She should jot this all down in a letter to Mr. Gregor back in Hallelujah. He had wanted to hear about her travels and adventures. Maybe she’d leave out the almost dying part, but she thought he’d like to know where she had been. Airships, mountains, and now, Kansas.
She wanted to tell him she’d met Molly, and how wonderful and strong and kind she was and how bravely she’d died. She had known her so briefly, but was going to miss her keenly.
The sisters began singing. It was a soft, rising song. Rose didn’t understand everything that was happening, but the song was nice, and when Mae walked behind her and placed her hand on the Holder, it was almost as if the entire song flowed through her hand.
Warmth rolled like a warm wind across her body. Rose had been told to just stay still and relax. But the warmth was heating up, becoming uncomfortable.
And then she must have fallen asleep for the blink of a moment.
White-hot pain raked through her like someone was pulling her naked over hot coals.
She opened her mouth to scream…
…and there was a cool cloth on her forehead, a soft bed beneath her.
Well, not quite a bed. She was lying in the gathering hall, near the fire, on a pile of soft blankets.
Miss Adaline placed the cool cloth over her forehead. “Back with us now?” she asked.
“Did I go somewhere?”
“You fainted, for a few minutes now. It must have hurt very much.”
“It did,” Rose said. “Is it done? Is it gone?”
“Mostly,” Miss Adaline said. “Your shoulder is bare skin again.” She gently drew her fingers over Rose’s shoulder, and Rose flinched.
“Still aches,” she said.
“I imagine it will for a while yet. When the metal fell free into Mae’s hand a very small key was attached to it. How do you feel?”
“Better, I think,” Rose said. “Can I talk to Mae?”
A shadow crossed Adaline’s face, turning her features hard. But she nodded. “Of course.”
Rose was getting the impression that the sisters were wary of Mae. Of her particular talents with magic.
And Mae had barely smiled in all the time they’d been here. She wondered if time would eventually make her happy to be home again.
Mae lowered herself next to Rose. She was pale, and looked tired, but she smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“I like having my skin back,” Rose said. “Where is it? The Holder?”
“Bryn Madder had a very clever box to put it in.” Mae looked over her shoulder. “He and the other Madders all made a big production that no one touch it, even though it was bare in my hands. Then the Madders put on thick gloves and carefully placed it, key and all, into the box. I think you’d have liked to have seen it, but Bryn’s already taken it out to the airship and has said the box cannot be unsealed.”
“Are they leaving?” Rose asked with a start. “Is everyone leaving?”
“No, they are arguing. Over who is going to take the piece of the Holder to safekeeping.”
Now that Mae mentioned it, Rose could hear the lively discussion on the other side of the room. Alun Madder and Miss Dupuis were arguing with Captain Hink, of all people.
“The captain wants it?” Rose asked, surprised.
“He does. Apparently, it’s part of what the president sent him out to find, and Cedar made a deal of some kind regarding it. But I’m not sure that the Madders, or Miss Dupuis, will let him have it.”
“Let them store it, Cage.” Cedar’s voice was low, but rolled through the room like a wind closing a door. “You have no place to keep it, no way to transport it to the president, and no guarantee it won’t harm you or others on the way.”
“My mission—,” Hink began.
“Was to find the Holder,” Cedar finished for him. “And to keep it out of the wrong hands. You’ve found a piece of it. And these people will keep it out of everyone’s hands. This is where it ends.”
“You can’t tell me what my orders are, Mr. Hunt.”
“You want this piece of tin, you go through me to get it.”
Everyone in the room was silent.
Finally, Miss Dupuis spoke up. “We are in contact with the president, Captain Cage. I give you my word. We will store it safely and contact him immediately. As Mr. Hunt says, we will keep this away from all living things.”
“And if the president wants it?” Hink asked.
“He can ask for it, of course,” Alun Madder said.
