“A delicate appetite, eh?” Lord Ott broke off his conversation with Jack to address Charlotte.
Jack snorted, but quickly faked a sneeze. Charlotte pursed her lips, but didn’t give him the dagger-glare she wanted to. They both knew that Charlotte’s appetite was anything but delicate. She always came back from scouting trips and scavenging runs absolutely ravenous. But the strange surroundings of the ship and excessive richness of the food were tempering her hunger.
“Perhaps the next course will be more to your liking,” Lord Ott offered as new dishes were placed before them. Steaming slices of roast pork, a generous pour of gravy, and spiced baked apples had been heaped upon the plates. Charlotte doubted she’d manage more than a bite or two.
Charlotte leaned over to Jack. “How many courses are there?”
“Four,” Jack replied. “Five if you count the cheese and fruit course that comes after dessert.”
“After dessert?” Charlotte rested her hand on her stomach. How could anyone eat like this on a regular basis?
A bell toned throughout the dining room. All around them applause broke out and diners rose from their chairs.
“What’s happening?” Charlotte asked.
“They’ve sighted New York.” Lord Ott stood and came to Charlotte, offering his hand.
“You don’t mind, lad?” he asked Jack.
“No, my lord,” Jack replied. “I’ve no doubt you’re a better man to introduce Miss Marshall to the city than I. And I’ll take advantage of my chance to speak with your lovely wife.”
Lady Ott giggled and accepted Jack’s arm.
They left the table and walked the short distance to gaze out the giant viewing portal. Though the ship was still well away from the city, even at a distance New York rose up against the dark of sea and sky like a great heap of gold and jewels hoarded in the shadows of some dragon’s lair.
“Athene’s helm,” Charlotte breathed, forgetting herself.
Lady Ott gasped and covered her mouth. Jack cast a reprimanding glance at Charlotte, but Lord Ott guffawed.
“Never mind my wife, Miss Marshall.” Lord Ott smiled generously at Charlotte, then smirked at Jack. “They make them saucier in the islands, don’t they, lad.”
“Indeed, sir.” Jack nodded solemnly, and Charlotte decided she was going to have to keep a running list of affronts to yell at him for when they were alone.
“The Floating City of New York.” Lord Ott moved his hand across the portal as if opening a curtain. “The wonder of the Empire. Jewel of the colonies. A marvel of art and engineering, its Great Wheels of Fortune connect five floating platforms. Each platform hovers at a different height, and of course, the closer one lives to the heavens, the higher one’s station on this good earth. New York is the only city in the world that floats thus, gazing down on the world just as the Empire watches over its citizens.”
“It’s extraordinary,” Charlotte said, though she didn’t know if she was captivated or frightened by the sight.
“You think it’s stunning from here, my lady,” Lord Ott said. “But I’d wager you shall nigh faint at New York’s glory when you walk the gilded streets of the Colonial Platform and marvel at the wonders of the Arts Platform.”
“I hope I will not faint, my lord,” Charlotte replied. “Lest I miss any of the brilliance of the Floating City.”
“That’s a good girl.” Lord Ott winked at her. Leaning closer, he whispered, “And if you can sneak away from your watchful soldier, you must visit the Tinkers’ Faire. Once they find you a husband, he’ll doubtless forbid you from frequenting that motley place. But I say innocence is overrated, and you’d have a damn good time in the Commons. Have your fun before you’re put on display in some colonial mansion.”
His words perplexed Charlotte, but it seemed like he expected her to blush, so she tried to make her laughter sound scandalized and she lowered her eyelashes.
“We should return to the table,” Lady Ott announced. “Our meats grow cold while we dally. We’ll dock at the city soon enough.”
Lord Ott began to lead Charlotte back to her seat, but she pulled away. “Pardon me, Lord and Lady Ott, but I’m afraid the excitement of seeing New York has affected me. I must return to my stateroom and lie down.”
Charlotte had been worried her departure would cause a fuss, but her dining companions took the news calmly.
