Chenda and the Airship Brofman (6 page)

Chenda began to look at Maxwell Endicott as if he himself was up for sale in one of her favorite shops. Was this something that she would buy and bring home to Edison? Could this rough man help her to her destiny? How would she know who to trust? Finding no revelations into the captain's character, she waited patiently until Candice and Captain Endicott each sat back in their chairs, grinning.

“Then we are agreed,” Candice said. “We'll have the money for you tomorrow afternoon when we depart. I also have the necessary university documents that approve our research. I'm sure you will need those to file your flight plan.” Candice handed over a small bundle of papers.

“Terrific.” The captain smiled at the two women as he rose to leave. “I'll have my first officer meet you tomorrow at the Coal City Port Terminal - slip 24 - five o'clock. If you ladies will excuse me, I have to make some plans for our departure.”

Without waiting for a reply, Captain Endicott turned away and left.

Candice seemed pleased as she turned to Chenda, but the younger woman's expression looked strained, and the professor suddenly looked doubtful.

“I talked him down to four-hundred thousand. Was that not good enough?” she said, suddenly worried that she had committed too much money of Chenda's money.

“No, I've got more than that on hand,” she said. “That's not worrying me.” Chenda looked at Candice and slowly found words for her doubts. “But, Captain Endicott. How do you know that he will do what he says he will? I mean, how do you know if you, I mean we, can trust him?”

Candice looked at the woman awash in a sea of self doubt sitting across from her. Her face was an open book.

“For that matter, how do you know you can trust me?” Candice replied, thinking her question rhetorical.

“Edison said I could. That's why I
do
trust you. In full,” Chenda answered.

The answer flattered Candice, but still made her cross. “Oh, that's right. Edison's word is gospel. Well, lucky me. Let's just trust that Edison's words are what you believe them to be, and hopefully we won't be killed.”

“I'm sure it will be just fine.” Chenda said. “But the question is: do you trust Captain Endicott?”

“I only know I can hire him, not that we can trust him. I also know that Henrietta recommended him, and even asked a favor of him to meet us. That means something. We will just have to be cautious and see what happens.”

Candice looked at her watch and then placed an envelope on the table. “Now,” she said, drawing Chenda out of her contemplation. “We've got less than a day to get things together. I've taken the liberty of getting your papers for you.” She spilled the contents of the envelope out on to the table. “Here are your traveling documents, and this one shows you are a student at the University. Keep these with you all the time. She slid the papers back into the envelope and handed it all to Chenda. “We should be going.”

Daniel, who had been waiting like a watchdog, stepped from the shadows to lead the women through the door and into the waiting car.

Chapter 4

THE FIRE AND THE FLIGHT

That night, Chenda ate her dinner alone in the dining room. She had been avoiding the room for the last few days. Every time she glanced down at her plate, the outline of her husband appeared opposite her. Each time she looked up to see him more clearly, the vision of Edison vanished. The cruel tricks her eyes played on her were maddening. She finally pushed away her plate, and went upstairs.

She found the package from Lilianthal's Aerofitters lying on the low bench at the foot of her bed. Chenda rolled the neatly trussed brown paper bundle onto the comforter and began to untie the binding strings. She smoothed away the wrappings, spreading the items within across the bed. She examined the first item, a pair of heavy silk pants. She ran her fingers over the tightly woven cream-colored fabric. She stood next to the bed and unfastened the hooks and buttons of her own skirt and petticoat, letting them all fall to the floor. She kicked her clothes aside and pulled on the pants. Chenda looked at the way the heavily quilted britches fit over her hips and thighs.

She looked into the mirror and thought to herself,
If the nuns could see me now. In PANTS!
I was just not brought up this way
.

But, these trousers felt pretty good. Unlike so many of the long, tight skirts she wore, these silk pants were roomy in the seat. Nothing was bound up until the knee, where the fabric became thinner and tapered to the ankle, presumably to make the ends of the legs fit easily into the tops of the boots.

