Steamed Katie Macalister

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MacGyver Makes It Look Way Too Easy

“What the hell—” Before I could do more than swing around to face the men that loomed up out of a dark doorway Octavia and I were passing, one of them grabbed me in a choke hold, and pressed a cloth across my face. Two others held my arms as the sickly-sweet scent of something I knew must be an anesthetic seeped into my lungs. I fought as best I could, but the men were expert in close combat and avoided most of my attempts at stopping them.

“No!” Octavia cried, throwing herself on one of the men. They were all swarthy in color, clad in brown-and-gold outfits with white turbans, the ends of which covered their lower faces, just like those worn by the Moghul attackers in Rome. . . .

“Moghuls!” I yelled through the cloth as a synapse sparked. “Run, Octavia!”

“Leave him be!” she cried, pulling at the man’s arm that held the anesthetic to my face. Her voice seemed to be rather distant, her beloved face growing fuzzy. I was being drugged, knocked out, but there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it.

“If you hurt her, you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting . . .” I fell face- first into a thick black pool of nothingness.

I swam around there for a bit; then a nagging worry started to make me feel uneasy. Just as I pinpointed the source of the emotion as being concern for Octavia, a tidal wave hit me dead in the face.

“Blah!” I sputtered, jerking upright, wiping water from my eyes.

“You didn’t have to drown him! Jack, are you all right? I couldn’t wake you, and I was beginning to worry.”

My eyes were a bit blurry, but at last I got them to focus on the most beautiful of sights. “Hello, Tavy. Why am I wet?”

“Azahgi Bahajir felt the best way to wake you was to dump a bucket of water on you. How do you feel?”

“Damp, headachy, and confused. How long have I been out?”

“About an hour.”

“Hell. Who’s Azerbaijan?”

“Azahgi Bahajir,” Octavia said, handing me a rough bit of blanket from the bunk.

“Azenburger . . . oh, screw it. Who is he?” I asked as I used the blanket to wipe my face.

“I am. Come,” a deep voice answered. I turned to frown at the man standing in the doorway. It was one of the thugs who’d attacked us. “Prince Akbar has commanded you be brought to him.”

“Why do I have a bad feeling that we’re not in Kansas anymore?” I asked Octavia as she helped me get to my feet. The room spun for a few seconds but quickly settled back the way it should be.

“I’m not sure where Kansas is, but we were in France,” Octavia answered with a delightful little frown between her equally delightful eyebrows. “Perhaps you’re muddled. Did you hit your head? Are you seeing double?”

I put my arm around her and glared at the behemoth in the doorway. He had to be at least a foot taller than me, and I’m no slouch at six foot three. “It was a joke, love. All right, Az. Take us to your leader.”

The Moghul rolled his eyes as he gestured for us to precede him.

I kept Octavia close to my side as we walked down a narrow corridor, and said softly to her, “The floor is vibrating.”

“Yes.”

“We’re on an airship, aren’t we?”

She glanced behind us to where the giant Moghul walked. “Not just any airship, but Akbar’s.”

“Damn.”

“My thoughts exactly. Jack, perhaps you ought to let me handle the situation with the prince.”

We reached the end of the corridor.

“Up,” Azahgi said, prodding me in the back with a scimitar and nodding toward a set of metal spiral stairs. “Prince Akbar awaits you on the observation deck.”

I let Octavia go first, tearing my mind from the contemplation of her legs as she climbed above me. “Why? Wait a minute. Don’t tell me he’s yet another of your boyfriends. I know you’re not on some sort of a guys- in-power kick because I’m just an average Joe, but damn, Tavy. Do you think we could go a couple of days without running into yet another former lover?”

“I told you before—I’ve only had three lovers, and you know about them,” she answered in what sounded like a growl. I reached the top of the stairs to find her glaring at me. I grinned.

“My apologies. You can talk to this Akbar guy all you want, but I’m not going to let him hurt you. And before you get all prickly again and tell me that you can take care of yourself, let me remind you that I’m the man in this relationship, and we like to do the protecting when it’s called for. Makes us feel like we’re doing our job.”

She continued to glare at me as Azahgi gave me a shove down the passageway. “Forward.”

“I’m very well aware that you’re a man,” Octavia said with only a fleeting glance at my crotch. “And I understand that, as such, you feel the need to be protective and aggressive toward those you consider a threat, but I am fully capable of taking care of myself, and moreover, I am more experienced in dealing with Moghuls. Thus it is logical that I should be the one to deal with Akbar.”

“It may be logical, but I’ve been kidnapped, drugged, and soaked with water. I’m going to have a few things to say about his idea of hospitality,” I grumbled as Octavia opened the door ahead of us.

“You have no idea what sort of person he is,” she answered.

“Oh, I think I took his measure pretty well the other day when I scared him off from raiding your ship,” I said. “Yes, he’s a warlord, but from what I saw, he’s not a maniac, and thus, he can be reasoned with. I fully intend to do the latter.”

“Jack—”

Wind hit us as the door swung wide, causing Octavia’s skirts to flutter behind her. She said nothing more, just gave me a warning glance before entering the observation platform. Unlike the forward version on the Tesla, this one was mounted on the side of the gondola, a long rectangular stretch open to sky above and earth below, with substantial black metal railing that presumably kept folk from plummeting off the airship.

A man stood at the railing, his arms braced as he leaned out, obviously watching the world slip by beneath him. He turned at the sound of the door closing behind us. I was a bit surprised that Azahgi had left us alone with the prince, but one look at the two aether guns strapped to either hip explained a lot.

“You are awake,” Akbar said in the same heavily accented voice I remembered from Rome. He was dressed much the same, in a long gold coat, white turban wrapped partially around his face, and dark goggles, no doubt to protect him from the wind on the platform. He pulled down the tail of the turban, revealing a fierce black mustache the approximate size of a dachshund.

“I tend to do that when people dump a pail of water on me,” I said, pulling Octavia close.

She made an annoyed sound and jammed her elbow into my ribs. “Jack, stop it.”

“I’m the man, dammit,” I told her. “I get to do this.”

“Not in front of others,” she hissed.

I gave her a look that spoke volumes, which she pretty much ignored, just as I knew she would. “Look, I have a job to do here—that’s to keep you safe. I’m not saying you can’t do that on your own. I’m simply pointing out that thousands of years of evolution have primed me for this very moment. I am biologically and emotionally engineered to protect you in times of threat. He”—I pointed at Akbar—“is a threat.”

“Actually, I don’t believe I’ve threatened either one of you.” Akbar thought a moment. “Yet.”

“Therefore,” I continued, ignoring the prince, “I will pull you to my side in an attempt to show him that you’re mine, just in case he has any funny ideas about you, as well as warn him that he’s going to have to go through me to get to you. I’m sorry if that offends your delicate sensibilities, but a guy’s got to do what a guy has to do. So just let me do my job, and you can do yours, and everyone will be happy.”

Akbar, his goggles glinting in the sun, nodded.

“And just what is my job?” Octavia asked, elbowing me again. “To stand around and look frail? To allow you to have your way without any regard to what is right or proper? To subjugate myself to you?”

I grinned at her, and leaned forward to give her a quick kiss. “Ah, Tavy, you’re so damned adorable when you’re pissed. I like it when your eyes shoot sooty sparks at me. In fact, I think I’ll kiss you again just to rile you up a little more.”

“Jack!” she said, giving a startled glance at the prince.

“Eh? Oh. Sorry,” I told him.

“That’s all right,” he said with a shrug. “I understand.”

“You do?” I asked, surprised.

“No, he doesn’t.”

“You are the man, as you say,” he said with another shrug. “It’s what we do. Women, they do not understand that. They say they do, but they really don’t.”

“I understand just fine!”

“I hear you,” I told him. “They tell us to be sensitive and understanding, to spill our guts about every little thought that goes through our heads, and the next minute, they’re screaming about a spider in the bathtub, and demanding we be macho spider-squashing he-men.”

“I like spiders! I would never squash one!”

“Frequently they do not make any sense,” Akbar agreed. “And the discussions they expect us to have regarding emotions—bah! It makes my blood curdle. It is one thing to admit to a woman that she is yours, that you regard her well, but that is not enough for them. They must have daily announcements of the state of your affections toward them.”

“That’s it. I’m leaving. You two can stand out here and be masculine together. I wash my hands of the pair of you.”

I tightened my arm around Octavia as she tried to leave the deck. “I have to admit that I don’t mind that so much. Usually if you tell a woman you love her, one thing leads to another and . . . well. You know.”

Beneath that giant black mustache his lips pursed for a moment. “Ah. There is that.”

We both looked at Octavia.

She glared first at Akbar, then at me. “You are sorely mistaken if you think I’m going to do anything but scorn you the next time you declare your love for me.”

“She’s crazy about me,” I told Akbar, giving her a squeeze.

“Argh!”

“I can see that,” he answered, putting his hands behind his back. “It makes the situation that much more regrettable that you have once again interfered with my plans.”

“What plans?” I asked, my amusement with Octavia fading as I realized that Akbar might not be quite the pushover I assumed he was.

“My plans to end the empire, naturally.” He turned to Octavia. “I understand that your ship was shot down by mistake. I would apologize for the inexperience on the captain’s part, but I find it difficult to mourn the loss of an enemy ship.”

“We could have been killed,” I said, anger firing inside of me. “Any of the crew could have.”

One shoulder lifted. “Perhaps. But you were not killed, and thus you were in Angers, and I knew you would make an attempt to stop us from reaching England. You will therefore be my guests until after we destroy your emperor. And as time is short, you will do me the goodness of telling me just what you intended to do to stop my attack.”

Octavia and I exchanged glances. “We had no plan to attack anyone,” she said, looking somewhat confused.

“You didn’t?” Akbar frowned. “Then what were you doing in the vicinity of my ship?”

“Trying to get tickets,” I answered sharply. “Because one of your men shot down Tavy’s ship. We didn’t even know you were in the area.”

Through the smoky lenses of the goggles I could see him eyeing me. “Did you not? Unfortunately, that matters little. We are, as you see, well across the Channel. Whether or not you intended on interfering with my plans, you will remain with us until we reach London in a few hours’ time. At that point, I will decide what is to be done with you. Until then, you may return to your quarters.”

“You’re taking us to London?” Octavia asked, an odd expression on her face. It was almost as if she wanted to laugh, but was struggling to keep her face straight.

“Yes.” He turned to look out over the English Channel. “I always prefer to keep my enemies within my sight.”

“That just means you have to watch your back,” I warned him as he waved a dismissive hand toward us. As if by magic, the door behind us opened, and Azahgi gestured for us to leave.

Akbar swiveled around to look at us. “From attack? By whom? You?”

“If you try this crap again, yes,” I said, trying like the devil to keep from whooping with joy. I scowled for good measure, and thought about shaking a fist at him, but decided it was too over-the-top.

Octavia waited until we were returned to the small cabin that was our cell before she collapsed with a weary sigh. “He’s taking us to London.”

I picked her up and twirled her around, kissing her soundly as I set her down. “Hours ahead of the train, right?”

She nodded, nibbling my lower lip. “At least four hours.”

