Brilliant Devices (4 page)

“I would
wrap you in my coat if I still had one,” Andrew told her. “Will my waistcoat do?”

“Here.” Alice pulled off her
mechanic’s jacket and settled it around Lizzie’s shoulders. “Air’s got a bite to it, that’s for sure. It never feels like this in Resolution except in the deeps of winter. But then, we’re pretty far north. It’s winter here already.”

“Let us board the
Lady Lucy
, then,” Claire said briskly. “Davina will know where we can buy clothes more suited to this climate.” And hopefully sooner rather than later. She herself had two skirts and a waist to her name, and both pairs of stockings had holes in the heels. If she didn’t open her mouth to speak, an observer would assume she was a young woman down on her luck—a seamstress, perhaps, or a schoolteacher who had come north to find more opportunity, or a shopgirl down on her luck.

That was certainly not the case.
She had been enormously lucky. Blessed, even. They had simply come to the end of the resources left from the previous stages of their journey. She would visit a bank, and then repair as quickly as possible to the high street to resolve this most immediate problem. Small difficulties like this certainly beat her most recent ones—like having to invent an engine from scratch in the middle of a wilderness.

How she had changed! She recalled clearly the burden that visiting a dressmaker had been
even six months ago. But that had been a time when clothes appeared magically in her closets and she never gave a single thought to stockings or 0">tockingcoats—or to money, for that matter.

By now darkness had fallen, but the airfield was
illuminated by lamps on every mooring mast. The Mopsies and Tigg set off at a determined jog for the warmth of
Lady Lucy
’s salon—where Claire hoped they would be received with open arms and not a lecture upon the evils of abandoning ship. Jake and Andrew followed, and when Claire looked back, she saw Alice lingering at the gondola, pretending to check their repairs to its bow.

“Alice, are you coming?”

“I—well, sure. Maybe later. I just want to make sure things are buttoned up here.”

“I’ll wait
for you, if you like.”

Alice hunched her shoulders. “Naw, you should go join your fancy friends. And Mr. Malvern. I’ll see what I can rustle up with the ground crew. They’re usually good for some news and a laugh.”

Claire took in the poor posture, the hands jammed into the pockets of her pants, the scuffed toes of her work boots.

“Alice, you do not need to be ashamed of who you are. John and Davina certainly aren’t, and neither am I.”

Alice snorted. “An earl, a countess, and a lady. ’Course you’re not.”

“You a
re the woman who saved my life,” Claire reminded her fiercely. “Who helped us put the cell in the
Lass
, which, as Andrew pointed out, has never been done before. You are the woman who flew across I don’t know how many territories to get us here safely, when you didn’t have to. You could have gone to Texico City and spent the rest of your life being nice and warm instead of risking your life to stand here in this cold airfield arguing with me.”

“That all might be so, but it don’t mean I can go shake hands with an earl
looking like this.”

“He will not hold it against you. Looks are irrelevant, Alice, and I should know. The earl is a man of perspicacity. He will see a lady of resources and bravery when he looks at you.”

“Is that what Mr. Malvern sees when he looks at you?” Alice lifted her gaze to meet Claire’s. “Now, don’t go all huffy on me. I’ve seen him.”

“I hope he does,” Claire said a little stiffly. Really, Andrew’s looks or lack of them were none of her business. “And I am
not
huffy.”

Another snort. Really, it was a most unattractive sound.

“Do you—” Alice swallowed. “Do you think he sees those things when he looks at me?”

“Who, Andrew? Of course. He owes you as much as I do.”

“Not because he owes me. He don’t. But because—because—”

“Claire! Alice!” came a distant shout from the object of their discussion. “Are you coming?”

Claire grabbed Alice’s hand and dragged her along the hard-packed ground, the fuselage of a neis aage of ghboring airship forming a darker shadow above their heads against the starry sky.

Perhaps it was just as well that Alice had not finished that sentence.

*

The only reason the Mopsies did not get a stern lecture on the subject of
what happened to little girls who abandoned ship was because the countess fainted dead away at the sight of all of them.

In the ensuing ruckus, Maggie and Lizzie made themselves helpful, snatching the towels from around the wine cooling in silver buckets and applying them to her ladyship’s pale cheeks while Claire cleared the nearest sofa of its embroidered pillows and instruc
ted her frantic husband to lay her upon it.

B
y the time Davina had come to herself, sat up, and tossed back a tiny glass of brandy supplied by Andrew, the opportunity for lectures had passed in the general joy of being reunited again.

“And you are all alive, and well, and oh Claire, I am so sorry we fell for the stories those rascals
in Santa Fe told us,” Davina said breathlessly. “Mr. Malvern, I am very glad to see you—we feared you would be in gaol for months.”

Claire made a movement as if to stop him from telling her the truth, then thought better of it. Davina may look as though a gust of wind might blow her away, but under the
tightly laced corset was a spine of steel. “He was not in gaol, my dear friend,” she explained gently. “They imprisoned him on top of one of those stone pinnacles and left him to die. If not for Alice here coming to the rescue with the Mo—with the girls, his remains would be up there still.”

