by A. W. Exley
Allie held up the apple in her hand. “I am eating.”
One of his black eyebrows arched as he crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s not a meal,” he pointed out.
Zeb peered around the desk, trying to sneak up on his creation. Allie smiled as Weasel hissed at its supposed master and ducked further under the large piece of furniture.
“It’s a meal in Egypt and I’ve learnt to survive on less.” She shot a look at Eloise. “I thought we were friends but you appear to have sold me out.”
Eloise’s hazel eyes widened in distress. “I did not sell you out! I’m concerned about you. Our friendship won’t survive if you collapse from hunger. I don’t know what your issue is with the dining room.”
“I thought you were just waiting for me to collapse, to give you an opportunity to try your electrodes on something bigger.”
“Dog first, I’m working my way up to you.” Eloise took the book out of Allie’s hands, placed the marker at her page and dropped it onto the desk. Allie refused to budge her feet off the blotter.
“I’m afraid I would find the proximity to all the silverware too enticing.” She dangled a false lead for Jared and hoped he would give up and leave her in peace. She found his interest and constant presence unsettling. Marshall’s questions were far easier to ignore than the hum running over her skin whenever Jared stood near.
“I promise to check your pockets before we leave,” he offered, a little too quickly for her liking.
Allie suppressed the mental image of him giving her a pat down, his hands roving her body like the first day they met. She shook her head instead, forcing the memory from her mind.
“A room full of hungry nobles? I may as well open a vein and jump into shark infested waters.”
“You’ll be all right.” A smile crept over Jared’s face. “I’ll protect you.”
Allie nearly choked on her apple. She most certainly did not need his help or protection. The guild trained their young to be self-reliant almost from birth. She flashed him a black look, before dropping her feet back to the floor. She grabbed Eloise’s arm and steered her friend from the library, the boys trailing behind.
“Why doesn’t a matron trail you like they do the other girls?” she asked, seeing the empty stretch of corridor before them and only the boys behind.
“I’m here on academic merit, not to further my position in society.”
Allie frowned. “What does that mean?”
Eloise flashed a quick smile. “Here for the books, not the boys. I’m in no danger from Chaucer or Plato. They followed me the first year then got bored because I only ever went to the library, the lab, or my room. After that they left me in peace.”
They pushed through heavy panelled doors and Allie breathed a sigh to find the dining hall in the process of emptying out. Only a few tables were occupied with students equally late for the mid-day meal. A matron sat off to the side. Her gaze flicked over Allie and Eloise before returning to the more valuable property in the room.
Allie had forgotten the English tradition of a hot lunch. She closed her eyes and inhaled. The smell was intoxicating and far more appealing than what she found in her grandfather’s desk.
The group seated themselves at a small table. Jared pulled out a chair for Eloise while Allie simply flopped next to her friend. The moment the boys drew their chairs to the table serving staff appeared with plates of steaming food. Roast beef covered in gravy, crispy roast potatoes, and glistening new peas accompanied by a bowl of fresh warm bread topped by a small mountain of butter. Allie left the polite dinner chatter to Eloise while she got down to the serious business of eating.
Allie was halfway through her meal when she finally asked a burning question. “The blonde at the central table, Madeline is it? Why does she look like she wishes I would choke on a bread roll?”
“Because that’s Madeline.” Jared didn’t even look up from his plate.
Zeb paused between shovelling in mouthfuls of green peas. “She’s the daughter of the Earl of Lennard, quite important around here,” he threw in with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the peerage.
“Highest ranking girl at school and she likes to ensure everyone knows it,” Eloise contributed. “She and Jared are—” Eloise paused, Jared’s head shot up at the mention of his name. She dropped her voice to a scant whisper, “Contracted.”
Allie’s eyebrows knitted as she connected the dots with the pieces of information.
Ah, so not only am I polluting her air, but I’m also fouling her boyfriend. No wonder she looks like she wants to throttle me.
