But there was only one answer to the question that was obviously uppermost in his mind. “Your duty lies aboard Lady Lucy, my dear one. That is—if the Dunsmuirs still consider us friends?”
“That’s the trouble, Lady. That Meriwether bloke ’as ’em over a barrel good and proper.” He looked up. “Izzat the count?”
“Indeed,” said that gentleman.
“Cor,” Tigg said on a breath of disbelief. “You ent dead?”
Claire put her hands upon his shoulders and gave them a gentle shake to return the boy’s attention to her. “Tigg, tell me what has happened.”
“The Dunsmuirs are under ’ouse arrest and can’t leave Lady Lucy. T’Mopsies and me snuck out through the ceilings and down into the cargo bay, an’ out through the loading doors. That Meriwether-Astor cove ’as took over. These cargo ships, they were full of ’is Texicans and Colonials, not proper crews at all. And sir—” He looked up at the count. “—if you ent dead now, you will be shortly. You gots to get out. I c’n commandeer one o’ them mining engines an’ we c’n go to the Esquimaux village. They c’n ’ide you.”
“Can’t,” Maggie said. “The village flew away.”
Panting from his lengthy speech, Tigg stared at her. “Are you off yer ’ead, Mags?”
“Their ’ouses was ships,” Lizzie said. “Lifted not ’alf an hour past. We saw ’em.”
Claire straightened and passed an arm about Tigg’s shoulders. He was trembling, and not from the cold. From fear, she had no doubt—fear for the people he loved.
“What of Captain Hollys and the crew?”
“Outnumbered an’ confined to quarters. Lady, I know it’s me duty, but must I go back?”
She hugged him close, then looked into his eyes. “What are your own feelings?”
“I dunno wot to do. I want to ’elp. But I also want to come wiv you an’ leave this place be’ind for good. I ’ate it ’ere.”
He was not the only one. “A year from now, what will you wish you had done?”
Her hand slipped away as he turned slightly to gaze at Lady Lucy’s fuselage, barely visible beyond the sadly listing Margrethe.
“I s’pose I’d wish I’d’ve ’elped, ’specially if some ’arm comes to our Willie. I’m the only crewman got free.”
“I suppose the marauders relieved the crews of all their weapons?”
Tigg nodded. “First thing.”
“And the air rifles in the ceiling cabinets were confiscated by Ned Mose back in Resolution. I imagine Captain Hollys would be glad of a few weapons smuggled in to them, would he not?”
“Claire, are you mad?” Andrew demanded. “You would send a child back into danger, loaded down with guns?”
“I ent a child,” Tigg retorted with spirit. “I’m nearly fourteen, and I got a duty to ’elp.”
Her gaze met Tigg’s, and in his brown eyes she saw the hardening of resolve. She nodded briskly. “We shall conceal as many upon your person as we can, and once we are clear, you must board and assist your captain in retaking the Lady Lucy for our friends.”
“Clear?” Andrew repeated. “What do you propose?”
She lifted her chin. “I have stolen a coach and a scientist. It cannot be any more difficult to steal an airship.”
*
“You cannot mean to steal Meriwether-Astor’s ship.” Andrew’s eyes practically stood out on stalks.
“Of course not. After Tigg has what he needs, I mean to steal the one with all the guns on it.” She looked up at the fuselage above their heads, which only looked ragged and poorly maintained. But under the torn exterior they had observed a sleek substructure that meant business. “I mean to steal this one.”
But time, it seemed, had run out.
In the distance, a large group of men issued from between the mining offices and the outlying buildings, shouting the alarm and streaming past the now deserted mine gates.
“Oh dear,” Claire said. “It appears someone has noticed the prisoners are missing. Tigg, inside, quickly. We must get you armed before we are seen.”
“We do not have time to open crates,” Count von Zeppelin said. “And it is imperative that I return to my ship immediately.”ely
“Sir, you can’t!” Tigg told him. “They’ll shoot you on sight.”
“Better an honorable death trying to reach my crew than a dishonorable one hiding with women and children.”
“I doubt the Baroness would see it that way,” Claire said with some asperity.
“Lady, we got Alan and Bob and Joe’s guns over ’ere. And that cove wot were smokin’ earlier—we got ’is, too.”
Claire had barely made sense of these astonishing facts when the Mopsies dashed over to the pile of luggage sitting under Meriwether-Astor’s ship. They flung