her mother to accept some of her earnings, when the time came. The family needed it. ‘So is it all right? May I apply for a job on the ship? You don’t mind?’
‘I don’t mind at all, lovey,’ Ma said.
‘I mind.’ Ruby glared at Emma. ‘With you away for weeks on end I’ll have to do your share of the housework as well as my own, as well as my job. I’ll have no free time to myself. But you don’t care about that, do you?’
‘I can do Emma’s chores,’ Lily said. ‘I’m old enough now.’
‘Huh. Half the time you’re too poorly to help with anything. And with Emma away I’ll end up having to nurse you on top of everything else.’
Lily pouted. Emma sighed. It was true that she tended