“You aristocrats, you’re so romantic,” Allie said. “How do you get contracted anyway? Did you go down on one knee and ask her to sign something or was it part of the curriculum?”
Jared gave her a long look and sighed. “It was arranged by our parents. If you’re in a talkative mood, why don’t you tell us what you miss most about Egypt?”
“Apart from sunlight and heat?” Allie asked, only half joking. “The horses. They’re small, sleek and incredibly fast. They flow over the sand like water.” She leaned her elbows on the table and lost herself thinking of Arabian equines.
“When the desert tribes bring the horses to market, the first thing you see is the dust cloud. The sand is so fine, it hangs in the air. It becomes a marker trail for hundreds of hooves as they swarm over the dunes. As they approach Cairo, you can make out the herd. The alpha mare is always out front, leading the way, the stallion at the back. Their bodies stretched out in the gallop. The way the sun gleams off their coats makes them look metallic, as though they’re not real. You think they are a mirage thrown up by the desert. You wait, holding your breath, expecting them to all dissolve back into the sand.” Allie stopped, painfully aware of the familiar ache in her heart, pulling her down into darkness.
Eloise nudged her back into the present. “You know Soiron loves it when you two go out for a gallop.”
“You have a horse here?” Jared asked with interest.
“No, only nobles are allowed to keep horses in the stables.” Allie reminded him of their different stations and managed to keep the hurt from her words. “But Eloise has been kind enough to let me exercise her mare and I have loved having her company these last few weeks.” Her friend’s generous loan of her horse had touched Allie. “But now the term has started, won’t you want her back?”
Eloise snorted. “Not likely. Horses and I don’t mix. They’re too independent and they never seem to go in the direction I tell them to.”
Zeb looked up at Eloise and blinked as though seeing her for the first time. “Well, we are in agreement on that, Eloise. Horses might be necessary at times for transportation, but I have some ideas that will hopefully make them redundant. I cannot comprehend Jared’s fascination for riding every day.”
Allie laughed and, looking up, met Jared’s gaze. He wore a similar smile. Not everyone understood the escape found on horseback, but his grin told her that he did. It was something they shared and another piece she added to the impression she built of him.
“Perhaps we could ride out, one afternoon?” he asked.
“So you can lure me away from school grounds to continue your interrogation about why I am here and where I have come from?” She tried to suppress the laughter in her voice. Given Marshall used to work in military intelligence, his attempts to extract her history were painfully obvious. Failing to follow the example of his master, Jared employed all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. But, when one was born and raised in a guild, dealing in secrets and information was absorbed through one’s skin.
Jared gave her a wide smile that made her stomach churn. “Has Marshall’s military intelligence training not been up to par?”
“Well, military intelligence is an oxymoron. But yes, try to be more subtle about it.”
He gave an easy laugh. “You could just tell me your history?”
“Where would be the fun in that?” She picked up a bread roll and shredded it
, popping the pieces into her mouth. She chewed and considered her next words. “Perhaps though, we could consider a truce? If I promise not to start any fights or steal anything in front of you, will you stop pacing behind me like a nervous prison guard?”
He met her gaze, an unfathomable gleam in their depths. “I might have to hang around more, to keep you on your best behaviour.”
Allie paused. Part of her brain warned her to keep her distance from him. Another part wanted to nudge her closer. “That’s up to you, but I doubt your fiancée will be happy with that arrangement.”
His scowl came back. Allie was quickly learning what buttons to push to wind him up. “She’s not my fiancée. Nothing is official yet.”
“What do you call her then?” Allie was curious to know how he labelled the relationship.
“Heading our way,” Eloise breathed as Madeline rose from her table and made a direct line for Jared.
The elegant blonde stopped behind Jared’s chair and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Really, Jared, you are keeping the oddest company this week.” She leaned down, brushed her cheek by his ear and narrowed her eyes at Allie. “But having a commoner seated at your table just breeds familiarity and you’ll confuse the poor thing. It’s like dressing up a monkey in silk, whatever it wears, it remains a monkey.”
