Magnificent Devices 07 - A Lady of Integrity (3 page)

Claire was not certain what shocked her more—that Andrew believed she needn’t assist in Jake’s rescue, or that, engagement notwithstanding, he believed he was able to prevent her.

“Do you think I haven’t already thought of that?” Alice said impatiently. “The first thing I did when I got to Bavaria was send a pigeon to Scotland, only to be told by return that the Dunsmuirs are back in the Canadas, seeing the last convoy out of the Firstwater Mine.”

Claire recovered enough to speak. “Even if they left tonight, they would not reach England for a week or more, and by then—”

“Did you say ‘underwater’?” Snouts asked.

“I did.” Alice’s color, which had begun to return, faded once again. “It ain’t pretty. Maybe we should wait until everyone has finished dessert and had a thimble or two of port before I go any further.”

“With all due respect, Miss Alice, I want to know my brother’s situation.”

“As do we all, Snouts,” Maggie said gently. “But it may be hard for Alice to tell us. Give her a moment to collect herself.”

Alice took a fortifying sip of wine. Then she addressed herself to Claire, as though she felt safer saying these things to her rather than directly to Jake’s half brother.

“The thing you have to know about Venice is that it ain’t like other cities.”

“Clearly not, if ruffians and criminals are in charge of its economy,” Andrew said.

“Hush.” Claire touched his arm. “Let Alice speak.”

“I mean physically not like other cities. Most places sit on the land, but Venice … she sits on the water.”

“On islands, I understand,” Claire said.

Alice shook her head. “Maybe back in Roman days, but not now. See, hundreds of years ago, Leonardo da Vinci was the most famous engineer in the world. The Doge who was in power back then hired him to make Venice the most difficult city to conquer in all of the Levant. So da Vinci turned the city into a giant moving clockwork. That way, an enemy could never pin down the Doge’s exact location, nor that of the shipyards, nor the armory. It would be different every day.”

“What?” Snouts shook his head, as though a fly were buzzing around his ears. “I don’t understand.”

“It takes some getting used to,” Alice said. “Even now you can’t post a letter to an actual address, because the postmen could never find it. Everyone goes to a central post office on the mainland for their mail.”

“But what of Jake, then?” Snouts asked, looking more and more confused and angry. “How are we to find him? And how does it work, exactly?”

“I suppose if you hovered over the city in your ship for a good long time, you’d see all the neighborhoods moving on their individual pieces of the mechanism,” Alice explained, “but when you’re on the ground on foot, all you know is that every so often, all the church bells ring, all the bridges go up, and you feel a little seasick while the gears underwater grind into action, moving the neighborhoods into their next position. How they dodge around one another is a mystery, but they do—and have been for five hundred years.”

“How does it not fail?” Andrew asked, clearly interested in spite of himself. “The corrosion of the parts from seawater alone—barnacles—algae—heavens, even an errant fish if it were large enough—could damage the workings and bring the city to a grinding halt.”

Alice swallowed, and Claire put down her fork. Here it was. Here was the part that she had been unwilling to share with them until now.

The worst part.

“That’s a very good question. And the answer is—convicts.”

Now Snouts put down his own fork with a clatter. “Convicts?”

“That’s who they use to clean and repair the gears and workings. That’s why going to prison in Venice is so dadburned awful.” Tears began to swim in Alice’s horizon-blue eyes. “The ground crew on the mainland told me. Ships don’t moor in the city proper because there’s no free space to put down—it’s all taken up with palaces and houses and court buildings for the Doge. They … they send the convict crews out along the great arms of the gearworks in diving bells, where they spend their days cleaning off barnacles and algae and everything you said, Andrew. The convicts are the ones who keep the city oiled and operating—because no sane person would volunteer to do it. Venice has the lowest crime rate among ordinary folks in the whole Levant—if you don’t count the crimes the Famiglia Rosa gets away with. And since no one wants to make a misstep and spend the rest of their days under the sea, the powers that be have taken to preying on foreigners like us. One false step on that moving ground and you’re snatched up and put under with only the barest excuse for a trial, like they did with Jake.” A single tear tracked down her cheek as she finally raised her chin and met Snouts’s horrified gaze. “Hardly anyone is found innocent. And so they stay down there until they die—or go mad.”

