“Jack, my dear,” I said as we were shown into the inner sanctum of what appeared to be a commonplace block of insurer’s offices, but was in fact the headquarters of the Black Hand, “you know I have every respect for you—”
“But let you do the talking?” Jack grinned as he interrupted me. “This is getting to be a habit.”
“Jack—”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m not such a pushy bastard that I have to be the one to make all the arrangements. I’m well aware that you have more experience with this guy than I do.”
“I would never refer to you as a pushy bastard, let alone think it,” I told him gently.
“OK, then, I’m not so jealous that I have to put on a show in front of all your ex- lovers.” He eyed me for a second. “Although I hope you don’t mind if I make it clear that we are a couple. I may not be overly jealous, but I wouldn’t like him getting the wrong idea and thinking he could have you all to himself again.”
I kissed his earlobe. “I assure you that Etienne wouldn’t dream of thinking that.”
“Oh really? What’s wrong with him?” Jack’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Just how long were you two together?”
“About the length of time it took me to discover that he had no intention of having a monogamous relationship—three days.”
Jack looked uncertain for a moment, then relaxed. “His loss, my gain, so I’m not going to complain.”
The wrought iron lift door opened, and we stepped out onto the fourth floor, swept immediately into pandemonium. Black Hand folk choked the hallway as they bustled hither and yon, many of them talking as they did so, although whom they were conversing with was difficult to detect.
“—said we wouldn’t have enough time to rally all the steam carriages, but would they listen to me? No! And now what am I to do? Those carriages go two miles an hour. They can’t possibly make it here in time to do any good—”
“—blasted William suddenly decided to forgo the Carmelite nuns at the wedding, which means a good six months’ work wasted, utterly wasted, not to mention all that cloth it took to make up the habits—”
“—Please, Mr. Hanson, you must sign the chit or else the quartermaster will not release the bombs, and I ask you, what good are bombardiers without bombs?”
“So this is what a revolutionary headquarters looks like,” Jack said, holding my arm tightly as people swarmed against and around us as they attended to the last-minute business connected with the royal wedding. Or rather, the attack that was planned against it. “Not quite what I expected.”
I eased my way between two women who were arguing about the merits of beards and wigs as disguises, and headed for the double doors at the end of the hallway. “What was it you expected?”
“A lot less chaos and more order,” Jack replied as I ducked when two men emerged from a room bearing a portable aether cannon on their shoulders. “Just how effective are these people?”
“Enough so that the emperor has made it his top priority to eliminate them,” I answered, tugging on his hand. I stopped before the double doors and raised my hand to knock. “It may look chaotic, but I assure you there is a method to Etienne’s plans.”
“There is more than method. There is brilliance,” a voice answered me as the door swung open. “Which you of all people should know, Octavia. I thought you were in Italy.”
“We were. We came back,” I said simply, noting the fevered glint to Etienne’s dark green eyes. He always reminded me of a cat, sly and purposeful, as if he had a thousand secrets that consumed him. He stood looking at me now, his expression mildly annoyed.
“We need to see you for a few minutes,” I said, pushing past him into his office.
“I am busy. The emperor is getting married today, if you hadn’t noticed,” he said with acid sarcasm.
“There are still three hours before the first of the festivities begins,” I said, glancing at the clock. “And it is about that we have come to seek help.”
Etienne looked for a moment like he was just going to walk out of the room, but his gaze slid over to Jack, assessing him quickly before returning to me. He closed the door and leaned against it. “I can give you five minutes, no more.”
“Thank you. This is Jack Fletcher. He is American.”
Etienne’s coppery brown eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. I’m sure he noticed the possessive manner with which Jack slid his arm around my waist as he said, “Octavia has spoken highly of you, Etienne. Pleased to meet you.”
“Jack’s sister was taken by the emperor’s forces in Rome. Unjustly, naturally.”
“Naturally,” Etienne said, his voice waspish.
Jack stiffened.
I elbowed him and continued. “She was brought to England to be part of the wedding executions along with the three who were captured during your raid on the Tesla. The executions are to be held at noon today. I thought we could piggyback on whatever plan you have to rescue your men.”
“What plan?” he asked.
“You don’t have a plan?” I asked, horrified.
“On the contrary, I have lots of plans. None of them concern the execution, however.”
Jack and I exchanged glances fraught with frustration and despair. “All right, then you can assist us in rescuing your men. We’ll simply release them when we get Jack’s sister.”
“No.”
I continued, ignoring his refusal. “Since the emperor and his bride are to attend the executions, I thought you would relish the chance to disrupt it, and we could join forces and work together to achieve both ends.”
“No,” Etienne said again, this time turning to open the door.
“Etienne!” I jumped forward and grabbed his arm. “You can’t mean that. Your own people are there! You wouldn’t let them die unnecessarily, would you?”
“I never say things I don’t mean,” he answered, frowning at my hand on his arm.
“Listen here, this isn’t a game,” Jack said, his hands fisted as he moved up beside me. “This is my sister’s life we’re talking about, and the lives of the people who look to you for leadership, people who were following your orders when they were captured. Aren’t you supposed to be protecting people from this emperor you want out of the way so badly?”