“Then we’ll have that much more time to get to Hallie. Right.” I set her down and rubbed my hands as I looked around the room. “Let’s start planning our escape. We have a bed, a broken chair, something that I assume is a chamber pot, but don’t really want to know, and two thumbtacks in the wall. I bet MacGyver could manufacturer a flamethrower or small thermonuclear device from that, but we’ll have to make do with a simple smash and dash.”

“The simpler the better,” she said, then smiled, her eyes lighting with a glow that made my dick come to life. “Until then . . .”

She patted the narrow bunk.

Personal Log of Octavia E. Pye
Thursday, February 25
Forenoon Watch: One Bell

“Which way now?” Jack asked a few hours later as we caught our breaths.

I leaned against the rough wall of a warehouse, peering around him to make sure we hadn’t been followed from the Moghul ship. Jack was barely breathing hard, the uncorseted rotter.

“We’re at the river, so northwards. If we can get to a main street, we can get a cab,” I said. “I think we lost them when you insisted we double back.”

He beamed with pride. “Told you I knew how to handle a tail, even when it’s made up of seven murderous Moghuls.”

“Yes, well, they wouldn’t have been quite so murderous if you hadn’t been brandishing that chamber pot so effectively. I do hope you didn’t hit Azahgi too hard.”

“You of all people should know that I’m not going to whack someone’s brains out. I just tapped him lightly on the head.”

“Mmm. Let’s try this way, shall we?” I pushed myself away from the wall, and took Jack’s hand as we hurried down the street.

“Are you sure this Etienne guy is going to be willing to attack a full contingent of your emperor’s soldiers?” Jack asked after I briefly explained my plan to enlist the aid of the Black Hand. “Based on that raid on your ship in Rome, I have to say I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in their black ops skills.”

I frowned in confusion.

“Black ops means covert activities, such as freeing a prisoner from almost overwhelming odds.”

“Oh. Well, the odds aren’t overwhelming with regards to your sister—just very daunting. With the power of the Black Hand, I’m hoping we can overcome the troops that will be present to guard the prisoners. But even beyond that, Etienne will want to rescue the three members of the Hand who were captured in Rome. No doubt he has a plan of his own in place, and if it comes down to it, we can simply go along with him and rescue her at the same time.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said, shaking his head, exhaustion and worry etched into the lines around his mouth. “Because we aren’t going to have too many chances to save Hallie.”

His words echoed in my head as we made our way through London, haunting me when we arrived travel-stained and crumpled at the headquarters of the Black Hand. I knew that Etienne had a plan in mind for disturbing the royal wedding, so I was confident he would be present in that city, hidden away as he marshaled his forces and honed his plans.

“Jack, my dear,” I said as we were shown into the inner sanctum of what appeared to be a commonplace block of insurer’s offices, but was in fact the headquarters of the Black Hand, “you know I have every respect for you—”

“But let you do the talking?” Jack grinned as he interrupted me. “This is getting to be a habit.”

“Jack—”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m not such a pushy bastard that I have to be the one to make all the arrangements. I’m well aware that you have more experience with this guy than I do.”

“I would never refer to you as a pushy bastard, let alone think it,” I told him gently.

“OK, then, I’m not so jealous that I have to put on a show in front of all your ex- lovers.” He eyed me for a second. “Although I hope you don’t mind if I make it clear that we are a couple. I may not be overly jealous, but I wouldn’t like him getting the wrong idea and thinking he could have you all to himself again.”

I kissed his earlobe. “I assure you that Etienne wouldn’t dream of thinking that.”

“Oh really? What’s wrong with him?” Jack’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Just how long were you two together?”

“About the length of time it took me to discover that he had no intention of having a monogamous relationship—three days.”

Jack looked uncertain for a moment, then relaxed. “His loss, my gain, so I’m not going to complain.”

The wrought iron lift door opened, and we stepped out onto the fourth floor, swept immediately into pandemonium. Black Hand folk choked the hallway as they bustled hither and yon, many of them talking as they did so, although whom they were conversing with was difficult to detect.

“—said we wouldn’t have enough time to rally all the steam carriages, but would they listen to me? No! And now what am I to do? Those carriages go two miles an hour. They can’t possibly make it here in time to do any good—”

“—blasted William suddenly decided to forgo the Carmelite nuns at the wedding, which means a good six months’ work wasted, utterly wasted, not to mention all that cloth it took to make up the habits—”

“—Please, Mr. Hanson, you must sign the chit or else the quartermaster will not release the bombs, and I ask you, what good are bombardiers without bombs?”

“So this is what a revolutionary headquarters looks like,” Jack said, holding my arm tightly as people swarmed against and around us as they attended to the last-minute business connected with the royal wedding. Or rather, the attack that was planned against it. “Not quite what I expected.”

I eased my way between two women who were arguing about the merits of beards and wigs as disguises, and headed for the double doors at the end of the hallway. “What was it you expected?”

“A lot less chaos and more order,” Jack replied as I ducked when two men emerged from a room bearing a portable aether cannon on their shoulders. “Just how effective are these people?”

“Enough so that the emperor has made it his top priority to eliminate them,” I answered, tugging on his hand. I stopped before the double doors and raised my hand to knock. “It may look chaotic, but I assure you there is a method to Etienne’s plans.”

“There is more than method. There is brilliance,” a voice answered me as the door swung open. “Which you of all people should know, Octavia. I thought you were in Italy.”

“We were. We came back,” I said simply, noting the fevered glint to Etienne’s dark green eyes. He always reminded me of a cat, sly and purposeful, as if he had a thousand secrets that consumed him. He stood looking at me now, his expression mildly annoyed.

“We need to see you for a few minutes,” I said, pushing past him into his office.

“I am busy. The emperor is getting married today, if you hadn’t noticed,” he said with acid sarcasm.

“There are still three hours before the first of the festivities begins,” I said, glancing at the clock. “And it is about that we have come to seek help.”

Etienne looked for a moment like he was just going to walk out of the room, but his gaze slid over to Jack, assessing him quickly before returning to me. He closed the door and leaned against it. “I can give you five minutes, no more.”

“Thank you. This is Jack Fletcher. He is American.”

Etienne’s coppery brown eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. I’m sure he noticed the possessive manner with which Jack slid his arm around my waist as he said, “Octavia has spoken highly of you, Etienne. Pleased to meet you.”

“Jack’s sister was taken by the emperor’s forces in Rome. Unjustly, naturally.”

“Naturally,” Etienne said, his voice waspish.

Jack stiffened.

I elbowed him and continued. “She was brought to England to be part of the wedding executions along with the three who were captured during your raid on the Tesla. The executions are to be held at noon today. I thought we could piggyback on whatever plan you have to rescue your men.”

“What plan?” he asked.

“You don’t have a plan?” I asked, horrified.

“On the contrary, I have lots of plans. None of them concern the execution, however.”

Jack and I exchanged glances fraught with frustration and despair. “All right, then you can assist us in rescuing your men. We’ll simply release them when we get Jack’s sister.”

“No.”

I continued, ignoring his refusal. “Since the emperor and his bride are to attend the executions, I thought you would relish the chance to disrupt it, and we could join forces and work together to achieve both ends.”

“No,” Etienne said again, this time turning to open the door.

“Etienne!” I jumped forward and grabbed his arm. “You can’t mean that. Your own people are there! You wouldn’t let them die unnecessarily, would you?”

“I never say things I don’t mean,” he answered, frowning at my hand on his arm.

“Listen here, this isn’t a game,” Jack said, his hands fisted as he moved up beside me. “This is my sister’s life we’re talking about, and the lives of the people who look to you for leadership, people who were following your orders when they were captured. Aren’t you supposed to be protecting people from this emperor you want out of the way so badly?”

Etienne’s cool green gaze passed over Jack for a few seconds. “Not in the least. Our goal is to overthrow the government, not protect the common man.”

“For God’s sake—”

“Etienne, please.” I tightened my hold on his arm. “I have never asked you for a favor. I have worked untiringly for you since I was sixteen. I ask now that you honor my work, honor that done by Robert Anstruther, and give me the aid we need.”

He shook his head before I had more than a few words out. “It would serve no purpose, Octavia.”

“But the emperor will be there!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I stared at him for a moment or two. “I can’t believe you can be so callous.”

He shrugged. “You say callous—I say discriminating. I have no wish to waste time and resources on another attack on a prison. I would have thought after the last one you organized, you’d feel the same way.”

“Well, I don’t!”

“It matters not. We have more important plans in place.”

“You’re so willing to throw away the lives of innocent people?” Jack asked, his voice thick.

Etienne shrugged again. “It is the way things are. Every member of the Black Hand is willing to give his life if needed.” His eyes slid over to me. “And that is how it will remain. Now, since you are in town, Octavia, I can put you to a much better use. The reception is to be held on the grounds of the palace. We have several airships ready and waiting outside of town, and we could use your ability to pilot in order to bomb the reception.”

“I’m sorry, I will be too busy rescuing the prisoners,” I said coolly, taking Jack’s hand.

Etienne frowned. “I have mentioned before, Octavia, that one of your shortcomings is that you do not see the overall picture. Do you not realize that the death of the innocent prisoners will do more for our cause than rescuing them ever could? The public will be incited. They will protest the death of an innocent woman. It will engender hard feelings amongst them. I regret that the innocent must suffer for our cause, but they will die a glorious death, for a just and right cause.”

“I’m sorry, Octavia,” Jack said softly as he shook off my hand.

“Oh, Jack, no—”

The words had barely left my lips when Jack punched Etienne in the face, the sickening sound of a bone cracking and flesh meeting flesh making me grimace as Etienne dropped to the ground.

Jack shook his hand as Etienne curled up into a ball, moaning loudly. “The sign of a good leader is one who values all life, a concept you clearly fail at. You may think that sacrificing my sister is a glorious thing, but we aren’t going to let that happen.”

Etienne uncovered his face, his nose slanted to the side, blood streaming out of it to wash over his mouth and chin. “You’ll die for this.”

“Not before I see my sister safe,” Jack vowed, and, grabbing me, hauled me over Etienne’s prone self, making sure, I noticed with a stab of amusement, of stepping on Etienne’s hand as he did so.

“I would suggest haste in getting out of here,” I said, spinning off to the left and pushing past a number of people who were toiling up a small set of back stairs. “Etienne will not hesitate to have us confined.”

“Right with you,” Jack said as we sprinted down the stairs. Above us, I could hear Etienne shouting orders to stop us.

Luckily, there was so much noise and confusion as everyone went about their business, we managed to slip out of the building without being restrained. It wasn’t until we were blocks away, however, out of breath from running, that I felt secure enough to stop and hail a cab.

“What the hell?” Jack asked as a steam carriage stopped at my direction. “You have cars?”

I gave the cabbie my address and climbed into the front seat, Jack following. “This is a steam carriage. They are commonplace in London.”

“I’ll be damned.” Jack peered around behind us. The cabbie watched him with a wary expression. “Where’s the steam? I can hear it hiss, but I can’t see anything.”

