Magnificent Devices 07 - A Lady of Integrity (13 page)

“It must be lost. My word, Andrew—look there!” She pointed at an enormous snake, rolling along the canal in sinuous S-curves, its wedgelike head breaking the surface with such force that a small wave purled before its chin. “Please tell me it is not hunting the kraken.”

“Please tell
me
the canals of this city are not routinely infested with creatures born of a nightmare. For if they are, it is becoming more urgent by the moment that we free our young friend.”

Claire shuddered. There were places where she must not allow her imagination to go, or she would fall to her knees screaming and be of no use to anyone.

A sound rather like laughter now rose from the restless waters, and she could not help it. With wondering eyes, she leaned cautiously over the edge to see the smooth, satiny bodies of dolphins, rising and falling in a rocking-horse motion as they rode the waters. It almost looked as though they were pursuing the kraken and the snake—which made no sense whatsoever.

“There are no dolphins in the canals of Venice,” Andrew said flatly. “I could believe a kraken might live down there—or a snake—but dolphins, absolutely not. Something is definitely out of the natural balance here.”

And there was that peal of laughter again.

One she knew very well.

Claire’s mouth dropped open as a drenched figure, its long blond hair clinging wetly to its head and shoulders, broke the surface of the canal. It clung to the dorsal fin of a dolphin—and behind it was another, larger figure, equally soaked and covered with weed.

“Steps!” the first figure called, and released her mount. “Thank you!” she told it. The dolphin chattered, rolled, and dove, following its fellows to the Grand Canal visible at the end of this smaller tributary.

The larger figure, naked to the waist, hoisted the smaller one up the first several stairs and the two of them crawled on all fours to the top, as if they’d forgotten how to use their legs—or were too weak to manage it.

They heaved themselves up onto the pavement in a wave of canal water, practically at Claire’s and Andrew’s feet, and Lizzie rolled onto her back, gasping and laughing in equal measure.

And then she realized who was gaping down at her. “Lady,” she managed, and went into a coughing fit. “Oh, thank heaven. I believe there is a sardine in my hair.”

13

The polka, Alice was quite sure, had been invented by a snob to separate those who belonged from those who did not.

“Right foot, Captain Chalmers. A lady always starts on the right foot.” Ian Hollys corrected her course and turned her the opposite way. This particular version was called the “traveling polka,” and involved galloping sideways for three counts, then turning to face the other direction for one count, then galloping again. Making the turn in one beat was physically impossible, since the music was so fast. Captain Hollys had been reduced to taking her into the center of the crowd presently leaping around the ballroom, and describing much slower, shorter steps.

And the center of the floor, as everyone knew, was where the incompetent were penned, so they would not get in the way.

“Please take me back, and dance with someone else,” she begged for the third time.

“Nonsense.” His tone was bracing, as though she were a midshipman learning the ropes. “The trouble is that you are trying to lead. If you leave that to me, both mind and body will accept the step easily.”

Alice, whose opinions about the leadership of men had been formed in the unforgiving desert and rocks of Resolution, tightened her lips and did her best to do as he asked, but it wasn’t easy. If he had been a terrible dancer, her feelings would have been different. But as it was, any woman in her right mind would have been delighted to let him take the lead. Why did she have to be the one woman who objected?

“You’d do better asking Gloria. At least she knows what she’s doing.”

“I have already danced two dances with Gloria. If I am to do my duty, I must dance an equal number with you. To the right, please.”

Thanks ever so much.
His
duty
was to keep her from being recognized. She didn’t appreciate in the least being reminded that, to that end, it was also his duty to dance with her so that they blended more completely into the crowd.

“Captain? Alice?” The voice at her elbow made Alice miss her step, and she and the captain came to an ungraceful halt. Maggie stood there in her fairy costume, her face as pale as her own silvery skirts. “The Lady asks that you come. We are returning to the hotel.”

Thank goodness.

“Maggie, are you quite all right?” the captain asked, examining her keenly. “Has something happened?”

“Lizzie—”

“She has news,” Alice told him with sudden understanding. “I must let Gloria know we are leaving.”

