Steampunk Carnival (Steam World Book 1) (6 page)

Magdalene loosened the drawstring of her purse. “How much from here to Plum Street? It’s just over the river.”

The driver tipped his hat, revealing neatly combed grey hair. “You ladies work for the carnival, don’t you?” He beamed. “I’ll let you ride for free. I can take you straight there. There’s nobody else at this hour.”

“Thank you so much.”

Katya wasted no time in climbing up the step behind the driver at the front of the streetcar. She sat down in the second seat, leaving room for Magdalene to sink down beside her.

The streetcar turned to the right, taking the angled Kentucky Avenue away from the five-point intersection toward the river. Katya craned her neck and caught a glimpse of Brady walking alone through the hazy gas lamplight before the buildings at the next corner blocked her view.

Katya double-checked her appearance in the oval mirror above the water closet sink. She made sure the perfect number of dark curls showed over her forehead beneath the brim of her hat. She had worn her largest hat tonight, angled heavily to one side. It was covered in royal-blue silk with thick, fluffy ostrich feathers cascading from the band. Lizzie’s employer had altered it for her, gluing charms and discarded watchmaker’s gears amidst the feathers.

Katya smoothed the front of her cobalt-blue jacket and the skirt of her silver gown. She needed to look her best, and she finally satisfied herself she could look no better. She let herself out of the water closet, almost bumping into the charwoman carrying a bucket of murky water. Katya jumped back to avoid soiling her clothes. The charwoman ducked back as well, sloshing water out over her shoes.

“I’m sorry,” Katya said quickly. She meant it, and she was doubly sorry she did not sound sincere.

The charwoman bobbed her head, her eyes scanning the ground as she strode past Katya.

Katya pushed on through the edge of the crowd to the nearest food stall. She stood at the side counter, apart from the customers, trying to get one of the cooks’ attention. “Excuse me.”

The cooks continued working, frying and plating and doing it again.

“Excuse me, I need a snack for Mr. Warden. He’s waiting for it.”

Without looking up from plopping a long sausage on a thin bun, the nearest cook blurted, “What does he want?”

“Anything. He’s just hungry. He wants it fast.”

The cook passed the prepared plate to the worker at the counter for the customer line. He set down a fresh white plate, dropped a bun on it, and used his pair of tongs to center a sausage across it. He squirted a steady, practiced stream of mustard down one side and handed it to Katya.

“Thank you.” Katya hurried away with it, swinging out around the line of ravenous customers. She carefully avoided meeting Brady’s eyes as she passed his game counter. She steered clear of Magdalene working the front of the other food stall, simply noting the modest red hat and jacket brightening the corner of her vision.

Katya stepped into the shadows leading up to Mr. Warden’s office. She pulled a small, folded slip of paper from the left shoulder of her dress and hid it under the plate. She did not listen at the door this time, well prepared for Mr. Lieber’s presence. Katya knocked a few times before she opened the door, finding the two men in the same places she usually did. Mr. Lieber glared from his standing position on the left side of the back office, and Mr. Warden leaned over from his desk chair on the right to see through the doorway. Whatever they had been discussing, it had left a thoughtful frown on his lips.

“I brought you a snack,” Katya greeted him, passing through the front room. “I thought you might be hungry.”

Mr. Warden waved his hand flippantly. “I don’t want anything.”

Mr. Lieber snatched the plate from Katya’s hand before she could pull it away. She barely managed to hide the slip of paper in her gloved fingers as she closed them.

Katya turned her back to Mr. Lieber. On the desk in front of Mr. Warden, a thick ledger lay open, column after column filled in with numbers by the ink pen discarded nearby. She rested her loose fist on the desk. “You’re not working too hard, are you?”

Mr. Warden leaned his head back to look up into Katya’s face. His dark eyes shone with adoration and mischief. “I don’t pay myself to do nothing.”

“How do you keep it all straight?” Keeping the note tucked against her palm, Katya traced her finger down the far left column of abbreviations.

Mr. Warden’s demeanor tightened into worry again. “Why don’t you leave that up to me?”

“All right.”

Katya could hear Mr. Lieber behind her, slurping at the juicy sausage and muffling bun. She pressed the note into Mr. Warden’s hand and tilted her head to whisper closer to his ear. “Keep this between us.”

Mr. Warden nodded subtly.

Katya stepped away to leave the room.

Mr. Lieber’s hard voice stopped her cold. “Miss Romanova.”

Katya forced herself to meet Mr. Lieber’s gaze over her shoulder.

Mr. Lieber sucked sausage grease off his thumb. “Tell those good-for-nothing cooks to buy some real German mustard next time. I’m sick of this
scheisse
.”

Katya nodded although she had no intentions of helping him and let herself out of the building.

