Pistons and Pistols (3 page)

Today, however, she had requested his presence for the crew’s morning meal and meeting. She needed his input as they discussed the first steps in a long and what was sure to be arduous journey to find his father. Like the gentleman he was, he attended the meeting at her command. In fact, he was the only one in the mess hall by the time she arrived. Considering the way she scrambled to dress so she wouldn’t be late, she was quite miffed at the rest of the crew for not extending the same courtesy.

Rose greeted Atom with a curt nod, at which he stood and gave her a courteous bow, as he always did.

“You don’t need to bow to me,” she said. “I’m the captain, not a sultan.”

“Yes, Captain,” he said as he moved to pull out her chair so she could sit. “But you are also a lady.”

Rose smirked. It had been a long time since she’d thought of herself as a lady. “Be that as it may, all this formality makes me dizzy. Just keep calling me Captain and I’ll let the rest slide.” She thanked him with another nod as she sat. “Have you spoken with Guppy yet?”

“About?” Atom asked, as naïve as ever.

“About your condition?” Rose could hear the man swallow hard. She took that as a no. “You should consider telling her now, and the rest of the crew as well. I realize I gave you some space to approach things in your own time, but I’m afraid I’ll have to retract it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, Mr. Loquacious, and while I appreciate the complicated spot in which you find yourself, I fully expect your state of being will bring hell aboard my ship. Especially if Ruby knows the truth about you.”

Atom started, surprised by her suggestion. “It’s certainly not my intention to endanger anyone.”

“I’m sure you don’t intend anything, but my girls have a right to know what they’re in for. If you’re worried about their reactions, don’t be. They’re the most open-minded bunch of ladies you could ever hope to meet.”

He lowered his gaze. “You don’t think they’d treat me differently if they knew?”

Rose smirked. “I’m sure you could be made of horse manure and wet sand and my crew couldn’t be any less fond of you than they are now.”

He looked up to her, a smile joining hers. “Are they fond of me?”

“Some more than others, but overall I have yet to hear a bad word about you.”

That seemed to brighten his mood, so she left it at that.

One by one the crew straggled in, filling the room with drawn faces and haggard eyes. She knew she had been pushing them hard the last few days, running the Widow at top speed nonstop ever since they left the wretched island. But the more distance she put between her ship and that nightmare, the better they all would be. Atom leapt from his seat as each woman entered, attempting in a mad rush to seat one before the next one arrived. All except Jax. When Jax approached, he returned to his seat, nodded and smiled. She eyed him with caution as she spread the morning meal across the table, then nodded in return as she took her seat beside Rose.

Rose reminded herself to ask the big woman how she got him to stop being so damned polite, though she suspected it had something to do with the promise of violence.

When almost the entire crew was gathered, Rose began. One was still missing, but if this morning were anything like the last two, then Gabriella would be a while. Click was also a no-show, but his position in the crew seldom required him to attend planning meetings. Besides, she knew he would wander in when the mood took him, which she didn’t mind. One could only tame a wild man so much.

“Ladies,” Rose said. “So glad you could join Mr. Loquacious and me.”

“Sorry, Cap,” Magpie said through a yawn. “I’m having difficulty with the birds.”

This was troubling news to Rose. Troubling news indeed.

In conjunction with telegraph stations, messenger birds were the standard in shipbound communications. The idea was simple, natural, a perfect adaptation for the environment of air bound vessels. One sent a bird out from a ship, and when it arrived at one of hundreds of receiving coops across the world, the message was retrieved, then telegraphed to the intended parties. Payment was prearranged or cash upon delivery. Once the system was installed, the Pony Express went out of business in days.

Magpie’s birds were of a rare variety. Specially bred by the southerner, the birds aboard the Widow could travel distances that would leave an average sparrow dead from exhaustion. Each bird was attuned to the ship, able to home in on the Widow no matter where she dwelled. If the birds were in trouble, then so was their means of conveying information. And if Rose had learned anything about the business world, she knew information was everything.

“What ails them?” Rose asked.

Magpie waved Rose’s concern away as she said, “Nothing big. They’ve just been spooked here lately. Can’t get ’em to sleep proper. Stayin’ up all hours of the night chatterin’ like a pack of old ladies.”

“They’re restless,” Jax said. “Like us. They feel the tension. The stress. I can cut it with my blade, is so thick on this vessel.”

Rose stared at Jax. What worry was the woman speaking of? What tension? Granted Rose had spent the last few days in her quarters writing letters, catching up on paperwork and planning their next move in the search for a long-vanished man. What had she missed that her first mate had chanced to observe?

“I’m sure that’s all it is,” Magpie said. “This ship has gotten a little on edge lately. That’s all.”

Rose cut her eyes at her communications officer. Magpie too?

Then Dot laid the whole issue right on the line. “We’ve been pushing ourselves too hard in an effort to escape that nightmare.”

Rose eyed the ship’s medic for a moment, unsure of how to handle the outburst when the tinker joined the fray.

“Or maybe,” Jayne said, “we’ve been too eager to start the next one.”

The women nodded to one another, including the ever-independent Jax. Rose felt her authority slipping away under some secret gossip the crew had exchanged behind her back. Perhaps she had been too hard on them lately, but damn it, this was her ship. If she wanted it to sail to the goddamned moon then they would take up anchor and make for the stars if they knew what was good for them.

A gentle cough sounded to her left. The entire crew shifted their attention to Atom.