Jared clenched his jaw. “Not now, Madeline, and not here. We’ll talk later.” His tone was cold and dismissive.
Allie eyed up the remaining roast potato on Jared’s plate. “Are you going to eat that?” She jabbed with her fork, skewered the morsel and popped the thing into her mouth.
Madeline gasped in horror.
Allie met the noble girl’s mortified stare. “I have boundary issues,” she said around the mouthful of potato.
Eloise coughed into her napkin to cover her fit of laughter.
Madeline glared at Allie and then her eyes tracked the matron, who had risen from her table and moved toward them. The approaching orange was a warning the noble girl had lingered too long. With her shadow in place, she spun on her heel and left the room.
Jared watched Madeline’s retreating figure before turning to Allie, he tried to school his face to a scowl but laughter shone in his eyes. “Was that really necessary?”
Allie swallowed the large mouthful before replying. “She was fishing for a bite so I gave her one. Just not the one she expected.”
Saturday, 23rd July.
llie rose early, forced awake by a need for sunlight and activity. She left a slumbering Eloise snoring beneath rose-coloured covers. The previous night her roommate returned in tears, distraught by the actions of the Alchemy Master. He tossed the dog leg in the furnace, declaring its use an unfit experiment for a young lady. Allie pondered how to find another dead dog to cheer up her friend and vowed to talk to her grandfather about finding a suitable space to house the biological mastermind.
The main school building connected to the stable block by a long stone walkway, terminating in a large courtyard. Allie headed down the passageway at a brisk pace, eager to break from the damp dark of the tunnel into the early morning sunlight. Emerging, she paused for a moment to take a deep breath of the earthy horse smell permeating the barn area. The combined smell of horses, hay, and saddle oil melded in her nostrils and made an intoxicating perfume she couldn’t resist.
She struck off for the stables. Two stories high, it was built of the same soft grey stone as the school buildings. The entranceway was a huge wooden double door on sliders, easily large enough to swallow a carriage if required. Today the barn doors were flung wide open to let the summer breeze and light trickle into the building’s interior.
As Allie headed down the wide aisle, heads of grey, brown, and bay looked out from stalls. She zoned in on one in particular. The mare looked up from her hayrack and gave a soft nicker on seeing who approached.
“Good morning, girl.” She picked up the two sides of her skirt and attached the hem to the skirt hitches hanging from either side of her corset. It lifted her skirts up to mid-calf height and held them well away from the ground. She grabbed the pitchfork and then unlatched the half door. Sliding it back on runners, she hooked over a chain to stop the inquisitive equine ducking out. She smiled and gave the small chestnut mare a scratch on the wither. Greetings out of the way, she began mucking out the stall, dumping the manure into the mechanised cart roaming the central aisle.
She worked quickly, eager to take the mare outside for a run in the turn out paddock. As she finished, hooves clattered over the cobbles. Poking her head out the stall, she found Jared, followed by a large brown gelding. Both stopped short, Jared’s eyes briefly widened on seeing the pitchfork in her hand.
Allie stared at the casually dressed Jared; with shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his waistcoat hanging open. A blue scarf crossed his shoulders warding off the slight morning chill.
“Are you stalking me?” he prompted.
“Yes, armed with a pitchfork to keep you in line,” Allie joked before she tossed the pitchfork back on the cart. She kicked a lever on the side with her foot, sending it rumbling along its track to empty the load out the back of the barn on the manure pile.
The gelding reached out his head and sniffed at Allie inquisitively. She held out her hand for him to nuzzle, before reaching up and stroking his ears. The horse knew when he was on to a good thing and he lowered his head to allow her better access behind his ears.
Jared watched the way her fingers honed in on the spot where his horse was itchiest. “You seem to have made another friend.”
