by Gaie Sebold
The Russian Embassy
BETH LOOKED FOR somewhere to put down. The space in front of the embassy milled with carriages, horses – already people were looking up and pointing. “Go around,” Ma said. She had opened one eye, and was peering at the building. “Dammitall, this ain’t natural, this ain’t. Go around, girl.”
“But there’s a space...”
“I’m looking.”
“For what?”
“There. See?” Ma pointed a less than steady hand. “Under that glim.”
“What...”
“Wake up. What’d a ladder be doing there? Think they got some cove in to swab the glazes while all the nobs are about?”
“You think that’s where... but I can’t land on the lawn!”
“Land, never was there a more beautiful word. Ho, yes, land right by the ladder and draw even more eyes. No, you daft hap’orth, take us down where the rest of the nobs are.”
“Yes, Ma.”
“And let me know when it’s safe,” Ma said, clenching her eyes firmly shut again.
“It will be,” Madeleine said. “Beth’s a natural, aren’t you, dear?”
But Beth was no longer listening, calculating the distance, the wind, the amount of space... there... if that carriage stayed where it was... she dropped the speed as much as she dared, the Aerymouse yawed gently towards the spot she’d chosen, a nice open patch of drive with plenty of room to land. Easy, easy...
A small boy holding one of the carriage-horses looked up, saw the Aerymouse twenty feet above him and yelled with surprise.
The horse he was holding laid back its ears and bolted, dragging its carriage, and the boy, right into the path of the Aerymouse.
Beth hauled back on the joystick, the engine stuttered, and a blurt of smoke shot past Madeleine and caught Ma square in the face. They’d lost too much speed, they couldn’t go around again, they had to land.
Building, landscape and milling, pointing crowd faded from the edges of Beth’s consciousness. She knew only angles, and speed, and distance. The boy, the carriage, the horse, the ground became shapes to negotiate.
One wing dipped, the undercarriage skimmed a foot from the carriage roof, and the Aerymouse touched down, spewing gravel into the crowd.
“What was that?” Ma squeaked.
“We’re down,” Beth said, blinking. “We’re down, Ma.” She unlocked her fingers from the joystick, her arms gone suddenly weak with strain.
“Well praise be.” Ma cautiously opened first one eye, then the other.
Beth looked up, startled, at a patter of applause. The partygoers, having overcome their fright, were moving towards the Aerymouse.
“Beautifully done, Beth dear,” Madeleine said. “Ma Pether...”
“What is it?”
Wordlessly, Madeleine took a mirror from her reticule.
“Oh now look,” Ma said. “Smutted like a sweep. This thing’s worse’n the trains. I’ll be going home by hansom if it’s all the same to you.” She scrubbed at her face with her handkerchief, eyeing the approaching figures.
“We need to move,” Ma said. “Beth, you and me gotta go in the servants’ entrance. Rest of you, once yer in, you know where to go – find that room where the ladder is. Second floor, north west side, we’ll meet you there.”
Madeleine, Adelita, Doris, and Tinder headed for the main door.
“Coo,” Doris said, “Reckon there’s enough sparks between here and the door to keep us in meat for a year, eh?” She regarded a passing matron with particular interest. “Look at them luggers, how’s she hold her head up with that lot hanging off her ears?”
“You en’t in class now,” Ma Pether growled. “Act like a young lady, ’less you want us all hung.”
“Yes, Ma.”
“What exactly have you been teaching them in your classes?” Madeleine said. “No, this isn’t the time. Oh, dear. Come along, girls.” Her voice was tight. Beth saw how hard her fingers clutched at her shawl. “She’ll be all right, Mrs Sparrow,” she said.
“Evvie?” Ma said. “Ah, she’ll do. Tough as a boot, she is. You lot, obey Mrs Sparrow, you hear me? She knows how to act like a lady, being as she is one. Come on, Beth.” She hustled Beth towards the crowd.
“Splendid flying,” said a young blood in a crimson waistcoat. “I say, it’s a gel! Well done, that gel. Any chance of a spin?”
Beth felt herself blushing, pulled her hat further down and hurried after Ma.
A POLICEMAN STOOD rigid-spined and shiny-buttoned at the servant’s entrance. Beth’s heart dropped to her boots. But Ma strode up to him, bolder than a brass knuckle. “Hofficer? I got sent over from the agency to help in the kitchen, only I come out the side door for a breath of air and I can’t find my way back in nohow, and here’s this one sent to wait for her people to come out and she can’t find her way neither, and could you tell us where we need to go as if I don’t sit down soon my knees’ll go on me, terrible, they are, my mother was just the same, her knees were a torment to her, well, it was the scrubbing, see, years of it, should have seen her hands, mine were going the same way, I tried goose-grease on ’em but not a particle of difference did it make...”
