“You both look lovely,” Chuan said as they descended the stairs to the first floor.
Wilbur looked at Beth's legs and blushed, but offered his arm after saying his own greeting.
Smiling, Gwen took Chuan's arm, which felt firmer than she thought a man with a desk job would have going, and let him lead her to the carriage, which waited for them directly out front again.
Into the pumpkin, Cinderella, she thought to herself as James, dressed in a much nicer outfit than he normally wore, with white gloves and a top hat, gave her a hand into the lorrie. She wondered which of the men would turn out to be prince charming?
Looking at Chuan sideways with a smile, she noticed how Wilbur stared at Beth's legs without shame, until she looked up at him, then he blushed a deep red and looked away quickly. Chuan gave her a seated bow and a grin in acknowledgment to this byplay.
“Good! Now, everyone, remember... I'm Katherine Vernor. If anyone says different, laugh at them. Especially me, if I mess up!”
Wilbur chuckled and assured her he would.
Then, trying to act casual about it, he returned to staring at Beth's legs.
Chapter eighteen
“Oh my, but Mother knows how to throw a grand party, doesn't she?” Gwen's voice came out in a crisp manner, as close to the local dialect as possible. The people around her, who were all standing off to one side of the room about halfway between the band and the door, nodded in agreement and made polite noises. The room, one that she hadn't seen on her previous visit, was about the size of her old high school gym, and had been decorated like an old-fashioned ballroom. Even for this mansion it looked impressive.
In the center of the room, floating she thought, there was a giant glow globe chandelier. It really floated, or at least seemed to, bouncing slightly in the air, not attached to the ceiling in any way. Trying to be covert about it, Gwen looked for the wires, glancing as hard as she dared, since she didn't want to gawk in what everyone was supposed to think of as her own home.
So far the party had gone well as far as their part went. No one had tried to throw a drink in Bethany's face for daring to be a Westmorland, or insisted that Gwen had somehow stolen Katherine's body. For that matter, no one seemed bothered at all that Detectives Chuan and Wilbur weren't exactly wealthy people.
As far as she could tell, there were two types of people here. Mr. Vernor's work colleagues and friends, who didn't talk about things like money at parties, and Mrs. Vernor's friends, who thought that being a detective amounted to having selected a life of public service, which held its own honors that money couldn't buy. They seemed quietly impressed by the men.
The drinks Daniel had gotten them had a lot of crushed ice and almost no alcohol, he assured her, being mainly seltzer water and fruit juice. Wilbur had tried to get something stronger for Bethany, but she'd begged off, since her abilities and training didn't mesh well with it, she'd told him gently. From the way her friend kept touching her escort's arm, Gwen didn't think the night would have to be a complete bust for him, even if Beth did have to stay sober.
To pass the time, she and Chuan finally had a discussion about martial arts, and their backgrounds in it, his at least, since talking about ways to kill a man instantly would have been outside of Katherine's area of expertise. Still, it turned out that they shared a common language in a way that most in the room couldn't grasp at all.
“When I was about six, I began Chi-gong training, and learning external forms. Then my Father, who was a Sifu at the academy, taught me the true internal arts. My love has always been for the external though. Few bother to learn such things well, as I'm sure you would imagine.” He sipped his drink and spoke softly to her, so as to not alert the room, but even when people overheard, they didn't seem to catch on at all.
Wilbur, who'd actually trained a bit with the slightly older detective, didn't get most of what the other man said, though Gwen did. She made up her mind to try and get Daniel alone some time for a real discussion of things and maybe to practice. While she didn't feel like she would be getting rusty yet, lack of training could sneak up quickly on a person. When you were, by nature, smaller and weaker than your opponents, you had to stay sharp. That and cheating whenever possible were the only real edges a girl could have sometimes.
From what he'd said, it seemed like internal martial arts could actually work here, if you practiced enough and had the aptitude for it, which he assured her, regardless of the propaganda, was exactly the same thing needed to perform magic.
“There's a... prejudice, I think you'd call it, in the Chinoise Empire, where I'm from, that tries to separate the ability for magic from the ability to use internal power. Only the trappings are different. The basic energy is clearly the same, even if the eventual effects present in an alternative form.”
What he listed as being possible amazed her, though she tried to keep her face merely politely interested. Real iron skin kung-fu that could stop swords and knives, making yourself light enough to float through the air and run easily up walls or fall like a leaf from great heights, striking at a distance and even, at least it had been rumored, the ability to kill at a distance just by pointing at a person. Daniel held his palms up, as if to minimize these abilities.
