The Parasol Protectorate Boxed Set (46 page)

“I shudder to think what that woman will choose as headgear for floating,” said Felicity.

A
lexia could see it all in the society papers:

Lady Maccon boarded the Giffard Long-Distance Airship, Standard Passenger Class Transport Model, accompanied by an unusually
large entourage. She was followed up the gangplank by her sister, Felicity Loontwill, dressed in a pink traveling dress with
white ruffled sleeves, and Miss Ivy Hisselpenny, in a yellow carriage dress with matching hat. The hat had an excessive veil,
such as those sported by adventurers entering bug-infested jungles, but otherwise the two young ladies made for perfectly
appropriate companions. The party was outfitted with the latest in air-travel goggles, earmuffs, and several other fashionable
mechanical accessories designed to facilitate the most pleasant of dirigible experiences.

Lady Maccon was also accompanied by her French maid and a gentleman escort. There was some question as to the appropriateness
of the gentleman, a ginger fellow who might have trod the boards on more than one occasion. It was thought odd that Lady Maccon
was seen off by her personal secretary, a former butler, but the presence of her mother more than made up for this gaffe.
Lady Maccon is one of London's premiere eccentrics; these things must be taken in stride.

The lady herself wore a floating dress of the latest design, with tape-down skirt straps, weighted hem, a bustle of alternating
ruffles of teal and black designed to flutter becomingly in the aether breezes, and a tightly fitted bodice. There were teal-velvet-trimmed
goggles about her neck and a matching top hat with an appropriately modest veil and drop-down teal velvet earmuffs tied securely
to her head. More than a few of the ladies walking through Hyde Park that afternoon stopped to wonder as to the maker of her
dress, and a certain matron of low scruples plotted openly to hire away Lady Maccon's excellent maid. True, Lady Maccon carried
a garish foreign-looking parasol in one hand and a red leather dispatch case in the other, neither of which matched her outfit,
but one must be excused one's luggage when traveling. All in all, Hyde Park's afternoon perambulators reported favorably on
the elegant departure of one of the season's most talked-about brides.

Lady Maccon thought they must look like a parade of stuffed pigeons and found it typical of London society that what pleased
them annoyed her. Ivy and Felicity would not leave off bickering, Tunstell was revoltingly bouncy, and Floote had refused
to accompany them to Scotland on the grounds that he might be suffocated by an overabundance of bustle. Alexia was just thinking
it was going to be a long and tedious journey when an impeccably dressed young gentleman hove into view. The leader of their
procession, a frazzled ship's steward trying to steer them to their respective rooms, paused in the narrow passageway to allow
the gentleman to pass.

Instead, the gentleman stopped and doffed his hat at the parade of newcomers. The smell of vanilla and mechanical oil tickled
Lady Maccon's nose.

“Why,” said Alexia in startlement, “Madame Lefoux! What on Earth are
you
doing
here
?”

Just then, the dirigible jerked against its tethers as the massive steam engine that drove it through the aether rumbled into
life. Madame Lefoux stumbled forward against Lady Maccon and then righted herself. Alexia felt that the Frenchwoman had taken
a good deal longer to do so than was necessary.

“Clearly we are not ‘on Earth' for much longer, Lady Maccon,” said the inventor, dimpling. “I thought, after our conversation,
that I, too, would enjoy visiting Scotland.”

Alexia frowned. To travel so soon after opening a brand-new shop, not to mention leaving both her son and her ghostly aunt
behind, seemed unwarranted. Clearly the inventor must be a spy of some kind. She would have to keep her guard up around the
Frenchwoman, which was sad, as Alexia rather enjoyed the inventor's company. It was a rare thing for Lady Maccon to encounter
a woman more independent and eccentric than herself.

Alexia introduced Madame Lefoux to the rest of her party, and the Frenchwoman was unflaggingly polite to all, although there
might have been a slight wince upon seeing Ivy's eyeball-searing ensemble.

The same could not be said of Alexia's entourage. Tunstell and Ivy bowed and curtsied, but Felicity openly snubbed the woman,
clearly taken aback by her abnormal attire.

Angelique, too, seemed uncomfortable, although the maid did curtsy as required by someone in her position. Well, Angelique
had very decided opinions on proper attire. She probably did not approve of a woman dressing as a man.

Madame Lefoux gave Angelique a long and hard look, almost predatory. Lady Maccon assumed it had something to do with both
of them being French, and her suspicions were confirmed when Madame Lefoux hissed something at Angelique in a rapid-fire undertone
in her native tongue, too fast for Alexia to follow.

Angelique did not respond, turning her lovely little nose up slightly and pretending to be busy fluffing the ruffles on Lady
Maccon's dress.

Madame Lefoux bade them all farewell.

“Angelique,” Lady Maccon addressed her servant thoughtfully, “what was that?”

“It waz nothing of import, my lady.”

Lady Maccon decided the matter might wait for a later time and followed the steward into her cabin.

She did not remain inside for long, as she wished to explore the ship and be on deck to witness float-off. She had waited
years to float the skies, having followed the development of airship technology detailed in the Royal Society papers from
a very young age. To be on board a dirigible at last was a joy not to be dampened by French mannerisms.

Once the last of the passengers had boarded and been shown to their respective cabins, the crew cast off the rope tethers,
and the great balloon hoisted them slowly into the sky.

Lady Maccon gasped to see the world retreating below them, people disappearing into the landscape, landscape disappearing
into a patchwork quilt, and final, irrevocable proof that the world was, indeed, round.

Once they floated through normal air and were high up into the aether, a young man, dangerously perched at the very back of
the engines, spun up the propeller, and, with steam emitting in great puffs of white out the back and sides of the tank, the
dirigible floated forward in a northerly direction. There came a slight jolt as it caught the aetheromagnetic current and
picked up speed, going faster than it looked like it ought to be able to go, with its portly boatlike passenger decks dangling
below the massive almond-shaped canvas balloon.

