Ella Brown grew up in one of London’s privileged homes, with all the comforts and luxuries that money can buy. But when sudden financial reversals strike her household, leaving her father dead by his own hand and her mother broken by trauma, Ella is forced from a life of safety and abundance to one of scarcity and fear. Clinging to survival on the filthy streets of the city, she’s betrayed by her only friend and burdened by an ill-fated pregnancy. By the time Ella arrives at the hospital in premature labor, she desperately needs an angel of mercy, and one soon arrives: Irene Corbett, a Mormon midwife who has come to London for advanced medical training at the great sacrifice of her family. Irene soothes Ella’s pain as she births a son, who lives only minutes, helps her back on her feet, and joins her on a voyage to America on the ship Titanic—where epic disaster rips the two friends apart. Bereaved and alone, Ella finds comfort and healing in the care of rescue crewman Jonathan Moreau and his loving family. But will the dark weight of Ella’s past destroy her delicate hopes for the future? Bestselling author Anita Stansfield delivers a story of compassion, hope, and survival set against a backdrop of the greatest tragedy of the early twentieth century.

The Atlantic Ocean — April 15, 1912

Ella could hardly breathe as the shock of icy water grabbed hold of
her feet and ankles. She looked down as if her eyes might convince her
of what seemed impossible for her mind to believe. Lifting the hem of
her skirts out of the water, she watched the fabric dripping and heard the
sound of the drips intermittently hitting the water, like the span of time
between the flash of distant lightning and the ensuing echo of thunder.
It seemed to take several heartbeats for her mind to absorb the message.
It was true! The Titanic really was sinking! It could no longer be denied
as a possibility too horrible to consider. The life belt she wore seemed
inconsequential in light of the temperature of the water in which she
stood. What point might there be to floating in such water, when its
icy fingers promised to strangle the warmth out of any blood flowing
through human veins? Ella gasped as a familiar hand took hold of her
arm with an unfamiliar force, startling her back to the moment.

“Don’t just stand there,” Irene ordered and turned Ella around on the
stairs. “We’ve got to get out of here. Getting on one of those lifeboats is
our only hope of surviving this.”

“What about the children?” Ella demanded, resisting Irene’s firm
tugging. “What about—”

“You mustn’t think about that now,” Irene said, exerting more effort
in moving Ella along quickly.

Ella’s feet felt bitterly cold as she dragged them up the stairs, but her
heart froze in her chest at Irene’s implication. She stopped in her tracks
and stubbornly resisted Irene’s efforts to budge her.

“What on earth do you mean?” she asked, as if Irene might actually have a sensible response
to such a question.

Irene came back down two steps to face Ella directly. The chill in
Ella’s feet rushed all the way up her body and back down again as this
woman she’d come to call her dearest friend in all the world looked
into her eyes with a gaze so intense and foreboding that Ella found it
difficult to breathe. “Listen to me well, my friend,” Irene said in a voice
that matched the intensity of her eyes. “I don’t know how all of this will
end, but I know what I have to do, and I know what you have to do.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Ella insisted.

“I’ve explained to you more than once how such a thing is possible,
but now is not the time to quibble over details.” Tears appeared
suddenly in Irene’s eyes, tears so hot that Ella almost expected steam
to rise off of them. Ella wanted to know if they were tears of fear or of
some kind of resolve. She suspected the latter but didn’t have a chance
to ask before Irene headed up the stairs again, dragging Ella along. “We
must hurry,” was all she said.

Conversation became difficult in their earnest trek toward the
lifeboats that were stretched out along the massive deck of the ship. Chaos
and noise threatened to swallow them, but Irene pressed forward as if
she were a torpedo aimed at a very specific target. By some miraculous
means that Ella could not account for while her brain was in shock and
her surroundings were in pandemonium, she found herself scrambling
into a lifeboat, aided by the capable hand of a uniformed member of the
crew. She had to squeeze herself in but still eased over as far as she could
to allow room for Irene, certain her friend was right behind her. She was
barely seated when the lifeboat jolted into movement, and she realized it
was being lowered. Sitting next to her was a young woman, crying and
waving good-bye to a man near her age standing on the deck.

“No!” Ella shouted and tried to stand but could not find the
balance to do so. “No!” she shouted louder and tried again, gripping
the edge of the boat as if she might leap out of it to reunite herself with
her beloved Irene.

“You’ve got t’ sit down, miss,” she heard a male voice say, and a firm
hand on her shoulder made it impossible to ignore the command. But
Ella’s eyes were connected to Irene’s. In a matter of a few seconds, all
they had shared through these months of friendship raced through Ella’s mind.
Irene had given hope to the hopeless and life to the doomed. Ella had been both. How could they possibly be separated by whatever
this terrifying disaster might entail?

Ella convinced herself in the next few seconds that Irene would get
into another lifeboat and they would soon be reunited. She shouted
toward her, hoping to be heard above the din. “I’ll see you soon. Go
and find yourself a seat and—”

“Whatever happens,” Irene called back, and even from the distance
Ella could see those steamy tears once again glimmering in her eyes,
“you must live your life to its fullest. Promise me.”

Ella hesitated, refusing to accept the implication that they might
not see each other again. “Promise me!” Irene shouted.

“I promise!” Ella called back. After all that Irene had done for her,
how could she refuse anything this great woman might ask of her?
Irene’s countenance softened and she actually smiled. “All will be
well,” Irene called back, her voice becoming more difficult to hear,
and her face more difficult to see, as the lifeboat was lowered farther
toward the frigid, black ocean below. “I know what I have to do,” Irene
shouted, as if she desperately needed Ella to know. “Whatever happens,
never forget . . . that I know what I have to do, and all will be well.”

While Ella was trying to think of appropriate words to say in
return, something that could be shouted with the hope of being heard
amidst the chaos, the lifeboat jolted as the ropes on one side slid a little
more quickly than on the other. The frightened voices of the women
and children in the boat with Ella distracted her from her conversation.
When Ella looked up again at the deck of the mighty ship, becoming ever farther away, Irene was no longer there.