Beth glanced at the policeman’s face as he slowly backed into a corner of the portico, and rapidly looked away before the bubble of hysterical laughter rising in her chest could burst out.
“Through there!” he said. “Go down to the left, you’ll find the kitchens, and if not someone will tell you the way, good evening!”
“There, now, that’s very helpful, you’re a very helpful young man, you put me in mind of my youngest, gone to sea, he has, oh, he’s a very smart boy, not that you look alike, but he has just that way...” Ma continued, steaming down the corridor. Beth, ducking in her wake, risked a final glance at the policeman. He grinned, suddenly looking no older than herself, rolled his eyes and fanned himself with one hand. Beth shot him a smile which felt guilt-ridden and scuttled after Ma.
The back rooms of the embassy were aheave with cooks and maids and footmen, in a dozen different liveries. Ma strode through them without a care, until a large man with a huge beard spilling over his dirty white shirt, who had cornered a maid with an armload of laundry, caught sight of Beth. His eyes widened and he pointed at her, and said something which she couldn’t understand, but sounded like a question.
Ma ignored him, and Beth tried to follow her example, but the bearded man strode towards them, put himself in her path, and said it again, bending down to yell into her face. He had great bushy eyebrows to match his beard, and dreadful teeth. Beth stared up at him, her mind racing. He must be Russian. What did he want? Did he suspect something?
Ma stopped and looked over her shoulder. She gave Beth a single hard stare, and then headed away through the kitchen, disappearing into the steam.
Beth swallowed. Several people had stopped and were looking at her, staring.
“He has never seen woman in trousers,” said another man, this one in livery, his Russian accent giving the words a heavy, metallic edge. “He want to know if you are boy or girl.”
Beth took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I’m an engineer,” she said, and pushed past the bearded man, doing her best to stride. Heart of metal, I know the heart of metal.
Her hands were sweating, her heart beating so hard her eyes blurred. Where the hell was Ma?
Never mind Ma, find Evvie.
Behind her, she heard a babble of Russian, and then a wave of laughter.
A maid with an armload of towels hurried through a door and Beth followed her.
Back stairs, a thin strip of worn carpet down the middle, bare, black-stained boards. A single hissing gas lamp sending dim greenish light down and up.
Beth let the maid get ahead, hoping no-one would come the other way and ask what a chauffeur was doing creeping about on the servants’ stairs. She would say she was looking for the privy. Or something.
The maid exited at the top, a door opened and shut. Bet
h emerged into a silent corridor, far better lit, too well lit, she felt like a moth on a lampshade. And she had no idea which direction she was facing.
She made for a window and pushed the heavy damask curtain aside, heaved up the sash, and leaned out.
There, over to her left, she could just make out the line of the ladder. Why would Evvie leave it there? She wouldn’t. Not unless she had no choice.
Part of Beth’s brain was already working on a way to improve the design of the ladder as she hurried down the corridor towards the room, praying that Evvie would be there, that she was all right.
WHEN SHE OPENED the door she saw Madeleine, crouched on the floor in the moonlight, a dark stain seeping up the lavender satin gown, and then she saw Evvie.
“Oh no. Evvie...”
“She’s alive,” Madeleine said. “But she’s unconscious. So much blood... I’ll never... I should never...”
“Bust it!” Ma stared for a moment, then pulled the door shut behind her. “Come on, we gotta get her out of here.”
“Wait!” Madeleine snapped. “She’s still bleeding. We mustn’t move her, it could make it worse.”
“We don’t move her we’re going to have forty Peelers on our necks and there ain’t much nursing to be had in Holloway neither,” Ma said. “Where are the girls?”
“Here,” said Tinder. “I got some linens. Get out the way, I can do this, but you gotta get me some light.”
“Tinder?”
“I was in hospital,” Tinder said. “When I got burnt. I watched ’em. You gotta press on it, bind it up. It’ll hold the blood in. Later it’ll have to be stitched but we en’t got the stuff. Light.”
Beth reached into her bag, and pulled out her torch.
Hard white light flooded the room. “Turn it off!” Ma said. “They’ll think the place is afire!”
But Beth was looking at Evvie. Her clothes were drenched with blood, her face grey, her breathing a dreadful low rasp.
Hands trembling, she adjusted the little wheel on the side of her torch, and the blazing light diminished.
Tinder made a thick pad of cloth and pressed it over the wound. “Lift her. Careful.”
Madeleine, tears pouring down her face, slid her arms under Evvie. Ma moved forward. “Stay away from my daughter,” Madeleine hissed.
Working quickly, neat-handed, Tinder wrapped linen strips around and around Evvie’s torso, under her clothes, binding her like a mummy.
