some clothes aside and pulled five pistols and a smaller, more portable version of Mr. Gatling’s repeating cannon out of a trunk.
“Maggie, pray tell, what did you do with our prisoners?” She saw now that the pile of luggage was in somewhat more disarray than it had been.
“We locked ’em in these big trunks, Lady. The automatons stuffed ’em in, and we sat on ’em and shut the lids.”
Andrew let out a startled exclamation that might have been a laugh. Then he turned to the count. “I should not complain about being left with the women and children, if I were you, sir. You might find yourself set upon by mechanicals and locked in a lady’s trunk for your pains.”
The count had lost his spectacles at some point during the course of the evening, but his manner of looking at the Mopsies as they armed Tigg with speedy efficiency reminded Claire of someone looking over his lenses, as if unable to believe the evidence of the naked eye.
Then he raised his gaze to the Margrethe and the muscles flexed in his jaw, forcibly holding back either action or words. “If I knew how to reverse our situation, I would,” he growled at last.
A contingent of men poured down the Lady Lucy’s gangway. The two groups conferred for a moment, and then split off into several smaller groups.
“They are going to search,” Andrew said. “Tigg, now is your chance, while there are fewer men aboard.”
“Goodbye, Lady,” Tigg said, turning to her. His voice cracked.
“We shall meet again, my brave darling,” she told him with a fierce hug that drove the lumps of the arms concealed on his person into her chest. “At the very least, you shall have a pigeon from me each week, and—and I expect good penmanship in the replies you return.” The lump in her throat choked off the last word.
“Goodbye, old man.” Andrew shook his hand. “Thank you for all your assistance in the past.”
By now Tigg was too close to tears to speak. He gave each of the Mopsies a rough hug, saluted the count, and vanished into the shadows with the suddenness of a boy who cannot take any more, and must flee—or break down.
It felt as though he had taken a piece take any mor of Claire’s heart with him. She had suffered the loss of her father, of her home, and of all she had held dear … and none of it felt as though a vital organ had been torn from her chest, leaving the ache of emptiness behind.
“I cannot bear it,” she whispered, and attempted to take a fortifying breath.
She must bear it. She must get the Mopsies and the count through the next hour in one piece.
The hour after that, she could collapse in a heap and cry her heart out.
“Come quickly,” she said. “We must lift now, while they are distracted by the search.”
She and the Mopsies ran up the gangway into the navigation gondola, where the automatons were standing exactly as they had left them. Let them stay there. They had done their part, and done it surprisingly well. They all owed Alice’s genius a debt. But as soon as she could, she would find somewhere to leave them so that she would no longer have to look upon those blank, soulless faces.
She turned to find Andrew and the count bent together over the tiller and the panels of gauges. “How long until we are ready to lift?”
Out of the gondola window, shadows moved and darted and lamps danced in the middle distance as the search grew more intense the more frustrated the searchers became. They did not have much time. At some point the men would turn their attention to the luggage pile, and then the fat would well and truly be in the fire.
Andrew conferred with the count in a low voice, and Claire felt a needle of impatience at being thus ignored. “Well?”
“Claire, we have a problem. We cannot fly this ship.”
“What do you mean? An engine is an engine, and you flew the Stalwart Lass on our journey to Edmonton.”
“Yes, but the Lass is a much smaller ship. And its engine was a part of the navigation gondola.”
“So?” She did not like this. Not one bit. And not the least of it was the dawning dismay in Andrew’s face.
“This ship must be crewed by at least a dozen men. The engine gondola is so far astern that the two cannot communicate except by mechanical