Clockworks and Corsets (3 page)

“What is work now?” Jax asked. “Are we to return Click to his native soil? Get big reward for saving chastity of entire western culture?”

Laughter rolled across the Widow. The crew enjoyed the jab at the oversized cabin boy.

“Ladies,” the captain said. “I have kept the point and purpose of our employment from you long enough. Magpie? The details, if you please.”

Magpie stepped up to point at the distant shore. “That island you’re all looking at has no name, no known residents, and no clear ownership. It lies between so many borders that it would be impossible to pin down which nation has rightful claim, but the point is moot because most countries aren’t even aware of its existence. It is, however, the last known home of the infamous Doctor Grant Loquacious.” She paused, expecting a response.

Gabriella didn’t recognize the name. She glanced at the others, relieved to see everyone else also looked confused. Except the tinker.

“No,” Jayne said, her eyes widening as she stared across the waters. “It can’t be.” For a moment, her face lit with incomprehensible joy

“I thought
you
would have heard of him,” the captain said.

The moment Jayne realized she was the subject of scrutiny, the smiled faded to a cool smirk. “Doctor Loco?” She shrugged, insinuating the familiarity she took with the man’s name was nothing. “Sure, I’ve heard of him. Any cogsmith worth her weight has heard of Loco. The tales say he’s nuttier than a fruitcake, and the president himself had the man locked up to preserve the safety of humanity. I heard he could slap together a mechanism like nobody’s business. If he’s on that island, then we’re all in for a treat. A crazy, mad filled treat, granted, but a treat nonetheless.”

“I hate to disappoint you,” the captain said. “He isn’t on the island. At least not anymore.”

“That’s a shame. I would’ve loved to meet the man. I wonder what became of him.”

“From what I’ve been told, the president tried to put him away. For good.”

“Real genius is never truly appreciated.”

“Actually,” Magpie said, “there was some proof that he was linked to Mr. Booth’s attack on our Lincoln’s life last year.”

“That doesn’t sound like him,” Jayne said. “I heard he wasn’t really big on political garbage.

Besides, I thought they topped everyone involved with that.”

“Topped?” Gabriella asked.

Jayne pulled an imaginary noose tight around her neck. Her eyes rolled, looking heavenward while her tongue protruded obscenely from her mouth. Gabriella frowned at the garish display.

“Yes,” Magpie agreed. “No one’s been able to find the doctor since, or any trace of his whereabouts. It’s as though the man has vanished from the face of the earth.”

“Now that sounds like him,” Jayne said.

“If world famous doctor is not here,” Jax said, “then why are we?”

“Because,” the captain said, “although the doctor has moved along, we believe he left something behind.”

Jayne’s eyes went wide again. “His lab?”

The captain gave a curt nod.

“Intact?” the tinker asked as her forehead scrunched.

“There’s a good chance,” the captain answered, with another nod.

The tinker rubbed her grease smeared hands together in what Gabriella thought was a most unbecoming manner for a young lady. “Oh my. My, my, my. Captain, you have no idea what this means.”

The captain rolled her eyes. “Yes, Jayne, I rather think I do.”

Jayne swallowed hard enough for Gabriella to hear. The redness in her cheeks and meek look on her face showed that she was remembering her place. The other woman tipped her head to the captain. “Yes, sir. Of course you do.”

“In fact,” the captain said, “we aren’t here just to plunder the missing man’s lab. We’re here for something very specific. We have been hired to locate and return with one of the doctor’s creations. Some kind of artifact.”

“Artifact?” Gabriella echoed.

“What kind of artifact?” Dot asked.

“You officially know everything I do,” the captain said. “The employer said we would know it when we saw it.”

“We don’t know what we’re after?” Gabriella asked.

“Not really,” the captain said. She raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like fun. Doesn’t it?”

Gabriella was forced to agree. It did, indeed, sound like fun.

Magpie raised her hand. “Permission to speak freely, sir.”

The captain sighed. “As though I could stop you.”

“Who are we working for?” Magpie asked.

“Is it so important?” the captain asked, her voice taking on a clipped edge.

Unlike Gabriella, Magpie neither fidgeted nor squirmed under the captain’s scrutiny.

Someday, Gabriella knew she would stand just as firm in the face of authority. She just knew it.

