A woman strode down the gangplank. Well … if it belonged to the speaker it must be a woman, but Noli had never seen a woman such as
this
before. She stood nearly as tall as Jeff and had a thin body devoid of any of the curves a woman usually had. Her boyishly short near-black hair, a lock of it dyed
blue,
hung in her big brown slightly-slanted eyes.
“Vix, come here, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Jeff waved her down.
Wait. Vix.
This
was the woman Jeff was sweet on?
Noli had seen women in trousers before, one of Queen Tiana’s handmaidens often wore them, but they were always feminine, showing off her figure. This woman wore an outfit similar to Jeff’s as if she
wanted
to be mistaken for a boy.
Leaping onto the dock with the grace of a cat, Vix looked Noli up and down and shook her head, dark stands flying. “We don’t take passengers.”
“She’s not a passenger, she’s our new engineer—I hope.” Jeff gave Vix a charming smile, the sort men gave women when trying to get their way. “Vix, meet my younger sister, Magnolia Braddock. Noli, meet Captain Vix, this is her ship.”
“Captain.” Noli curtsied. A female captain who wore trousers! “I thought this was your ship, Jeff?”
Jeff laughed. “I’m just the pilot, Vix tells me where to go.”
Woman couldn’t legally pilot airships, only co-pilot. But there was no law against female captains. What adventures she must have!
Vix, who stood the slightest bit shorter than Jeff, furrowed her dark brows in a way that made Noli’s stomach twist. “This is the little sister? The one who fixes things?”
“We need an engineer, she needs work. It could be mutually beneficial,” Jeff replied.
She scowled. “This isn’t a place for just anyone.”
“This isn’t just anyone, this is my sister. Give her a chance, please?” His look pleaded.
Noli’s chest tightened as she smoothed her blue skirts. She hadn’t given thought to the idea that someone on the ship might not want her.
“Please, Captain?” Noli asked, voice soft. “I’ll pull my weight, promise.” She wasn’t entirely what she’d need to do besides keep the ship running and in good repair. Whatever it was, she could handle it, surely. “Find yourself on the wrong side of the law again?” Vix didn’t quite sneer, but it wasn’t kind either.
She knew? Mortification crept through Noli. How much had Jeff told her of her previous exploits?
“If I allow them take her to Boston they’ll have her married off to some society dirt-bag three-times her age before Christmas.” He gave Vix another beseeching glance. “She wants to attend the university, she’ll stay with us for awhile, save up, then I’ll get her settled in.”
“No favors. She pulls her weight like everyone else.” Vix turned to Noli. “On my ship we don’t make allowances based on gender—women do the same tasks men do. Or,” she grinned at Jeff, “men do the same jobs as women. You maintain the ship, you keep the engine room tidy, and you make sure we have what we need to make repairs. Also, we share jobs onboard; you’ll have assignments like everyone else.” Standing toe to toe with Noli, Vix looked her right in the eyes. “Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Noli felt as if she should salute or something.
“It’s
sir
.” But she didn’t snap or say it rudely.
The captain’s accent wasn’t quite the same as Charlotte’s but still made a pang of sadness shoot though Noli. A southern female captain. What would dear Lottie have made of that?
“I don’t supposed you can use a pistol—or defend yourself?” the captain added.
“I can use a sword a little.” Noli tried not to fidget under the scrutiny.
Vix scoffed, her rough and tanned hand combing through her short hair. “A sword? That’s not going to help.”
“She’s an engineer, not a fieldhand or a gunner, she doesn’t need to know how to shoot.” Jeff kept his voice calm and quiet.
Fieldhand. Gunners. Pistols. One more indication this wasn’t a respectable cargo vessel. The pistol around Vix’s waist added to that. Did Jeff have a pistol as well?
Vix shook her head then looked to Jeff. “Go put her someplace where she won’t cause any trouble then get to the bridge. They’ll be here any moment and we can’t afford to dally.”
“Of course, Captain.” Jeff didn’t kiss her or put an arm around her, but the look he gave her told Noli that yes, this was the woman. And he loved her. A lot.
Jeff offered Noli his arm. “Noli?”
Noli remembered something from the days of visiting airships with her father. “Permission to come aboard, Captain?”
