by L G Rollins
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
Epilogue
Special Offer
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright © 2018 by L. G. Rollins
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or medium whatsoever without prior written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, places, and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real, or used fictitiously.
For Taylor, Megan,
Eric, and Emma—
You are my greatest adventure.
he hollow iron horse, cold from a life in the shade, sent a chill deep into Elise’s fingertips. She pulled first one then her other hand back, blowing on them with irritated burst of her breath before grabbing hold of the metal pole once more. Riding this carousel was absolutely pointless.
She glance around at the other riders, men in top hats and women in flat-front skirts. Nearly half the riders were adults, so she needn’t feel childish riding when so many others her age were. But the knowledge didn’t stop her from tapping a foot, restless, against the back leg of the lifeless horse.
Nevertheless, Doctor Elise Sterling couldn’t help but sympathize with the brightly painted horses spinning her around the harlequin checkered carousel. Always running. Never going anywhere.
The heavy scent of gear grease hung thick, trapped around her by the carousel’s canopy. However, while turning in circles was the end design of this aimless contraption, it was most certainly not hers. Turning circles never did anyone any good.
Elise twisted about, catching a glimpse of the long line of spectators and hopeful riders awaiting their turn. Would this ride never end? Certainly there were enough people lined up to take her place that she could get off now. Elise’s efforts would be put to better use focusing on how to prove her research on werewolves would benefit everyone, even the upper echelon.
“I shouldn’t have bothered coming today,” she said to Lord Chauncey who rode the vibrant purple horse beside hers. “I should have stayed in my laboratory and worked on my presentation.”
Lord Chauncey shook his head, causing his top hat to bump into the pole securing the horse to the ride. He shoved it down in his head, pushing yet more of his overabundance of snow white hair to stick out at all angles from underneath.
The elderly man looked quite distinguished in his dapper suit and striped vest. His slender black and gold cane only added to the picture he cut. Though if she had called it a “cane” instead of a “walking stick” aloud to him, he probably would have rapped on her noggin with the thing.
“You need to rest your mind, not crank it up tighter before meeting the committee.”
Elise turned away. A break, a chance to clear his mind, that’s what Lord Chauncey would have needed were he to be the one to present. She, on the other hand, was far less fond of winging important meetings.
Elise reached for the broach-watch pinned to her shirtwaist and pulled on the glass and bronze-wire face. It gave at her tug, a delicate chain unwinding as she pulled. She was careful to only touch the face, she didn’t want her lace gloves to snag on the mechanics.
In precisely two hours she would be presenting before her Majesty’s Committee for Scientific Advancement. Her stomach knotted up yet tighter, as it had been doing for weeks each and every time she remembered the scheduled meeting. This was not the first time she’d presented before the committee. However, this was the first time they had re-scheduled her, requesting she come in months before the original date.
Lord Chauncey insisted the change was nothing to be concerned over. Elise wasn’t as confident.
“This is ridiculous,” she whispered, not wanting to sound prudish to the man standing in the center of the carousel, moving the various gears and levers. “I still only have an outline of what I intend to say.”
“Lighten up, my dear. You never know when the perfect solution will tumble into your lap, if only you keep your eyes open.”
Elise clamped her jaw shut. Solutions didn’t tumble into one’s lap. They only surfaced after one chipped, and dug, and hauled all other possibilities away. The carousel squealed to a halt and Elise slipped off the hard saddle, as did Lord Chauncey and the crowd around them. It was hotter once they left the shade.
All around her, people bought butterscotch balls and stared at the jugglers. The circus filled all of Hyde Park and seemed to spill out onto the streets beyond, like the bubbling, foaming reaction of vinegar and sodium bicarbonate.
Lord Chauncey took hold of her elbow. “And tumble it has.”
What was he mumbling about now? In all truth, Lord Chauncey was one of the dearest people she knew. He’d been like a third grandfather to her ever since she was a little girl and he’d slipped her sweet licorice sticks and told her silly jokes behind her governess’s back.
However, on days like this one, he simply did not understand her need for quiet, logical planning.
She turned to find Lord Chauncey staring—the sight put to mind a pup she’d once owned who’d howled with delight whenever she saved scraps from the table for him.
“I believe,” he said in a low tone which did nothing to assuage the excitement he felt. “I have found the solution to our problem. I told you we needed to visit he circus.”
Though she didn’t have time for a distraction today, she didn’t have the heart to resist when Lord Chauncey urged her to follow him through the bustling crowd. “You know,” she said. “It’s a shame you never married and had children. Who will carry on your endless wisdom and powers of foresight when you die?”
“A shame, a shame.” Lord Chauncey nodded in faux solemnity. “Just think, one would make use of my hot air balloon and traverse the entire globe.” He slowed his walk and began pointing at imaginary children around his legs. “One would unearth the secrets of chemistry, while his twin focused on physics.”