“Of course, dear.” Lady Ott patted Charlotte’s cheek. “These travels are always trying to one’s constitution. And it being your first, you must be simply overwhelmed.”
Charlotte nodded, though she couldn’t believe how silly these Imperial ladies must be that they could plead faintness so easily.
“I’ll see you back to your rooms.” Jack moved toward Charlotte, but she stepped away.
“No, thank you.” Charlotte waved him off. “I can find my own way. Please enjoy the rest of dinner.”
Those words made Lord Ott’s eyebrows lift, but Charlotte turned her back on them before anyone could make further comment. She forced herself to depart at a steady pace until she was out of the dining room and up the stair. But when she reached the upper hall and found it empty, she ran.
14.
WHEN CHARLOTTE REACHED her stateroom, she discovered she wasn’t alone. Ashley sat in a stiff-backed chair alongside a writing table. It was obvious he’d been waiting for her.
“Enjoy your dinner?” Ash asked.
“It was a bit much for me,” Charlotte admitted. “Do people in the city really eat five courses every night?”
Ash smirked. “The ones living on the top platforms do. Excess is the benchmark of Imperial success. But those at the bottom of the city are pretty much scavenging like we are.” He looked expectantly at the open door behind Charlotte. “Where’s Jack?”
“Still at dinner,” Charlotte said. “He’s chatting up some bigwig merchant.”
“Fair enough.” Ash shrugged. “Close the door, Charlotte.”
She complied and then looked at her brother expectantly. Ash withdrew a slender object from his jacket.
“I should have given you this before we left the Catacombs,” Ash told her. “But I got distracted. Here.”
Charlotte took the object from him. Silver glinted at the end Charlotte grasped, and the rest of the piece was sheathed in leather. Guessing what it was, Charlotte drew the blade free. It was barely longer than her palm.
“You want me to take up needlework?” Charlotte teased.
Ash offered a flat smile. “It might not be Pocky, but if you stab a man in the eye with that, it will kill him quickly enough.”
“And messily enough,” Charlotte added.
“You’ll be able to hide it easily under your skirt,” Ash said. “There’s a small loop on the sheath. Tie the blade to your calf with a leather cord.”
Charlotte set the stiletto aside and sat on the chaise longue. “How are the others?”
“Grave is odd as ever, but at least he knows enough to keep quiet,” Ash said. His voice softened. “And Meg is . . . Meg. I should get back to them. It’s unseemly for servants to loiter in their masters’ staterooms.”
“All these rules make my head ache.” Charlotte dropped back against the chaise, throwing her arm over her eyes.
Ash laughed quietly. “Just be thankful you don’t have to haul that trunk around. I could swear Jack filled it with bricks and not dresses.”
Charlotte heard the door open, then Ash asked, “Do you want me to have Meg bring you a tonic?”
“No,” she answered, without moving her arm off her closed eyes. “I just need to sit quietly, and I’ll be fine.”
The door clicked shut, and Charlotte discovered that her last words to Ash had been a lie, at least in part. Though Charlotte’s headache departed after a bit of sitting in the silence of her room, a new restlessness seized her. She took a few turns a
round the lavishly appointed stateroom. She considered reading one of the books that lined the built-in shelves, but they all appeared to be stories of the Empire’s glory, and Charlotte felt she’d had her fill of that tonight.
Despite the spacious accommodations, as Charlotte paced the stateroom, she felt oddly confined. The weight of satin and velvet upholstery, the heaviness of carved ebony paneled walls, began to press in on her. She needed to get out of that room and drink in fresh air. Charlotte fled and wandered the ship’s halls until she found a staircase that she followed up until she reached the Hector’s promenade deck.
A canopy attempted to shield the deck from the massive balloons that held the ship aloft, but the thin veil did little to muffle the roar whenever new bursts of burning air shot up into the balloons. Charlotte walked to the edge of the deck, where the high iron railing curved up and in, reaching well over her head, doubtless to keep a sudden gust of wind from pushing a hapless passenger over the side of the ship.
