That Fatal Night Read online

  Our Titanic, on the other hand, the Titanic for the twenty-first century, is made of stories, of biography and history, of the ghost stories of the might-have-beens, of my fictional story of Dorothy Wilton. This Titanic is located north, south, east and west of our fascination. This Titanic is still under construction.

  * * *

  Sarah Ellis won the Governor General’s Award for Pick-Up Sticks, and has twice been a finalist. She has also won the Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the IODE Violet Downey Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Body of Work, the Sheila Egoff Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. She has written over a dozen books, including A Prairie as Wide as the Sea, Days of Toil and Tears, The Baby Project, Back of Beyond, Big Ben, The Queen’s Feet and Odd Man Out. She lectures on children’s literature, teaches creative writing, and contributes reviews to a number of publications.

  While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Dorothy Wilton is a fictional character created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction.

  Copyright © 2011 by Sarah Ellis.

  Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd.

  SCHOLASTIC and DEAR CANADA and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read this digital publication on-screen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Scholastic Canada Ltd., 604 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1E1, Canada.

  ISBN: 978-1-4431-1921-4

  First eBook edition: January 2012

  Books in the Dear Canada Series

  Alone in an Untamed Land, The Filles du Roi Diary of Hélène St. Onge by Maxine Trottier

  Banished from Our Home, The Acadian Diary of Angélique Richard by Sharon Stewart

  Blood Upon Our Land, The North West Resistance Diary of Josephine Bouvier by Maxine Trottier

  Brothers Far from Home, The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates by Jean Little

  A Christmas to Remember, Tales of Comfort and Joy

  Days of Toil and Tears, The Child Labour Diary of Flora Rutherford by Sarah Ellis

  The Death of My Country, The Plains of Abraham Diary of Geneviève Aubuchon by Maxine Trottier

  A Desperate Road to Freedom, The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson by Karleen Bradford

  Exiles from the War, The War Guests Diary of Charlotte Mary Twiss by Jean Little

  Footsteps in the Snow, The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott by Carol Matas

  Hoping for Home, Stories of Arrival

  If I Die Before I Wake, The Flu Epidemic Diary of Fiona Macgregor by Jean Little

  No Safe Harbour, The Halifax Explosion Diary of Charlotte Blackburn by Julie Lawson

  Not a Nickel to Spare, The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen by Perry Nodelman

  An Ocean Apart, The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-ling by Gillian Chan

  Orphan at My Door, The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope by Jean Little

  A Prairie as Wide as the Sea, The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall by Sarah Ellis

  Prisoners in the Promised Land, The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

  A Rebel’s Daughter, The 1837 Rebellion Diary of Arabella Stevenson by Janet Lunn

  A Ribbon of Shining Steel, The Railway Diary of Kate Cameron by Julie Lawson

  A Season for Miracles, Twelve Tales of Christmas

  To Stand On My Own, The Polio Epidemic Diary of Noreen Robertson by Barbara Haworth-Attard

  Torn Apart, The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi by Susan Aihoshi

  A Trail of Broken Dreams, The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer by Barbara Haworth-Attard

  Turned Away, The World War II Diary of Devorah Bernstein by Carol Matas

  Where the River Takes Me, The Hudson’s Bay Company Diary of Jenna Sinclair by Julie Lawson

  Whispers of War, The War of 1812 Diary of Susanna Merritt by Kit Pearson

  Winter of Peril, The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge by Jan Andrews

  With Nothing But Our Courage, The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald by Karleen Bradford

  Go to www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada for information on the Dear Canada series — see inside the books, read an excerpt or a review, post a review, and more.