“Ladies,” he said in his customary polite way. “Please don’t wear yourselves out on my account.”

Rose whipped around, giving Atom a nasty look. The last thing she needed was the young man’s help maintaining the loyalty of her crew. She stood and stared down at him as she said, “Thank you, Mr. Loquacious, but the only thing we are doing on your account is searching for your father.”

Atom stared up at her, silent and wide-eyed.

Rose then turned her eyes to the rest of the crew, who, judging by the looks of shock they all wore, realized they had overstepped their bounds. “The last time I checked the roster, this ship still belonged to me. And I will run her exactly how I see fit.” She shifted her gaze to the tinker. “Are the boilers suffering from overuse?”

Jayne sat back, blinking at the question a few moments before answering, “No, sir. They’re fine. Running at top shape, though the fuel is disappearing almost quicker than I can shovel it into the fire. Sir.”

Rose expected as much, but there was little she could do about it. She gave a curt nod, then turned her head to Dot. “Has anyone complained of exhaustion or fatigue? Has anyone collapsed on deck from overexertion?”

Dot smirked up at her as if amused by Rose’s power play. “No. Sir.”

Rose grinned in return, knowing the older woman only meant well to begin with. Facing Magpie again, she dropped the grin. “Have the birds shown any sign of illness, aside from restlessness?”

Magpie shook her head. “No, sir.”

“I see.” Rose took a deep breath and ran her gaze over the faces of her girls once more. “Then if anyone feels they are being asked to do more than they are capable of, they can feel free to talk to me about it in private. Otherwise, this line of discussion is over. Do you understand?”

Without hesitation, the crew shouted as one, “Aye-aye, Captain!”

Rose smiled. “Good.”

Gabriella appeared in the doorway of the mess hall just in time to miss the crew’s dressing down. In a way Rose was glad. She hated to pull rank in front of the young thing. The girl was nervous enough as it was.

Gabriella’s eyes went wide when she spied her handsome suitor at the breakfast meeting. She apologized for her tardiness then took her seat at the far end of the table. The young navigator was late to every breakfast now, but before she would touch her own food, she always insisted on taking Atom his morning tray.

One morning Jayne took the tray before Gabriella arrived. The catty look and exasperated huffing from Guppy warned Rose not to let the tinker repeat the act. She’d pulled Jayne aside and asked the tinker to let Guppy handle the man’s nourishment. Jayne was blasé about it, as she was about most things, but Rose suspected there was a smoldering fire there somewhere. The older women thought there was tension aboard from the crew being overworked? Rose was sure there was more than just tension between Gabriella and Jayne.

There was downright animosity.

* * * *

The meeting took forever. At least it felt like forever to Gabriella. Being so close to Atom yet so far away made the seconds crawl to years. She was glad he was there, but she was having a hard time concentrating with him in the room. More than once the captain had to repeat her questions, while Gabriella scrambled to find answers as quick as she could. It was hard to pay attention to the captain’s droning voice when Atom was present.

Gabriella could feel his eyes on her as she ate. She couldn’t be sure why he wasn’t eating. At first the thought of a man watching her shovel food into her mouth made her a little self-conscious. After a bit, she relaxed and even found herself pushing each forkful between her lips with a sensuality she hadn’t known she possessed.

“We’ll reach the city of Tuluca within the hour,” the captain said from somewhere very far off. “So I suggest that Gabriella stop that nonsense right now.”

Gabriella snapped to attention at the sound of her name. She swallowed her mouthful and asked, “Stop what, sir?”

The captain pursed her lips a moment before she said, “That little game of hide-and-eat you have going on over there.”

Gabriella went aflame from forehead to neck as the rest of the crew tittered with laughter. She had never been so embarrassed. And right in front of Atom, who, as far as she could tell, was trying very hard not to laugh as well. While she appreciated his chivalry, she was disappointed with his amusement. After all, the ‘game’ she was playing had been a show just for him.

“In fact,” the captain continued, “I would appreciate it if you and Mr. Loquacious keep your flirting to your off hours. We have enough on our hands as it is. We don’t need a pair of love-starved pups to complicate matters.”

Atom’s eyes went as wide as Gabriella’s, and his color just as crimson. Gabriella could have kissed the captain for including him in her little tirade. That would teach the boy to snicker at her.

“Now,” the captain said. “If you two are done, may we continue?”

“Yes, Captain,” Atom said. He hung his head as if mortified by the experience.

“Yes, sir,” Gabriella added. She felt bad about taking pleasure in his scolding. No bother. She knew how to make it up to him, which she had every intention of doing once this meeting was over. She smiled as her wicked dream came back to her. One day she would make him feel just as she saw him, a god among men.

“As I was saying,” the captain started again. “We’ll stop in Tuluca for fuel only. No layover.”

The crew groused at the announcement. Gabriella couldn’t blame them—everyone seemed on eggshells since they had left the island. A good layover in a real, civilized city was just what everyone needed. Not to mention the fact she was hoping to get some alone time with Atom. A small airship was no place to confess your unbound love for one another.

The captain held up her hand, silencing the grumbling crew. “I know you are all long overdue for a furlough. But …” She paused, looking down at the table for a moment before she glanced back up and finished with, “I just think it’s best if we find a smaller town in which to enjoy the sights. As it stands, we will only just make it to Tuluca with the fuel we have. I plan to stop, buy a small load, then get back into the air. Afterward we can find a smaller place to put up our feet for a bit.”