Captain Gravenor’s Airship Equinox (Steampunk Smugglers) (4 page)

“Are you planning to lead the firing squad yourself?”

Brecon looked up, into the darkly mesmerizing eyes of
Captain Red Kite. Her long dark hair was tucked into an old tricorne hat, but
her frock coat and slim trousers were tailored to her long, strong female form.
No one would mistake the lieutenants for anything but this Amazon’s brothers.

He bowed his head. “Captain.”

Captain Red Kite grimaced. “Where did you find her?” She
pointed.

She was pointing at Philadelphia. “I rescued her from a
cliff’s edge.”

“You should have pushed her off. She is a murderer.”

Confused, he glanced to his right, and saw his
Philadelphia’s eyes fill with tears. His Philadelphia? Where had that come
from? She hadn’t cried this whole frightening day. Had he heard correctly or
were his ears full of muck? “Murderer?”

“Philadelphia Hardcastle. Or should I say Dr. Castle, the
inventor of the infernal devices that the Blockaders use to keep Wales under
their thumb?”

His lungs emptied of oxygen. When he opened his mouth
nothing came out. “This lady is Dr. Castle?” His hand dropped from her elbow.

Philadelphia—Dr. Castle— turned to him, tears filling her
eyes. “I didn’t know what my brother was doing with my inventions.”

He stepped away. “You were trying to kill yourself. I should
have let you,” he spat.

She put her hands to her face.

Brecon glanced up and met Captain Red Kite’s gaze, which was
coolly amused.

“Yes, you should have, for her crimes against humanity.”

Philadelphia rocked toward him, her shoulder brushing his as
the pendulum of her body moved in his direction. She wiped tears from her face.
“I am not afraid to die. Feel free to tie a rope to the nearest tree.”

“And let you out of a fitting punishment?” The captain
sneered. “I prefer to discover your greatest fear and indulge myself in playing
with you.”

“What was done to you to make a woman so cruel?”
Philadelphia asked. “I tell you, I did not know. After the free traders killed
my brother the truth came out.”

“How could you not know?”

“I all but lived in my laboratory. I only left to take long
walks, or ride. I had no assistant, no husband, just myself and my thoughts.”

“Oh?”

“We had no money to go out in Society, so I just developed
my thoughts, considered ways to make the farm operation more profitable.”

“You are claiming your brother stole your inventions?”

“Not exactly, but my goal was to fence animals without
physical barriers. I had no thought of using my inventions on people. He
subverted my ideas, adding things and using them in different ways. He would
take my inventions back to Town, but I never knew why.”

Even Brecon frowned at that. “But the brass hands work as
electrocution devices,” he said, referring to the mechanical devices the
Blockaders placed on amputees. “The Man Immobilizer freezes people. How does
that apply to animals?”

“I designed a warning system. When a sheep would come too
close to the barrier, for instance, the alarm would go off in the hopes of
scaring the creature away. Then it would receive a small shock if it touched
the barrier. The BAE strengthened the shock, obviously. I never tested on
people.”

“So why did you feel so guilty that you wanted to die?” he
asked.

She pushed matted hair away from her pale face, her gaze
unfocused. “People have died because of me. And my brother’s widow wants no
part of me. I wasn’t allowed out of the house unless I was willing to leave
forever. Not to my laboratory in the stable block, not to walk or ride. So I
left to live with my cousin, but I am not used to such a communal life, being
little better than a servant. I am at her beck and call all day, scarcely with
a moment to think.”

Brecon could sense the darkness inside her, the desperation
and hopelessness she let grow into a wish for death.

“Your worst fear is imprisonment then, and not alone
either.”

Brecon knew what was coming. Even Philadelphia took a half
step back, sensing something bad.

“This is my ruling. Brothers, take Dr. Castle to the cage.
Mr. Gravenor will bring her what tools and equipment she requires to reproduce her
infernal devices, then you will lock him in with her too, to be her assistant.”

Brecon felt faint. He had only guessed half of it. “Why must
I be involved?”

