Tethered (Novella) - By Meljean Brook Page 0,37
that when you’re with your fancy earl.”
“But he has such fashionable waistcoats.”
“Fashionable? How boring.”
Yasmeen had to agree—and because she wanted to keep Archimedes close, she pulled on one of his shirts. Too big, but it carried his wonderful scent. She expected a comment, but when she looked away from the wardrobe, he was watching her with a frown.
“You’re all but hobbling, Mrs. Fox. You ought to have loosened up on me.”
Oh, but she’d have loved to. Riding him slowly, taking him deep. “Perhaps tomorrow, Mr. Fox.”
“Perhaps tonight,” he said.
“I won’t be stiff then.”
“Scowl at me over dinner, and I will be.”
She grinned and shook her head, before covering her hair with a red silk kerchief and tying the ends. When she glanced back at him, his gaze had unfocused. Lost in thought.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “It’s all too expected.”
“What is?”
“Bilson using Zenobia.”
Expected? “It surprised us yesterday.”
“Only because the device threw us into a spin. We expected him to go for her—we sent her that express.”
“He knows what matters to you. That’s not a surprise. It was clever.”
“Ah!” he exclaimed, as if whatever idea had been forming in his head seemed to come together. “It is clever. But only until we rescue her and Joseph from New Eden. Then…”
“We kill him.”
“Unless she was never there.”
Ah. “That would be clever,” she agreed. “We fly to New Eden after her, only to find that it was all a ruse. Then he doesn’t reveal her true location until we take him and his brother back to civilization.”
And the more she considered it, the more sense it made. Bilson and his mercenaries couldn’t know where New Eden was with any more accuracy than Yasmeen did. In all possibility, Lady Nergüi would find the floating city long before The Kite did.
“Yes,” Archimedes said. “But it doesn’t help us now. We wouldn’t know the truth until we were there.”
No, they wouldn’t. If Bilson claimed that he’d sent Zenobia to New Eden, and then—under threat of torture—admitted that he’d tried to fool them, they still wouldn’t know whether he was telling them what they wanted to hear simply to stop the torment.
And he would still be playing some sort of game. “He can’t be holding all of the strings,” Yasmeen said.
“He has the strings.” With a broad grin, Archimedes leaned back on the pillows, arms folded behind his head. “But I have iron balls and a silver tongue…and a fortune.”
Oh, but she loved it when he was cocky. It was Archimedes Fox’s version of her blades and claws. She narrowed her eyes. “And?”
“We’ll play along…and call his bluff. If Berge has Zenobia aboard The Kite, they’re likely waiting for word from Bilson. But if we’re supposed to be searching for New Eden, they can’t know how long they’ll be waiting.”
She caught on. “And they would need supplies. They’d need a place to collect messages.”
“But we can’t wait for an answer—not unless we find that device. So we’ll have to fly south, let Bilson think it’s all happening just as he planned.” He paused. “Would Scarsdale be willing to send the word out, and then send any reply to us?”
“Oh, yes. I’ll arrange it with him now.” The turnabout might take several weeks to come to fruition, but she was already anticipating Bilson’s dismay. Grinning, she buckled her jacket. “In the meantime, the autogyros ought to arrive by midmorning. Will you see that they are properly loaded?”
“You realize I won’t be able to resist taking one up?”
Yes. “They’ll need to be tested, anyway. Take Longcock, see if they handle the weight. We’ll have the maids with us, remember.”
“I will.”
“And if any of the aviators decide to leave—”
“I’ll kill them.”
She laughed, shook her head. “No. Send them to the steward for their pay and papers. I should return shortly before noon, so I’ll be available if anyone needs to have a word with me before making their decision.”
Archimedes frowned. “You’ll let them question you?”
“No. If they’re still undecided, I’d rather they go. So if they come to me with doubts, I’ll push them along.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you have doubts?”
In her ability to captain this ship? Not at all. In her ability to rescue Zenobia from New Eden, if necessary? Not many. Yasmeen believed they would be successful. But there were always risks. “Realistically, I have to recognize that there’s a chance I might fail.”
“Well, I don’t have any doubts,” he said smugly. “Not one.”
“That’s because you’ve never approached anything with an attitude that resembled ‘realistic.’”
“It’s true.” He