Cold All the Way Through, But Warming

Black Tom Island

Ruth stepped into her car, waved one more time at little Richard in his mother's arms, and gave the order for her driver to head off. Liz was turning out to be a wonderful mother, even she had never seen Richard in the same clothes twice. If she kept going on in that vein he was going to be as much of a clotheshorse as his mother. His father was more frugal, even if he was still smiling widely at every little thing his son did. Even when Richard had whacked his father with a meaty little fist, James had grinned and talked about how strong he was.

To be quite honest, he was reminding her of Gareth.

When their daughter had first been presented to him, Ruth had watched as his legs failed and he collapsed into a heap on the floor, Anastasia cradled carefully in his hands. Her own eyes had been wet with tears, both from the pain of giving birth and pride, but Gareth was openly weeping. The next day he was all pride though, hardly leaving their side. Ruth had hired a nurse, but she barely did anything but change diapers. Gareth tucked Anastasia in, burped her, even sang soft lullabies to her as she slept. Sometimes Ruth had felt like she barely got to be a mother to her daughter, at least when she was little.

Gareth never lost his pride in her though, whether she was an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes or a young girl with three missing teeth, he showed her off at every opportunity. Afternoon callers were presented with Anastasia while he listed off her latest accomplishments. Ruth still giggled remembering the expression on old J.P Morgan's face when Gareth had proudly proclaimed that his daughter had begun working on her mathematics and she could already add two numbers together. To a finance magnate that was nothing, but for Gareth that was everything.

Ruth blinked, shaking her head to try and shoo those thoughts away. The last thing she needed was to show up at home with a face covered in tears. Rigby would be concerned and threaten to call a doctor, he was of the opinion that she didn't need to go out to a party when she was feeling blue. But Ruth wasn't feeling blue, she just missed her husband and her daughter. There were no tears coming, but she did give a heavy sigh.

She dearly wished Anastasia was home. She wrote often and Ezekiel assured her of her daughter's health every time he came back, but it still wasn't the same. She knew Anastasia was trying to be entertaining in her letters, relating stories about the Lightoller children and her charity projects. Ruth had even burst out laughing when reading about the Grand Duke that had shown up at her docks, amazed that the old story had proven to be true. There was no story that would stop her missing her daughter though, and the only thing that would bring her home would be peace.

And Ruth was doing everything she could to see that peace came about quickly.

The way this war had been going; muddy men dying by the millions in the trenches, submarines sinking unsuspecting ships and zeppelins zooming overhead to bomb cities were not going to be stopped out of a desire to cease fighting. The only thing that would bring peace would be a decisive victory for the Allies and she was doing her damnednest to see that they would have everything they needed for their victory. She sent over ships filled with food and clothing, her factories churned out bullets and shells by the thousands. Barges filled with Dalian munitions were constantly coming down from where her factories were, waiting to be loaded onto British and French ships and sent to the front lines.

Some people may have called her a warmonger, a profiteer, a greedy woman who was only out to enrich herself through the deaths of others. Let them say what they will, Ruth knew what she was. She was a woman who wanted this war to end so she could reunite with her daughter, and if it took a crushing victory supplied by her munitions, then so be it. She would mourn the deaths of those who would die, but their countries could only be dragged to the negotiating table in one way.