“Allow me,” the captain said. Did he have to sound quite so eager?

“We will both go.”

Gloria made no secret of her disappointment at their departure. “But you’ve barely been here two hours. Do you not want to stay for the fireworks?”

Ian said, “It would give us great pleasure, but young Miss Seacombe has been taken ill.”

“Oh, such a shame. I hope she will be better tomorrow. Oh!” Gloria’s blue eyes widened. “I almost forgot. Father is dragging me along on some dreadful tour of the prisons and gearworks in the morning. Please come—I know it’s awful, and not the sort of exhibition we are all here to enjoy, but I would so like the company of congenial people.” Her face clouded. “The combination of my father and a prison would be enough to make anybody ill. We can help keep one another’s spirits up.”

“I shall be honored to accompany you,” Captain Hollys said gallantly. “I am afraid Alice and some of the young ladies will be unable to, but we shall certainly convey your invitation to Lady Claire and Mr. Malvern.”

As they hurried out of the
palazzo
, Alice said, “That was a little high-handed, Captain. I’m quite capable of accepting or declining my own invitations.”

“I will not allow you anywhere near the prison.”

“Allow—”

“I should hope not,” Maggie said, following so closely she was practically clutching Alice’s arm. “If anyone should recognize you, it’s hardly the work of a moment to clap you in an underwater cell.”

Well, fine. There was that. But he could have put it a different way.

Out on the pavement they were treated to the astonishing sight of Lizzie and Tigg, drenched to the skin and reeking of effluvium and seaweed. They closed ranks and hustled the pair along the canal to a water taxi. It wasn’t until they had both bathed and changed into their normal clothes that they all gathered in the sitting room of the suite that Lady Claire had taken to hear the tale.

And what a tale it was.

“Lizzie, dearling, you have a positive genius for getting into scrapes that no one else would ever dream of,” Alice said when Lizzie and Tigg, holding hands as they sat side by side on the settee, had finished.

“I am only thankful she has an equal genius for getting out of them,” Claire said. “Did it never occur to either of you to return to the ballroom and seek safety in numbers with us?”

“It did,” Tigg said, “but there wasn’t time. They’d have caught us. And the good thing is, we were able to free the creatures.” His face clouded. “It was awful, Lady. The poor kraken, used to being the king of the sea, and there it was, reaching out a tentacle like it were pleading for help.”

“Seeing if it could reach its dinner, more like,” Maggie corrected, hanging over the back of the settee, close to her cousin.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” Lizzie said. “It
looked
at us, like an intelligent being. If it wanted to have us for dinner, it certainly could have waited in the canal and had us, and any number of dolphins for dessert. But it seemed to understand we were all in the same boat, with only one chance of escape.”

“For which the minister will not thank you,” Claire told her. “You are going to have to lie very low now. In fact, I would suggest that you and Tigg return to
Athena
on the mainland if it were not for the fact that you must be chaperoned.”

Lizzie blushed scarlet and even Tigg cleared his throat in embarrassment.

“Aside from kraken and cages,” Andrew said, “what disturbs me most is this dreadful plan of Meriwether-Astor’s. Waylaying the convict transports and kidnapping the occupants! Is there no depth to which he will not sink?”

“Every time we plumb the depths of his wickedness we find something new,” Claire agreed. “Even his affection for his daughter is tainted by it.”

“She has asked for our help tomorrow,” Alice said, recollecting the message they had been asked to deliver. “No sooner did Lizzie overhear Meriwether-Astor browbeat the minister into a tour of the prison and the gearworks than he must have sought out Gloria to tell her she was going along.”

“I accepted on your behalf, Claire,” Captain Hollys said. “The poor girl was quite distraught at the thought of braving the place in only her father’s company.”

“As well she might be,” Claire said.

“And I have made it clear to Alice that she will not be accompanying us, and she has agreed it would be far too dangerous.”

“Have you?” Claire raised an eyebrow in Alice’s direction.

“I have,” Alice said. No point in going into detail and giving Ian Hollys the opportunity to rub it in a second time.