Within an hour, Katya felt Mr. Warden’s fingers take hold of her elbow. She stood in the opposite corner of the grounds from his office, having reassured several ladies that the Kaleidoscope did not rotate quickly enough to render them ill. Mr. Warden had been bare-headed before, but he had put on his top hat to come find her, a clean, gleaming black. He guided Katya away from the crowd, further into the corner by the fence. Behind her, the Cannon roared as its cars raced and turned along the sloping, jet-black track. Katya watched the Kaleidoscope gyrate behind Mr. Warden, set on a raised platform so people could see it more easily. Eight color-tinted booths spun on a round disc which turned at a slightly slower pace. Excited shouts rang out from the passengers at irregular intervals, expressing everything from uncertainty to exhilaration.

“You wanted to see me?” Mr. Warden asked, his expression solemn and distant.

“Yes.”

“Are you still worried about the death threats? I told you you shouldn’t be. I hired more security, and I haven’t gotten any more letters.”

“That’s good.” Katya tried to think of the best way to change the subject toward what she needed to know. She kept her voice light and casual. “I was there when the Beast broke down, but I never heard anything about it getting fixed. How am I supposed to keep the guests informed if I don’t know what’s going on?”

“It was only down for one night. It’s running now. What else do you need to know?”

“Maintenance said he didn’t know how to fix it.”

Mr. Warden cracked his mask and chuckled warmly. “You have to know all the gossip, don’t you?” His eyes wandered her costume before meeting her gaze with a twinkle. “I’ll indulge you, Miss Romanova. Yes, that fool. He was a whiz when we had problems with the Tower last year, but he hadn’t a clue when it came to the Beast. He was a terrible liar. I knew he didn’t fix it.”

“Do you know who did?”

“No, and I don’t care. One of the other maintenance workers was covering for him, I suppose.”

“With how important the Beast is, someone could’ve lost their job over a mistake like that.”

“Someone did. That idiot won’t be coming around here anymore. I’ve hired his replacement already.”

“Are you sure you’re not overworking yourself? Seeing to the coasters, firing a man, interviewing new staff. You’re at the carnival every night.”

Mr. Warden pursed his lips, urging her on.

“You must have meetings to attend,” Katya guessed.

“Once or twice a week.”

“Do you ever have time for fun?”

Mr. Warden broke into a grin, more humored than he was annoyed. “Surely I must have as many dates and suitors as you do.”

Katya grimaced. She could picture Lizzie smirking at her, ecstatic on Dr. Kirby’s arm. Katya kept the subject about Mr. Warden and herself. “No one can possibly have more dates than the genius behind the Steampunk Carnival.”

Mr. Warden brushed a soft leather glove along Katya’s jaw. “You underestimate the effect you have on men.”

“Do I?”

Mr. Warden moved closer. “You’re as beautiful as ever.” He ducked his head and kissed her.

His lips felt inviting and deliberate. Katya returned Mr. Warden’s affection without thinking, her chest swelling with a dizzying breath. She lost herself in the confidence of his sturdy arms and the smooth blend of his cologne. Mr. Warden pulled away, and Katya remembered what kind of a man he was. She held onto Brady’s words. Mr. Warden was a petty thief who had stumbled across the discovery of a lifetime and nothing more.

Mr. Warden’s hand lingered on Katya’s arm. “Are you still worried about me?”

Katya gathered her thoughts. “A little. I worry about your health. There are so many diseases going around. I’d hate for you to catch one in your exhausted state.”

“I’m not exhausted. Far from it. You’re the one walking all over the grounds every night in those boots. I’d hate for you to injure one of those delicate ankles.”

Katya blushed at the thought of her boss becoming acquainted with the slenderness of her ankles. “I’ll be careful.”

“I know you will.” Mr. Warden set his gloved hand under Katya’s chin. “You’ll let me know if you see or hear anything you think I should know about, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

“If there’s one thing I won’t tolerate, it’s a dishonest employee. Let me know if you need to speak to me alone again.”

“I will.”

Mr. Warden tapped his finger against Katya’s chin and walked away. Katya lingered in the corner between the fence, the rattling Cannon, and the churning Kaleidoscope. She considered it an apt place to be, trapped with no easy way out, her heart shaking and her thoughts swirling in circles.

Katya folded the last music stand closed and tucked it under its paired folding chair. The band had moseyed off twenty minutes before. Katya did not mind being assigned such basic tasks at the end of the night. She liked to prove she earned her salary. Katya could pour herself into her work, not just with words and gestures, but with muscles and sweat. She only wished Irina or any of the others could see her. They would still call her lazy, but at least she would have solid evidence to the contrary.

A single sheet of music rustled across the stage. The wind sailed it along the wooden boards and off into the grass. Katya chased after it, pinning it under the narrow toe of her boot. She crouched down to pick it up, two men’s hard voices diverting her attention. Mr. Lieber and Mr. Davies strode towards her. Katya assumed they were headed for the front gates and backed up to let them pass far by her.

Mr. Lieber spat on in German.

Mr. Davies clenched his jaw so tightly, Katya was surprised he could speak when he interrupted. “As much as I don’t want to talk to you in any language, would you mind joining me in English so we can finish this conversation?”

Mr. Lieber obliged him without a pause. “You have a job to do, Mr. Davies. Don’t go looking for ways to expand it. Just do what you were hired to do.”

