Pistons and Pistols (17 page)

“Am I?” He patted down his body from chest to pistols, then turned his wide smile to her again. “I feel very much alive, my blossom. Very much alive. Now come here. A husband needs his wife.”

Any doubt that the man was real fled as Bill snatched her by the hair, pulling her to him. Rose screamed, throaty and bloodcurdling as all the years of torment came flooding back in an instant. She wouldn’t let him hurt her again. Not after the price she paid to put an end to it all.

She would rather die first.

****

As the captain disappeared into the blackness of the shaft, Gabriella worried. She had yet to find a moment to speak to Atom, and it looked as though she would never have the chance. He’d kept to the professor’s side most of the night, with Jayne between them, the three talking some scientific nonsense. To her surprise, Jax broke up the trio, sending Atom Gabriella’s way.

“Miss Upstairs?” he said as he approached her.

“Mr. Loquacious,” she said. Would they never get past formalities again?

“Miss Jax informed me that you wanted a word with me.”

Gabriella smiled, thanking the heavens for such a good and strange friend in the woman. She wandered a little way from the mine, from the others, into the open night. He followed her at a respectful distance. The stars twinkled in the clear night sky, while an almost full moon beamed down on them. It was the perfect scene for just the right apology.

She turned to him, lowering her eyes in a demure gesture. “Yes, I do desire a word with you. You see, I feel I owe you an apo—”

Over her apology came the captain’s piercing screams. Atom left her talking to herself as he sprinted back to the mine entrance. Gabriella was soon on his heels, wanting nothing more than to rush to her captain’s rescue. Everyone stood at the edge of the blackness, staring into the mine as shrieks filled the air. Clipped questions and worried shouts joined the captain’s screams, until the noise came to an abrupt stop.

A heartbeat of silence passed among them.

“We gotta go get her,” Dot said.

“We don’t know what’s down there,” Jayne said.

Another heartbeat of silence passed.

“I’ll go,” Atom said.

Gabriella turned to find him removing his glove.

“Don’t be stupid, Atom,” Jayne said. “There’s no telling what’s down there.”

“Where’s Jax?”

“She went to use the facilities.”

Atom eyed the buildings and surrounding hills. “Then she could be anywhere.”

“Actually,” the professor said. “I offered her use of my private water closet. She might still be there.”

“Dot, hurry and fetch Jax,” Atom said, his voice a calm command. “If there is any real trouble, she’s best to handle it.”

“Will do,” the woman said, and was off for the house in a flash.

“Wait for Jax,” Jayne begged.

“One of us needs to go now,” Atom said. “If we wait, it could be too late. Professor, please ready a lantern for me.”

“You heard the lad, Thaddeus,” the professor said. “Get to cranking.”

As the manservant did as asked, Atom removed his coat, tie, then rolled his sleeves to his elbows.

“Oh, my word!” the professor squealed with glee as Atom’s clockwork arm came into view. The man then clapped in excitement. “So it is true. You’re everything Grant said you would be.”

“Grant?” Atom asked. “You know my father?”

“Of course. Doctor Loquacious and I have been friends for years.”

The news should have been earth-shattering, life-changing and time-stopping. But considering time wasn’t on their side at the moment, Gabriella supposed everyone did what she had done. Catalogued the importance of it and moved on.

Before the man could get his hands on the clockwork arm, Atom held up his flesh hand to stop the professor. “Please, sir, we can do this later. I promise you all the time you wish to inspect it.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Jayne said again. “Let one of us go. You’re far too important to go and get yourself killed.”

Gabriella’s heart stuttered. Jayne’s words were the closest to a declaration to affection Gabriella had ever heard the girl speak. Perhaps her first assumption was the right one. Perhaps he did love Jayne.

“If I don’t, who will?” Atom asked. He eyed the group, from Jayne to Gabriella, to the professor and his manservant.

No one volunteered.

“Don’t go,” Jayne begged again.

Atom held Jayne by the shoulder as he smiled down on her, a friendly move that seemed natural to Gabriella. Then he cupped the girl’s face in his hands, caressing her damp eyes with his thumbs, both flesh and fake. It was a move that was anything but friendly. Gabriella bristled, jealousy overpowering her concern.

“Be careful, stupid,” Jayne said, her voice hitching with distress.

With a nod, Atom let her go, snatched the prepared lantern from Thaddeus and ran into the mine entrance.

A few steps in, Atom came to a stop, halting dead in his tracks. He tipped his head, seeming to consider something for a moment, then turned and ran back to the group. Or rather, back to Gabriella. To her surprise, he snatched her by the shoulders, pulling her to him, where he proceeded to give her the most passionate, soul-searing kiss Gabriella had ever experienced. Under normal circumstances, she would have chastised him for such a public display of wild affection and for helping himself to a kiss without even so much as hinting that he wanted one. But in this case, it was all she could do to keep from swooning in his arms.

Atom released her mouth, but continued to cradle her to him for a moment. He stared into her eyes and whispered, “I may not be a true man at heart, but I will always care for you more than any real man ever could.”

Then he was gone.

* * * *

“Keep struggling, wench,” Bill sneered. “You know I like it when you put up a fight.”

Rose did as he wanted, belting him in the lower jaw. Bill dropped his hold on her, rubbing the place she struck as he eyed her.

“You always did have thorns, didn’t you, Rose?” he asked, then laughed again.