“The boiler and engine are beneath us. Jack, please, now is not the time to examine it.” I yanked on his coat-tails as he hung his upper body over the edge of the carriage to get a glimpse at the mechanisms underneath. “We have more important things to discuss,” I added in a lower tone of voice.

He rubbed the knuckles of his right hand, red and somewhat swollen. “I’m not going to apologize for punching him.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to. Etienne is far too narrow-minded for his own good. If you hadn’t struck him, I might have been inclined to do it. But that’s neither here nor there—we have slightly less than three hours to come up with plan of rescue.” I consulted my pocket watch. “The Aurora is probably landing at this moment. The prisoners will be sent up to London via train.”

“Then we won’t have time to get to her there?”

“No.” I slumped in defeat. “It’s going to have to be here, in London.”

Jack took my hand and, after a moment, kissed my fingers. “If it’s too much for you, Octavia—”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll find a way to save her,” I interrupted, forcing a smile to my lips. “I have a few cards up my sleeves yet.”

“Really?” He made a show of looking up my sleeve. “I don’t see anything there. What do you have in mind?”

“Well, Alan should be in London by now, too,” I said, shying away from a thought that had been hanging in the back of my mind ever since Etienne had refused us. “He will help us.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But he is a resourceful man, and he will give us whatever aid is within his ability.”

“Will it be enough?” Jack asked morosely.

I was unable to answer that question. We rode in silence to the house Robert Anstruther had left me, my stomach sick with the knowledge that we were fast running out of time.

Personal Log of Octavia E. Pye
Thursday, February 25
Forenoon Watch: Four Bells

“So there’s nothing you can do to help us?” “I wish I could, Jack, but my hands are tied.” Alan cast me a forlorn gaze. “As it is, I’m juggling the emperor’s demand that all diplomats be present at the wedding, and Etienne’s plan to have me single-handedly knock out a troop of guards and open up one of the sealed entrances so the Black Hand can infiltrate the reception. I really only came to warn Octavia about the Moghul attack that is evidently imminent.”

I searched his face, but didn’t find any answers there. “You’re sure that it’s the same ship that attacked us?”

“The report Etienne slipped me was that a black Moghul warship was seen crossing the channel this morning. It had a complement of twenty-four cannons, and was heading for London,” he said, his voice neutral.

“That sounds like the one that destroyed Tavy’s ship,” Jack said, momentarily distracted.

“I’d give a lot to know why they did that,” I said, picking a piece of lint off my sleeve. “The Tesla posed no direct threat to them.”

“Perhaps it was just an inexperienced captain,” Alan said, shrugging. “Or someone who didn’t know what he was doing. I am surprised they attacked the Tesla, too, when just two hours behind you was the ambassador’s ship with several officials from the Italian court, along with myself, naturally.”

“You wouldn’t think the Moghuls would allow their warships to run amok in the hands of inexperienced crews.”

“They seem a rather brutal lot,” Jack said. “Perhaps they just attack anything that isn’t part of their empire.”

“Perhaps,” I said, reaching for the teapot to refresh both men’s cups.

Jack accepted his tea with a little frown. “What I find amazing is that both the Moghuls and the revolutionaries are going to attack at the same time. It’s going to be a madhouse out there. Although, you know, we might be able to use that to our benefit.”

“That’s a thought,” Alan said, trying to look cheerful and failing miserably. He glanced at the clock and sighed heavily. “I must go. The emperor asked specifically to see me before the ceremony, and if I am to have time to deal with Etienne’s request, I must see William first. My dear, you will both be in my thoughts.”

I rose with him, allowing him to take my hand and press a kiss to the back of it. “Thank you for warning us about the Moghul attack, Alan. I know you’re pressed for time, too.”

“I wanted to make sure that you would be well out of it,” he said simply, his dark eyes warm with affection and regret. “I only wish I could help you free Jack’s sister.”

My gaze dropped, my fingers growing cold, a polite murmur all I could utter. There were things I had not told anyone, not even Alan. Now was not the time to unburden myself.

“I’m going to reconnoiter the prison where they’re taking Hallie,” Jack said, pulling on his jacket. “If we can find a weakness there, we can exploit it. You coming with me?”

I shot him an outraged look. “Jack, you know full well that I am wholly devoted to the idea of freeing your sister. I would not now change my intention of doing so.”

He pulled me into a gentle embrace. “I didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers, sweetheart. I just didn’t know if there was someone you could see about getting her released.”

My gaze fell to his neck. I said nothing.

Jack’s hands tightened on my arms. “Octavia? Is there someone?”

I bit my bottom lip, my stomach in turmoil. “Yes.”

“Really?” Relief and hope filled his voice. “Then for God’s sake, woman, let’s go see him. We have only a little over two hours left.”

“It’s not that easy, Jack,” I said slowly, wanting nothing more than to fold myself in his arms and hide from the world. I looked at his face, infinitely dear to me now, and didn’t want to acknowledge the truth.

“Why not?”

“I love your eyes,” I said. “Have I mentioned that? I love that they don’t match. I love how they sparkle when you tease me, and how they seem to radiate heat when you make love to me.”

He searched my face for a moment, his thumb brushing along my cheekbone. “What is it you don’t want to tell me?”

Pain and regret and despair roiled within me. I closed my eyes for a moment so he wouldn’t see it. “I can save your sister’s life.”

Silence filled the small front sitting room of the red-brick house that had been my home for most of my life.

“But?” Jack asked.

I opened my eyes again. “But it will cost me mine.”

He turned to stone in my arms, his muscles tightening, as did his expression, his eyes going flinty. “No.”

“It’s the only way,” I said, wanting to cry. “We cannot breach the prison on our own. There will be nothing to exploit.”

“You don’t know that until we go and check it out,” Jack said, pulling me to the door. “Let’s go and look.”

“I do know,” I said, my voice thick with tears. I pulled to a stop, not wanting to bare my secrets, but knowing I had no other option.

“How?” he asked.

“Do you remember what Etienne said about it being foolish to attack the prison?”

“Yes, damn him.”

“My guardian, Robert Anstruther, was arrested for treason. He and his wife were taken to the prison. I convinced Etienne to help me free them.” Pain at the memory lashed me with freshly honed barbs. “Seven people died in the attempt, Jack. Seven people died because of my insistence that we try to free my guardians. We were not successful. I thought perhaps this time it would be different, but I fear Etienne is right. It would end in disaster just as the last attempt did.”

“We have to try,” Jack said, and the agony in his voice almost brought me to my knees.

I swallowed back my misery, and nodded. “There is no other decision to be made. I will go and see to your sister’s freedom.”

“No.” Jack grabbed me as I marched resolutely past him. “I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself.”

“There is no other way,” I said, warmed despite the chilly knowledge of what would transpire.

“I love you, Tavy,” he said, his forehead against mine as his arms wrapped around me in a steely embrace. “I love you with all my heart.”

“You love your sister, too.”

“I love you both. I want you both in my life.”

Tears pricked at my eyes. “You don’t know me, Jack. There are things about me that would change your mind. I’m not who I seem to be. You must believe me that it’s best this way.”

His arms loosened, his voice oddly without emotion. “You’d rather die than spend your life with me?”

“No, oh no,” I wailed, flinging myself onto his chest, kissing his neck. “But there are things I’ve kept from you—secrets, things you don’t know about me—”

“Stop it,” he said, shaking me. “Do you think I’ve told you every little thing there is to know about me? Learning about each other is going to be one of the delights to come, Tavy. And I fully intend for us to have that.”

His jaw set, he pulled me down the stairs to the front door.

“There’s no time,” I protested.

“Yes, there is.” He searched the street for a cab, didn’t see one, and, with my hand firmly in his, proceeded down the street to a busy intersection. Five minutes later we were in yet another of the steam carriages that jetted about London at the legal limit of two miles per hour. “Now, tell me about this person who we’re going to see, and why you think the only way you can save Hallie is to sacrifice yourself.”

I fought my inner demons for a second, then turned around in my seat and yelled a new direction to the driver. I had to yell it twice, since the sibilant hiss of the steam coming from beneath the carriage was enough to mask our conversation.

“Did I hear you right?” Jack asked as I sat back in my seat. “You want to go to a palace?”

“There is only one person who can save your sister now—the emperor. It is to him we must plead our case.”

“But . . .” Jack’s brow furrowed. “Didn’t you say that you and he used to be together? Why would you think he’d want to kill you?”

“We were together.” I smoothed my gray leather gloves over my fingers. “We were until he discovered something about me, something that changed our relationship.”

“What was that?” Jack asked.

I shook my head. “I will tell you that later. For now, you must simply know that our parting was not . . .”

“Amicable?” he suggested.

“That would be an understatement. William allowed me to leave and, for the sake of what we once had, appeared to forget about my existence. But it was made very clear to me that should I push myself upon his notice again, I would pay for what he viewed as the gravest of crimes.”

Jack fought with his curiosity for a few seconds before nodding. “All right. You may think I don’t know you, Octavia, but I have faith in your character enough to let you tell me whatever it is you have to tell me in your own time.”

I was touched, very touched, warmth swelling over me at the gesture of belief. “Thank you,” I managed to say.

“So you think that if you go to the emperor and ask for Hallie’s life, he’ll release her, but what—put you in prison in her place?”

“Quite likely.” Or worse.

Jack made a face and held my hand. “I won’t let that happen.”

“You can’t go against William, Jack—he’s the emperor,” I said, unable to keep from laughing at the obstinate expression on his face.

“Says who? There’s more than one way to skin an emperor, Octavia, and I mean to show you just that.”

I eyed him. He spoke with determination, his jaw set, his gaze resolute. All warning signs that he had some plan in mind, a plan that would quite likely spell his own doom unless I did something to avert that. “I hope you don’t intend on doing anything foolish, Jack. As I said,

I am not in favor, and I would have absolutely no influence on anyone should you run afoul of William.”

“You just get us in to see him, and leave the rest to me.”

“Yes, well, getting in to see him isn’t the problem.” I glanced out of the window. The crowds had been building on the sidewalks, several people deep by now—citizens of the empire who clutched little flags bearing pictures of the emperor and the duchess, and who were willing to endure a long wait just to glimpse the emperor and his bride as they passed on the way to the cathedral.

“I take it you have a way for us to get in?”

“More or less. There is a well- hidden secret gate to the gardens. Only the imperial family and one or two trusted retainers know of it. I gather it was put in place in order to provide an exit should an emergency occur. William showed it to me when I was a very small child. We will hope the way to it is clear.”

“You know, in my world, the queen lives in Buckingham Palace,” Jack said as we drove slowly toward Kew Gardens. We passed a bystreet that I recognized, and prayed Jack wouldn’t.

“Really? How very odd. I don’t believe William has ever even been in Buckingham House,” I said, patting his knee so he’d stop looking out the window. He obliged me by waggling his eyebrows. I smiled at him, catching the sight of the freshly erected gallows in my peripheral vision. “Emperors have always lived in Kew Palace. It’s actually a very nice palace as a grand house goes. Not too large, but warm.”

“If I ask you how you met the emperor, will you be able to tell me?” he asked, the smile still in his eyes.

I let my gaze drop. “I was lost. I ended up in the garden. William heard me crying, and came to investigate. He was only a few years older than me, and had escaped his tutor for a little illicit tree climbing in the back garden.”