Several couples around them paused to stare at the marquess’ seemingly random pointing at the ground. But Elise ignored them. People were always stopping to stare at Lord Chauncey—he seemed to be doing something, more often than not, that made those around him pause and wonder at his state of mind.
They moved past a group of people, milling around two red-painted cages on wheels.
Inside one, a large tiger prowled back and forth, hissing. In the other a black bear lay, unperturbed by the spectators, sleeping through the afternoon. Between the two cages stood a man with stripped breeches and a waxed-to-a-curl mustache.
“Right this way, ladies and gents! Right this way to see the a
mazing wild animals of India and Russia! Man eaters, both of them!” The man hollered in a gruff accent at the crowd, then he dropped his voice low, and brandished his arm. It was not flesh and bone, but an arm of gears and wires. “Why, while I was out on the hunt, it was that stripped devil that took off my arm. And this other one”—he pointed toward the bear—“he ate my comrade whole.”
The response of the crowd was mixed. Some gasped in horror, others only shook their heads in disbelief. Elise didn’t believe it either. The man’s clockwork arm had clearly been attached by a skilled doctor, seeing as how he still had use of it. So the chances of the accident having taken place in India, where mechanical implementation was still fledgling at best, was doubtful.
“This way,” Lord Chauncey moved around, behind the crowd, and toward a smaller group of men and women clustered off to the side of the tiger’s cage. “I just saw someone I’ve been meaning to introduce you to.”
Oh, gracious. Another introduction? Was there ever a social gathering when Lord Chauncey didn’t want to introduce her to someone?
Elise’s tall riding boots squished as they moved to a muddier part of the field; just because she had opted for a stylish skirt did not mean Elise intended to swap her practical and functional boots for the ankle-high flimsy things the women around her wore. The smell of animals and all they bring made Elise want to cover her nose. Instead, she kept her shoulders back and affected an indifferent appearance. One quick introduction and then, no matter how Lord Chauncey pouted, she would return to her laboratory. She’d wasted enough time here today.
Moreover, if Lord Chauncey wanted her to relax and be calm when she left here to meet with the committee, he certainly shouldn’t introduce her to anyone. Meeting new people always made her feel as though she were a bug under a magnifying glass.
Elise lifted her hair off her neck momentarily, willing a breeze to cool her. Having taken it out of its usual tight coiffure, she’d styled it half up in a bun, half curled down her back. She should have left her hair completely up. Though less flattering, it was far too warm a March day to have it down.
“Captain Hopkins,” Lord Chauncey said as they neared the edge of a crowd surrounding a dancing seal. “I wish to make you acquainted with Doctor Elise Sterling.”
Captain? Elise slowly shut her eyes. So this was what had Lord Chauncey all excited. For months now they had been debating the best course of action of her research should take next. Apparently, even after arguing for over three hours a few days prior, Lord Chauncey had not yet given up on convincing her to bet her entire career on his single, radical experiment.
At the call, a man stepped away from the group, and moved toward Lord Chauncey and Elise. His copper hair hung a bit long around his face, framing his blue eyes. In only a vest and shirtsleeves, no jacket, Elise could easily discern that his arms were well defined and his shoulders broad.
He had a handsome face, one that most likely turned many heads at afternoon luncheons and balls. So handsome, in fact, he very nearly made Elise wish she had time to be courted. Facts remained, though, that she didn’t have such time. The captain would no doubt find plenty to occupy his time here in England, but she would not be there to see what, or who, he found the most diverting. She had a laboratory full of data, test subjects depending on her to better their lives, and a committee fickle in their support.
The captain bowed as Elise curtsied. Of all the things that made Captain Hopkins good looking, though, the one that caught Elise’s attention was his smile. It lit up his face and made his eyes look clear as a cloudless sky. It was a comfortable smile.
Not a smile concocted to please society, but a sincere one that came naturally. How unusual. Elise saw few openly friendly expressions; those in her field believed smiles were a sign of naivety. Elise disagreed, but had conceded that a neutral expression brought more clout.
“The pleasure is all mine.” His voice was a light timbre. He didn’t seem to question that Lord Chauncey had called her “doctor”. So many did. Often Elise spent most of her time at social gatherings defending her title, or explaining that she wasn’t “that” kind of doctor when people asked her about rashes and fevers.
It seemed no one in society understood the term “Doctor of Science”. However, judging by his easy manners and decided lack of looking down at her title, perhaps she wouldn’t have to defend herself to the captain.
