UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC (book 1)

Part 37 - Imposter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJAYmU-TRZw

Licia smiled at our confusion. 'Charlotte has this marvellous four-poster bed,' she told us. 'You can bounce on it and swing around the posts.'

Denny, Miguel and I lined up so that Charlotte could inspect us carefully. 'As long as no one looks at your feet, you appear to be regular first class passengers,' she announced.   

After some debate we tightly rolled up our regular clothes and stuffed them into several pillow cases. Charlotte tied up the ends expertly and we hid them in one of the cupboards. We were admiring our new appearances as the sound of a distant trumpeter filtered through the walls.

'That's the call to dinner,' Charlotte announced. 'I think the melody is called The Roast Beef of England. We must hurry before my hungry relations realize they are both late for dinner.' 

I was worried about Pacman but Charlotte had already placed him in a small basket lined with a blanket where he was snoozing comfortably. 

'I will carry him with me,' she explained. 'That way the stewards will not be upset.'

We followed Charlotte to the first class restaurant where we joined a crowd of passengers streaming into a large room elegantly furnished with carved wooden tables and comfortably upholstered chairs. She spoke to a steward who led us to a table laid out for six as a waiter removed the surplus set of plates and cutlery. 

'They are not very busy,' she whispered as she placed Pacman's basket on the spare chair. 'It's off-season, so there are only half as many passengers. And many of those are sea-sick and do not come to the restaurants. So I was able to borrow someone else's table.'

I stared at the table in front of me. I had never seen so many knives, forks and spoons arranged around one plate before. 

Charlotte laughed at my expression. 'There is one set for each item on the menu.' 

'Do you think they would have any chopsticks?' Licia asked facetiously. Charlotte looked puzzled. 'Is that something to eat?'

'No, Charlotte,' Licia explained. 'Chopsticks are used to eat Chinese food.'

Charlotte laughed as she looked at the menu. 'Well, the menu lists nine courses each with a bottle of wine but I'm afraid they don't serve Chinese food. I suggest that we don't order every course. I tried eating everything the first day and discovered that I could stand up afterwards. I had to be assisted back to my bed.'

The wine waiter arrived with a bottle of wine and poured a little into Denny's glass. He sipped it and nodded at the waiter who filled his glass. 'I think you guys are far too young to drink,' Denny announced as he quickly swallowed two glasses of wine. 

We took Charlotte's advice and skipped the oysters and the poached salmon and selected saute of Chicken Lyonnaise, except Denny opted for the filet mignon. That took us to the fifth course, lamb with mint sauce or roast duckling and apple sauce. The vegetables include marrow farci, peas, carrots, rice and boiled new potatoes. It was all delicious.

Denny face was getting redder with each glass of wine. He was working on his second bottle and his eyes were looking glassy when Licia asked when we could go back to Silverwood School.

'In a couple of (hic) hours but,' Denny jerked a thumb toward Charlotte and hissed, 'I don't want to get into a dis-cuss-ion of our predic-ament.'

'Silverwood School?' Charlotte had overheard. 'What a lovely name. Where is it?'

'It's in Ottawa, the capital of Canada,' Licia replied smoothly and began telling her about our lives at school. 

'I am intrigued,' Charlotte announced. 'Do you mean that you have boys and girls in the same classroom. I didn't think that was permitted.'

Miguel assured her that we not only shared a classroom but also Aunty Smolkin.  She didn't understand the joke even after I tried to explain why most people in Ottawa were anti-smoking.

'How fantastic,' she exclaimed. Almost all of the men in England smoke like chimneys and no one objects except my great-aunt Fanny.'

Denny was becoming less lucid as the alcohol affected his brain. When I asked jokingly how he had managed to get the steamer into the basement of Silverwood School, he told us, 'Wiff diff-(hic)-culty.'

But Charlotte was too polite to press us for an explanation of our presence on the ship so she and Licia fed bits of meat to an overstuffed Pacman while she talked about her uncle and her annoying younger brother, Eustache.

We were so stuffed with food by this time that we skipped the sirloin (except Charlotte ordered some for Pacman. He was in doggy heaven). We also skipped the roast squab and the pate de foie gras and were looking forward to some French ice cream or, in Miguel's case, a chocolate eclair when a well-dressed man approached our table unsteadily. 

He was accompanied by a harassed looking steward. The man looked remarkably like Denny except his face was even redder and his moustache was slightly wider. He reached our table looking both bemused and irritated, exhaled a cloud of brandy vapour and cigar smoke all over us and said deliberately, 'Charlotte, what is the meaning of this? The Maitre D. told me that I had already been seated.'

'You sir,' he waved an accusing finger at Denny. 'You sir, are an imposter.' Miguel groaned. 

 'There goes my chocolate eclair.'

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