“And your parents never came forward to claim you?” Jack asked, his face now full of sympathy.

“No. The emperor, William’s father, tried to locate them, but was not successful. We’ll get out here, I think. We have to go to the very far end of Kew Gardens. I’ll tell the driver to stop.”

The gardens were thankfully not very occupied since most people were on the streets, so it didn’t take us long at all to get to the distant corner that touched on the high brick wall marking the boundary between the palace gardens and the public garden. I stopped at a distinctive yew bush, once cut in the shape of a topiary, but now sadly grown out so its former shape was almost unrecognizable, and counted out seven paces. After a quick check to make sure we were unobserved, I pressed the twelfth brick from the bottom, and was rewarded with a dull grinding noise.

“Push,” I told Jack, putting both hands on the wall and heaving.

Jack did likewise, and the wall sagged inward a few inches.

“I’ll be damned. There is a secret gate.”

“It’s more of an opening than a gate, and it feels like no one has used it since I was a child. We’ll have to widen it more.”

Five minutes’ work gave us a gap that was big enough to allow us to slip through. We put the wall back into place before hurrying along the tall yew hedge.

“Jack, I should warn you—”

“I know, I know. Let you do the talking.” He sighed. “Some day we’re going to go back to my world, and then I’ll get to boss you around.”

“I’m not bossing you. I’m simply requesting that you let me handle the situation with the palace, since I am more familiar with it. And as for returning to your world—”

Jack’s hand clamped over my mouth as he pulled me more or less into the yew hedge. Just as he did so, I heard feminine voices. On the other side of a short brick wall that designated what was referred to as the children’s garden, a small gaggle of women strolled. We could just see their heads and shoulders as they perambulated the pathways. The woman in front was familiar to anyone who had read recent newspapers, or attempted to purchase a tea towel.

I turned my head and put my mouth next to Jack’s ear. “That’s the duchess.”

“I gathered as much. What are they doing out here?”

I listened to their chatter for a few minutes. Before I could comment, a footman approached and informed the duchess that she was wanted. She and her ladies-in-waiting followed him back to the palace.

“That was close. But it does bring up a point,” Jack said as we emerged from the hedge, brushing twigs and leaves and small insects from our persons. “Just how are we going to get in to see the emperor if there are all sorts of people running around inside?”

I took the hand he offered, plucked a beetle from his hair, and pulled him a few yards down the hedge before stopping and scrabbling in the dirt at the corner of the hedge.

Jack whistled as I peeled back a bit of lawn and revealed a brass ring set into a flat stone.

“You don’t think a palace as old as this isn’t riddled with secret passages,” I said, moving back to allow him to pull up the trapdoor.

“I’m so glad I’ve never been one to scoff at a cliché,” he grinned, grunting as he strained at the stone.

I pulled a small narrow cylinder from my bag, shaking it several times. A dull glow emanated from it, not as bright as an oil lantern, but providing enough light to see by.

“I don’t believe it. You have glow sticks?” Jack asked as I crawled backward down the unevenly cut stones that led into the earth.

“I have no idea what that is. This is called a ghost lantern. It’s made by exciting particles of aether. As they rub against each other, they release a bit of energy which manifests itself in light. They don’t last very long, but I remember my way into the emperor’s suite well enough.”

Jack lowered the trapdoor over our heads as he followed. The passageway was exactly as I remembered it—close, smelling of earth and damp and things long dead, the air musty and thick. It made me nervous to feel so buried beneath the earth, but I held the ghost lantern aloft and took comfort from both its gentle glow and the feel of Jack’s hand on my waist.

“I’ve never been in a secret passageway before. I think the only thing this adventure is missing is a trip to the dungeon.”

“I fervently hope we shall not be forced to endure that,” I said, my voice sounding as muffled and flat as his. “Now, let me see. . . . There should be some stairs to our left soon, and then . . . ah yes, there they are.”

After sloping slightly downhill, the passage changed from earth walls and floors to ones of stone and wood.

“I take it we’re in the palace now,” Jack whispered as I held the light up on the narrow stone staircase that melted into the darkness on our left.

“Yes, although you don’t really need to whisper until we’re outside of the emperor’s chamber. The walls are stone on the lower levels, and quite thick.”

The glow from the ghost lantern was enough to warn the things that lived in the passage of our coming, so luckily, we did not see any of the occupants, although we noted signs of their demises. I do not have an undue aversion to rodents, but neither do I seek their company, and for that reason, I made a bit more noise than I normally would have as we made our way up two flights of narrow, ill-cut stone stairways, and down a passage so narrow that we had to walk in single file.

“The opening to the emperor’s bedchamber should be somewhere along here,” I whispered, pressing the dark wood panels. “There is a panel that is hidden beneath a tapestry that slides . . . Ah, here it is.”

I pressed the wood inward and up. It gave way a few inches, sliding along an invisible track in the paneling with only a whisper of sound.

The tapestry smelled as musty as the passageway when I pushed it aside and peeked out into the room. Sounds that had been muffled by it were only too clearly audible as I stared in horror at the sight of a man standing at the end of a bed, a pair of legs clad in stockings wrapped around his hips.

Jack was close behind me, obviously about to follow me into the room. As I hurriedly dropped the tapestry and stepped back into the passage, he grunted in pain. I put my hand over his mouth to warn him before sliding the panel back into place.

“I’m sorry I stepped on you,” I whispered once it was closed again.

“Those boots have damned deadly heels,” he said, hopping on one foot as he pulled the other out of his shoe and rubbed the toes. “What’s wrong? Isn’t he there?”

“Erm . . .” I shook the ghost lantern again and set it on the ground so I could examine Jack’s foot. “Yes, he’s there.”

“Ow. Stop moving my toes. I think they’re broken.”

“They’re not broken, just bruised. And I do apologize about stepping on them. I had no idea you were that close behind me. Here, let me wrap them together. That may ease the pain somewhat.”

Jack sat on the ground, his foot propped up on his knee, as I pulled a handkerchief from my bag, using it to bind his abused toes together.

“OK, if he’s there, then why didn’t we go in to talk to him?”

“He was busy.” I pulled his sock on, and assisted him to slide the foot into his shoe.

“Busy with what? Octavia, we have”—he pulled out his pocket watch and tipped it so the face caught the glow of the lantern—“slightly less than two hours before my sister is hanged. I don’t care if he’s busy. We have to save her now.”

“I can guarantee you that if we were to talk to William now, we would not receive any favor from him. In fact, quite the opposite.”

“Why? What’s he doing?”

I coughed and brushed off my skirt. “He’s just . . . busy.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Jack muttered, pressing against the panel.

“Jack, no—” I clamped my lips closed as he slid it open again, my hand on his arm as he shoved aside the tapestry and looked into the room. I averted my gaze.

Jack pulled back, slid the panel home, and gave me a sour look. “What sort of a man bonks his bride hours before the wedding?”

“Evidently one who couldn’t wait. Unfortunately, that is exactly what we will have to do.”

“I agree that interrupting him while he’s getting a jump on his honeymoon isn’t a good idea, but we don’t have time to sit around and wait for him to finish. And I’ll be damned if I let my sister hang because the emperor is too busy getting it off to save her.”

I leaned against the wall and crossed my arms. “I don’t see that we have any other choice. We’re just going to have to wait for him to finish.”

“Well, how long will that take?”

“How on earth do you expect me to know that?” I asked.

“You’ve slept with him. You must know how long he takes.”

“As long as is needed,” I answered somewhat waspishly, I admit.

“Great.” Jack slumped against the wall. “So we just sit here and wait for him to finish.”

I took his hand. “We can check on the . . . er . . . progress periodically. Until then, we can talk.”

“About what?”

“Whatever you wish to talk about. What interests you?”

“You.” He sounded cross and irritable.

I smiled in the almost darkness. “What else?”

“Making love to you.”

“I agree that’s a subject I am most interested in, as well, but hardly suitable for our location.”

Jack turned to look at me, the petulant expression fading into something that made my belly suddenly feel warm. “You think not? Then let’s can the talk and just do the deed itself.”

I blinked at him in surprise. “You want to make love here?”

“Sure.”

He started unbuttoning his trousers.

I gestured toward the walls. “But this is a filthy passage. There are rats here.”

“Not around us. Tell you what, I’ll volunteer to be on the bottom. You can climb on top.”

I was about to refuse, as any sane woman would, when he pulled me down onto his legs, and nuzzled my cleavage. “Jack, no, we shouldn’t. Really, we shouldn’t. This is a secret passage, not a bed.”

“Sweetheart, there’s nothing I want more than to get into your secret passage,” he mumbled into my breasts, pulling aside my blouse, corset cover, and chemise to reveal a breast. I shivered at the combination of the cool air of the passageway and the heat of his mouth as it descended upon my flesh.

“Your double entendres . . . oh, yes, please, right there . . . leave much to be desired. . . . Could you . . . ? Thank you. My breasts get jealous if you pay attention to only one of them.” I clutched Jack’s shoulders and gave in to my inner wanton, arching my back as he moved over to the other breast, laving it with the same sweet heat that threatened to set all of me alight. “No, no, Jack, we must stop. This isn’t right.”

Jack looked up, grinning, the ribbon from my corset cover clenched between his teeth. “I know. It’s very dirty of us, isn’t it?”

“Dirty isn’t so much the word as unwise,” I said with dignity, or as much dignity as one could have when one’s bosom was bared and slick with moisture.

“Come on, Octavia. Let go of that reserve. I guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself if you do.”

“We are in a filthy secret passageway, just a few feet away from the emperor. I don’t know why this makes you quite so determined to make love, but I assure you, it’s not a setting that arouses me in the least,” I said, aware that I sounded prim and prudish, but clearly, someone had to keep her head in this situation.

“Oh really?” Jack’s mismatched gaze positively glittered with wickedness as he flicked his thumb over my bare nipple. “So that doesn’t do anything for you at all?”

“No, of course not.” I cleared my throat as I pulled up my chemise, inwardly cringing at the patent lie.

He raised both eyebrows at my nipple. It was beaded and tight and rosy, and looked very much like a nipple that had been pleasured within an inch of its life.

I cleared my throat again. “I’m a little chilly, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh. So, despite the fact that we’re alone here together, just you and me and no one else, just the two of us, you sitting on my thighs and a mere couple of inches away from my dick, despite all that, you’re wholly unmoved and don’t want me to make love to you until your eyes cross, your legs shake, and your body does that delicious convulsive thing that damn near wrings my balls dry?”

Something resembling the sound of a whimper emerged from my lips as I pulled up my corset cover. “Um . . . I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. What was the question?”

“Octavia?” Jack’s voice was even, but there was an undertone that told me he was about at the end of his tether.

“Yes?”

“You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met in my life. I hope to God you’re ready.”

Before I could open my mouth to dispute such base abuse, he lifted my hips, and impaled me. I was, naturally, more than ready for him, but still, the invasion of him so hard and hot inside me took my breath away. For as long as he held still, that is, but the second he started moving, urging my hips into a motion that consumed me, all thoughts of things as mundane as breathing left my mind.