“Yesterday,” Lord Chauncey said. “You mentioned your submarine, the Gearhound I believe you called her, and for the longest time afterward I could not get our conversation out of my mind. It is just too coincidental. You have a submarine for hire and this brilliant woman”—he gestured toward Elise—“is in need of hiring a submarine.”
Elise opened her mouth to object to this so-called opportunity that had tumbled into their lap. They weren’t wanting to hire a submarine just now. She had told Lord Chauncey time and time again that they weren’t ready for this step.
However, the older man spoke before she could. “Doctor Sterling has envisioned a brilliant scientific experiment, one that I know will change many a life.”
Why did he have to talk about her like that? As though he were grandstanding at her funeral. The captain’s gaze slid over and he studied her. Perhaps weighing if Lord Chauncey’s praise was an exaggeration, or simply a small overstatement.
Elise kept her chin up and face impassive. She was good at what she did, and though she blushed inwardly at the praise she wouldn’t allow a silly grin to convince him otherwise.
Captain Hopkins’ gaze stayed on her as his head listed to the side and he gave her a lopsided smile. Had she passed then? Had he assessed her and deemed her intelligent and competent? It was all she ever wanted others to see her as. The hope that the captain would view her as such brought a warmth which flowed down to her booted toes.
Captain Hopkins stood quite close, his hand, dangling at his side, only inches away from her own. But, the awareness didn’t bring with it the customary prickly urge to retreat when she was near other men. Instead, it was comfortable and easy and laced with a hint of exhilaration.
“We have a business proposition we’d like to discuss with you,” said Lord Chauncey. “If it is convenient, sir, we could stop by your place later today and give you all the details.”
Elise lifted a hand, drawing both mens’ attention to her. She cared for Lord Chauncey immensely, but she wasn’t about to let him push her into something the science didn’t yet support. “While we would like to hire the use of your submarine and crew,”—she gave Lord Chauncey a pointed stare—“we will not, however, be ready for it for some time yet.”
Captain Hopkins nodded his understanding. “All the better. I have just returned from a rather long stint and am looking forward to a few years on land. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Doctor Sterling, but if you will excuse me, there is a young woman expecting me home in time for supper, and I dare not disappoint.”
Lord Chauncey opened his mouth to object, but this time it was Elise spoke up first. “The pleasure was all mine. Have a pleasant evening.”
The captain bowed to them both and then turned and left.
“You’re letting him get away.” For being closer to sixty than six, Lord Chauncey could most certainly pout like a school boy.
“Let him go,” she said. “Perhaps someday we will enlist his services, but for the time being, we are going to stay focused on the BLU Elixir.”
Lord Chauncey let out a harrumph and folded his arms across his wide chest.
Going up on tip-toe, Elise gave the old man a peck on the cheek. He’d done so much for her these past several years, supporting a field of research that few would touch. “Don’t be too disappointed. We’ll sail someday, just as soon as the science supports the endeavor.”
“If you wait much longer I will die, and then where will you be? Sailing to the deepest trench of the Atlantic Ocean without my much acclaimed foresight? Or my wisdom?”
She laughed softly.
Then she remembered what she had to do that very afternoon and the weight dragged all humor out of her. “I won’t be sailing ever if the committee choses to pull their support today.” To know one’s future rested in the hands of a group who were little more than acquaintances, and who didn’t hide their dislike of her ideals, was alarming. And sobering. And quite overwhelming.
Elise gave Lord Chauncey’s arm a reassuring squeeze, though she was reassuring herself as much as him. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a very important meeting I am expected at.”
familiar voice caused Elise to pause half-way up the wide, shallow stairs, leading her toward the doors of a massive building. She looked over her shoulder to see William Cunningham striding confidently toward her.
Tension bubbling inside Elise for the meeting that would soon begin made her smile feel tight and unnatural. “Good afternoon,” she said. “I’m glad you were able to make it today.” Lord Chauncey, who also frequently attended these meetings with her, had not been feeling well after the circus. But, William was here now. She wouldn’t have to face the committee alone. Though William’s support was generally flighty and inconsistent, the knowledge still smoothed the sharpest pricks of apprehension.
He reached her side and held out his elbow for her. “Here to support you, no matter the odds stacked against us.”
She listed her head. He was in a rather cheery mood today. Normally William was content to read the broadsheets as she poured over accounts of werewolf attacks; or he gossiped with the pretty, young laboratory assistant while Elise mixed chemicals at the shared laboratory in town.
“However, I can only stay for a moment,” William added. “The haberdashery up the street has failed to deliver my new bowler and I must see to it.”
Elise pursed her lips tight. There was the William she knew. Fully committed to helping her out, until there was something more interesting to be about. It was infuriating.
“You do realize,” she dropped her voice low enough only he could hear. “The outcome of this meeting will affect your life every bit as much as it will affect my career.”