The sky had turned to ink above, and stars speckled the heavens. She walked along the rail, much preferring the wind in her hair and the open space of the promenade to the interior of the ship.
“Enjoying an evening stroll, miss?”
Charlotte pivoted to find a uniformed man approaching. She stiffened until he was close enough that shadows no longer hid his face.
“Jack.” She laughed nervously. “I still hardly recognize you in that getup.”
“That makes two of us,” he said.
Running her palms over the silk of her skirts, Charlotte said, “I suppose I look ridiculous.”
“Not at all,” Jack replied. “The current fashions suit you. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume you were one of the girls I grew up with.”
“What were they like . . . the girls you knew?” Charlotte’s skin prickled as she asked the question. She wasn’t certain she wanted to know the answer.
Jack shook his head. “Not worth talking about. There’s something I want to show you.”
He crooked his elbow toward her.
Charlotte frowned at the gesture. “What are you doing?”
“Offering you my arm. I thought you’d be used to that by now.”
“But we’re alone,” Charlotte countered.
When Charlotte continued to frown at Jack, he snickered. “It’s expected. Besides, Ash shouldn’t have let you wander above deck alone. Young ladies of good breeding don’t go without an escort. Meg should be with you. Or Ash.”
“I don’t think Ash is taking to his role.” Charlotte laughed.
Jack smiled at her. “No doubt. Now take my arm, and we’ll have a proper turn about the foredeck . . . and then some.”
“And then some?”
“You’ll see,” Jack replied, then wagged his elbow at her.
Charlotte slipped her arm through Jack’s. He brought his elbow back to his side, drawing her close beside him. The wool of his jacket scratched her skin, but Charlotte didn’t mind. She noticed how she could feel the warmth of his body through the fabric, a sharp contrast to the rapidly cooling night air.
Jack guided Charlotte up the deck to the fore of the ship. He stopped in front of a metal hutch that reminded her a bit of the Catacombs’ wheelhouse. Jack rapped on the hutch door, and a man whose clothing marked him a member of the ship’s crew stepped out. Taking in Jack’s uniform, the crewman straightened up and saluted.
“May I be of assistance, sir?”
“I hope you may,” Jack said. He stepped forward and said something in tones too low for Charlotte to hear.
The crewman glanced at Charlotte, smirked, and told Jack, “Of course, sir. Go on up.”
Jack took Charlotte’s hand and led her into the hutch. Its resemblance to the wheelhouse was even more striking on the inside. Charlotte recognized the engineering of a line and pulley system, but while the baskets in the Catacombs departed and arrived outside the control room, this hutch contained a small basket that was only half enclosed.
Charlotte glanced back toward the door. The crewman leered at her, and she quickly turned away.
“What in Athene’s name did you say to him?” she asked Jack.
Jack stepped into the basket and helped Charlotte in after. “Something that would get us in here.”
The metal weave that edged the basket rose only to her knees, and the round platform upon which they stood was barely large enough to accommodate two people. Jack reached to a crank on the hutch wall and gave it half a dozen rapid turns.
“You’ll want to hold on to me,” Jack said as the basket lurched upward.
Charlotte had little choice but to do as he said. She wrapped her arms around Jack, hanging on tight as the line dragged the basket away from the deck and up into the sky. The wind tore strands of hair free of Meg’s carefully placed pins to whip Charlotte’s cheeks.
Up and up and up they went, slowing only when they’d reached the height of the great balloons.
“Here we are,” Jack announced.
Charlotte blinked away the tears that the wind had pulled from her eyes during their rapid ascent. The basket swayed as Jack tethered it to the brass rail that ringed the lookout station.
“Welcome to the crow’s nest,” Jack told Charlotte. “The finest spot on a bloat float like the Hector.”
Charlotte laughed as she stepped onto the crow’s nest. She was grateful for its stability in comparison to the constant swaying of the transport basket.
“A bloat float?” she repeated.
