Brilliant Devices (18 page)

“I ent plannin’ to be like Ned Mose.”

“Glad to hear it. Me neither. Stand watch, please. It can’t be long now.”

“Aye, Captain.”
Jake finished a last notation and resumed his duty with the solemnity of a career military man commanding a bridge the size of the
Margrethe
’s.

“Lady, look.” Maggie pointed out the window off the bow. “Izzat smoke?”

Claire helped herself to a second piece of chocolate and joined her at the window. As she did, the
Lady Lucy
dipped in the air and suddenly they were looking down upon the top of her great golden fuselage.

“
The Dunsmuirs have begun their descent,” Alice said.

“I see them.” Jake reached ove
r and made a note on the chart while Alice flipped a series of switches. “Seven and Eight, stand by. Claire, I’ll need you at the engine to decrease power from your cell.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“But Lady, the smoke—”

“Maggie,
I’m sure it is safe.” Claire cast an anxious look over her shoulder at the thick plume, which must be huge, considering how far away from it they were. “Come with me. Lady Dunsmuir would never put Willie in jeopardy,” she said as they walked back to the engine. “You must remember we are going to a mine, where there are engines working and digging in the earth.” She had only the vaguest knowledge of what went on at a mine, but surely she could safely say this much. “It is likely a plume of dust, or smoke from those engines.”

Maggie looked doubtful, but when Claire required her assistance at the switches, she seemed much more interested in ordering Seven about than in asking any more questions.

After all, nothing was managed better than a Dunsmuir holding, was that not what Captain Hollys had said?

The only thing they had to fear this far north was catching a chill.

The Firstwater Mine had its own landing field, of course, for the
cargo ships and the
Lady Lucy
, a short distance from what appeared to be a town and the vast open pit that was the mine itself. As the
Lass
was moored to its mast by the ground crew, Alice saw that a dun-colored ship with no name, merely a string of letters a vk tal wand numbers on its fuselage, was already moored some distance away.

“No, you may not go to the edge and look down,” her ladyship informed Willie as they disembarked
. “It is far too dangerous. That is why it is surrounded by a palisade.”

“Chin up, son.” The earl tossed the boy in the
chilly air and then set him on his shoulders, where he clutched his father’s ears and giggled. “We shall tour the mine tomorrow, and you may come along. One day you will be running this empire. We must waste no time in making you familiar with it.”

A party of men approached in a vehicle that rumbled and hissed and emitted great clouds of steam.

“Same traveling mechanism as my locomotive tower,” Alice said in a low tone to Claire. “The continuous track is more stable than wheels when the river keeps washing out the road.”

“Let us hope they do not have that problem here.
My goodness, it is cold. If this is what it is like in October, I shudder to think of January.”

The men disembarked and introductions were made all around. The driver of the enormous vehicle turned out to be
Reginald Penhaven, the managing director of the mine, and his eyes were anxious as he turned his fur cap in both hands.

“You’ll have seen the smoke, then, your lordship?”

“I have,” Lord Dunsmuir said gravely. “It’s visible for fifty miles. What happened?”

“One of the diggers was sabotaged. It took three engines with hoses to put out the fire, and the digger is beyond repair. That leaves us with four, sir.”

“Four? We have—had—six, did we not?”

“We did, sir. You’ll recall we had the same kind of trouble a month ago, sir.”

“And you have apprehended the culprits?”

Penhaven’s hands tightened
so much on his cap that it bent between them. “Despite best efforts at investigating, sir, and a doubled watch on the vehicle yard, we have not, sir. Though we have our suspicions.”

His lordship bent a long, thoughtful gaze upon him
. To the man’s credit, he didn’t quail or look aside, but swallowed and kept his chin up and his return gaze level.

John Dunsmuir shook himself and seemed to come to a decision. “
We will meet in the office in an hour.”

Count von Zeppelin stepped forward, and
Alice realized that the other occupants of the vehicle had been nudging each other and murmuring among themselves since the great inventor had been introduced. “Once you have concluded your business, I should like to propose dinner on the
Margrethe
this evening,” he said. “I would be pleased if
Herr
Penhaven and his officers could join us, as well as your family, Dunsmuir, and the crew of the
Stalwart Lass
. Shall we say eight o’clock?”

“I would not hear of it, Count,” Lady Dunsmuir said. “The mess hall
here is not ornate, but it will accommodate all of us and more. There is no need to put your crew to any trouble on our account.”

“It is no trouble, good lady, it is an honor,” he said gallantly. “I insist. I would like to join you on your tour tomorrow, and then the day following, I must lift and make my way back over the sea. I have been away from my home these four months, and the Baroness will be growing anxious.
So you see, I must seize my opportunity to issue an invitation while I can.”

“You are very gracious,” she said. “We would be delighted to join you.”

Oh, no. Alice leaned over enough to murmur, “Claire, does that mean…?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. Full evening dress. Isn’t it fortunate we packed your blue gown so carefully? It will not have had time to become crushed.”