“Granted. Welcome to the Vixen’s Revenge.” Vix almost cracked a smile. Almost.
Jeff and Noli walked up the gangplank to the top interior deck of the ship. It looked as if they were in some sort of lounge or common area. He set his overboard in a rack, then they went down another flight of stairs. The inside of the ship seemed as neat and tidy as the outside.
“I’ll give you a tour later, but I need to get to the bridge. Let me show you to your little domain.” He gave her a shy smile. “Also, Vix will warm up to you, she didn’t get where she is by being a pushover.”
Noli smiled back, not entirely believing him. “If you love her then I’m sure I will, too.”
They went down a hallway toward the stern of the airship. Jeff pushed open a door marked
engine room.
He turned on a lamp hanging on the wall inside near the door. “Here it is, the heart of Vixen’s Revenge.”
The engines, bigger than Noli, greeted them, motionless and silent. The brass gleamed in the dim lamplight.
“She’s beautiful.” And cleaner than the kitchen back home. Closing her eyes, she put her hands on the still main engine, getting a feel for it.
Hello there.
Metal came from the earth, and sometimes working with metal came easier when she remembered that, overcoming the sprite’s insistence that thinking was hard.
Thinking is hard,
the sprite replied.
Oh, that’s shiny.
It’s shiny, indeed,
Noli replied.
Jeff chuckled in the background and her eyes snapped open, cheeks burning. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to think her eccentric, or even worse, mad.
“Engineers are
so
strange,” Jeff teased, another lamp in his hand. “Parts closet is over there.” He gestured to a wardrobe in the corner of the room. “Now, I want to show you something.” A little door marked the far wall. “This was a closet. A previous engineer far before Vix got the ship made the closet into a workroom. Since an engineer on a ship like this is also chief inventor, tinker, and handyman it makes sense.”
He opened the door. Inside was a workbench covered in tools which took up most of the back wall. Boxes of parts and such filled the little room. If she stood in the middle and stretched out her arms she could probably touch all the walls. The only light came from the lamp in Jeff’s hand.
“This room and everything in it are yours to use. Also,” he gestured to the cluttered space lighting the corners with the lamp. “I think it would be best for you to sleep here. I don’t want you with the rest of the crew. Hopefully, you can fit all this in the parts closet, though you can build some shelves if you need them. I’ll get you a hammock and a locker for your things.” Jeff looked at her bag and frowned. “Believe it or not, Vix is very good at shopping. Eventually we’ll have time for you to get a few things. I’m sorry you couldn’t bring your trunk.”
“I’ve got everything I need.” She patted her bag. Noli peered into the little room. “This is where I should sleep?” Once she moved out the boxes out it should suffice.
Jeff nodded. “That’s safest. Right now we’re running light. It’s me, Vix, Thad, Asa, Winky—and now you. But we’ll need to bring at least one more person on, perhaps two, and well, crew quarters aren’t the place for a lady.”
The corners of her lips twitched. “Do you share the captain’s quarters?”
He blushed to the roots of his dark and messy hair. “I have a hammock in crew quarters, like everyone else.”
“Of course,” she laughed. “It would be improper not to.”
Jeff squeezed her shoulder, still covered by her good cape. “There’s not a lot of proper on an airship like this— or in what we do.”
“I know.” She looked up at him in earnest. “What did you steal? That’s what you’re waiting for, right? Asa and Thad stole something and you’re leaving as soon as they return?”
His dark eyebrows rose. “You’re smart.”
The door to the engine room opened.
“Jeff, what are you doing in here?” a gravelly voice asked from behind them.
“Hi, Winky, readying the engines?” Jeff smiled at an older man, short and a little chubby, with a white beard and a striped stocking cap over his too-long white hair. He was dressed similarly to Jeff.
Winky nodded. “Captain’s orders. You should get to the bridge.” When he looked at Noli, his eyes widened in surprise. “Captain didn’t say nuffin’ about passengers.”
Jeff pushed her toward Winky. “This is Noli, my sister—she’s our new engineer. Noli, Winky came with the ship. He can tell you everything you want to know about her.”
Very useful. She curtseyed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you … Winky. I look forward to getting to know this ship.”
He doffed his cap. “My pleasure. No one knows this ship like me. But never have I met a lady engineer.”