“Lovemaking should never be done under such unhygienic circumstances,” I panted as I rose on him, flexing my muscles as I did so, trying to make him groan nonstop. “We could catch who knows what here.”

Jack’s fingers dug deep into my hips. Luckily my corset kept him from hurting me, but I knew by both the strength of his thrusts upward, and the extremely ragged nature of his breathing—not to mention the fact that it was his eyes that were, at that moment, crossed—that he was enjoying himself as much as I was. “You’re doing that deliberately, aren’t you?”

I sank down on him slowly, savoring the feeling at once so alien and yet so familiar, as my body welcomed him into its depths. “What? Lecturing you?”

His entire body jerked as I tightened my newfound muscles around him. “No, that. That squeezing thing.”

“I did that before, Jack. You seemed to enjoy it, so—” I rose until only the very tip of him was inside me. I clenched my inner muscles as tight as I could, and swiveled my hips as I sank downward again. “—so I thought I would do it again.”

“You may have done something before, but it wasn’t like this. You’ve been working out!”

I froze for a moment, staring down into his outraged eyes. “I beg your pardon?”

“Admit it! You weren’t this strong the other day when you did that swivel move. You almost ripped my dick off then with it—now you’re about to emasculate me entirely. The only way you could get that strong is if you’ve been working out.”

“Working out?”

“Your muscles.” He pulled one hand from my hip to gesture at the juncture of our bodies. “Down there. Don’t deny it.”

I stared at him for a moment, trying to sort out what he was saying with the emotion that was so stark in his face.

“Jack.”

“Look! You’re doing it again. Holy Jesus and all his saints! You’re going to kill me! Don’t stop!”

I released the muscles that were gripping him so tightly and leaned forward to kiss him. “You really are the strangest man I’ve ever met. I have no idea why I love you so much, I really don’t. Now be quiet so I can continue emasculating you, not that I will because your parts seem to be just fine after we’re done. More than fine, quite hale and hearty and usually ready to go again in a surprisingly short amount of time—”

Jack stopped me from continuing by the simple act of wrapping his hand into my hair and pulling me down to kiss all thoughts from my brain. Our movements became frantic, the lovely rhythm changing to that of a primal nature, a glorious end in sight that we strained against each other to achieve.

Jack pushed me over the edge by sliding his hands under my skirt and petticoat, cupping my behind in his hands as he leaned backward, altering the angle of his attack. My moans of pleasure mingled with his as rapture broke over me, the waves of climax rippling outward in a seemingly never-ending moment that seemed to stop time itself.

I opened my eyes to the sound of an echoed roar, words that were as sweet to me as the purest honey.

“I love you, too,” I said, leaning down to kiss him as he lay collapsed against the wall, his body limp, his head lolling.

He opened one eye and glared at me. “What happened to you fonding me?”

I nipped the tip of his nose. “You grew on me.”

He shifted me, a devilish glint in his eyes. “I’ll grow inside—”

A noise from behind us had me leaping to my feet, jerking up my chemise and blouse, as Jack hurriedly buttoned his trousers. He pulled me behind him as light suddenly flooded the passage.

I peered over his shoulder as I finished buttoning the last buttons, my eyes growing wide with dismay as I noted who had opened the panel.

Three men wearing the imperial livery were accompanied by two more who bore the police uniform.

“There they are,” one of the men said. I recognized him from years past as being William’s valet. “Just as I thought—dirty revolutionaries trying to kill the king. Well, you failed, you filth. The king is gone, but he’ll enjoy seeing you strung up with the rest of the scum. Take them away!”

Personal Log of Octavia E. Pye
Thursday, February 25
Forenoon Watch: Eight Bells

“Let me see if I have all this straight.” A rough hand shoved me forward, accompanied by the smell of stale garlic and old ale, and a rougher voice. “Forward, you lot! You’ve got a date with the emperor, you have!”

I ignored the snickers of the men lining the dank, dimly lit passage, and thought furiously.

“You and Jack, in an attempt to rescue me from the gallows, were having sex in a hallway.”

“It was a secret passageway, not a hallway,” I corrected Jack’s sister before continuing to try to come up with some sort of plan.

“You and Jack were having sex in a secret passageway in the mistaken belief that this would somehow save me from being killed?”

“It was part of our plan,” I said, stumbling when the gaoler shoved me again. With manacles on my feet and my hands tied to a long rope that snaked down the line of condemned prisoners, I had little hope of saving myself from a fall should he continue to do that.

“Prisoners will be silent!” the gaoler roared, and pushed me aside to move up to the front of the line, where the men were tied together. “Else you’ll wish you had been!”

“Well, it must have been a hell of a plan,” Hallie said, managing to give me a half smile. “Too bad it didn’t work.”

“You seem remarkably at peace,” I said, keeping my voice low, and one eye on the gaoler as we shuffled our way along the passage. “I didn’t think you would be ill-treated, but if you will not mind my saying so, I expected you to be a good deal more distraught.”

“Oh, I was, right up until I realized the truth.” She made an airy gesture.

“What truth?”

“Shhh!”

The woman behind me gave me a none-too-gentle push to remind me of the gaoler’s threats.

I spun around and glared at her. “Do you mind? I am attempting to have a conversation with my friend.”

“Ooh, ain’t you the hoity-toity one,” the woman said, sneering at me from beneath unkempt hair and a filthy face. I mentally compared her with Hallie, who, although somewhat rumpled, was clean and appeared civilized. “Well, you can just stick your pride up your arse, ’cause you ain’t no better’n anyone else here.”

“I don’t believe a debate about the class structure in modern-day England is at all appropriate at the moment; however, I will point out that I am here wholly through a set of unfortunate circumstances. I have done nothing wrong.”

“They all say that,” the woman’s companion said, jerking her line and sniffing. “None of us here done anything wrong, but you try getting the judge to believe that.”

“I have not seen a judge, nor have I been charged with anything, let alone had a trial,” I pointed out, righteous indignation swelling within me. “My . . . er . . . companion and myself were simply hauled away from the emperor’s palace and told we were to be executed for unnamed and unproven crimes which we did not commit.”

“Go on,” the first woman said, and curled her upper lip at me.

“It’s really best if you don’t rile them,” Hallie said, tugging at my sleeve. I heeded her advice and returned my attention to the line of prisoners, staring at the back of Jack’s head.

“What truth?” I asked her.

“Huh?”

“What truth is it you discovered that has relieved your mind so greatly?”

“Oh.” Her face took on a serene expression. “Once I realized that my way out of this world was right in front of me, I stopped fighting everything.”

“Your way out?” I shook my head. “Hallie, I know this has been a most difficult experience for you, but death is not the answer. I admit things look a little bleak right now, but I have an idea, and if I can just see it through to fruition, then we will all of us be safe.”

“No, no, you don’t understand—I’m not suicidal. Far from it! I have a lot to live for. Don’t you see? If I die here, then I get returned to my own world.”

I stared at her, my heart filled with sadness. “No, Hallie, you don’t.”

“Pfft.” She dismissed me with a complacent smile. “You don’t know anything about it. You’re part of this world, so you probably can’t imagine anything outside it. But I know I’m right.”

“Hallie, I assure you that—”

“Prisoners, halt!”

We had shuffled our way through the dismal prison to a sort of antechamber. Beyond it, through an open doorway, sunlight poured in. Although the air was almost balmy for February, a chill rippled down my arms and back at the sight of a new wooden structure standing stark and raw on the far side of the courtyard. A dull hum sounded, as if a beehive were somewhere close by, but I knew it for what it was—the noise of a crowd, gathered to watch people hang.

A sudden spurt of fear gripped my gut, and I clutched Hallie’s hand as I stared again at the back of Jack’s head. Would William listen to me? Would he stop the proceedings in time? Or would he simply laugh in my face and send us all to our deaths?

A handful of officials darkened the doorway. There was a brief altercation when the sadistic guard refused to yield control of us poor wretches, but he was more or less shoved aside by men wearing the imperial crest.

“Lovely,” I grumbled under my breath as my spirits fell with leaden weight to my feet. “William sent his own personal guards to hang us.”

“I think the first thing I’ll do when I get back to my world is have a fish taco from a really fabulous beach-Mex place just down the street from my apartment. Or perhaps I’ll go shopping. No, a bath first, then the chili lime salmon taco, then shopping.”

“Prisoners, march!”

My mind whirled around like the gear spinning on a giant steam clock that Robert Anstruther had once taken me to see.

“Don’t look so glum, Octavia,” Hallie said, patting my hand awkwardly before releasing it. “You don’t have to worry about rescuing Jack and me anymore. And I’m sure whatever plan you have percolating in your head will work out just fine. So all’s well that ends well.”

The hum rose to a roar of excitement as we stumbled our way out into the pale February sunlight. On our left were two gallows, the smell of the fresh wood a stark note in the dusty courtyard. Steps led up to where the nooses dangled, swaying ever so gently in the wind. An executioner stood silent beside the gallows, his head covered in the traditional black hood, two slighter figures, also hooded, behind him.

“How lucky, we get the day when the apprentice hangmen are here,” I muttered.

Hallie giggled under her breath.

I turned to face the crowd, which was simultaneously cheering and jeering us.

Jack turned to look at me, his expression unreadable. I gave him the best smile I could manage, and turned to scan the crowd, looking for a face that I so desperately wanted to see.

The crowd filled part of the courtyard, spilling out through the large gates to the street beyond. In addition, several of the more athletic and daring boys had managed to clamber up the sides of the brick and wrought iron fence, and were perched along the top, their legs dangling as they laughed and called.

“Rotten little blighters,” I said.

“Ghoulish, definitely. So, this plan of yours—is it going to take place soon?” Hallie asked as the emperor’s men consulted one another in a tight clutch before suddenly moving down the line of prisoners, a blade flashing as they severed the ropes binding our wrists to the leading line.

A slight figure with the imperial busby pulled down low over his head knelt as he worked his way along the prisoners, unlocking their shackles.

I looked out at the crowd again. “It’s supposed to, but William isn’t here.”

“William?”

“The emperor.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You know the emperor?”

“Yes. Why the devil isn’t he here? I cannot begin to tell you how peeved I will be if he doesn’t even bother to show up,” I complained.

A scuffle broke out up front. I craned my neck to see around the other prisoners, watching with dismay as Jack rolled on the ground with one of the guards. Suddenly he froze, and the other guards seized that moment to haul him to his feet.

“Before we begin with the scheduled executions, we have two assassins to deal with,” the man I recognized as the prison warden declared.

The crowd yelled their approval of this idea. I glared at them all.

The warden stood to one side of the dual scaffolds, his chest puffed up importantly. He rubbed a hand along his hair, smoothing it back, leaving him with a pronounced resemblance to a seal. “Two assassins were discovered just a short while ago in Emperor William’s bedchamber.”

The crowd gasped.

“Oh, rubbish,” I told them.

“Atta girl, Octavia,” Hallie said, picking at a fingernail. “You tell them.”

Desperately, I hunted through the crowd for the tall, blond figure who was the only one who could save our lives.

“Today, in honor of the emperor’s nuptials, we will hang the assassins!”

