Oliver slapped his knee, then put his arm around Harriet as if he’d forgotten he wasn’t supposed to. “And hot damn! Here we are, right on its front porch, demanding to be let in.”
Lillie did a slight double take when she saw him, taking in the intimate way he was holding Harriet. Her eyes widened.
“I can’t believe it,” Copper said, chuffing, shaking his head. “He did it. Earnest bloody well did it.”
“What on earth do you mean?” Frannie asked, turning toward him. She choked out a laugh, as though the thought that occurred to her was absurd. “Surely you don’t mean Earnest isinsidethat contraption?”
“I absolutely do.” Copper raised his glass. “To the World’s Fair!”
The crowd around them whooped and responded. “To the future!” they shouted.
And at that moment, theWindshareexploded.
CHAPTER FOUR
FOR A MOMENT, Grace heard nothing but the tunneling of night, her heartbeat in her ears.
And then Frannie started screaming.
“You don’t understand!” Frannie cried hysterically. “Earnest was in it. Earnest!”
TheWindsharewas falling from the sky in a golden blaze of sparks. It looked like a giant, burning coal.
“There’s a parachute,” Lillie breathed, her eyes trained toward a small, falling figure. She took off running.
Grace followed, panic spilling through her as they ran through the night in their gowns toward the place where theWindsharehad fallen. A huge fireball went up when it made contact with the ground and forced them back. Frannie tripped and Grace stopped to help her to her feet. For the first time, she felt a stab of deep sympathy. This poor girl who had already lost her parents and maybe now her brother.
“Help!” someone screamed ahead of them. “He’s alive! The pilot is alive!”
Oliver reached the scene first. There was a crowd gathering around a lump on the ground, the parachute spread out beside it like the tattered train of a gown. “The ropes!” Oliver yelled. “Cut him free! Get him away from the blaze.”
Grace’s lungs were heaving as Lillie pushed through the crowd and knelt beside Oliver. She had more medical training than most after shadowing the female doctors at the Evening Dispensary for two years.
“Earnest?” she asked, examining him. His face was dirt-streaked, sweating, and pale. “Earnest, it’s Lillie.”
“Lillie,” he groaned. He met her eyes, and then he passed out.
Frannie ran toward Earnest, but Theodore grabbed her and held her tightly. She started to thrash against him. “It’s going to be all right, Frances,” he said as she broke down and sobbed. “Listen to me. He’s alive.”
Time was a kaleidoscope for Grace and came back into focus as the horse-drawn ambulance arrived and paramedics leapt out. Thirty yards away, firefighters fought to put out the blaze of the flying machine’s wreckage. An enormous, frightened crowd had gathered along the periphery and police officers were attempting to cordon them away. Lillie talked the paramedics into letting her accompany them in the ambulance, displaying enough medical knowledge that they stopped arguing. She jumped inside.
“Frannie and I will follow in the carriage,” Oliver said. He took off his coat and threw it around Harriet, who had tears in her eyes and was shivering.
“Theo, could you see them home?” he asked.
Theo nodded. He stripped off his own coat and wordlessly offered it to Grace.
The shock was translating into shivers that wracked her body. And yet still she hesitated.
“Don’t be stubborn, Covington,” he ordered.
She nodded, and he gently put it around her shoulders. She sunk into the warmth of the wool. The scent of him cut through the smell of acrid smoke. She tried to hide the way that she burrowed in deeper,breathing it in, so comforting. It almost felt as though he had taken her into his arms.
The ambulance trundled away over the uneven dirt and the crowd began to disperse. Grace didn’t much feel like returning to the party at the Chinese pavilion or like going home, especially to her aunt and uncle.
Harriet felt the same way.
“My nerves need a drink,” Harriet said. “I know of a place. Are you game?”