Etienne’s cool green gaze passed over Jack for a few seconds. “Not in the least. Our goal is to overthrow the government, not protect the common man.”
“For God’s sake—”
“Etienne, please.” I tightened my hold on his arm. “I have never asked you for a favor. I have worked untiringly for you since I was sixteen. I ask now that you honor my work, honor that done by Robert Anstruther, and give me the aid we need.”
He shook his head before I had more than a few words out. “It would serve no purpose, Octavia.”
“But the emperor will be there!”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I stared at him for a moment or two. “I can’t believe you can be so callous.”
He shrugged. “You say callous—I say discriminating. I have no wish to waste time and resources on another attack on a prison. I would have thought after the last one you organized, you’d feel the same way.”
“Well, I don’t!”
“It matters not. We have more important plans in place.”
“You’re so willing to throw away the lives of innocent people?” Jack asked, his voice thick.
Etienne shrugged again. “It is the way things are. Every member of the Black Hand is willing to give his life if needed.” His eyes slid over to me. “And that is how it will remain. Now, since you are in town, Octavia, I can put you to a much better use. The reception is to be held on the grounds of the palace. We have several airships ready and waiting outside of town, and we could use your ability to pilot in order to bomb the reception.”
“I’m sorry, I will be too busy rescuing the prisoners,” I said coolly, taking Jack’s hand.
Etienne frowned. “I have mentioned before,
Octavia, that one of your shortcomings is that you do not see the overall picture. Do you not realize that the death of the innocent prisoners will do more for our cause than rescuing them ever could? The public will be incited. They will protest the death of an innocent woman. It will engender hard feelings amongst them. I regret that the innocent must suffer for our cause, but they will die a glorious death, for a just and right cause.”
“I’m sorry, Octavia,” Jack said softly as he shook off my hand.
“Oh, Jack, no—”
The words had barely left my lips when Jack punched Etienne in the face, the sickening sound of a bone cracking and flesh meeting flesh making me grimace as Etienne dropped to the ground.
Jack shook his hand as Etienne curled up into a ball, moaning loudly. “The sign of a good leader is one who values all life, a concept you clearly fail at. You may think that sacrificing my sister is a glorious thing, but we aren’t going to let that happen.”
Etienne uncovered his face, his nose slanted to the side, blood streaming out of it to wash over his mouth and chin. “You’ll die for this.”
“Not before I see my sister safe,” Jack vowed, and, grabbing me, hauled me over Etienne’s prone self, making sure, I noticed with a stab of amusement, of stepping on Etienne’s hand as he did so.
“I would suggest haste in getting out of here,” I said, spinning off to the left and pushing past a number of people who were toiling up a small set of back stairs. “Etienne will not hesitate to have us confined.”
“Right with you,” Jack said as we sprinted down the stairs. Above us, I could hear Etienne shouting orders to stop us.
Luckily, there was so much noise and confusion as everyone went about their business, we managed to slip out of the building without being restrained. It wasn’t until we were blocks away, however, out of breath from running, that I felt secure enough to stop and hail a cab.
“What the hell?” Jack asked as a steam carriage stopped at my direction. “You have cars?”
I gave the cabbie my address and climbed into the front seat, Jack following. “This is a steam carriage. They are commonplace in London.”
“I’ll be damned.” Jack peered around behind us. The cabbie watched him with a wary expression. “Where’s the steam? I can hear it hiss, but I can’t see anything.”
“The boiler and engine are beneath us. Jack, please, now is not the time to examine it.” I yanked on his coat-tails as he hung his upper body over the edge of the carriage to get a glimpse at the mechanisms underneath. “We have more important things to discuss,” I added in a lower tone of voice.
He rubbed the knuckles of his right hand, red and somewhat swollen. “I’m not going to apologize for punching him.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. Etienne is far too narrow-minded for his own good. If you hadn’t struck him, I might have been inclined to do it. But that’s neither here nor there—we have slightly less than three hours to come up with plan of rescue.” I consulted my pocket watch. “The Aurora is probably landing at this moment. The prisoners will be sent up to London via train.”
“Then we won’t have time to get to her there?”
“No.” I slumped in defeat. “It’s going to have to be here, in London.”
Jack took my hand and, after a moment, kissed my fingers. “If it’s too much for you, Octavia—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll find a way to save her,” I interrupted, forcing a smile to my lips. “I have a few cards up my sleeves yet.”
“Really?” He made a show of looking up my sleeve. “I don’t see anything there. What do you have in mind?”
“Well, Alan should be in London by now, too,” I said, shying away from a thought that had been hanging in the back of my mind ever since Etienne had refused us. “He will help us.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But he is a resourceful man, and he will give us whatever aid is within his ability.”
“Will it be enough?” Jack asked morosely.
I was unable to answer that question. We rode in silence to the house Robert Anstruther had left me, my stomach sick with the knowledge that we were fast running out of time.