The last words seemed to echo in the silence of the dining room, and when Charlie came in with the treacle tart, everyone jumped.

“Claire, please, for the love of God—” Andrew began.

“How are we going to get him out from under—” Snouts cut him off.

“What about Claude?” Lizzie’s voice rose in shrill concern. “He could drop a handkerchief and be arrested!”

Claire put her hands to her ears, both to shut out the cacophony and to squeeze out the awful vision of Jake, that independent, brave, conflicted young man, forced under the waves for the rest of his life. A large body of water had been instrumental in saving that life earlier in their acquaintance, when the sky pirate Ned Mose had pushed him out of an airship in a rage. She would not allow it to be the end of him now.

“Girls. Gentlemen.” She was not in the habit of raising her voice, only because her occasional use of her mother’s tone of authority usually produced the desired result. But she did have to speak twice, which only went to show how upset and agitated were the people around the glossy table—the people she cared about most in the world. “I agree that what we face here is nearly insurmountable.” Snouts drew in a sharp breath, and she moved on quickly to spare his feelings further laceration. “But it is not impossible. Around this table are some of the bravest hearts and finest minds in all of England—quite possibly in all of the world. When we apply all our resources to the problem set before us, I have every confidence that we will find a solution.”

It did her heart good to see both Alice and Snouts relax visibly. It would have done it far more good had Andrew done the same, but her brave words only seemed to inflame him further.

“Claire, may we speak privately?” he said with an evenness of tone that she knew must have cost him dearly.

“Of course, Andrew. But for the moment, surely we can agree on one point—Jake must not be left in that place an instant longer than necessary.”

“Of course I agree. I am not a monster,” Andrew said, still with that calm control. “But it is in the means of carrying this out where I believe we differ.”

“Then let us agree on our first steps.” The treacle tart was set down before her, along with a knife and a stack of small plates. “Thank you, Charlie. You must have some of this with us, so that you may receive your payment in praise.” She smiled at the ten-year-old urchin, who had been discovered in the garden by Lewis several weeks previously, sleeping stretched across the threshold of the hens’ coop, as though guarding them. Or, more likely, their eggs. “I know you had a hand in making it.”

The boy smiled shyly, wriggling onto a chair next to Maggie. “I did, Lady. Granny Protheroe says I have the touch—she let me make the pastry.”

The boy was never happier than in a kitchen, where he could not only learn a trade, but also keep an eye on all the foodstuffs and prevent their escape. Having known debilitating hunger herself, Claire fully understood his reluctance to leave apples and cabbage and beef alone and undefended, even in Belgravia.

When everyone was settled with their tart and cream, Claire seized the metaphorical bull by the horns. “We had planned to leave London for Bavaria on Sunday, so I believe we must follow that plan.” Snouts began to speak, but she forestalled him. “I know you believe we ought to lift at once, as do I, but hear me out. It is quite clear that Alice is being pursued by unknown parties who mean her harm.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Alice said. “It’s got to be the Famiglia Rosa. I just had no idea their reach was so long.”

“Precisely. But by all accounts they do not know you are in London, so we will keep it that way. We will act as though no news or visitors have come, and leave in two days, as we do every autumn, for Munich. Once the girls are comfortable in our rooms at Schloss Schwanenburg, they will begin classes as pl—”

“Classes?” Lizzie interrupted her with a complete lack of propriety. “There’s no point in beginning classes if we’re only to leave to go to Venice.”

“My darlings, you will not go to Venice. It is far too dangerous, and you have responsibilities of your own at the
lycée
.”

“So do you, at Uncle Ferdinand’s manufactory,” Maggie riposted with needle-like skill.

“I agree with Maggie,” Andrew said promptly. “The Count expects you to take up your new position on Wednesday.”

“He will understand when I tell him I must postpone.” Really, must she explain herself on this point? “I’m sure you see this, too, Andrew. It is clear we cannot rely on the Dunsmuirs now. Jake has only us to count on, and we cannot let him down.”