Jeff made an annoyed noise. “Hayden’s Follies has a female engineer. So does The Laughing Mermaid.”
“Female yes, but never a
lady.
” Winky nodded so vigorously Noli thought his head might fall off. At the very least his stripped cap.
Making a face, Jeff glanced at his pocket watch. “I’ve need to get up to the bridge. You make sense of your little place here and get settled in. Winky’s going to ready the engines, which usually the engineer does. You should watch and take notes.” Jeff bent down to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll check in on you later.”
She took the lamp. “I’m glad I’m here.”
“Me, too.” Jeff left, going back the way he came.
Noli looked to Winky. “Mr. Winky, would you kindly introduce me to the engines?”
His brown eyes went alight and he inclined his head. “Why, Miss Noli, it would be my pleasure.”
Despite the late hour Noli buzzed with too much excitement to sleep. Airship aloft, Winky had returned to his duties below after giving Noli an overview of the engines and the ship’s quirks. She’d concentrated on getting the room in enough order to sleep and would tackle the rest in the morning—such as putting away everything she’d taken out of the workroom so there was room for a hammock.
Her hat and cape hug on hooks on the door. More hooks on the walls sat at about the right place for a hammock, but she found none. Jeff hadn’t returned, but he might still be needed on the bridge. Noli yawned. Perhaps it was time to find the necessary and peek in on Jeff. If he told her where they stored the hammocks she could get it herself. She’d never slept in one, but it sounded better than sleeping on the floor.
All ships this class had the same basic layout. She climbed the stairs to the bridge. The common area had a room on one end—probably the captain’s quarters—and a kitchen area on the other, with a sitting room in the center. The bridge should lie on the far side of the kitchen, right at the bow of the ship. Voices came from that direction.
“What were you thinking, Jeff?” Nearly tangible exasperation dripped from Vix’s voice.
“We need an engineer. We’re courting disaster every day we fly without one. There’s only so much Winky can do. She has decent general knowledge of airships and she’s an ace at fixing things. She
rebuilt
that deathtrap of a flying car my father had,” Jeff replied. “She rebuilt the hoverboard
I’d
given up on. She even built my mother a steam-powered sewing machine out of junk lying around the house.”
“From all your stories I never realize she was so…dainty.” Vix sounded as if she considered this a detriment.
Noli stood in the dining area where she could hear but not see them. Dainty? That wasn’t a word usually used to describe her. Part of her preened at the idea. She knew it would make her mother proud. What would Mama of Vix? Noli took a deep breath and tried to squish those thoughts away.
“Look at her, she’s dressed for a party.” It sounded as if Vix paced the bridge as they spoke.
“As long as she can work in it, what does it matter?” Jeff replied.
“This isn’t the place for a lady. You always painted her as a hoyden but … ”
“They did something to her,” Jeff sighed. “I don’t know if it was the school or those people who kidnapped her, but something’s not quite right. If I let our mother take her to Boston, who knows what will happen. The last thing I want is for her to be taken advantage of or even worse, institutionalized.”
Noli’s blood went cold at the thought of being sent to an asylum. The words
something’s not quite right
made her stomach churn. True, something wasn’t quite right, but until her mother mentioned it tonight, she hadn’t realized anyone had noticed. She’d worked so hard to hide it.
“We don’t know she was actually kidnapped,” Vix retorted.
“She never mentioned in her letters what exactly happened, but you know she wasn’t here with us.”
Kidnapped? Kevighn hadn’t exactly kidnapped her. But she
had
been held in the Otherworld against her will.
“Still, things happened to her—and you know what those schools are like,” Jeff added. “She’ll be an asset and she won’t get in the way of our work. If she can hoverboard and fix flying cars in a dress then she can be an airship engineer in one.”
“That’s against everything the women’s equality movement works for,” Vix muttered.
“No it’s not,” Jeff soothed. “You work for women to have choices. This means they should have any and all options, not just the ability to wear trousers and take on men’s jobs, but the right to wear skirts and stay home with the children if they so choose. The point is that they have a
choice.
After all, if all women eschew staying home and raising children the human race would end, right?”
Vix made an annoyed noise. “Your logic makes my head hurt. She still has to pull her weight, I’m not making exceptions.”