Annaliese shrugged. “Not personally, but I heard Caterina Zambarello discussing them with Eloise Whittenbecker in the hallway a few weeks back. I, being the decorum instructor, felt compelled to remind them that discussing unmentionables in a public setting was breaking a rule of civility if there ever was one.”
“How did they respond to that?”
“They asked me to refrain from telling their mothers, which led me to believe that while they’d promised not to discuss it again, they’d already made plans to purchase a few enhancers.”
Seth frowned. “I’m not certain they stopped discussing it since Norma Jean acquired one, as well as acquired an electrical corset that’s supposed to enhance a lady’s health.”
“Which lends credence to the notion that I’m not a very effective decorum instructor since students seem reluctant to adhere to my directives,” Annaliese said in a downright chippy voice, quite as if she was no longer bothered by her inadequacies as an instructor. “But my ineffectiveness aside, I find myself wondering if that electrical corset you just mentioned actually does improve a lady’s heath.”
Seth couldn’t help but think he was in the midst of a rather odd conversation, given that he’d always believed ladiesdidmake a point to avoid discussing unmentionables, especially in mixed company, and yet, here they were, with Annaliese asking him about corsets as if she wasn’t all that concerned about breaking any rules of civility.
He tilted his head as the odd thought struck that perhapsthe reason behind why some of the students didn’t adhere to Annaliese’s advice might be because they sensed they’d found a kindred spirit in their unusual decorum instructor, and a spirit that seemed to embrace, if ever so slightly, a certain disregard for the rules, and...
Louisa cleared her throat. “I believe Annaliese is still waiting for an answer, dear.”
Yanking himself back to the conversation at hand, Seth returned his attention to Annaliese, who was now examining the enhancer corset, squeezing one of the rubber pieces that was used to do all the enhancing.
She held the corset up to her ear. “I’m not certain this would enhance a figure for long because... you can hear the air releasing. At the rate this piece is deflating, any lady who purchased this unmentionable would need to repair to the retiring room frequently to blow it back up or risk having everyone notice that her charms were shrinking right in front of them.”
He swallowed the laugh that took that moment to bubble up his throat. “I’ll be sure to speak to Norma Jean about that, if she doesn’t decide to quit speaking to me altogether after we run her down and cart her back to Chicago, although...” He paused. “Maybe it would be best if you or my mother had that particular talk with her since having me broach the matter of unmentionables might leave her rather disconcerted.”
“I suppose it might at that,” Annaliese said. “Although I doubt she’ll listen to me.”
“She will if you tell her that the electrical corset has at least a seventy-two percent chance of the battery corroding within a month, at which point the corset is likely to catch fire.”
“Or you could simply get rid of the corsets so Norma Jean won’t be tempted to prove you wrong by wearing them,” Annaliese said before she set the corset aside. “But speaking of your sister, dare I hope you have a few gadgets in your rucksack that may prove more useful than unmentionables? I don’t thinkPaulie, when we catch up to him, will cooperate if we ask him to don an electrical corset and then hope that corset saves the day by catching on fire.”
Seth was exchanging a grin with Annaliese a second later before he dumped the contents of his rucksack on the table right as the train began moving again, a sign that the other train was finally getting on its way, which would finally allow them to make their way to the nearest train depot.”
He took a moment to consider the items now spread over the table, picking up what, at first glance, looked like a pocketknife. “I suppose this wouldn’t be useless since it’s a prototype for a knife revolver, which I decided to make because it would take an opponent by surprise. It’s still at an iffy stage, though, since I’m not sure the sight on the barrel is adjusted properly.”
“Does that mean it’s not going to fire at the person it’s aimed at?” Annaliese asked.
“Perhaps, but the knife part might come in handy.” He set it aside and picked up a heavy metal object that resembled an overly large stapler. “This is an automatic nail hammer that has a hopper at the top that feeds nails forward and into a highly sprung mechanism. When pressed, it bashes the nails into place. I’ve been working on having the nails feed more rapidly, and so far, it seems to be working well.”
“Definitely more useful than a corset since we could always shoot nails at Paulie in a pinch,” Annaliese said before she nodded to a clunky-looking pistol. “A spare gun will undoubtedly come in handy.”
“Except that isn’t a gun,” Seth countered. “It’s a gun torch, a smaller version of my original flame thrower, but it only shoots sparks right now.”
“Still...” Louisa said as she moved up next to the table and took hold of the gun torch, tucking it into her pocket before she glanced at the remaining gadgets on the table. “Anything else we can use?”
“I suppose my fire grenade might be useful, even though it’s only filled with bicarbonate of soda, which is hardly lethal.”
Annaliese pointed to the last item on the table. “What is that?”
“Something not useful at all. It’s a tie perfector, something I made after I was having difficulty tying a Windsor knot, or worse yet, a Four-in-Hand.”
“I was wondering how you’ve been able to tie such intricate ties,” Louisa said, smiling. “As well as wondering why you’ve suddenly taken to looking like quite the dapper gentleman about town, especially after you asked me to have my hairdresser have a go at your hair.”
Since there was absolutely no way he was going to admit in front of Annaliese that he’d decided to improve his appearance after his talk with Rhenick, who’d mentioned that ladies enjoyed a well-dressed man, Seth settled for merely sending his mother a smile.
Louisa’s eyes began to twinkle, but thankfully, before she could say any of the many things he knew she wanted to say, such as broaching the whole matchmaking plot that she hadn’t mentioned since they’d left Chicago, the train began slowing down.
By the time it screeched to a stop, Seth was already sticking his head out the Pullman door, disappointment sweeping over him when he glanced around and it became clear that there was nothing but a ticket office, an outhouse, and a platform to board and depart from trains.
Hoping there was something more to the depot that he simply wasn’t seeing, he jumped from the train and strode to the ticket counter, concern replacing his disappointment when the man sitting behind the ticket counter told him that the station was mainly used for their telegram service. The man then went on to say that they occasionally had a train pull over if it was experiencing mechanical difficulties, but todaywas the first day he’d ever had two trains stop in a row and had never had a train stop that had been robbed, nor had he ever been asked to send a telegram to the authorities, alerting them about the robbery.
Seth turned to Flick, who’d joined him at the ticket counter. “Bad news. There’s no livery here, so no horses for hire, and who knows how long it’s going to take that train that’s parked in front of us to get moving down the track again.”