“Lizzie and Tigg cannot go, of course,” he went on. “It is a shame. Tigg, I would have been glad of your support.”

“Sorry, Captain. I lost my head and—”

“No need for apology. Your duty was to protect Lizzie, and while your methods were unorthodox, they were also effective. Claire, I believe that leaves you and Mr. Malvern to make up our party.”

“And me,” Maggie said quietly.

“Maggie, I do not think—” Claire began.

“If you need a scout, Lady, it will have to be me. Luckily, I can swim.”

“We could scout around the outside of the place, Lady,” Lizzie suggested. “We wouldn’t have to go in.”

Claire shook her head. “It is entirely too dangerous. In fact, a thought has just occurred to me. Alice, you must also remain concealed from prying eyes. I think it would be most practical if you were to return to
Athena
with Lizzie and Tigg. That way, you will all three be safe, and if we must make a quick exit once we have Jake in hand, it would be very helpful if the ship already possessed a captain and an engineer on board. Do you not agree?”

Of course it was a practical plan.

It made all the sense in the world.

And as Alice exchanged glances with Lizzie and Tigg, it was clear that the three of them would sooner be captured than allow it.

14

Claire’s cream linen dress, ruffled parasol, and pinwheel hat loaded with tulle and a large green satin bow created such a contrast with her surroundings that it felt almost obscene—as though one were laughing in a cemetery.

She and Andrew followed Meriwether-Astor, Gloria, Maggie, and Ian from the majestic, marble-inlaid Hall of Justice down a stone ramp to what lay below the surface of pavement and canal. Claire wished she had worn raiding rig. Anything else seemed like snapping one’s fingers in the face of fate.

They were escorted by two men—the Master of Prisons and an assistant, one ahead and one behind, presumably so none of them wandered away, never to be seen again. Maggie was finding this particularly irksome. The damp seeped through Claire’s linen jacket, rendering the crisp fabric limp and every bit as dispirited as she herself was becoming.

Gloria clung to Captain Hollys’s arm, and Claire did not miss the occasional glance of satisfaction bestowed on them by her father, who otherwise treated her as though she were a featherhead. As though his training of her to manage his affairs was a burden, and he didn’t hold out much hope of success. In Claire’s opinion, this was doing Gloria a grave injustice. As Maggie had so accurately pointed out, Gloria could be very handy in a pinch, being possessed of both intelligence and a most unladylike willingness to take a risk.

From the outside, the building’s façade was of white marble, and at the water level, they had seen the mighty arches holding it up. Through these passed the boats bearing the condemned or their families and lawyers, passing from sunshine into deep shadow where even the wavering reflections of the water did not penetrate.

“Here are the piers where the accused disembark,” their guide intoned. From where they stood, Claire could see the aforesaid arches framing the busy canal outside—the last glimpse of the familiar world that many of these poor people would ever see. “Come along. The cells are at water level. To go below that, we will need to enter a diving bell.”

“Oh, Lady,” Maggie whispered. “I don’t want to go below the water.”

“Do not be afraid, darling,” she whispered back. “We will be with you every moment.” She did not particularly want to go, either, but what if they caught a glimpse of Jake? “We must learn as much as we can in order to be useful.”

For Jake
, was her unspoken message.

Maggie took a deep breath and nodded. “I don’t suppose they would leave me alone on the landing, anyway,” she said.

“Certainly not,” said the man bringing up the rear. “No uncondemned person may pass the water gates unescorted.”

“Is there any other way into the prison and the gearworks?” Andrew inquired.

This brought a tightening of the man’s facial muscles that might pass for a smile. “Not many wish to come in. Plenty wish to go out, however.”

“That is well understood. But in answer…?”

“Yes, of course. The mighty gearworks that support the city are accessible by anyone with a diving bell.”

“Then you must have had to deal with misguided persons attempting to free their relatives and associates?”

Claire squeezed his arm in appreciation. She would never have dared to ask such a question, but his reputation as an engineer had preceded him even to this benighted place. The Master of Prisons fancied himself an aficionado of mechanics, and had read every monograph Andrew had ever published.