Ah, the aeronaut boots.
Chenda ran her hands over the deep brown leather and the shining brass buckles. The weight of each boot was intimidating, but, pulling them on, she instantly understood their value lay in their warmth. They seemed to fit her perfectly, and she wiggled her toes into the soft fur linings. She spent several minutes fastening and adjusting the half-dozen buckles on each boot. She walked around her room. The heaviness of the boots changed her gait slightly. She began to lengthen her stride a little, letting the momentum of each heavy shoe swing her leg forward.

Now I know why soldiers swagger: it's the BOOTS!

She picked up the pouch-belt next, and was rather impressed with the cleverness of its design. The crescent of sturdy leather had a buckle on one end and a tongue of holes on the other. In between, a variety of pockets, slots, brass rings and loops hung down for, well, Chenda wasn't exactly sure what all the bits were for, but it seemed a great way to keep everything close at hand. Chenda tightened the buckle over her left hip, and transferred a few trinkets, some money and her papers into the pockets. 

Back at the bed, she experimented with a shiny new compass. Chenda watched the needle swirl around as she turned this way and that, but after a moment or two, she tucked it into her pouch-belt as well.

The last item in the package, and the largest, was the flight coat. Chenda pulled the long lambskin coat onto her shoulders. It felt soft and warm over her thin blouse, but she began to wonder if Lilianthal's had made a mistake about the size. Chenda turned again to her mirror and thought the flight coat looked way too big. It swallowed her, and, as she walked around the bedroom, it jingled a bit.

Can this be right?

She tugged at all of the little buckles and straps hidden within tiny flaps throughout the coat, but Chenda couldn't make any sense of them. Not knowing what else to do, she just let them be. Despite its bulk, the coat wasn't particularly heavy, and its warmth brought a slight flush to her cheeks. It would have to do.

Chenda decided to test the outfit in the cool night air. She picked up the carpet bag she had packed the night before, crossed the bedroom, and exited onto the balcony. Making herself comfortable at the small table there, she checked the contents of her luggage one last time. Satisfied that she had everything she needed, she leaned back in the chair and looked up at the pale moonlight and the stars. A cold breeze tickled her exposed neck, so she flipped the fuzzy collar up. She smelled flowers in the air, and the scent mixed with the tangy aroma of new leather. She tried to imagine what tomorrow would be like, but her fears were getting in the way. Dressed so unconventionally in this airship getup, she observed herself as perhaps a stranger would: a poor little rich girl doing something very, very dumb. She pouted. Looking down at her new clothes and boots, she tucked her chin to her chest, the fluffy collar of her flight coat instantly warming the exposed skin of her cheeks.

Perhaps I need to rethink this. I'll speak with Candice tomorrow and call this whole thing off.

She sat there a while longer, trying to think of exactly how she would explain herself to the professor in the morning. “Oops! I'm a coward and hate myself for it” didn't sound like the best thing to say. However, it was comprehensively the truth. Debating the right way to tell Candice about her doubts, Chenda drifted off to sleep.

She awoke with a start and wasn't sure if hours had passed or just minutes. Snuggled within the flight coat and aeronaut boots, she felt no colder than when she first stepped out onto the balcony. As she stood to go back inside, she felt another wave of indecision. Edison wanted her to make this trip, and he'd always looked out for her. She
should
go. Her doubt and resolve wrestled as she stepped back into her bedroom, where she froze in her tracks.

Standing in front of Edison's dresser, Daniel Frent pawed through the drawers.

“What are you doing!?” Chenda demanded.

Daniel whipped around with shock and horror on his face. In a single movement, he leaped at Chenda, pulling her out of the doorway and pushing her roughly facedown onto the bed, crushing her breath from her lungs. Chenda thrashed, trying to pull in more air so she could scream, but Daniel straddled her back, digging the tops of his feet into the back of her knees, pinning her. Daniel looped his left arm under hers, grabbing a handful of her dark hair. He jerked her head back and to the right, covering her mouth with his free hand.

