“Aye, it would. Besides, she’s a bricky girl and learned plenty from her papa about engine design. She’d be easy to teach the hands-on stuff, and apprenticeship under a good mechanic would make her valuable to any airship crew.”
Nathaniel closed his eyes for a moment, recalling those final moments aboard thePolluxbefore the whiplash of a barbed tentacle bit into his flesh and flung him off the deck.The shudderingship.He opened his eyes and met Nettie’s steady gaze. “If you take her on board, would you take me as well?”
Her face drained of color, leaving her almost as pale as he was. Her blue eyes sheened with unshed tears. “Oh Nate, my boy,” she said softly. “I just got you back.” Her rueful smile made his heart ache for her. “A little peaky and odd looking for sure, but alive. I don’t think I can bear to lose you a second time. Besides, I’m not sure having a bonekeeper onboard will sit well with the crew.”
Nathaniel clasped the chair arms in a white-knuckled grip. “Please, Nettie.”
She glanced at his hands, then at him and blew out a sigh. “Like I told Lenore, I’ll think on it.”
It would have to do for now. He knew her well enough to know if he kept pushing, she’d flat out refuse and then bodily throw him out of her quarters to hammer home her point. He stood when she did. “I imagine you never thought I’d end up guarding a bone yard.”
“Better that than lying in one.” Nettie reached up to cup his jaw. Nathaniel pressed his cheek into her palm. “If you need me for anything...” she said.
He held her hand and kissed her callused fingers. “Likewise.” He bowed and headed for the door, her goodbye to him eliciting a laugh.
“Quit robbing the barber and cut that mop!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Two months earlier Lenore had prayed and crossed her fingers that Nettie Widderschynnes would see her way of it and give Lenore a chance to join her crew. When the airship captain returned from the Redan, she countered Lenore’s offer with one of her own. Her letter arrived in the post a week after thePolluxdocked in Maldon, drafted by one of the fleet’s secretaries.
Dear Miss Kenward,
This post is addressed to you on behalf of Captain Nettie Widderschynnes of theHMA Pollux.Your request for a post aboard this airship has been reviewed and a counter considerationoffered. Temporary post as cabin boy aboard theHMA Terebullumis currently available. Captain Widderschynnes will lead a training crew on a test flight of theHMA Terebellumto Gibraltar, Spain. Total flight duration is seven days to begin 12th of February, departing from Maldon Airfield. At the end of the stated flight, consideration for a more permanent post will be discussed.
She scanned the remainder of the letter, noting the deadline for a reply and immediately set to scribbling her acceptance letter. Cabin boy wasn’t quite what she’d hoped for, but it was the perfect post for someone with no experience aboard ship. Nettie could just as easily have said no and put an end to it. Lenore had no intention of questioning her good fortune. Temporary and of lowest rank it might be and on a ship not thePollux, but she had a post.
Gaining Nettie’s short-term approval was the easy part, defying a furious Jane Kenward, a battle hard-fought and costly.
Jane read the letter, crushed the parchment in her hand and glared at Lenore over her spectacle rims. “I forbid it,” she announced in tones low and seething. High color scorched her cheekbones, and the jet beads draped over her collar juttered against each other from her rapid breathing.
“You can’t forbid it, Mama,” Lenore replied in what she hoped was a serene voice. “I’ve already posted my acceptance and received both my travel instructions and ticket. I leave for Maldon Tuesday next.”
Jane’s nostrils flared, her outrage palpable. “I am your mother,” she bit out. “I demand your respect.”
Lenore’s patience began to fray. “You have it, but this isn’t about respect. This is about survival. We must retrench.” The second wave of creditors had already cleaned out Arthur’s workshop down to the last gear and pencil.
“I’m well aware of our circumstances, Lenore. However, that doesn’t mean you abandon all propriety and expectations of your class to go sailing off with some ragged lot of Shoreditch outcasts.” Jane rose from her chair to pace before the parlor window. Her skirts swept the floors in an agitated swish. “There are many positions available for an unmarried woman of your station.”
“And they pay one-third or less the rate of an airship crewman.” Lenore had made some effort in seeking out other employment possibilities. Even were she not so eager to avoid the slow, stifling death as a paid companion or harried governess, the pay of an airship crewman offered its own attraction.
Jane retrieved her fan from one of the side tables, its many ribs snapping each time she opened and closed it. “It’s vulgar to speak of money.”
Lenore clenched her teeth and prayed for patience. “It’s even more vulgar to starve.”
“A crewman’s pay is greater because the danger is significantly greater. As a governess, the most you might suffer is a recalcitrant child or his demanding mother. I doubt either of them will shoot at you, blow you up or try and devour you.”
Lenore couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her lips. “Have you seen some of those children? Don’t be so sure.”
Jane bent a hard glare on her. “Lenore,” she warned.
Lenore exhaled a frustrated breath. “Mama, I love you with all my heart, but I am twenty-seven years old and capable of making independent decisions. We may argue this to death, but I’m not changing my mind. Let me help you.”
The two women clashed in a silent battle of wills, before Jane turned her back and found refuge on the nearby settee. She stared out the window onto the front garden washed in fragile morning light. “Were you married, we wouldn’t have this discussion.” Her voice had lost none of its edge, but Lenore sensed she’d given ground.
She sat, facing Jane. “As I recall, you were at first against me marrying Nathaniel Gordon.”
Jane’s frosty gaze didn’t thaw. “Foolish boy tossing away his birthright as if it were scrap. I wish you had never met him.”