Rose knew the Madders well enough to know that just because they said you could do something, it didn’t mean they would actually let you do it.
But she was on their side in this argument. She wanted the piece of the Holder locked up, locked away. The very idea of Captain Cage carrying it around with him as he made his way back to Washington put knots in her stomach.
“You know I’ll hunt you down for it if I want it,” Hink said with a friendliness that nonetheless carried a threat.
“Oh, we’d expect no less of you, Mr. Hink,” Alun said cheerily. “Shall we drink on it, then?”
There was the passing of flasks, and then someone brought in wine. Mae sat silently with Rose, staring into the fire, seeming to smile slightly only when Cedar Hunt spoke.
Oh. Maybe that was the sadness that had taken her friend. Mae had come home, but Mr. Hunt might be moving on.
Rose was going to ask her, but the fire was warm, the sound of voices growing more and more friendly as the wine flowed, and eventually, without her consent, sleep took her to softer horizons.
She woke to someone whispering her name.
“Rose?”
She opened her eyes. It was dark in the room, the fire in the hearth banked down low. It took her a second or two to get her bearings. She was at the coven, in the great room, wrapped in blankets. Who was calling her name?
Captain Hink knelt down beside her. “Are you awake?”
“Is something wrong?”
“No. But it will be sunrise soon. I wanted to go out to the Swift and watch it rise. I thought…” He paused as if suddenly realizing he was waking her up out of bed and asking her to tromp off to his ship with him, alone in the dark.
“Hmm.” He sat the rest of the way down on the floor. “Why is it,” he said, “that every time I’m around you, I act like an idiot? Do you have some sort of magic that makes men turn dumb?”
“No. I think you just come by it in a natural sort of way, Captain.”
He grinned at her. “I assure you, Rose, I am quite the suave buck around other women.”
“Have you been around so many to test this theory of yours?” Rose asked sweetly. “Would you say dozens? Hundreds of women?”
Hink chuckled. “Oh, this is a conversation we are not about to undertake. So, never you mind, Rose Small. Go back to sleep. I’m sorry—”
“I’d love to see it,” Rose said. “The sunrise. The ship. Help me up?”
“Be happy to.” Hink stood, grunting a little from his own aches, then helped her up.
She wrapped the blankets tight around her and Hink wrapped his good arm firmly around her waist.
Walking was a little easier. No, everything was easier, including breathing. Being rid of the Holder made Rose feel like she was really well again.
They stepped outside into the still and silent pre-morning light.
There was something about the quiet of the day that she wanted to savor, the held breath of something new about to begin.
Captain Hink must have felt it too. He didn’t say anything as they followed the trail out to the field where the airships had been towed and anchored. The strange blocky shape of the Madders’ top-like ship took up more room than the Swift, and it at least appeared whole.
The Swift was a mess. Her envelope had been deflated, and now lay on the field like a blanket of tin that had been gently wrapped into a roll. The living space of the ship was missing part of the back end, and the glim trawling arms were both broken down to nubs.
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She looked like a ship that had been torn apart by the seas and wrecked upon rocky shores.
A golden dragonfly buzzed down to land above the door to the ship, its wings like chips of crystal. The dragonfly looked almost like it was clockwork, but Rose was too far away to see it properly. And just before she got close enough, the dragonfly flew off, its wings ticking through the sky.
“The Swift served us well,” Captain Hink said, drawing Rose from her thoughts.
“She did, poor thing,” Rose said as they came up close enough to touch her. “She’s been through a lot.”
“She’ll fly again,” Captain Hink said. “Can’t keep a girl like her out of the sky.” He opened the door, and helped Rose step up into the ship.
Captain Hink stepped in behind her, blocking her escape, not that she wanted to escape. He took a deep breath and when he exhaled, his broad shoulders relaxed.
“What are you smiling about, Captain?” Rose asked.
He gestured for her to walk with him to the front of the ship, where there were two chairs, and a wide expanse of windows facing east.