Chenda's wild eyes rolled frantically trying to see Daniel's face, to read there why he was doing this. He brought his face in close, his lips hovering over her ear, and hissed quietly, “Shh... Don't struggle.”

The tone of his voice only made Chenda more frightened, and she pulled against Daniel with more fervor. One arm pulled free momentarily, but Daniel reared back and bashed his own forehead into the side of her skull, just behind her ear. For a moment, she thought she might pass out. All fight drained out of her and Daniel's weight settled on her body more completely.

Before she could recover from her daze, Daniel flipped Chenda onto her back. He straddled her hips, pinning one hand with his knee. Leaning forward, he pressed his elbow into her shoulder and his forearm across her throat. She looked up into his crazed face, clawing at his hand as it covered her mouth. He pulled his hand back from her lips suddenly, but as she gulped in a breath, Daniel balled his hand into a fist and struck Chenda hard across the cheek. The pain of it forced the struggle from her limbs again and she tasted blood in her mouth.

“Shut up! Shut. Up! Be still!” Daniel hissed. “So help me, I'll beat you unconscious if you make any more noise.” He grabbed her face in one big hand, forcing Chenda's gaze back to his own eyes. Madness looked back at her.

Daniel pulled a knife out of the top of his boot and pressed it to the soft skin under her jaw. “Where are they? Where are the stones?” he demanded through clenched teeth.

Chenda gasped.

“Tell me!” he said in a whisper. “Quietly.”

Chenda's mind raced as she tried to decide what to do. The stones were down the front of her shirt where she had carried them all day. If it weren't for the thick flight coat between them, Daniel would surely be able to feel the stones there. She decided to play dumb.

“What stones?” she croaked. Another blow slashed her cheek, this one grazing her eye.

“Don't be stupid,” Daniel growled. “Edison's stones. The ones that bastard husband of yours brought back from the war. I need them, and I am betting, since you've been hanging out with the geologist, that you know all about them and where they are. Now give them to me! Or I'll kill you, too.”

Understanding began to break through Chenda's terror. “You killed Edison? Over a few bits of rock?”

“No, I killed him because he ruined my life! Your husband made sure that
my
father was blamed for the loss of the
Valiant Eagle.
When Edison returned alive, he testified that during the attack, the Tugrulian incendiaries hit several of the power cells, crippling the
Eagle
. When the chemist remixed the matrix for the cells to re-power the ship, there was a big explosion. Edison Frost pointed the finger at the ship's chemist – my
father
- and he was posthumously court marshaled for negligence. My mother was left with
nothing
. No pension, no husband, NOTHING. The shame of his downfall killed her. Edison killed my mother by throwing my father to the wolves.”

Daniel's face ran with tears and sweat. The hand holding the knife to Chenda's throat shook with his fury. “I was 18 and the only one left to pick up the pieces of my family. I should have been on my way in the world, but I had to stop it all to bury my mother, and look after my three younger brothers. Edison stole my future.” His eyes rolled back into his head for a second, then refocused on Chenda's terrorized face.

“The stones,” he said in a strangled voice, the point of the knife now drawing blood from her chin.

Chenda whimpered, but thought up a quick lie. “There are in a hidden in an inside pocket of my carpet bag. Over by the balcony.”

Daniel swung his leg over the bed, standing in a single movement but never loosening his grip on Chenda. He pulled her by one arm, first to her feet, then along the length of the bed. When they reached the footboard, he roughly deposited her on the little bench there. He took a step back, the knife still trained on her.

“Once my brothers were grown,” he said, his voice softer, “I came to Coal City to find a way to make my revenge. I found out from one of your maids, a sweet, lonely girl who likes to visit some of the pubs in town, that Edison needed a new driver for his pretty wife. I sent him a letter, explaining who I am and that I was in need of good, honest work.” Daniel snarled, “The fool felt sorry for me! He gave me his pity!”