The crowd cheered madly.

“Dammit, William, why can’t you be on time just once in your life?” I mumbled as one of the imperial guards grabbed my arm and hauled me along to the steps leading up to the noose.

“I give you the notorious assassin Octavia Pye, and her lover, Jack Fletcher.”

The crowd booed and threw several items of produce that were long past their prime.

“Jack,” I said when he was pulled toward the steps. “I’m so sorry. I’m so very, very sorry.”

He looked surprised, to my complete and utter stupefaction. “Sorry about what?”

“About all this. All right! You do not need to shove me! I will walk up the stairs on my own.”

“Octavia—”

Jack’s voice was cut off in a spontaneous roar of pleasure. I turned to see the crowd ripple; then a familiar figure strode forward, the sun glinting off the rows of gold trim and gold buttons that graced his navy blue military uniform. The trim was almost as burnished as his hair and neatly trimmed mustache.

“William!” I bellowed the second the noise had dropped. “William!”

A hand on my shoulder stopped me from flinging myself forward.

The emperor looked startled for a moment, glancing around, finally realizing who was calling him. He frowned and squinted at me, taking a few steps forward.

“Octavia?”

I shrugged my way free of the restraining hand and ran down the few stairs I had mounted, intending on forcing my way over to William, but several of his guards rushed before him to protect him.

He shouldered them aside, marching over to me in a glorious display of arrogance and masculinity. “Octavia, what the devil are you doing here? A hanging is no place for a lady.”

“I am being hanged,” I said, gritting my teeth at his obtuseness. “Evidently at your direct command.”

“My command? My command?” He turned to the nearest member of his entourage. “Billings, do you recall me asking that Miss Pye be executed?”

“No, Your Majesty,” the man promptly replied.

Jack had joined me at that point. He thoroughly examined William, who, noticing the bold examination, returned the compliment. “Who is this man, Octavia?”

“Jack Fletcher. He is a friend of mine.”

Jack put his arm around my waist and pulled me up close. “We’re a hell of a lot more than friends, Tavy.”

“Tavy!” William looked shocked. “Did he just call you Tavy?”

“Yes.” I sighed. “He was intent on finding a nickname, and settled on that.”

“But you wouldn’t let me use a nickname, not even when we were . . .” William coughed and stopped that particular train of thought. “Tavy. I would have never imagined such a thing.”

“William, we really do not have the time to stand here discussing my nickname.”

“No, indeed we don’t. I’ve only got an hour before I have to head over to the cathedral, but I didn’t want to miss the hangings. Always did like them. I’m a bit surprised to see you here, though. You always refused to come to the other ones.” He turned to the executioner. “Shall we proceed?”

“No!” I shrieked, then took a step closer to William. That’s all I could manage, what with Jack holding tight to my waist. “William, you seem to be missing the point.”

The crowd, which had been watching us with bated breath, gasped again in surprise.

I hurried to correct my faux pas. One did not ever tell an emperor that he was missing a point. “I am not here to see the executions. I am here to be hung because Jack and I were trying to see you earlier today, but you were . . . and we were . . . er . . . and then some very rude men came barging into our secret passageway and arrested us, saying we were there to assassinate you.”

“People try to assassinate me all the time,” William said, waving away the very idea. “I never counted you amongst my enemies, though, Octavia. I must say that I’m very disappointed. My father would be disappointed, too. He thought the world of you.”

“I am not your enemy,” I said firmly. “In fact, I will prove our friendship to you by telling you something of the gravest import.”

Jack glanced curiously at me, understanding slowly dawning as he saw what had just at that moment struck me—a bargaining chip.

“Octavia,” Jack said softly, rubbing his hand on my back. “You don’t have to.”

“There’s no other way, Jack. Not if we all want to survive.”

“It’ll cost you everything,” he warned.

“We’ll be alive,” I answered with a grim smile. “At this point, I’m willing to consider that a victory in itself.”

“This is all very intriguing and mysterious, but I’m afraid I have a rather tight schedule today,” William said, consulting his pocket watch. “Delightful as it is to see you again, Octavia, I’m afraid I must ask that the executions proceed so that I might dash off and be married.”

“Would you like me to do this?” Jack asked me.

I thought for a moment before shaking my head. “No, it’ll be better coming from me.”

“Executioner!” William waved over the three hooded figures. “You may as well get started.”

“William, we would have a few words with you.” His personal guards moved forward as I took hold of William’s sleeve to stop him from returning to the crowd. “I assure you that what we have to say will be worth a little delay.”

William’s cool blue eyes assessed me for the span of three seconds. “My dear Octavia, surely we have said all that can be said?”

“Not if you wish to live out this day,” I answered, taking Jack’s hand.

William might be many things—his strong suit was not mental agility, and he tended to be distracted by shiny things, much like a magpie—but he was no fool.

“Very well,” he said, sighing and gesturing toward the antechamber from which we had just emerged. “We’ll use this room. I don’t suppose you mind if we carry on with the other executions?”

“Actually, I mind very much. In fact, your survival depends on you not hanging anyone.”

“No hangings?” He looked incredulous. “This is a royal wedding, dammit! I can’t have a royal wedding without hangings!”

I took him by the arm and, with Jack on my other side, marched both men into the antechamber. William’s guards followed, but I knew them to be trustworthy, so I ignored them as best I could. “Jack and I have information that will be vital to you. We are willing to impart this information to you if you will grant everyone here pardons.”

“No,” William said, and, to my utter surprise, turned around and walked out the door.

“No? Did he just say no?”

“He said no,” Jack answered. “Here, you! Emperor! You can’t say no!”

I followed Jack when he charged out after William, who turned at the admittedly undignified address.

“I just did,” William said.

“Well, stop it,” I snapped, pushed beyond the limits of my patience. “What we have to tell you is important, William. Very important.”

“Not important enough to ruin my executions,” he answered.

“Not when it has to do with a Moghul warship that is unlike anything ever seen?” I asked.

William, in the act of returning to the audience, stopped, and slowly turned to face us. “What Moghul warship?”

“If you want to know that, and just what it has to do with the safety of you and your duchess, then I would suggest you call over the warden and tell him that all of us standing here awaiting the hangman have been pardoned.” I folded my hands and waited for his response.

He looked over the line of prisoners, clearly weighing the enjoyment to be had in watching us all hang (William always did have a morbid sense of fun), against the need to stay au courant with news of his enemy.

He considered for an entire minute, then shook his head and said, “No. It’s just not worth it, Octavia. I’m sorry that you tried to assassinate me and now must hang, but really, it is your own fault, and perhaps next time you won’t be so hasty to attack an old friend such as me.”

“William!” I shrieked, and would have jumped on the man to throttle some sense into him, but the guards and one of the hangmen grabbed me, pulling Jack back when he tried to assist. “Are you completely out of your mind?”

He struck a pose and thought about the question for a few seconds. “Not entirely, no.”

“Argh!” I screamed, so frustrated I could spit, if I did that sort of thing, which I don’t. Instead, I did the next best thing—I gave William a piece of my mind. “I really wish I had been an airship pirate, because I would have made it my life’s ambition to plunder every damned one of your ships!”

He looked shocked. He actually looked shocked at my statement. “Octavia! I am aghast!”

“Atta girl, sweetheart,” Jack said, giving me a thumbs-up. “Tell him what you really think.”

“And when we were done plundering your airships, we’d blow them up!” I yelled, waving my hands around in wild abandon.

William staggered back a step as if he’d been struck.

“While we were wearing our goggles!” Jack added.

“Yes! With our goggles on!” I paused to throw Jack a quick glance. “One day we really must have a discussion about your unhealthy obsession with goggles.”

He grinned and winked.

“Octavia, I have never been so shocked—what?” One of William’s private guards whispered into his ear. He looked furious and directed the bulk of his fury at me. “Bloody hell! Now do you see what you’ve done? You’ve wasted all my execution time! I have to go to the cathedral without seeing a single prisoner die! Of all the selfish acts I’ve known you to perform, Octavia, this is the most selfish. I hope you’re happy that you’ve completely ruined my wedding day!”

With a flourish that would do a Shakespearean actor proud, he spun around on his heel and plowed through the avid crowd to the grand gold-and-silver steam carriage that waited for him outside the prison gates.

“You actually dated this guy?” Jack asked in a voice rife with disbelief.

“I was young at the time,” I said, wanting to cry and scream and shoot someone, all at the same time. “And very stupid.”

“I’ll say.”

I glanced at Jack.

He coughed. “I meant, we all make mistakes.”

“I doubt if yours are going to cost you your life.”

“Yours aren’t, either.” He gave me an odd look as the guards bundled us toward the platform. “Haven’t you noticed—”

“Prisoners to the scaffold!” the warden cried, waving an imperious arm.

“Jack, I really want to say—”

“Don’t,” he interrupted as we were shoved up the stairs. My guard stopped me behind a rough- looking rope noose. I glared at it for a moment before transferring my glare to the man whom I had more or less murdered with my own folly and inability to carry through a plan.

“I’m trying to apologize,” I snapped, then realized that my final moments would be spent in anger and irritation. I took a deep breath as a musty-smelling black bag was shoved over my head. Someone pulled my arms behind me and bound them. “I just want to say that I’m sorry, Jack. Sorry that I couldn’t rescue your sister—”

“Oh, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me!” a voice called out from behind me. “I’m going home! Maybe I’ll have two chili lime salmon tacos. . . .”

“—sorry that we were captured, sorry that William is such an ignoramus and that he wouldn’t know a good thing if it came up and bit him on the bottom—”

A gasp of shock was heard from the crowd, who no doubt were enjoying the scene greatly. They were hushed and expectant, as if they were holding their collective breath in anticipation of our deaths.

“—and most of all, I’m sorry that I haven’t told you the truth about me. Jack, I—”

“I love you, Octavia Pye,” he interrupted me.

The rope was drawn over my head, and tightened behind my neck.

“I love you now, but not nearly so much as I’m going to love you five minutes from now.”

“Poor man, his mind has snapped under the strain,” I murmured to myself as I felt the attendants stepping away. I sent up a little prayer that death would be instantaneous and painless for us both. “Poor Jack. Poor, adorable—”

The floor dropped out from under my feet.

Personal Log of Octavia E. Pye
Thursday, February 25
Afternoon Watch: One Bell

“I don’t know why you’re mad at me, Tavy. I tried to tell you.”

“You did no such thing!”

“Duck!”

I ducked, then spun around and fired the Disruptor at the prison guard who was heading for us.

“I was going to knock him out,” Jack snarled, his fists covered in blood as he gestured toward the man I shot. “You didn’t have to kill him!”

“I didn’t kill him. I shot him in the leg, which you can see for yourself if you would take the opportunity to—” Jack shoved me to the side, landing a hard right to the jaw of a guard who just emerged from the prison antechamber.

“Well, thank you for that!” he snapped.

“Why are you angry with me?” I yelled, jumping up onto the top of the platform and shooting at the next two guards who streamed out of the prison.

“I’m not! You’re the one who’s mad! And why? Just because you didn’t notice what I did.”

“Captain! Over here!”