She knew she wouldn’t get a second chance to hit him or to run. Pushing with every ounce of strength she possessed, Rose turned to flee. She didn’t get three steps before he had her by her red mane again.

Yanking hard, he pulled her down to the dirt floor. Bill fell atop her, striking double-fisted blows across her face, neck and breasts, until she went still. Their routine returned to her with a calming clarity. It was best to let him have his fun, rough as it was bound to be. Bruises would heal, but broken bones could turn into a nightmare. If she kept quiet and calm, it would be over sooner, with minimal damage to her person.

“Oh no,” he said as if he knew what she was up to. “Not this time. This time you’re going to scream and scream and scream.” He struck her hard again across the face, leaving a sting of shame and a blur in her left eye, before he snarled, “This time you will sing for me, bitch.” He pawed at her breeches, popping off the buttons with his big fingers as if they were pasted on instead of sewn.

As he worked his way to the last button, something welled up inside of her. A fire in her belly exploded, coursing through her body until it set her mind ablaze with courage. It was just like the day it happened. The day she decided she’d had enough.

Rose squirmed under him, trying to free herself from his grip. Bill laughed, amused by her struggle. He worked her pants open, thrusting his hand inside. As he found his prize, she found hers—a two-inch knife she kept in the side of her boot.

“Why, my blossom,” he gasped as his fingers invaded her. “You’re already wet for me?”

“No,” she sneered. “I’m wet because a real man made love to me not an hour ago on the deck of
my
ship!”

Rose snatched the knife from its hiding place, whipping it from her boot to his face in a quick arc of blinding silver. Bill cried aloud in pain. He pushed away from her, landing flat on his ass as he gripped his face in shock. It took everything she had not to just stop and laugh at how ridiculous he looked at that moment. Instead she focused on her escape, getting to her feet to run.

Before she could sprint away, Bill snatched her by the ankle, dragging her down again. Rose kicked and fought, writhing across the ground until she was butted against the tunnel wall. She turned on him, weapon at the ready, watching as he crawled to her with a feral grin on his lips.

“Bloody Rose Madigan,” he said. “Isn’t that what they call you now? I bet you like that name, don’t you?”

“I won’t let you hurt me again!” she screamed.

“And how are you going to stop me? How’s a woman ever going to stop me?”

Rose waved the blade at him, trying her best to look as if she weren’t scared to death of the man. “I killed you once, William Madigan. I’ll do it again!”

“You killed me.”

It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. An accusation. Rose eyed him, entranced by the proclamation, when her gaze fell on his wound.

“You aren’t bleeding,” she whispered.

The slash across his cheek, while gaping and impressive, failed to weep a single drop of red. It was as though the man were made of wax, not flesh. As Rose got to her feet, she realized the obvious.

“You killed me!” he shouted, trembling with rage

“You aren’t real,” she said. “You’re just in my mind.”

He ignored her accusations, crouching on all fours like some animal. “You pushed me to my death, Rose. Off of my own blasted ship! How could you? I was your husband.”

“You were a monster!”

No sooner had she said it than the monster attacked. He pounced from his crouch, pinning her to the wall with his full weight as he gripped her knife hand. Bill twisted her wrist to a painful angle until she released the weapon. It fell with a dull thump in the dirt.

“You’re not real!” she shouted again. “I killed you, William Madigan. I watched you fall a thousand feet to your death. You’re dead!”

“Oh, I suppose I’m real enough.” He paused, narrowing his eyes before he added, “’Til death do we part, my blossom.” He closed his hands around her throat.

As he bore down on her, jamming her windpipe closed with his thick thumbs, Rose clawed at his hands. It was no good, no good. He was going to win.

Bill then said an odd thing. “Captain.” He shook her, throttling her against the wall of the tunnel as he shouted her title over and over in some mockery of respect. The world grew thin around her, the weak light tunneling to a pinpoint on Bill’s rabid face. Rose closed her eyes, ready to die at the hands of a memory.

“Captain! It’s me, Atom.”

Rose opened her eyes to a hazy form that was not her dead husband.

“Captain?” Atom asked again. He was inches from her, a look of dire concern on his pale face.

She stood against the tunnel wall, hands around her own throat, strangling the life from her tired body.

“I have you,” he said as she fell into his arms.

* * * *

For ten heart-wrenching minutes Gabriella stared into the mines, her eyes teeming with unspent tears. She wanted to cry, but she didn’t know for what. It was clear how he felt about Jayne, after such a tender parting between the pair. But what of his return to kiss Gabriella? She had never been so confused in her whole life. Gabriella pushed the tears away, swearing she wouldn’t shed a single one until she knew exactly what was going on.

“Guppy,” Jayne said.

Gabriella nodded at Jayne, then returned to her worried watching of the mine.

“Atom spoke to me this afternoon,” Jayne said.

“What about?” Gabriella asked.

“About the talk you two had this morning.”

Great God almighty! Did everyone know? “I see.”

“You shouldn’t be so hard on him. He is what he is. He can’t help it.”

Everyone aboard the Widow knew that Jayne had some mysterious upbringing that stunted her socially, but this was too much. She was just as amoral as Atom was about the whole affair. Gabriella was willing to loosen her morals enough to rough it on an airship, yet she would not sink so low as to engage in this threesome everyone else thought was so natural. “He can’t help it? He most certainly can. And he should.”