“Why, Mr. Gravenor, you nearly brought the Blockaders down
on our heads. You know we use that abandoned castle as a training ground for
pilots. Now we’ll have to find somewhere new. The least you can do for us is to
be Dr. Castle’s test subject.”

 He stared at the hook attached to his right arm stump. “I
wouldn’t mind having a Dr. Castle contraption, that is, if it won’t electrocute
me.”

Philadelphia glanced at his hook and winced. “I will design
a hand for your men, Captain, though as I’ve said, I am not the one who made
the hands, just the underlying mechanism. But I will not be imprisoned.”

Captain Red Kite sneered. “Unless you have a way out of this
room, you will.”

Philadelphia stepped toward the captain, shoulders squared.
Brecon was shocked and impressed by her bravado. He put his hand out, not sure
what he’d planned, but he knew nothing good could come of a physical
confrontation. The twins moved forward, but the captain, no stranger to
self-defense, whipped her heater from her belt with one hand, and a dagger with
the other. Philadelphia stopped.

“I will not do the work in a cage,” she said, very slowly
and clearly.

The captain shrugged, gaslight creating sinister shadows on
her harsh, warrior queen’s face. “Then rot. Go mad. I am indifferent. But that
is where you will be going.”

“Very well.” Philadelphia’s sharp nose rose into the air.

Brecon could see the dried blood on her back through her
torn clothing. Even her corset hadn’t escaped his hook. She had to be in pain,
but she was still willing to argue the point.

“But.” The captain held up her dagger. “You sentence your
rescuer to the same fate. You rot, Mr. Gravenor rots too. So this recalcitrance
will cost another life.”

“Damn you to hell!” she cried.

Brecon echoed her words in the privacy of his mind.

One side of the captain’s mouth lifted in an evil grin.
“Never let it be said I took away your free will.”

Philadelphia lunged forward. Brecon grabbed for her,
forgetting his hook yet again. His hook tore a gash down her sleeve and he saw
blood welling. Her lips tightened, but she didn’t cry out.

The captain stared, expressionless. “Bloody Knife, fetch the
surgeon for Dr. Castle. He can attend her in the cage.”

The free trader captain put his hand to his cap and left the
room. The twins came forward and tugged at Philadelphia’s elbows.

“Mind the arm,” Brecon said, following them out of the room.
Not for the first time, he cursed his fate. Couldn’t he have found somewhere
better to go once his arm healed? But he had had no heart to try and learn a
new trade, now that he was crippled. And he liked building airships. Who would
have taken him on, other than criminals?

At least the twins didn’t take him in hand, but he couldn’t
run, not when Philadelphia being here was his fault. So he followed, head held
high, down the winding iron steps into the basement. No one stood guard here as
a rule, but fresh straw had been strewn over the dirt floor and the chamber pot
had been scrubbed clean in the corner cage. Two walls were stone, two were iron
bars. Brecon couldn’t remember another prisoner spending time here since a free
trader named Jasper had been hanged for informing to the Blockaders, and that
had been only two weeks after he’d arrived at the camp.

One of the twins ushered Philadelphia into the cage, then
stepped aside so Brecon could join her.

“I was supposed to get her equipment,” he temporized, having
an instinctive loathing of crossing the threshold.

“We’ll let you discuss what she needs inside,” sneered One,
the only name he’d ever heard for the twin. If he had a proper name it was long
forgotten, or kept a close secret in the family.

Two, the less gifted of the twins, lifted his heater from
its holder and waved it menacingly.

Brecon fixed them both with a hard stare as he walked in.

Philadelphia put her hands to her hips and glared at the
twins while they locked the gate. Brecon reflected that if he’d been down here
with Terrwyn Fenna she’d probably have been able to pick the lock with tools
stashed in her hair or something, and they’d have escaped the compound on a
stolen airship. He’d saddled himself with the wrong sort of prisoner entirely.
Although, maybe she could electrocute the twins and they could escape that way.
He entertained himself with that thought as his fellow inmate collapsed onto a
sturdy wooden bench that would serve them as chair, table and bed.

One scratched his nose. “We’ll get you a proper cot,
Gravenor.”

He lifted an elbow. “And one for her too?”

Two sneered. “I won’t offer comfort to a mass murderer.”