I glared at Jack as he knocked out the last guard. “I was a little busy at the time, if you didn’t notice! I was trying to save our lives!”

“And yet if you’d just opened up your eyes, you would have seen that the so-called executioners were not what they seemed.”

Jack grabbed my arm and hustled me toward the gate. I thought up several scathing replies to his comment, but the truth was, I had been so distraught and determined to get William to see reason that I hadn’t paid attention to our surroundings as I should have.

A guard bearing a bayonet charged at us. Before I could fire, a figure hobbled across my line of sight and cracked the guard over the head with a stout staff. “Ye try that again, me laddie, and ye’ll be wearin’ me lance up yer peewaddin!”

“What’s a peewaddin?” I asked Jack as Mr. Piper shooed us forward, toward the gate.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think a lance would be very comfortable shoved up it. This way.”

I shook my head to clear the confusion. My crew, my very own crew that I had left sleeping in France, had somehow managed to get to the prison, disable the regular hanging attendants, and take their places with the intention of rescuing us. It fair boggled the brain.

“Over here!” Hallie yelled, waving at us from the street. Mr. Christian, still clad in the executioner’s outfit, held his Disruptor at arm’s length as he swept the area for any lingering guards. “There’s a carriage here for us!”

Mr. Ho and Mr. Mowen slammed shut the door to the prison antechamber, racing toward us with their black hoods stuffed unceremoniously in their trouser pockets. Mr. Mowen limped heavily, and was somewhat hunched over and battered about the face, but appeared hale enough otherwise.

“Quick,” Mr. Ho said, panting a little. She looked excited and thrilled. I boggled a bit more at the fact that they were helping us. “Hurry, Captain. We don’t know how long the barricade will hold them.”

“You came to save us?” I asked Mr. Mowen as we ran, telling myself I could boggle later, when speed wasn’t such an issue.

“Of course,” he answered, wheezing. “You’re the captain.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” I mumbled as we dashed out of the now-empty prison courtyard. There were a couple of inert forms (Jack knew several nonfatal ways of disabling people), more that were moaning and crawling toward the guardroom door (barricaded handily by Mr. Piper and Dooley), but no corpses. The crowd had bolted the second the first shot of aether had been fired, their fascination with the rescue having been overthrown by an urgent need to get away from aetherfire, the other prisoners following immediately on their respective heels. As we ran, I was aware of a sting around my neck, and touched it gingerly. “I can still feel the rope.”

“Yeah, it was a nice touch, huh?” Jack said as he followed me. “You’ve got to hand it to Matt—when he comes up with a rescue plan, he really does it whole hog.”

“Whereas my plans just fail miserably,” I said, panting slightly as we raced down the street toward two black carriages. Ahead, Mr. Christian was assisting Hallie into one of them. Mr. Mowen awkwardly jumped into the driver’s seat, taking the reins.

“Mi capitán!” A man standing at the second carriage waved. “My glorious captain of the sunset hair! Hurry, oh, splendid one. I shall take you to the place of much safety, where you can lay down on your back on the grass, and spread out your so tingly hair, and I will roll around on it, pressing it to my naked flesh, and you will at last know the true depths of the desire that is mine.”

“Can we go in the first carriage?” I asked Jack.

“That sounds good to me—damn!”

The carriage took off as we ran past it, Mr. Ho being pulled inside by Dooley and Mr. Christian. Hallie waved as the horses sprang forward.

“Get out of me way, ye puss-filled boil on the underside of a gangrenous rod!” Mr. Piper bellowed as he heaved himself up into the driver’s seat of the second carriage, the one we were fated to take.

“I am driving the most glorious capitán,” Mr. Francisco argued, scrambling up to sit beside him and attempting to wrestle the reins from him. “It is to me the capitán will be most thankful and allow me to have my way with her hair.”

“Yer daft, do ye know that?”

“I may be daft, but I do not always talk of the peepees and walk like a so bent crab!” Mr. Francisco countered.

A man wearing a long black cape and tricorne hat stood at the side of the carriage, holding the door open. He gestured for us to hurry.

“This is too much,” I said, stopping, suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of failure. “I can’t, Jack. I just can’t.”

“Sure you can. Aw, sweetheart, don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying. I’m just upset because I failed,” I said, ashamed to feel the heat of tears in my eyes. I rubbed at them with the back of my hand. “I tried everything I knew how, and I still failed.”

“You did your best. That’s all anyone can ask for,” Jack said.

“Not if my best isn’t enough. Really, Jack, I’ve failed horribly in everything I’ve tried to do since I met you. My ship has been destroyed, I’ve lost my position as captain, William was ready to see me hang for something I didn’t do, and I couldn’t save your sister, let alone us. I don’t wish to doom you to that, too. You must go without me.”

“You always were a perfectionist,” the coachman next to the carriage told me before looking at Jack. “She never was happy unless everything went exactly the way she intended it to go. It looks like she hasn’t changed.”

I gawked at the man in the tricorne, outright gawked at him. “William?”

He winked at me as he shoved me into the carriage. “A little bird told me you might need some help. And for the record, I do know a good thing when it bites my arse. Now stop complaining and get in before those blasted guards get free.”

“But—you left us—you said—”

“I promised my father a long time ago that I’d watch after you. He really was very fond of you,” he said with a little smile. “I’ve never been one to go back on a promise.”

“But at the prison, you said . . .”

Jack climbed into the carriage after me, slamming the door closed. William leaned in through the window, grabbed my hair, and pulled me forward into a quick, hard kiss. “Just kissing the bride,” he told Jack with a grin as he released me.

Jack narrowed his eyes. “You’re the one getting married today.”

“That’s right. But if you don’t make an honest woman out of Octavia, I really will have you hanged. Off you go!”

William slapped the carriage door as he stepped back.

I stared at Jack in bemusement when Mr. Piper, having pushed Mr. Francisco off the perch so he had to cling to the railing in order to avoid being dumped into the street, cracked his whip and urged the horses forward into a gallop. “That was William.”

“Yeah.”

“He helped us.”

“He also kissed you. I don’t think that was at all called for,” Jack replied, looking very disgruntled. “You don’t see me going around kissing his girl.”

“He helped us escape.” I couldn’t seem to get my brain to accept that fact.

“Who the hell does he think he is just grabbing you right in front of me and laying his lips all over you?”

“William helped us.”

“I always ask permission before kissing someone who is taken. That’s the way things are done. But no, Mr. Emperor evidently feels he can do whatever the hell he wants to do without any consideration how others might feel about their girlfriends being tongued in front of them.”

Jack’s words finally penetrated the thick fog of bemusement that had wrapped me up so firmly. My lips twitched with the need to smile, but one look at his glower had me trying my best to keep my expression neutral. “Just so you don’t demand we turn around so you can challenge William to a duel over the kiss, I’ll point out that there was no tongue involved. It was a farewell kiss, Jack. Nothing more.”

“A duel,” Jack said thoughtfully, his fingers twitching. “Now, there’s a thought. . . .”

“No, it isn’t a thought. Jack, are you always going to be this jealous?”

“Jealous? Me?” He looked honestly surprised at such an accusation. “I haven’t a jealous bone in my body. I’m a very reasonable man.”

“Yes, of course you are. My mistake,” I murmured, struggling to keep from laughing. “Well, I still don’t quite know how it happened, but we’re alive, Jack.”

“You thought all along that the emperor would help us. You were right. It just took a different form from what you expected.”

I flopped back in the carriage and lifted a feeble hand. “Yes, but after what he said . . . well, it took me completely by surprise.”

“Me, too.” His lips twisted in a wry smile as he finally stopped frowning. “I figured he was an idiot, like you said.”

“I said he was an ignoramus, not an idiot. Good heavens, and I told him I wanted to blow up his airships. Jack, what’s going on? Why is everyone helping us?”

He pulled me onto his lap. “Because you’re their captain, and you’re adorable, and the look in your eyes when you want me to make love to you would bring anyone, man or woman, to their respective knees.” His lips were as sweet as marmalade as he gently kissed my mouth, and the sting along my neck. “Mowen’s trick with the noose was clever, but I can see a mark it left on you. I’ll have to tell him he’ll need to be more careful next time.”

“There will be no next time,” I said firmly, tilting my head to allow Jack better access.

“No? We’ll discuss that later,” he murmured, his fingers busy on the buttons of my blouse before they slid inside the material to stroke my straining flesh.

“I’m just overwhelmed by it all.” I bit his ear and licked away the sting. “The crew saved us. They really saved us.”

“Mmhmm.” His mouth moved lower, to my breastbone.

A thought struck me, one that had nothing to do with the warm waves of desire that were slowly rippling out from my belly. “Except Mr. Llama! I just bet he—”

A loud slapping noise from behind me had me jumping in surprise. I stared in stark disbelief at the shade that had been pulled down to cover the rear window. Of its own accord, it had rolled itself up, revealing the smiling face of Mr. Llama. He must have been clinging to the rear of the carriage. Even as I watched, he waved and disappeared from the window.

“Did you see that?” I asked, wondering for a moment if I had just imagined seeing the man.

“See what?”

“Mr. . . . never mind.” I looked down at the head that nuzzled my bosom, and smiled. “It doesn’t matter.”

I rose from the bench as Jack and Mr. Mowen emerged from the darkness of the inn into the shaded garden where the crew and I had been reposing for the last hour or so, enjoying unusually balmy weather for February. Both men’s faces wore identical grim expressions. My stomach lurched and tightened into a leaden ball. “You weren’t successful?”

Jack took my hands in his, his thumbs sweeping over my fingers in a gentle caress meant to reassure and comfort. “We tried everything we could to get a message to him, but the security at the cathedral was impossible to get through. We looked for Alan, but couldn’t find him, either.”

“The ambassadors are sure to be almost as protected as the emperor,” I said, the feeling of dread in my gut growing. “Jack, we can’t let him die. Not after everything he’s done for us.”

“We gave your message to the guard and told him to give it to the emperor as soon as possible, that it was most urgent and it had to do with his safety and security.”

“But will he get it in time?” I asked, leaning against Jack, my spirits mourning the potential disaster. “Etienne and the Moghuls could attack at any time.”

“Which is why we need to get moving,” Jack said.

I hesitated. It didn’t feel right to run away from the attack when I wasn’t sure that William would get the information about it in time to save himself and as many people as he could.

“Captain, you did all that was possible,” Mr. Mowen said.

The other crew members, who had been lounging around the small garden in various attitudes of celebration as they enjoyed the innkeeper’s prized ale, slowly gathered around us—all but Mr. Llama, who was seated in the shade of a small lime tree.

“The emperor isn’t stupid,” Jack said, sensing my continued reluctance to leave. “You said that yourself. He will have standing orders that any information that might have an impact on him would be given top priority and passed along immediately.”

“That’s right,” Mr. Mowen agreed. “And his guards recognized your name.”

“They will give William the message as soon as possible,” Jack finished.

“Listen to my brother. He knows about intelligence stuff,” Hallie said from where she lounged on a chaise, availing herself of the rarely seen February sun, and sipping an exotic beverage.