Alice groaned. She’d had enough of formal occasions this week to last her for the rest of her life. “I’ll just go to the mess hall with the men. No one will miss me, and I need to find out if anyone’s seen my pa.”

“Indeed you shall not.” Claire gripped the sleeve of her flight jacket as if she thought Alice planned to cut and run that very moment. “Don’t you remember what the count said? He wishes to discuss your
automatons more at dinner. I should think he, at least, would miss you. As would I.”

“Miss you?” Alice’s stomach dipped and steadied at Andrew’s voice behind them. “Are you going somewhere, Alice?”

“I was going to try,” she said with some asperity. “Th—thank you for your letter, Mr. Malvern. I accept your apology, though none was needed.”

Lizzie tugged on the skirt of
the canvas coat he had bought in Edmonton to replace the one lost in the Texican Territory. “Are you in love with our Alice?”

“Lizzie!” Claire pulled her away. “That is none of your business.”

“But we just—”

“Never mind, Lizzie,” Alice said, and extended a hand. “I wonder if you’d come along with me to the
cargo ship? Jake, too. I want a word with the watch, and it seems like this is my only chance.”

“I’ll escort you,” Andrew said promptly.

“No, thank you, Mr. Malvern,” she said as steadily as she could. Her heart was jumping in her chest like a fish on a line, but the fact that the very word
escort
set her teeth on edge went a long way to settling that down. “My navigator will come with me. I don’t want too large a party. Makes it hard to ask questions.”

“I’m good at ferreting out things,” Lizzie said happily. “Maggie’s coming too, ent she?”

Alice couldn’t imagine the two of them being separated for any reason. “If she likes.”

Lady Dunsmuir looked over her shoulder. “Claire, are you coming
with us?”

“
I shall catch you up, Davina, in just a moment.” She leaned over and whispered something to Mr. Malvern that made him straighten and put a cautioning hand on her arm. With a shake of the head, she said, “Maggie, would you come with me, please?”

Maggie hesitated between Claire
and Alice, clearly torn. “But Lizzie’s going wiv Alice.”

“Because Alice needs her. And I need you.” She raised her eyebrows in a way that
caused understanding to dawn on Maggie’s face.

Some wordless communication occurred between the twins, and before you could say
Jack Robinson
, Maggie was tripping off with Claire and Andrew, meek as a lamb.

Lizzie looked positively gleeful as she trotted alongside Alice and Jake.

“What just happened there, young lady?” Alice asked her, only half joking. “Do you have some kind of mental telegraph that lets you talk without words?”

“No,
’course not. Wot’s a telegraph?”

“It’s a device for messages,” Jake informed her. Then he said to Alice, “T’Lady wants Maggie for some scoutin’, same as I expect you do for Liz.”

“I do not,” Alice protested. “I just thought she could come along as some—some cover, you might say. Men tend not to suspect women and children, and I figured they might be freer with their conversation, that’s all.”

“So why am I going?”

They were nearly to the cargo ship, and the watch appeared to have figured out they were about to have company.

“Because you are my crew,” she said simply. “And I need a good hand on the ground as
well as in the air.”

Jake could not have looked more pleased if she had told him he was going to get his own ship.

“Hallo, the ship!” she called, taking Lizzie’s hand in a sisterly fashion. “Captain Alice Chalmers of the
Stalwart Lass
, and navigator, at your service.”

“Bob Grundage,
botswain of cargo ship one-oh-seven, at yours,” the man guarding the gangway responded. “This here’s my friend Joe Stanton, and that there is his brother Alan. And who’s this, might I ask?”

Lizzie gave him a sunny smile. “I’m Lizzie.”

“Well, Lizzie, you and your captain are a darned sight politer—not to mention prettier—than some folks I could name. What’s your business here?”

“We came with the Dunsmuirs’ party,” Alice said, releasing Lizzie’s hand.
The little girl drifted away, looking up at the cargo ship’s plain canvas fuselage with something akin to awe, as if she’d never seen such a magnificent one. “But my purpose here is a little more personal. You boys been flying the cargo ships long?”

“Long enough,” Bob said, lighting a cigarillo.
{/fops lo
Its acrid smoke smelled familiar. Ned Mose had smoked the same kind during his rare moments of leisure. “If you’re looking for a job for your young man there, you’re out of luck. Ships’re crewed out of Edmonton.”

“Good to know,” Alice said easily. “Matter of fact, I’m looking for a man and wondered if you might have seen him. About your age, with one blind eye.
Was a mechanic—a pretty talented one, if my information is right. Ring a bell?”

Bob glanced at Joe, then released a cloud of smoke and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Might not be recent. Maybe a year ago or more?”

Again the glance and the shake of the head. “Nope. Sorry.”

Alice saw Jake frown and crane his neck, looking for Lizzie, who had managed to drift out of sight.

Alan hawked and spat on the gravel. “We’re expecting a convoy
any day now, to start taking the miners’ families out before the snow flies. You might have better luck then if you’re still around.”