“You think a beast of a ship like this has any maneuverability?” Jack answered. “There’s a reason cows don’t have wings. It’s common knowledge at the air academy that this is the assignment for pilots who don’t show promise enough to merit a combat rank. I’d sooner serve a sentence in Boston than captain one of these.”
“Don’t say that,” Charlotte said with a shudder. “Nothing is worse than Boston.”
“I’m sorry,” Jack replied quickly. “Of course you’re right.”
He took her hand and led her to the opposite side of the lookout. From their new vantage point, the Floating City glittered, its mélange of colors and lights beckoning. But the city’s allure couldn’t compete with the sky that spread above them with its infinite stars.
Casting a sidelong glance at Jack, Charlotte saw that his eyes were fixed on the sky, and she joined him in quiet stargazing. Her fingers were still laced in his. She wondered if he could feel the way her pulse stuttered at her wrist.
After a long silence, Jack squeezed her hand. “No matter what contraption the tinkers are touting as their latest breakthrough, it’s the stars that guide us. They always will. At the academy you have to memorize star charts before you ever board an aircraft.”
Charlotte heard the longing in Jack’s voice. She lifted her free hand, moving her fingers through the air as if the constellations were a delicate pattern of lace she could touch. The open sky beckoned to her. She wished she were weightless and floating ever up into the softly gleaming expanse.
“I could stay up here forever,” she breathed. “How did you leave this? This endless sky. Your own ship. All traded for our life in the Catacombs, buried under rock and water. A life where we almost never see the stars.”
“Because it isn’t the stars that give orders,” he said quietly. “If they did, then maybe I would have stayed.”
They turned toward each other in the same moment. Charlotte went very still, not knowing what to do. Her blood thrummed with each heartbeat.
Jack reached out, snatching a loose tendril of Charlotte’s dark hair from the wind’s grasp. He tucked the stray lock behind her ear. His thumb grazed her cheek and lingered there.
“Jack,” Charlotte whispered. She had nothing else to say, but she’d wanted to speak his name while he was close. While he was touching her.
Jack broke thei
r gaze. “We should head back down. The night watch will be coming up soon.”
Disappointment rattled through Charlotte’s bones, but she nodded as Jack led her to the basket. She was relieved to see that he would control their descent with a handbrake, and she hoped that meant the trip down wouldn’t be at the breakneck pace of the ascent.
“You should hold on.” Jack’s voice was hoarse, and Charlotte felt his body tense when she slipped her arms around him. She was desperate to know what he was thinking. Did Jack suddenly not want to be alone with her? But hadn’t he been the one to seek her out and bring her to this place, so isolated and beautiful? Charlotte’s mind swam with questions, and her rapid pulse refused to abate.
Jack released the lever very slowly and they began to drift away from the crow’s nest toward the deck. His face was turned from her so she looked at him in profile, but she could see his frustration in the way his jaw twitched. His fingers closed on the brake, slowing them even more. Slowing the basket until they stopped completely.
“Jack,” Charlotte murmured his name once more, but this time followed it with a question. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know.” He looked at her and drew a slow breath. His gaze moved from her eyes to her lips and stayed there.
Her heart jumped as she asked, “Do you want to kiss me?”
His fist clamped down hard on the brake and they came to a stop, hanging in space between the ship’s deck and the crow’s nest.
“I shouldn’t kiss you,” he said, still looking at her mouth.
She smiled slightly. “Because of Ash?”
“That’s one reason,” he replied with a half smile that quickly vanished. “But not the most important one. There are others.”
What other reasons? Charlotte searched Jack’s face for an answer, but found none.
Suspended in the cool night air, they began to spin as if they were dancing without moving their feet. She didn’t want to leave this moment. She wanted to float in the sky in Jack’s arms as long as she could. The swell of feeling threw Charlotte off balance. This was Jack. Jack, who could rarely be anything other than annoying. Jack, whom she’d sworn not to speak to for at least a month last year, but who had then made her so angry she’d had to yell at him. Who teased her at any opportunity. But with utter clarity, Charlotte became aware in that moment how much she adored all those things about him.