“Yes,” Magpie said. “I think it does matter. Especially since we really don’t know what we are after. Maybe if we knew who we were employed by, we’d have a fairer time of finding whatever it is we are looking for.”

With a sigh, the captain turned away from the crew. She strode to the far side of the deck and stooped over the railing, grasping it with both hands, staring overboard at the water below.

Gabriella knew it wasn’t out of form for the captain to keep the name of an employer to herself.

Especially if the work in question was questionable. Ransacking an island for a mysterious artifact sounded dubious to the debutante in Gabriella.

After several moments of breathless anticipation, the captain returned. In a flat voice she said, “Madame Ruby.”

The crew gave a collective gasp. Everyone, that was, except Gabriella.

She had no idea what all the gasping was about.

* * * *

The women stood on the deck, staring open mouthed at Rose. It didn’t take long for the wide-eyed gaping to turn into frustrated grimaces. While the crew hated the idea of working for Ruby, Rose despised it. She had lost more than a few good nights’ sleep over the whole affair. When it came down to it, there was no other choice. With employment at a premium, any job was a good job. She only hoped the girls could see the logic of it.

Magpie covered her face with both hands. She groaned. “I thought that last carrier pigeon was from The Red House.”

“I’m not working for that woman,” Jayne said.

“Madame Ruby asked for us by name,” Rose responded.

“That hussy?” Dot asked.

“Yes, that hussy,” Rose said. “She made us a very generous offer for very little work, so I took it.”

“I wouldn’t take her money if my life depended on it,” Jayne snapped.

“It may very well be,” Rose answered.

“She’s right,” Magpie agreed. “We haven’t had a real job in almost six months, the food stores are pitiful, our sundries are nearly all used up, and I’m guessing the fuel has seen better days.”

“We might get another few days out of the coal we have,” Jayne admitted. “If we don’t stop and get some more soon, the boilers will run cold. We’ll be back on the sails.”

It had been a while since the ship had to run on sails, but everyone aboard knew it was a less than desirable state to be in. While the giant airbag kept the ship in the sky, it was the massive props on either side of the vessel that gave her movement and control. A complex array of complicated boilers in her belly provided the necessary steam to push the propellers about, but if needed, the ship could cast sails from runners that lined her sides, harnessing the wind. Yet Rose would do whatever it took to keep from resorting to the sails. Such an act was not only hard work, it was also unrewarding in terms of lift and power.

“The sails won’t get us a quarter of the speed we need to keep up with the competition,”

Magpie said. “We’re near dead in the water without more fuel.”

“And there is no stopping for fuel,” Rose said. “Because there’s no money for it Soon, there won’t be any funds left. The fact of the matter is simple. If we don’t complete this job...” She paused to look down, as if unable to face her crew when she said, “I’ll have to let all of you go.”

A chorus of “no” rose from every throat.

“Captain,” Magpie said, “I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we don’t just consider this ship a place of work. We consider it our home.”

Nods all around agreed.

Warmed by their dedication, Rose’s lips twitched ever so slightly. Loyalty, however, didn’t pay the bills. “I appreciate the sentiment, but the fact of the matter remains. We are a working crew, and we need to accept employment if we wish to remain in the sky.”

“Then let’s do it,” little Guppy said.

Rose narrowed her eyes at the young girl. This kind of outburst from the demure child was unusual. It pleased Rose to hear the girl speak her mind.

“I don’t see what all this distress is about,” Gabriella continued. “We needed a job. We we’re offered a job. So let’s just do it.”

“Honey,” Dot said, “it isn’t just the work that’s the problem. It’s the association with The Red House that we don’t want.”

Jayne snorted. “Yeah, it’s bad enough that everyone thinks we’re in the same line of work.”

She set to pacing across the deck in a nervous measure. “If we actually do a job for her, the gossip will never cease.”

“What line of work?” Gabriella asked.

Everyone fell silent, staring at one another rather than answering the question.

Magpie leaned close to Gabriella to say in a voice so low Rose almost didn’t hear her, “The Red House is a bordello.”

Gabriella covered her mouth as she gasped in surprise.

“Yes,” Jayne said. “You can see why we’re so reticent.”

Gabriella’s cheeks glowed cherry red, yet the glint in her eyes told Rose it was the scarlet hue of anger, not embarrassment.

“No, I don’t see,” Gabriella said. “I don’t see at all.”