Allie realised what her fingers were doing and let her hand drop back to her side, much the disappointment of the horse who gave her a gentle nudge to continue with the scratch.
“I was moving him out to the paddock to stretch his legs, do you want to join us?” Jared said.
“I was about to do the same thing, I’ll grab Soiron.” Ducking back into the stall, she grabbed the head collar from its peg and fitted it on the mare. Taking up the lead, they moved into the alleyway and followed Jared and his horse across the courtyard and then out into the adjacent field.
They walked a small distance into the paddock before unclipping leads and letting the horses stretch their legs after a night in the stables. The equines snorted and ran off, kicking up their hind legs as they played a quick game of chase over the lush pasture. Soiron pranced back to where Allie stood and pawed at the earth, making a spot to roll. The gelding joined in and both horses circled and then lay down, accompanied by great heaving sighs as they began rolling. Sods of damp earth flung from hooves and legs as they groaned and moaned and made equine dirt angels. Allie laughed at the sight of Soiron with all four legs in the air, scratching her back on the soft ground.
The mare flipped over, pushed out her front legs and then heaved herself off the ground. She gave one big sigh and shook like an oversized dog, shooting dirt and grass all over Allie. She saw Jared’s gelding putting on a similar performance. But it was the handler, not the horse, who drew her attention. He was intoxicating when he smiled and let himself relax. Wolf-like in both his movement and those pale eyes, but at this moment, he looked less predatory. Like a wolf that had just eaten and being briefly sated, you could almost dare to extend a hand to stroke its fur.
Jared looked up and caught her gaze. Slightly embarrassed to be caught staring, Allie shot her attention back to Soiron.
The mare gave a loud snort of surprise as a large shadow drifted over her body. A soft whirr above drew their attention as an airship’s propellers turned on its early morning flight. The low drone of the motors resonated on the crisp morning air, like an enormous swarm of bumblebees. No clouds obscured the crystal blue sky as the rising sun backlit the enormous ship. Her silver sides gleamed and showed the deep green and blue thistle emblem on her flank of the King’s Royal Aeronautical Corp, marking her as a Scottish military ship.
“Scotland patrols the skies, England the oceans.” Jared commented on the intertwined
relationship of the English and Scottish military.
A beaten copper pod hung under the huge air bladder keeping the ship aloft and reflected every small shaft of sunlight. Allie could make out the flight crew manning the deck within the pod as it descended over the field. Lines shot from her bow and stern and sunk deep into the soil. Two crewmen abseiled down the lines and jumped on nimble feet to the ground. They checked all was secure and then the dirigible winched itself closer to the earth.
Allie gave the mare a comforting pat. “There, there. I’ve not seen an airship devour a horse yet.”
Although it looks big enough to fit several in its belly and still be hungry.
The mare butted her head against Allie and gave another loud snort. Given the object looked like it was going to stay still, she returned to eating the grass. The gelding didn’t even notice, too intent on the rich green shoots to worry about aeronautical happenings.
Allie gave Jared a questioning look.
“King’s Royal Aeronautical Corp,” he said. “They do have business within the school on occasion.”
The airship gently bobbed against its tethers, looking like an abandoned child’s balloon. A gangplank extended and four black clad soldiers emerged, a stark contrast to the vivid grass as they started across the paddock.
“The Conri,” Jared breathed quietly from next to her.
“Who are they?” Allie was curious about the black clothed soldiers. This was the second time she encountered them and she wondered how a fellow street brat ended up as their lieutenant.
“The King’s Hounds, they’re an elite unit within KRAC.” He tracked their progress across the field.
“I assume they are here for Zeb again?” She threw the comment out, to judge his reaction.
Jared turned to her. “Most likely but it doesn’t make sense, they were here earlier this week.” A frown played on his forehead.
The soldiers approached from across the field and had to walk past the grazing horses and their handlers before the archway to the stable courtyard. Allie recognised the lead soldier and Jared greeted the lieutenant with a nod.