“When Mr. Warden created the carnival, they called it entrepreneurial spirit. When I make a suggestion that could expand the business and create additional opportunities for all of us, it’s put down as overstepping my boundaries.”

“Nobody asked you to think for the carnival.”

Mr. Davies looked past Mr. Lieber at Katya. He tipped his hat briefly and softened his voice. “Do you really need to escort me to the exit? Don’t you have something better to do?”

“As head of security, it’s my duty.”

“It’d be your pleasure to escort me out for the last time.”

“Perhaps one day, Mr. Davies.”

The two men strode on in silence, a heavier ignoring of words than Katya had felt in a long time. She retreated to the band stage and secured the piece of sheet music under one of the heavy metal stands. She sat down in the chair above it, content to wait for Magdalene here rather than hear any more of Mr. Lieber and Mr. Davies’ argument.

Katya could not see or hear the two men from where she sat. The front two game stalls and the ticket booth blocked her view of them. Katya untucked the sheet music from its impromptu paperweight and studied it. She wondered how the musicians knew what to do, what to make of all the black shapes skittering over the thin, horizontal lines running the length of the page.

Heavy, purposeful boot steps pounded the dirt. Even though Katya knew it would be Mr. Lieber, she could not resist looking up. When he noticed her, he stalked towards her and loomed at the edge of the stage.

“What are you paid for, Miss Romanova?” Mr. Lieber demanded.

Katya lowered the sheet of music to her lap to keep her nerves from shaking it for Mr. Lieber to see. “You know what my job is, Mr. Lieber. I take care of the guests. I do what nobody else has time for.”

“Is that how you sold yourself to Mr. Warden? You’re a clever one, aren’t you?”

Katya maintained her composure, breathing steadily and keeping her spine straight with help from her corset. “It’s the truth. Who else greets the guests? Who else helps them? I’m the only one who doesn’t have something to sell them.”

“And therefore, Miss Romanova, you’re no use to the carnival.”

Knowing Mr. Davies probably remained within earshot in case she got into trouble, Katya pressed her point. “How are the guests going to spend money at the Warden wheel if they can’t get to it?” Katya almost choked on calling it Mr. Warden’s wheel when Brady had designed it.

Mr. Lieber leaned toward her, his eyes level with hers. “How could they miss it? It’s a hundred feet tall.”

“Actually, it’s eight stories...” Katya let her knowledge drift away as it only served to narrow Mr. Lieber’s pale eyes at her. “I know they can see it from a distance, Mr. Lieber, but I assure you. Once inside the carnival, new guests have no idea where it is. They get disoriented by the band and the games and the coasters. I’m of more use here than anybody knows.”

“You’re fortunate the carnival earns as well as it does. Your salary disappears in all those facts and figures intriguing you so much. If patronage dropped, you’d be the first to go.”

Katya recalled Irina saying Mr. Warden would fire her, the disgruntled cook, first in the case of a money crisis. Mr. Warden might be willing to shell out dollars for beautiful faces, but Mr. Lieber focused simply on the worth of one’s labor. “I could learn to do something else,” Katya insisted.

Mr. Lieber curved his lips in a malicious smirk. “You cling to the carnival. Or do you cling to Mr. Warden like the other girls?”

Katya’s eyebrows scrunched down over her penetrating eyes. “I do not.”

“Do you think he considers you special because he gave you this job?”

Katya snapped at him. “Do you think you’re special because you’re head of security? It must be hard to oversee the carnival from the back room of Mr. Warden’s office.”

Mr. Lieber reeled his hand back at shoulder height. Katya flinched, her whole body tightening against the back of the chair. Mr. Lieber held it there, reconsidering. “You want to talk about usefulness? If you want to make yourself useful, Miss Romanova, squeeze a few brats from between those legs and give the factories some fresh workers before the law tells a man whom he can and cannot hire.”

Shock kept Katya from speaking. She watched Mr. Lieber march away and disappear behind the mammoth Beast. She did not know Mr. Lieber well enough to guess if he would repeat his arguments to Mr. Warden or not. Katya imagined Mr. Lieber standing silently in Mr. Warden’s office, brooding and smiling to himself about his verbal conquests. He would nod when Mr. Warden addressed him and accept all of Mr. Warden’s decisions. In his heart and mind, Mr. Lieber would be in his own world, one which he dominated unequivocally.

The wind tore the loose page from Katya’s hands. It flipped and circled on the breeze, landing in the grass far beyond her reach. Katya let it go. One of the band members would miss it the next night, but that was not Katya’s responsibility. She wondered if any of the carnival’s employees valued her presence besides Magdalene and Mr. Warden. Even his appreciation was suspect in the light of Mr. Lieber’s tirade.

Katya stood up and crossed the grass between the two game stalls to the front of the carnival. By the relief in the voices approaching from the rear of the grounds, Magdalene, Irina, and the Englishman had finished cleaning their food stall. Katya reached the gates and Mr. Davies waiting in the high seat behind the carriage horse. She nodded congenially to Mr. Davies, who tipped his hat solemnly in return. She climbed up into the back to sit down and wait for the others in peace.