“Guppy?” Rose asked. “Are you well?”

Gabriella clenched her fists, puffing out her chest as she stepped forward to address the rest of the crew. “I don’t understand you lot. All you ever do is talk of freedom and equality and how we should have the right to choose our own paths.”

Rose smirked, amused by the turn of events. Gabriella’s outburst was odd enough, but a speech of this nature was unheard of. What had gotten into the young thing? Rose cocked her head at the child before she asked, “I’ll take it our idea of freedom disturbs you?”

“No,” Gabriella snapped. “But who are you to pass judgment on what another woman does for her pleasure?”

The argument came to a grinding halt when every mouth fell open. The sudden silence was sliced by the hum of the props, punctuated by the occasional slap of a wave cresting against the ship’s hull. The women shifted their stances, doing their best to avoid each other while Rose tried to tame her own smirk. She lost. Her grin spread wide.

“I don’t understand,” Gabriella said, “how this Madame’s money is different from anyone else’s? Just because of how she earned it?”

Jax cleared her throat. “The little fishy has a point. Ruby’s money is just as good as anyone else’s. Better than any man’s for sure.”

Magpie chuckled. “Unless she offered trade?”

“No,” Rose said. “The offer was cash on delivery. I don’t like to talk so openly about finances, but there are quadruple digits involved here, ladies.”

Eyebrows raised. Lips curled.

Anyone will buckle for a great bottom line. It was the single good thing she learned from Bill.

“It sounds like a good offer to me,” Gabriella reasoned.

Rose was rather sure the young woman wouldn’t know a good offer if it landed in her lap and started to sing church hymns.

“What I want to know,” Jayne said, “is what a woman like Ruby wants with Loco’s legacy.”

“Does that mean you’re willing to find out?” Rose asked.

“You know me better than that, Captain,” Jayne said with a toothy grin. “I’d go for free if it means getting a look at the man’s lab. You just try to stop me.”

Rose thought her tinker would react favorably. Still, it was nice to be reassured. She turned her penetrating gaze on the rest of the crew. “What about the rest of you? Do you disagree with my decision?”

“No,” Jax said. “Guppy is right. You are right. We do the work that is needed. No questions asked.”

“I don’t like the idea of working for that woman,” Dot said, “but in for a penny.” She shrugged, letting the cliché trail off.

Rose looked to Magpie.

The communications officer shrugged as well. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing. I just hope you ain’t mad at me for asking.”

“I would’ve expected nothing less,” Rose said. “So, now that our little drama is over, shall we proceed?”

“Aye-aye, Captain!” the women shouted in unison.

Rose basked in their loyalty.

Mysterious Island

In which we risk life and limb for the object of the Madame’s desire.

Gabriella thought the task sounded impossible.

An insane man’s laboratory hidden amongst the overgrown jungle of an untamed island? A laboratory, mind you, that he had no intention of ever showing to anyone when he was there. How were they supposed to find the thing now that the doctor had been missing for years? Surely the island had swallowed up its prize.

Fortune smiled on the crew in two useful ways.

In the first place, the crew had, among their number, an asset that proved to be invaluable on a wild island—a wild island native of their own. Click, and it really was just Click because as far as Gabriella knew the man had no surname, was Polynesian by birth. He was also handsome enough to border on beautiful. With a height a little taller than the captain, which put him at least a foot above Gabriella, his smooth skin glowed in a healthy shade of terracotta, with sprawling designs of dark ink covering his arms and chest, which he showed off every chance he got by going shamelessly topless about the ship. Wild, dark hair hung in thick bunches to his shoulders.

His hands were twice the span of Gabriella’s, while his feet were enormous. She only knew this because the man spent so much time barefoot, as if his position aboard the Widow couldn’t afford him a simple pair of shoes.

On the official duties roster, Click was supposed to be the ship’s cabin boy, or in his case cabin man. The reality of the matter was quite the stuff of torrid tales. What went on between Click and the all female crew was a scandalous notion in all of the port gossip circles. Gabriella didn’t believe it until she’d seen him sneaking out of Jayne’s quarters, up the ladder that led to Magpie’s loft, and even, on the rare occasion, slinking away from Dot’s berth. It was all an exciting, scandalous notion indeed. It was also one that not a soul had bothered to share with the new recruit.