hand. “The Lady wouldn’t ’ave let us be run over by them ruddy great creatures. It were touch and go there for a bit, though.”
He gazed at her for a moment, then sank to his knees and pulled the little girl into an embrace that was half relief, half …
Well, sometimes a gentleman could relieve his feelings by hugging a child, without other emotions being ascribed to it, could he not?
He released her and stood up, leaving Maggie looking both puzzled and pleased. “Just promise me that the next time you go rabbiting off into the wilderness, you’ll let someone know.”
“We did,” Lizzie said. “That boy wot was our guide, he drew us a map.”
“Someone in charge,” Andrew said. “Someone in a position of responsibility.”
“Oh, they prob’ly would’ve told us not to go,” Lizzie informed him with airy unconcern. “Say, d’you suppose Mr. Andersen ’as food on the sideboard? That grassy tea were nice, but it didn’t go far and me stummick is stickin’ to me backbone.”
They scampered up the ladder to the A deck, dragging Tigg with them.
Alice roused herself out of a brown study. Claire felt rather brown herself. The adrenaline of their near escape, the pell-mell journey back to the airfield with the mining engine practically climbing up into the steampipes, and Andrew’s show of temper, had worn off rather suddenly, leaving her nearly exhausted. Claire couldn’t blame the Mopsies for wanting to raid the sideboard. She could think of nothing better than to do the same—and seek her quiet cabin and Rosie’s soothing company immediately thereafter.
“I’d best be going, then,” Alice said.
“Please don’t,” Claire pleaded. “It’s nearly sunset, and you don’t want to fly at night.”
“Night, day, it’s no nevermind to me. I want to put this place to my rudder and get as far from it as I can.”
“Alice, what happened?” Andrew asked her, his eyes calming now, and filling with concern. “Did you find your father?”
“I did, and now I’m done.”
“But—”
“Andrew,” Claire said quietly. “Do not press her. We must instead convince her to stay at least until morning. Better yet, until after Count von Zeppelin’s reception.”
“Absolutely not.” Alice backed away as if they were about to forcibly restrain her. “Fine, I can maybe see the sense in waiting to lift until morning. But I ain’t sticking around for that hoedown. You can show him Nine and be done with it, if he wants to talk about automatons.”
“It would be most unwise to snub the count, you know.”
“Why? I ain’t ever going to see him again.”<
Claire took her arm and shot Andrew a speaking glance as they made their way over to the ladder. “Do you not see what you are doing? You are cutting people dead right and left—people who could mean something to you.”
Alice went up the ladder like a monkey, as if she couldn’t wait to get away from the sound of Claire’s voice. But Claire could climb a wall with or without a rope. A ladder was nothing. She emerged onto A deck at practically the same moment, so that Alice could not escape.
“Please, dear, reflect upon what you are doing. This is a harsh land,” she said as they entered the dining saloon. “We all need friends if we are to survive here.”
Lizzie turned from the sideboard. “Alice, you said the same to them crewmen on t’cargo ship,” she said around a mouthful of fruitcake and marzipan. “Oh!”
“What’s wrong, Lizzie?” The girl was digging in her pocket. “Did you bite down the wrong way on a nut?”
“No, I forgot about this.” She handed over a gleaming cylinder of brass. “It’s like them other ones. I meant t’ tell you, I found it underneath that cargo ship. There’s a lot more ships now, but I mean t’first one, that were ’ere when we landed.”
M.A.M.W.
Claire handed it to Andrew. And a pair of facts settled into place in her mind, like sparrows landing together on a twig.
“Why didn’t I see this before?” she murmured. Then, “Does it not strike you as strange that Mr. Meriwether-Astor and his entourage should journey all the way here as part of his world tour?”
Andrew gazed at her thoughtfully while Alice nabbed a piece of cake for herself. “It does,” he said. “But I try not to comment on the vagaries of the wealthy. They are often beyond the understanding of mere mortals.”
She held up the casing. “This is the second time one of these has appeared where it does not belong. Do you suppose M.A.