“Of course not. Once you add your pigeon to Alice’s and notify Lady Dunsmuir that she must solicit Her Majesty’s help, and that is secured, Jake will be a free man within days.”

“You can depend on Her Majesty’s help, just like that?” Alice asked, clearly impressed.

“We have not had to ask for it before this,” Andrew admitted, “but she holds Claire in high regard. And even if she did not, Lady Dunsmuir is one of Her Majesty’s closest confidantes. Any request from that quarter is fulfilled instantly, though governments go a-begging.”

In the Canadas, Claire had swung from a mooring rope high above the earth, and Andrew had been instrumental in drawing her to safety. But the sense of vertigo and weightlessness she suffered from now was the emotional kind, brought on by his inexplicable reluctance to handle this matter themselves. Since when had they ever called upon governmental resources to solve their problems?

At the same time, the possibility did have its merits.

“Very well,” she conceded at last. “I will send a pigeon tonight giving further details of the situation, and adding my plea to Alice’s, with the addition that Davina communicate with Her Majesty on our behalf. We will remain in Bavaria until we have heard from Windsor Castle.”

“And what about me?” Alice said, cleaning up the last of the pastry crumbs on her plate with her forefinger. “Where am I to remain while I’m standing around being invisible?”

“I wish you
were
invisible—it would make the logistics much easier.” Claire made her best attempt at a smile. “You will come with us, disguised as—oh, I don’t know. Which would you prefer? A man or a woman?”

“If a woman’s disguise involves corsets and petticoats, I’ll go as a man, thanks,” Alice said with most unladylike decisiveness. “I could use new pants and a decent coat anyway.”

“I can give the order to my haberdasher and you will not even need to leave Carrick House,” Andrew said. “But you will not be able to leave the ship in Munich, either, unless it is under cover of darkness. For all your pursuers know, you are still in that city, where no doubt they have been turning over every stone in search of you.”

“Dunno about that,” Snouts put in. “Can’t see them sticking to the job very long if they don’t have any success. They’ll be wanting to go home to Venice to lie in wait for the next poor blighter.”

“I agree with Andrew,” Claire told them, hoping this sop to his gentlemanly pride would go a little way to softening the discussion she knew they must have. “Alice must stay aboard
Athena
and avoid the viewing ports.”

She rose, and the girls rose with her. After a moment and a pointed glance from Lizzie, Alice did too. But Claire did not go to the drawing room, as was usual after dinner. Instead, she went upstairs to her private study, where the Mopsies, clearly not finished with her yet, advanced.

“Lady, you cannot leave us behind,” Lizzie said, sinking onto the sofa beside her and clutching her hand. “You’re going to need scouts, and you said yourself we have brave hearts.”

“I did, and I meant it.” Claire’s grip tightened. “Falling afoul of danger while one is going about one’s life and minding one’s own business is one thing. But sailing straight into it on purpose is quite another. You must see, my dears, that I cannot take such a risk with your lives. It is not right.”

“But you will risk your own? What will Mr. Malvern have to say about that?” Oh, Lizzie had not lost any of her logic because of her recent adventures, it was clear. Or her powers of observation.

“I am hoping he will not need to say anything at all, if the Queen agrees to send assistance.” Lizzie gazed at her, and Claire felt her face heat. “Do not look at me in that way.”

Alice’s lips twitched. Maggie studied a watercolor of Gwynn Place upon the wall.

With a sigh, Claire gave it up. “Andrew and I are going to have words, and it will distress me, but I must not give in,” she said as Maggie cuddled up on her other side and Alice leaned protectively over the back of the sofa. “I cannot. When I think of poor Jake—”

“So you will let us come and help?” Lizzie said slyly.

Claire shook her head. “I am sorry, darlings. For once, you must think of yourselves before others. Of your futures. Of your own safety. And if you will not, then it is my responsibility to do so. There will be three capable individuals in this rescue party, which by any reckoning is more than enough. For I will have to convince Snouts that his place is not with us, as well.”

Pulled in three different directions, horrified, saddened—was she about to weep? For here was her lower lip, actually trembling with distress. Maggie gave her one keen look and got to her feet. “Lizzie, you have made the Lady cry. Apologize at once.”