“It’s true that William always did value his network of information,” I said, hope beginning to flare to life in the wasteland of despair. I looked up, into Jack’s lovely eyes, and was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude. How lucky I had been to find him. How lucky I was to have a crew . . . no, friends who risked everything to save us. “All right. We’ll trust to fate that William will be told about the attack in time to do something about it.”

“There’s . . . er . . . something else.” Mr. Mowen looked at Jack.

Jack avoided my eye.

“What?” I asked.

Jack sighed and reached into his coat to pull out a white sheet of paper. He held it out to me. I read it with growing indignation.

“That . . . that . . . he put a bounty on our heads?”

“So it would appear.” Jack considered the paper. “I assume five thousand pounds is a lot of money. You should be flattered.”

“Flattered that the man who informed me he had sworn to watch over me now has plastered the city with notices that we are—what did he say?” I snatched the paper from his hand and read through it again. “Ah, here it is. ‘Crimes of a most heinous and appalling nature against His Imperial Majesty, his guards, and the respected warden of the Newgate Prison . . .’ That he would dare do that after he had me convinced he really meant what he said! Oh! The nerve of him!”

“You attacked an entire prison in front of witnesses,” Jack pointed out. “What did you expect?”

I wadded up the paper and wished I could set William’s head alight. “I don’t know. I assumed he’d come up with some sort of a story.”

“I think even he has limits to the sort of whitewash he can pull off,” Jack said mildly. “Even if an attack by the Moghuls wasn’t imminent, I think it would be best for us to get out of town.”

“I agree, but the question is, where are we to go? The Tesla is destroyed, and the Corps isn’t going to give me another ship, not after the Aurora’s captain finally overcame his drug-induced haze to realize that it was I who attacked them. And then there’s the question of the crew. Once we get you all to safety, there’s still the issue of dealing with the Aerocorps. We can’t let the recent events adversely affect your careers.”

“We’ve been thinkin’ about that,” Mr. Piper said, blatantly scratching himself.

“Aye, we had a long discussion on our way to England,” Mr. Mowen agreed, taking a pint of ale from Dooley. He took a long pull on it before sighing in relief, wiping his mouth, then continuing. “We agreed that since we were your crew, we’d let you decide what direction our careers would take.”

My jaw wanted to drop, but I had myself well in hand now, and I would not allow it to do anything so feeble-minded. “I am beyond flattered, beyond honored by your faith and trust, not to mention the fact that you all risked your lives for those of Jack and Miss Norris and myself, but I cannot let you throw away your careers like that. My actions can be interpreted in no other way by the Aerocorps, but you all have not been so damned.”

“Damned, me scaly-lipped foreskin,” Mr. Piper snorted, belching loudly as he slammed down his empty glass. “A crew sticks together. Where the captain goes, we go. Ain’t that right?”

The crew, to a man, nodded. “We don’t mind a bit of adventure,” Mr. Christian said after clearing his throat. “So long as it’s not too rough, and doesn’t involve disgusting things, like bodies and entrails and severed limbs.” He shuddered.

Mr. Piper eyed him. “Ye’ve not lived till ye’ve slipped on a deck wet with guts and blood and brains and bowels, lad.”

Mr. Christian weaved and turned green. Mr. Ho, sitting beside him, hastily moved out of the way and took up a position on the other side of the table.

“I am very flattered,” I said, feeling a change of subject was in order lest Mr. Christian embarrass himself. “And if you are all sure you wish to toss away your sterling careers at the Aerocorps—”

“Aye,” Mr. Mowen said, and the others all nodded their agreement. “It’s time for a change.”

“Well, then. I guess we’ll have to consider what we wish to do, since we will all remain together.” I thought for a moment. “We could open up a boardinghouse somewhere. Or perhaps go into some sort of a trade, perhaps a shop of some form . . .”

“Pfft,” Hallie said, waving a hand. “Boardinghouse! Shop! Why don’t you just say what everyone wants you to say?”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “And what would that be?”

“Everyone knows you’re a whatchamacallit. Airship guy. Right? I mean, that’s why your airship corps won’t have you back? So do that! Boy, this gin is really good. I had no idea it could be so very yummy. Never drank the stuff back home.”

“There you go,” Jack said, smiling down at me. “You told the emperor you wished you really were an airship pirate. Well, sweetheart, here’s the perfect opportunity to be that.”

“You’re jesting,” I said, searching his face for signs he was pulling my leg.

He looked in all earnestness.

“Aye, that’s a right good idea,” Mr. Piper said, burping again. “Fetch me another pint, would ye, lad? Aye, Captain, there’s good money to be made in piratin’, they do say.”

“And easy pickings, what with the war and all,” Mr. Christian added, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down excitedly. His face paled suddenly. “I wouldn’t have to shoot anyone, would I?”

Mr. Piper patted him on the arm. “Nay, lad.”

Mr. Christian’s face cleared.

“We’ll put ye on the entrail-cleanup duty,” Mr. Piper added with a wicked glint to his eyes.

Mr. Christian keeled over.

“Piracy is illegal,” I pointed out to everyone as Mr. Mowen and Jack propped the unconscious chief officer against the brick wall. “I couldn’t do that. It would be wrong, morally wrong.”

“Sweetheart . . .” Jack took my hand and kissed my knuckles. “Your Aerocorps already considers you a pirate for attacking the Aurora. The emperor has put a price on your head. The Black Hand is after your blood for refusing to help them. I don’t think you have a lot of choices.”

“Even if I agreed to that—and I’m in no way saying that I do—where would we get a ship? The Corps aerodromes will all be too well guarded to get in and take one, even if I thought our situation merited something so immoral as stealing, which I don’t, but even if I did, it would be impossible.”

“There’s the revolutionaries,” Mr. Ho suddenly said.

We all turned to look at her. She gazed back at us with steady eyes.

“Well, I assume by what Jack said that you have some sort of a . . . relationship . . . with them, and if that’s so, then you must have access to their aerodrome.”

I thought for a moment, glancing at Jack. “She’s right.”

He grinned. “Your precious Etienne would be furious with you.”

“Extremely so.” My lips curled in a small, satisfied smile. “It would serve him right for using me all those years.”

“Excellent plan,” Mr. Mowen said, wiping his mouth again, burping discreetly, and rising from the table. “If you’ll excuse me, Captain, I’ll head out to the Black Hand’s aerodrome and see what ships are likely prospects.”

I stared at him in surprise. “You know where their aerodrome is?”

“Aye, have for years.” He leaned down and said softly, “You’re not the only one with a few secrets.”

“Rouse yerself, lad,” Mr. Piper said, hauling the limp form of Mr. Christian to his feet. “We’ll be helpin’ Mr. Mowen find us a worthy ship. Dooley, ye take his feet. Francisco! Ye comin’?”

Mr. Francisco, who had been strangely silent since arriving at the inn, rose to his feet and glared at Jack. His eye was swollen shut, the area around it currently a deep maroon color, and darkening quickly.

Jack grinned and flexed his hands.

“I am the capitán’s most devoted one. Of course I will come,” he said with great dignity, bowing toward me. His gaze wandered along the top of my head for a few seconds before dropping once again to Jack. “Bah!” was all he added before storming out of the garden after the others.

“Was it really necessary to give him a black eye?” I asked Jack.

“Sometimes, the fist is mightier than the sword.”

“Oh, very Quaker, brother,” Hallie said, sliding her feet off the chaise so she could sit up. She weaved a little bit.

“I didn’t kill him. I just reminded him that Octavia is taken, and he needs to keep his hands off her.”

“Where’s Mr. Llama?” I asked, looking around the small garden. “He was right over there a few minutes ago. Dammit, he’s done it again! I can’t believe it! He was right there!”

“Who’s Mr. Llama when he’s at home?” Hallie asked, yawning.

“He was one of the crew on Octavia’s ship. The dark-haired guy.”

“Oh. Him. Nice looking in a mysterious sort of way.”

“Mysterious doesn’t begin to cover it,” I muttered. “So help me God, one day I will have him!”

“Uh-huh. Well, this has all been fascinating, but I’m afraid this is where I leave you.” Hallie stood up and stretched, then looked expectantly at her brother.

“Leave us?” he asked.

“Yes. I want to go home, please.”

“Hallie—” He raised his hands and let them drop again. “I don’t know what to tell you. I haven’t had time to do any sort of research on what brought us here in the first place, let alone how we’re going to get home. Not that I want to go home. There’s so much here for us, I don’t know why you can’t just be happy here.”

“Happy? Here?” She shook her head. “You may be happy in this technologically ass-backward society, but I’m not. I want malls. I want the Internet. I want my laptop and my cell phone and my life back! Just send me back, and you can stay here and play steampunk adventurer to your heart’s desire, although why you’d want to is beyond me.”

“I wouldn’t leave Octavia even if I could go back,” Jack said, sliding an arm around me.

I smiled up at him. “I wouldn’t stand in the way of your happiness, you know. If you really wanted to go back, I would not stop you.”

He stared down at me, those lovely eyes of his filled with curiosity. “Do you really mean that?”

“Not in the least,” I said, kissing his chin. “I just thought I should say it.”

“Is it any wonder I love you?” he said, pulling me up to his chest.

“None whatsoever.”

“Wait just a second!” Hallie pulled me back before I could kiss Jack as he so obviously deserved. “You guys can get all lovey-dovey after you send me back. I’m not going to stand around waiting for you to get out of the land of lust to do your duty.”

“Hallie, I’ve told you—I can’t send you back.”

I felt Jack’s exasperation, and knew what I had to do. The garden was empty of everyone but us and a small wren that was warbling to itself. I turned to Jack and asked, “Do you remember me telling you that I had a secret, something I knew I should tell you, but couldn’t at that moment?”

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“Look, I don’t want to interrupt your Oprah moment of baring your soul to Jack, but this really is important to me,” Hallie said, her face tight with anger.

“And this is important, too, Hallie. I promise you it has some bearing on you.” I turned so I was facing them both. “You think I’m English because I sound like everyone here, but the truth is that I was born in Oregon.”

Jack looked mildly surprised.

“So?” Hallie asked, tapping her foot impatiently, her arms crossed.

“I was born in 1977. My mother was . . . well, not worth discussing right now. I don’t have any memories of my father but one—I remember a day when he took me with him to work. I was so excited and thrilled at being with him as he made his rounds.”

“Fascinating, but not quite pertinent, I think,” Hallie said.

I looked at Jack. He was watching me silently, his eyes speculative. “My father worked at an electrical power plant.”

“So? Mine worked at . . . hey . . .” Hallie frowned in puzzlement. “Did you say electrical power plant?”

“Yes.”

I saw the exact second when Jack understood. “You’re the same as us?”

“I am. Something happened that day. What, I have no idea—I was only six at the time. One moment I was with my father, sitting in a room while he showed me a panel of dials and lights, and the next moment, there were loud sirens and an explosion. Then there was nothing until I woke up and found myself wandering around the emperor’s garden.”

“You got zapped here, too?” Hallie asked, her expression frozen for a few seconds in incredulity. It swiftly changed to that of sheer, unadulterated horror. “Oh God! There’s no way back, is there?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. If there is, I haven’t found it.”

She fell over in a dead faint.

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