“Pretty morning, pretty ship, pretty woman—why wouldn’t I be smiling, Miss Small?”
“Look who’s recovered his charm.” Rose sat and Hink dropped down in the other chair.
“Just needed to get out under the sky,” he said, “to clear my head.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rose said as the brush of lavender light washed the sky, framed by the brass and tin and wood of the Swift’s controls near the windows.
“It is. And out here, on the ship, it’s like I can breathe again.”
“You don’t like being tied to the ground, do you, Captain?”
“It’s never done me much good. And I thought you were going to call me Lee.”
“Paisley.”
He sighed. “You really going to keep at that?”
“Is it really your first name?”
“I could lie to you.”
“I’d find out.”
He paused, then, “She didn’t know the name of one of her suitors. My mother. One of the men who might have been my father. But she was sweet on him. See, he’d bought her the prettiest thing she’d ever owned. A paisley dress.” He stared out at the sky, as if he could still see his mother and her dress. “She thought it fine enough to remember him by. To name me by. It is my first name.”
Rose turned and looked at him. He had a good profile, strong, wide features, and a mouth that couldn’t seem to stay away from a smile for long. Even the bandage and scar beneath his yellow bangs gave him a little something, an aura of danger and adventure.
Just the look of him made her heart pound faster, and when he rankled under her teasing, she thought she’d melt away from the pleasure of it.
“You know she bound me to the ship, don’t you?” he asked. “Your friend Mae?”
“Yes,” Rose said. “I’m sure she can break that now. Here, with the…others helping her.”
“I’m sure she can,” he said. “But I’ve asked her not to.”
“What? When? Why?”
“Yesterday before she took care of you and the Holder. And as for why”—he turned to look at her—“I can see when I’m on the Swift. Like I still have two eyes. Better than that. Being a part of the Swift, tied to her like this, means I can still fly her. Means I still have wings.”
“But I thought when the ship is damaged, it harms you too.”
“Contrary to the last few weeks you’ve known me,” Hink said, “I do not make it a habit to crash my ship at every chance.”
“You want to stay this way? All tied up and such?”
“For as long as it lasts. Mae isn’t sure how long that will be. Said it could be years, or days. I’ll take what I can get, as long as I can get it with the Swift.”
“So I suppose you’ll be leaving, then?” Rose asked.
“As soon as I can patch her up and catch a fair wind, which isn’t looking likely until spring, but yes. I’ll be burning sky the first chance I get.”
“And your crew?”
“They’re happy enough to stay here or in town so long as the wine and food hold out. Lazy nits. Figure they’ll fly with me when I leave.”
“Well,” Rose said, her throat tight with a sadness she had not expected. “I wish you all the best with that, Captain.”
Hink frowned. “You’re going with me, Rose.”
“What? Is that what you’ve decided?” Okay, now she was getting angry. Sure, she liked him, maybe was more than a little infatuated with him. But he couldn’t just assume she was going to do anything he told her to do.
“No, it’s what I’m asking you. I did ask you, didn’t I?” His eye went wide, then he closed it. “No. I didn’t. I practiced it so many times in my head, I meant to, it’s just…” He opened his eye and spread his hand.
“Let me try this again. Proper. Rose Small, would you fly with me?”
Rose had always thought a marriage proposal would be the sweetest words she ever heard from a man. She was wrong. Every inch of her wanted to say yes. But she was a practical woman. She wasn’t going to jump on a ship because some handsome pirate lawman airship captain sweet-talked her into it.
“And do what, Captain? Be your concubine?”
“Well, I was going to offer you to be my boilerman,” he drawled, “but I could go with concubine if that’s the job you’d rather take on.”
“Boilerman?” Rose sat up straight and didn’t even care that her blanket slid down off her shoulder, baring an awful lot of her skin.
Hink, however, seemed quite appreciative of the view.
