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.
Chapter Twelve
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.
Chapter Thirteen
Katya made a point to stay as far from Mr. Warden’s office as possible. She wanted to guide each patron to his or her destination, but coming too close to Mr. Lieber set her nerves on edge. Several times, she chose to keep her distance, gesturing the guest the rest of the way to a food stall or the Warden wheel. They did not seem to mind or notice her lapse in quality of service, but Katya did. She was disgusted with herself and furious at Mr. Lieber for being so harsh with her. Instead of strolling the grounds and greeting guests with a natural effervescence, she sulked her way through the crowd, waiting for the patrons to approach her with their needs. If a guest looked lost or overwhelmed, she left them alone to figure it out or ask someone else.
Katya strode past the bandstand, trying to put extra space between herself and the rear of the carnival, when she spotted a lazy figure propped up against one of the narrow lampposts. She blew out an irritated breath at the ignorance. The most she could make out from the back was the rectangular figure of a man – although slightly short – and certainly a carnival employee. His top hat sported a flashing silver buckle on the back of the black band, and his dark brown suit fit him neatly with rounded seams following his shoulders.
Katya sped toward him on anger-fueled limbs. She started spewing at him even before she saw his face. “You should know better than to lean against the lampposts.” Katya folded her arms and stopped in front of him. He was much younger than she anticipated, close to her own age or a few years older. With the flame of the lamppost backlighting his hat, she could not make out the color of his eyes or hair. Even with a smudge of dirt or oil on the left side of his forehead, his clean, smooth features gave him a level of attractiveness Katya chose to ignore.
The man cracked an off-guard smile. “What?”
“Don’t lean against the lampposts. It’s a public health concern. There’s gas filling the pipe. Any day now, there’s going to be a law against it.” Katya waved him away from the post. “I’m not kidding.”
“I’m sorry. It seemed sturdy enough to me.” Now that he spoke in longer sentences, Katya could hear the Irish brogue in his voice, the round O’s and sharp E’s muffled by a gentler influence. He peeled his back off the iron lamppost. “I didn’t know.”
Katya let some of her annoyance ebb so she would not embarrass herself. “It’s all right. Just don’t do it again.”
“I don’t think we’ve met. My name’s Maddox O’Sullivan.”
“Katya Romanova.”
“Oh,” he said, his voice rising in pleasant surprise. “You’re Katya Romanova.”
Katya eased back a step, further rattled by the
lyrical sound of her name in his accent. “Why? What have you heard about me?”
Maddox shrugged. “Nothing, just your name.”
He sounded sincere, but Katya took another step back. “It was nice to meet you, Mr. O’Sullivan.”
“Do you have to run off? We barely got acquainted.”
“I have a job to do, Mr. O’Sullivan, and so do you.”
“What is your job here, Miss Romanova?”
Katya bristled at having to explain herself again, her argument with Mr. Lieber ringing bitterly in her ears. “I help the guests find everything they need.” She turned away.
Maddox continued the conversation anyway. “I joined the maintenance crew just this week.”
Katya swallowed her exasperation and faced him once more. “Mr. Warden told me he’d hired new maintenance. I can tell by your suit what you do.”
“You must know everything about the carnival.”
Katya could not give a glib answer to that. “I know the workers. I know the rides. I know the guests.”
“You’ve worked here a long time.”
“Since the beginning.”
“Do you like it?”
“I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”
Maddox stepped forward to close the gap Katya’s footfalls had created. “Would you like to go for a walk with me sometime?”
Awkwardness tightened Katya’s chest, and she searched for the most polite rejection. “I apologize, Mr. O’Sullivan, but I shouldn’t.” She glanced around them at the carnival guests, some watching the games being played fifty feet away and others watching the band perform yet another rousing march. “I should get back to the guests.”
“They look like they’re doing fine without you, not that they don’t need you.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I really don’t think it would be in our best interests to see each other socially.”
“Aren’t you friends with someone who works here?”
Katya looked Maddox over, worried he had heard more than he was letting on. “Yes.”
“Thick as thieves, they told me.”
Steampunk Carnival (Steam World Book 1) Page 7