“No!” Davina laid a hand on her pristine
Flanders cutwork blouse. “Shocking—distressing—how could they? And … Alice? Which of your party is she?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Claire saw Jake give Alice a shove in the small of her back. She stumbled out of her hiding place behind Andrew.

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Sir. Lordships. I’m Alice Chalmers.”

Davina rose and shook her hand, followed by the earl. “
You must call us Davina and John. We’re among family here. We are so grateful. How did you accomplish such a daring rescue?”

Alice hunched her shoulders, as though Davina’s wide eyes and guileless smile were
a plague she might somehow catch. “I just flew the
Lass
overhead and we winched him up.”

“It weren’
t quite so easy as that,” Lizzie interrupted, ever factual. “They was firing cannon at us and those poor Cantons got blown up and that mucky great engine were flingin’ railway coaches at the pinnacle to try and break it in pieces and—”

“Great Caesar’s ghost!” the earl exclaimed. “Can this be true?”

“It’s quite true, sir,” Andrew replied, backing Lizzie up before she did something foolish, lw.

“But wait, did you say the
Lass
?” Davina asked. “The
Stalwart Lass
, Ned Mose’s ship?”

Alice nodded. “Ned Mose is—
well, the truth is, he—”

“He was her stepfather,” Claire put in smoothly. “They became estranged when Alice took possession of the ship in order to pursue
the girls and me to Santa Fe and save our lives.”

“Ah,” said the earl thoughtfully.
“I am astonished that this is the first time we have met.”

“Circumstances conspired to keep us apart, but I am glad they have brought us all together again,” Davina said. She reached up and hugged Alice. “I for one am delighted.”

Alice blushed again, and after a moment, gave her ladyship a squeeze before she stepped back. “I’ll get your blouse all dirty, ma’am.”

“Nonsense. R
ather a dirty waist than no hug, as any mother of a boy will tell you.”

There was a pounding in the corridor outside the salon and Willie burst into the room. “Lady!” He dashed over to Claire and flung himself against her
skirts. “I knew you’d come back!”

“Yes, I
do seem rather like the proverbial penny. I’m very glad to see you, darling.”

“Mama and Papa are going into town for dinner. Are you going?”

“I’m afraid I have nothing to eat dinner in, and their company would be scandalized if I turned up in this poor old navy skirt.”

“Mama and Papa will send their regrets
to the lieutenant-governor,” Lord Dunsmuir told his son with a smile. “I can’t imagine any society dinner would be more interesting than hearing about your travels, though I must say any dinner with Isobel Churchill at the table will not be dull.”

“Isobel Churchill?” Claire let Willie go and he ran to his mother. “
She and Peony are still here? Oh, I hope I can send a message to let them know I’m all right—we were to have met some days ago, you know, and they are likely wondering why I did not arrive as planned. There have been some rather, er, alarming reports in the papers lately.”

“I should say so,
” said a voice from the gangway. Captain Hollys stepped into the room and offered Claire his hand, his face alight in a way that would have been most disturbing had Andrew not been standing right behind her. “May I say I am very glad that the reports have been exaggerated?”

“Thank you, Captain. And may I say that
the lessons you gave Jake in navigation and aeronautics have more than repaid the time you took to give them. Hsengive the has been Captain Chalmers’ first officer on the
Stalwart Lass
in everything but name.”

“Captain Chalmers?
The
Stalwart Lass?”
The captain of the
Lady Lucy
looked over the little party, his gaze darkening. “I’d like a word with him, and then perhaps he’d like a quick trip to the local gaol.”

“She, sir.” Jake gripped Alice’s arm and pulled her over much
the same way as a tug drags a boat anchor. “An’ she ent no pirate. She saved all our lives, one after t’other.”

Bravely, Alice held out her right hand while attempting to smooth her hair with her left. “Alice Chalmers, sir. I deeply regret my stepfather’s treatment of you and your crew.”

“You were in Resolution?”

“I was, sir.”

“Keeping me and the girls alive,” Claire put in.

“And you are not a pirate?”

“No, sir. I operated the locomotive tower, though.”

“But that were only cos ’er dad would’ve shot ’er if she ’adn’t.” Maggie came to the captain’s side and took his
other hand. Alice tugged hers free and tried to hush her, but Maggie pushed on. “An’ ’e took ’er prisoner and would’ve shot ’er ’cept Jake set ’er free and they come after us.” She gazed up, earnestly. “Don’t throw our Alice in gaol, Cap’n. She’s in our flock.”

Captain Hollys looked bemused. “I would say that no higher
character recommendation is necessary, then.” Alice straightened. “So young Jake’s service has been satisfactory?”

“Quite satisfactory.” It appeared that being addressed as an equal by another airman was affecting her spirits positively. “He has a knack for navigation and can read a chart at a glance, even if he has to spell out the names.”

Now it was Jake’s turn to blush and attempt to hide behind Andrew, who nudged him forward.

“It’s the land forms that count.”