It sounded cool to Gwen, whose personal experience with the vaunted internal martial arts had never gone beyond feeling a bit of a tingle as she tried to do the energy exercises in class. It made her wonder if the magic of this world had to do with the physics of the place or the people? Was this world different that way or had something made the people here different, allowing them powers that her world had totally lost or maybe never had at all? Honestly she couldn't think of any way to check that out. If she could get some of these people back to her world or if they could bring the physical bodies of people from there here... Gwen didn't know if that would be possible at all. Probably not. No one had offered to get her back home at least, not even to simply help her trade bodies back.
The Vernors were rich, so if it could be done, even at great cost, someone would have mentioned it.
An older man, in what looked like a black dress uniform of some military or another walked up to them, bowing to the ladies a bit, and introducing himself to the men first, which seemed to be the custom here, she'd noticed.
“Merchant Admiral Thomas Welk, Vernor Industries air fleet. Pleased to meet you.” He sounded formal, but grinned a little at the end, looking at Gwen, giving her a small wink.
As the men introduced themselves, then the women, Gwen scrambled mentally. Did that wink mean something? Had they been lovers in the past, Katherine and this man? He was older, but in a kind of dashing way, she noticed, fit and very well groomed, even if not within twenty years of her body in age by looks. If she were in her own body she'd have dated him in a second, not even being way too young for him. Of course if she were in her own body he'd be running away from the abomination by now. She could certainly see how Katherine might have been attracted to him however, if that turned out to be the case.
She tried to ready some kind of line that would be safe, no matter what the situation turned out to be, but was almost instantly taken by surprise by what the man said next, when Daniel had started to introduce her to the man.
“Well, I know Katherine of course. She's my niece after all. I'm Ethyl's brother.” His smile lit-up as he took her hands in his. After a moment, a cloud passed over his face. “I have to say, I'm sorry to hear about your recent troubles. Do let me know if you need anything, alright, dear? Having been through the wars myself, I think I may have some small insight into your own situation. If not, I can still lend an ear.” A gentle squeeze let her know that he meant it.
She let a smile cover her own face as she returned the squeeze gently. He seemed like a nice man, at least so far. Of course now if he and Katherine had been lovers it would just be gross. Turning slightly to her companions without letting go of the older man's hands she gave a single nod.
“This kind of thing is why he's one of my favorite uncles you know.” She made her voice playful enough, she hoped, that it sounded genuine while leaving her room to wiggle if it turned out they actually hated each other or something.
Uncle Thomas laughed.
“Don't be too impressed, folks, I'm also her only uncle. Though I suppose that means she's also my favorite niece. Hmm. Given that, we really should talk more, don't you think, Katherine? Maybe you'll finally take up my offer of an airship tour?” His right hand came up suddenly, to keep her from speaking. “I know, heights aren't your favorite thing in the world, but I hate to see you missing the majesty of it all. Really, give it some thought?”
From the way this came out, it seemed like they'd had this conversation before, and probably regularly. From something James the lorrie driver had mentioned, she knew that Katherine hadn't liked flying much, though the idea didn't bother her at all. In fact, an airship tour sounded like a fascinating idea. She'd seen them in the sky, floating along peacefully, but the idea of getting to go up in one seemed far more interesting than just watching them from the ground.
Taking a few, obvious she hoped, deep breaths, to make it seem like she had steeled herself to what she said next, she nodded.
“Right. Well, I'd love a tour of one of the airships. I can't promise I won't scream and yell, or clutch at things in panic once up in the air, but I'm not going to let fear control me anymore. So, yes, if you have the time, I'd love for you to show me how they work.” This sounded a little breathless even to her own ears, as if she fought against mild panic at the thought.
The older man straightened, his eyes going wide suddenly, followed by a huge smile.
“Really? That's fantastic, girl! Yes, well, as fleet Admiral, I can take you up any time you want. Or, if needs be, we can tour a craft in mooring. Do let's make an appointment for it. I know your schedule must be tight, with your new position and such.” He let his gaze rest on Bethany for a moment, who smiled at him encouragingly.
“Well, Admiral Welk, I believe we have this Sunday free, subject to change – a hazard of Constabulary work – but would that be appropriate for your own scheduling needs? I know it's a bit short notice.” Bethany held a professional smile while saying this, playing the part of both friend and employer, it seemed to Gwen. The relationships here were very complex in some ways, she'd noticed. As employer, or at least boss, because technically some organization Gwen had never met anyone else from employed her, Beth had control of things like days off, but as a friend, she clearly wanted to keep Gwen happy, even happier than a nice boss would normally care about.
They worked out a schedule, early in the day on Sunday a driver would come and pick them up at seven in the morning to take them to the airfield. They had their own driver, of course, Gwen explained to her uncle who'd been happy to send someone, but a little baffled, when she'd asked.