Brecon glanced at Philadelphia and saw her face had gone
white. She didn’t meet his gaze, just dropped her face into her hands. “Can I
have my bundle?” he asked. “It’s in my trunk in the men’s dormitory.”

Twin Two shrugged. “Sure, Brecon.”

The barber came twenty minutes later and cleaned
Philadelphia’s wounds. He bound her arm with clean strips of cotton and both
men turned to allow her to wind bandages around her torso. When One brought
Brecon’s personal possessions, he gave her his other shirt.

“Don’t you want to change?” she asked.

“You need it more than me,” he told her. How he had come
down in the world since he’d lost his hand. Once it had seemed as though he had
an endless supply of clean clothes. With two brothers of nearly the same size
as he was, there had always been a cupboard full to choose from.

“Turn away.”

Brecon faced the open bars while she rustled behind him. He
imagined she was stripping off what remained of her shirt and replacing it with
his. She’d already taken off her jacket while the barber tended her. While her
form was spare, she’d been revealed as perfectly proportioned in a way highly
appealing to him.

He scratched his nose and thought back to the last time he’d
been so close to a female. For sure it had been in more luxurious
accommodations as this, and far more private.

“There,” she said, sounding clipped and authoritative for
the first time.

He turned. His shirt accentuated her slender form, but at
least she was covered from the other free traders.

“The twins aren’t hiding in the shadows, are they?”

“No, they will be still at their dinner.”

“How are we going to escape?”

~*~

CHAPTER THREE

 “We’ll be released when you make the brass hand,” Brecon
said, hoping she could reengineer the Blockader’s design quickly.

She wrinkled her nose. “I hope you realize that is not going
to happen.”

He ignored the adorable way she scrunched her face. “Why
not? She has enough money to get you whatever you need.”

“It’s bad enough that I presented my brother with the tools
to control men, however inadvertently. I’m not going to give that technology to
criminals.”

“We’re only criminals because the government is so controlling.
Do you agree they have the right to be in total command of the sky? A fisherman
can fish in the water, but we can’t even rise into the air on a pleasure craft.”

 “You use the sky to steal,” she said flatly.

“Mostly from government warehouses. And free trading isn’t
all stealing you know. We just avoid paying taxes on purchased cargo we
transport into Wales.”

“Mostly?”

“Well, that’s the Owlers’ approach.”

“And what is the Red Kite approach?”

He chewed on his lip. “They are a little more martial,” he
admitted. “Captain Red Kite likes to nip at the heels of the Blockaders
whenever possible. She’ll even call for ground raids on their yards.”

“I’m not going to give the containment technology to a
bloodthirsty pirate. Much less the Man Immobilizer technology, even if I knew
exactly how that worked.” She held up a hand. “I’m willing to give you the
benefit of the doubt. You saved my life, and you attempted to protect me.”

“Where do you plan to go if you escape?” he asked. “You’ve
all but informed me you have no life to return to.”

“We’ll have to get to Italy. My brother had a house there.
With his widow back in Berkshire, that house is standing empty. Why not take
advantage of it? I can start over there.”

“We? Why am I included?”

“You said you were a ship builder. I’m sure you can find
work. Surely you don’t want to stay when you’re being punished for merely
trying to save your own life.”

She did have a kernel of a point. “But I’m Welsh.”

“Better than Irish,” she muttered. “I do not think you will
find prejudice against the Welsh in Italy.”

“That is not what I meant. I like it here and haven’t been
anywhere else. Do you speak Italian?”

“I speak Latin.”

“Right.” A dead language would be so useful.

“It will help,” she said defensively. “I know the house
staff speaks English. My brother didn’t speak Italian.”

He scratched his cheek, felt the beard bristling there. How
long were they to be stuck down here if Philadelphia didn’t produce a brass
hand? He understood why she didn’t trust the captain, but didn’t it negate the
danger if both sides in a war had the same weapon?

Of course, if they both pointed a Man Immobilizer at the
opposite airship at the same time, most of the men would be paralyzed. With no
one to steer or load the boilers, they would both crash. More innocent families
of enslaved men and poor free traders would suffer.