Personal Log of Octavia E. Pye
Thursday, February 25
Forenoon Watch: Four Bells
“So there’s nothing you can do to help us?” “I wish I could, Jack, but my hands are tied.” Alan cast me a forlorn gaze. “As it is, I’m juggling the emperor’s demand that all diplomats be present at the wedding, and Etienne’s plan to have me single-handedly knock out a troop of guards and open up one of the sealed entrances so the Black Hand can infiltrate the reception. I really only came to warn Octavia about the Moghul attack that is evidently imminent.”
I searched his face, but didn’t find any answers there. “You’re sure that it’s the same ship that attacked us?”
“The report Etienne slipped me was that a black Moghul warship was seen crossing the channel this morning. It had a complement of twenty-four cannons, and was heading for London,” he said, his voice neutral.
“That sounds like the one that destroyed Tavy’s ship,” Jack said, momentarily distracted.
“I’d give a lot to know why they did that,” I said, picking a piece of lint off my sleeve. “The Tesla posed no direct threat to them.”
“Perhaps it was just an inexperienced captain,” Alan said, shrugging. “Or someone who didn’t know what he was doing. I am surprised they attacked the Tesla, too, when just two hours behind you was the ambassador’s ship with several officials from the Italian court, along with myself, naturally.”
“You wouldn’t think the Moghuls would allow their warships to run amok in the hands of inexperienced crews.”
“They seem a rather brutal lot,” Jack said. “Perhaps they just attack anything that isn’t part of their empire.”
“Perhaps,” I said, reaching for the teapot to refresh both men’s cups.
Jack accepted his tea with a little frown. “What I find amazing is that both the Moghuls and the revolutionaries are going to attack at the same time. It’s going to be a madhouse out there. Although, you know, we might be able to use that to our benefit.”
“That’s a thought,” Alan said, trying to look cheerful and failing miserably. He glanced at the clock and sighed heavily. “I must go. The emperor asked specifically to see me before the ceremony, and if I am to have time to deal with Etienne’s request, I must see William first. My dear, you will both be in my thoughts.”
I rose with him, allowing him to take my hand and press a kiss to the back of it. “Thank you for warning us about the Moghul attack, Alan. I know you’re pressed for time, too.”
“I wanted to make sure that you would be well out of it,” he said simply, his dark eyes warm with affection and regret. “I only wish I could help you free Jack’s sister.”
My gaze dropped, my fingers growing cold, a polite murmur all I could utter. There were things I had not told anyone, not even Alan. Now was not the time to unburden myself.
“I’m going to reconnoiter the prison where they’re taking Hallie,” Jack said, pulling on his jacket. “If we can find a weakness there, we can exploit it. You coming with me?”
I shot him an outraged look. “Jack, you know full well that I am wholly devoted to the idea of freeing your sister. I would not now change my intention of doing so.”
He pulled me into a gentle embrace. “I didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers, sweetheart. I just didn’t know if there was someone you could see about getting her released.”
My gaze fell to his neck. I said nothing.
Jack’s hands tightened on my arms. “Octavia? Is there someone?”
I bit my bottom lip, my stomach in turmoil. “Yes.”
“Really?” Relief and hope filled his voice. “Then for God’s sake, woman, let’s go see him. We have only a little over two hours left.”
“It’s not that easy, Jack,” I said slowly, wanting nothing mo
re than to fold myself in his arms and hide from the world. I looked at his face, infinitely dear to me now, and didn’t want to acknowledge the truth.
“Why not?”
“I love your eyes,” I said. “Have I mentioned that? I love that they don’t match. I love how they sparkle when you tease me, and how they seem to radiate heat when you make love to me.”
He searched my face for a moment, his thumb brushing along my cheekbone. “What is it you don’t want to tell me?”
Pain and regret and despair roiled within me. I closed my eyes for a moment so he wouldn’t see it. “I can save your sister’s life.”
Silence filled the small front sitting room of the red-brick house that had been my home for most of my life.
“But?” Jack asked.
I opened my eyes again. “But it will cost me mine.”
He turned to stone in my arms, his muscles tightening, as did his expression, his eyes going flinty. “No.”
“It’s the only way,” I said, wanting to cry. “We cannot breach the prison on our own. There will be nothing to exploit.”
“You don’t know that until we go and check it out,” Jack said, pulling me to the door. “Let’s go and look.”
“I do know,” I said, my voice thick with tears. I pulled to a stop, not wanting to bare my secrets, but knowing I had no other option.
“How?” he asked.
“Do you remember what Etienne said about it being foolish to attack the prison?”
“Yes, damn him.”
“My guardian, Robert Anstruther, was arrested for treason. He and his wife were taken to the prison. I convinced Etienne to help me free them.” Pain at the memory lashed me with freshly honed barbs. “Seven people died in the attempt, Jack. Seven people died because of my insistence that we try to free my guardians. We were not successful. I thought perhaps this time it would be different, but I fear Etienne is right. It would end in disaster just as the last attempt did.”
“We have to try,” Jack said, and the agony in his voice almost brought me to my knees.