“Since Molly is…gone,” he said, trying his best not to stare at her chest, “I need someone who knows how to devise and keep the Swift running. The Madder brothers bragged you up as some kind of natural with wood and steam and gear, and Molly herself told me you were of fine Gregor teaching. I figured I’d give you a run at the sky. If you want it.”
“Oh, I do,” she said. “I do!” She reached over and before she had the sense to think it through, she kissed him.
Full on the mouth.
She froze, uncertain as to whether to go forward, or try to back out of this situation gracefully.
But Captain Hink did not freeze. His mouth accepted her, coaxing her to explore this predicament they’d suddenly fallen into. Then his hand joined in, and a short while after that, his tongue.
Rose sighed and melted into him. Captain Cage showed her some of the finer points of this particular sort of exploration. She let him do so with a willing heart, savoring the delicious sensations rolling through her body as dawn washed gold light over them, the airship, and the world.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Cedar Hunt had taken his time to talk to the sisters about the binding on Mae. To explain to them how they had nearly killed her. Miss Adaline had not been amused nor surprised by his forthright manner.
She had told him that the ways of magic were between those of the coven. And that he and his were certainly not a voice to say otherwise.
He explained to her that when that magic involved Mae, he didn’t give a damn about the coven’s rules.
Then he said his good-byes to Miss Adaline and the other sisters, of kinder demeanors, who had taken them in. He’d said his good-byes to Captain Hink and his crew. Now he was saying his good-byes to Rose Small.
He’d been surprised that she’d decided to stay here at the coven for the winter as long as they’d have her and in town if her welcome wore out.
Of course, Captain Hink was staying with her. Cedar didn’t know if Hink was going back to harvesting glim or riding as U.S. Marshal. That brand on his forehead would change the way he faced the world, the way he did his job.
Cedar hoped he stayed on the side of law, though with a Marshal’s star burned into your head, it might make the proposition of staying undercover more difficult.
Still, Cedar knew Hink was the sort of a man who could be trusted. He’d done a lo
t for them, risked a lot, lost a lot. And he was sweet on Rose.
Cedar had never seen Rose happier than this last week. And with Hink promising her a place on his ship working the boiler, Cedar couldn’t help but think that Rose was finally getting the adventure and life she had always longed for.
“You’ll come back, won’t you?” Rose asked when he’d gone out to the Swift to find her helping with what repairs they could tend to while the weather held. “If you can, before spring? And if not, you’ll contact us, send a message, so I can see you again? Both of you,” she added, with a gentle rub behind Wil’s ears.
“I’ll come back, I’ll find you, I’ll send messages,” Cedar promised. “You know I’m a man of my word.”
She smiled and it was like a new sun had broken the horizon. “Once she’s flying again, I’ll come find you. If you’re traveling with the Madders, all I’ll have to do is look for something blowing up and head that way.”
Cedar chuckled but before he could reply, she threw her arms around him. “Thank you, Mr. Hunt. I’ll miss you so.” She gave him a warm hug, and Cedar put his arms around her gently.
He was fond of her and couldn’t help but feel that saying good-bye meant he was losing someone very special.
“I’ll miss you too, Rose,” he said quietly.
Then he stepped back and Rose gave him a measuring look. “Have you spoken with Mae yet?”
“No. And don’t give me that scowl, Miss Small. I’m on my way to see her now.”
“Good,” Rose said. “You shouldn’t leave without talking to her first. Without…explaining.”
Explaining. Why he had told her he didn’t want her to break his curse or Wil’s. Why he had decided to travel with the Madders. Why he had brought her to the coven and was leaving her behind while he and his brother hunted down the Holder.
Why he was putting his life on hold to chase down something that might be impossible to find.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said.
Cedar turned and walked back to the main gathering hall, where he knew he’d find Mae by the fire.
He walked up onto the porch and into the hall. One of the younger sisters was in the hall, humming as she swept the floor. Mae was not there.