Miss Hisselpenny, who had joined Lady Maccon on deck, recovered from her own awe and began singing. Ivy had a good little
voice, untrained but sweet. “Ye'll take the high road,” she sang, “and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore
ye.”

Lady Maccon grinned at her friend but did not join her. She knew the song. Who didn't? It had been a forerunner in Giffard's
dirigible travel marketing campaign. But Alexia's was a voice meant for commanding battles, not singing, as anyone who ever
heard her sing took great pains to remind her.

Lady Maccon found the whole experience invigorating. The air up high was colder and somehow fresher than that of London or
the countryside. She felt strangely comforted by it, as though this were her element. It must be the aether, she supposed,
replete with its gaseous mix of aetheromagnetic particles.

However, she liked it far less the next morning when she awoke with a queasy stomach and a feeling of floating inside as well
as out.

“Air travel takes some over like that, my lady,” said the steward, adding by way of explanation, “derangement of the digestive
components.” He sent round one of the ship's hostesses with a tincture of mint and ginger. Very little put Alexia off her
food, and with the help of the tincture, she recovered a measure of her appetite by midday. Part of the queasiness, she supposed,
was the fact that she was readjusting her routine to that of daylight folk, after spending months conducting her business
mainly at night.

Felicity only noticed that Alexia was getting new color in her cheeks.

“Of course, not just anyone looks good in a sun hat. But I do believe, Alexia, that you ought to make that sacrifice. If you
are wise, you will take my advice in this matter. I know sun hats are not often worn these days, but I think someone of your
unfortunate propensities might be excused the old-fashioned nature of the accessory. And why do you go gadding about with
that parasol at all times of day and yet never use it?”

“You are sounding more and more like our mama,” replied Lady Maccon.

Ivy, who was flitting from one railing to the other, cooing over the view, gasped at the cutting nature of such a statement.

Felicity was about to respond in kind when Tunstell appeared, entirely distracting her. She'd deduced Ivy and Tunstell's regard
for one another and thus was now committed to securing Tunstell's affection for herself, for no other reason than to show
Ivy that she could.

“Oh, Mr. Tunstell, how lovely of you to join us.” Felicity batted her eyelashes.

Tunstell reddened slightly and bobbed his head at the ladies. “Miss Loontwill. Lady Maccon.” A pause. “And how do you feel
today, Lady Maccon?”

“The airsickness fades by luncheon.”

“How terribly convenient of it,” remarked Felicity. “You might hope it would hold on a trifle longer given your inclination
toward robustness and obvious affection for food.”

Lady Maccon did not rise to the bait. “It would be better if the luncheons were not so consistently subpar.” All food on board
the dirigible appeared to favor the bland and steamed approach. Even the much-lauded high tea had been disappointing.

Felicity carefully knocked her gloves off the little table next to the deck chair in which she lounged.

“Oh, how careless of me. Mr. Tunstell, would you mind?”

The claviger stepped forward and bent to retrieve them for her.

Felicity shifted quickly and angled herself in such a way that Tunstell was now bending over her legs, practically facedown
in the skirts of her green dress. It was a rather intimate arrangement, and, of course, Ivy came bouncing around the corner
of the deck right at that very moment.

“Oh!” said Ivy, somewhat deflated in her bounciness.

Tunstell straightened, handing Felicity her gloves. Felicity took them from him slowly, allowing her fingers to trail over
his hand.

Ivy's countenance looked remarkably similar to that of a bilious poodle.

Lady Maccon wondered that her sister had not gotten herself into trouble before now, with such behavior. When had Felicity
turned into such a hardened little flirt?

Tunstell bowed to Ivy. “Miss Hisselpenny. How do you do?”

“Mr. Tunstell, please do not let my presence disturb you.”

Lady Maccon stood up, ostentatiously fixing the ear flaps of her flying hat. Really, it was too vexing: Felicity overly bold,
Ivy engaged to another, and poor Tunstell stuck making puppy eyes at the both of them in his confusion.

Tunstell went to bow over Miss Hisselpenny's hand. The dirigible encountered turbulence in the aether and lurched, causing
Ivy and Tunstell to blunder into one another. Tunstell caught at her arm, helping her to stay upright while Ivy blushed like
an overripe strawberry, her eyes downcast.

Alexia decided she needed a brisk walk on the forward deck.

Usually uninhabited, the forward deck was the windiest the dirigible had to offer. Both ladies and gentlemen tended to give
it a miss, as it upset the hair something dreadful, but Alexia had no such qualms, even knowing she would earn a heavily accented
chiding from Angelique upon her return. She turned the muffs down about her ears, donned her goggles, grabbed her parasol,
and sallied forth.

The forward deck was, however, already occupied.

Madame Lefoux, dressed as impeccably and as inappropriately as always, stood next to that very same Angelique at the rails
to one side, looking down over the patchwork of the British landscape spread below them like some sort of ill-designed and
asymmetrical quilt. The two were whispering to each other heatedly.

Lady Maccon cursed the wind of air travel, for it carried their words away before reaching her, and she would have dearly
loved to know what was being said. She thought of her dispatch case. Had Floote packed any listening mechanicals?

Deciding there was nothing else for it but a direct frontal attack, Alexia moved as quietly as possible across the deck, hoping
to catch some part of the conversation before they noticed her presence. She was in luck.

“… assume proper responsibility,” Madame Lefoux was saying in French.

“Cannot happen, not yet.” Angelique moved closer to the other woman, placing small, pleading hands on the inventor's arm.
“Please do not ask it of me.”