Eveline stirred, her eyelids fluttering. She coughed, and moaned.
“It’s all right, my darling, I’m here,” Madeleine said. “Hush.”
Tinder knotted off the linen, and said, “Water. She’ll want water.”
Beth, glad to do something useful, grabbed a jug and a mug from a nearby nightstand, and Madeleine trickled water into Eveline’s mouth. She coughed again, and opened her eyes. “Baby,” she said.
“Shhh, don’t try and speak,” Madeleine said.
“Baby. Did he...” She coughed again, her eyes closed and she went limp.
“Best move her while she’s out,” Tinder said.
“How?” Madeleine said.
Beth ran to the window. They might be able to get Eveline down the ladder as firemen did, but... dammit, there were people down there, moving towards the back of the house, a couple, seeking somewhere private. If they hadn’t noticed the ladder yet they would, in minutes. She snatched the top bar, hit a small lever, and the ladder snapped together, ratcheting up on itself, good thing she’d designed it to be quiet. It folded down to something that could be carried on the back, so she slipped it over her shoulders.
“Why did you do that?” Adelita said. “We could have...”
“No, we couldn’t,” Beth said. “People.” If only there was a way to make the Aerymouse fly in place, hovering as a bee did... but she would have to fly it and land it again, and even if there were enough fuel to do it twice, there was no room in the tiny garden behind the embassy.
She looked at the others. Madeleine and Tinder were both bloodstained; how could they go back through the house? But she suspected if anyone tried to separate Madeleine from her daughter they’d have a fight on their hands.
“Ma?” Adelita said.
But Ma was staring at Eveline, her hands clenched at her sides, as though someone had switched her off. “I never...”
“Ma, we got to get out of here!” Adelita said.
“I know. I just gotta think. I...” With a visible effort, Ma clenched her jaw. “Right. Tinder, get out of them fancy togs. Can you get them bloody clothes off Evvie and your dress on without hurting her worse?”
“Yes, if we’re careful.”
“Good. Make sure that pad’s covered over. What you got under that dress?”
“Only me shift.”
“Adelita, I reckon there’s servants rooms a spit away. I need a dress, apron and cap fit for a kitchen skivvy. And at least two fancy shawls – or cloaks, if you can find ’em. We need to cover that blood. Don’t you get caught.”
“Yes, Ma. I won’t, Ma.” Adelita dashed away.
“What do you plan?” Madeleine said, not taking her eyes from Eveline.
“Tinder goes out through the kitchen, en’t no-one going to notice a skivvy. They’re worried about people coming in, not out. I’ll find me own way, better we’re not together. Beth, can you take that bloody machine up again?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Ah, Adelita, you got it. Tinder, put it on. Doris, you and Adelita and Missus Sparrow, you’re going to have to take her out. Beth, you’re the strongest, you got to carry her.”
“Me?” Beth knew she was strong, from working with machines, but she’d never picked up someone else.
“I do it they’ll notice. You look enough like a manservant it’ll seem normal. Keep that cap on and your head ducked. The rest of you can help. Anyone asks, she got overcome by the heat and fainted. Girls, anyone pays too much mind, you distract ’em, you know what to do. Doris, don’t you go lifting anything, last thing we need’s attention. You lot can’t go through the kitchens, they already noticed Beth. I’ll let you know when the stairs are safe. Get to that machine and get off, don’t wait for me’n Tinder.”
Beth stood trembling as they put Eveline in her arms. She wasn’t as heavy as Beth had expected, but she was so limp and quiet. Eveline was always sharp and quick, it hardly seemed like her at all. She’s still breathing.
Ma Pether went ahead of them to the end of the corridor. Music and chatter drifted up the stairs. She held her hand up, stay. A man’s voice, a gabble of Russian, laughter, a taint of cigar smoke. A door, closing. Ma beckoned.
They crept towards her. Adelita and Madeleine helped support Evvie’s shoulders and legs, Doris went ahead. Madeleine had a shawl tied across one shoulder and draping down the front of her gown, hiding the worst of the blood – but the hem was thick with it and patches had smeared past what the shawl covered. Tinder had Evvie’s blood-soaked jacket and skirt bundled under her arm. There were already dark red-brown smudges on her dull skivvy’s dress.
Beth couldn’t stop seeing the blood, blood everywhere for all their care. It seemed to shriek its presence. Surely someone would notice? She almost hoped they would – they would look after Evvie, Evvie who was lying so quiet, getting heavier and heavier in her arms.
But Evvie had broken in, and they would take her to prison, and who would care for her then?
It hardly occurred to Beth that she, too, would probably go to prison.
Ma waved them on and she and Tinder disappeared. Beth felt bereft as soon as she was gone. They started down the stairs; wide, sweeping stairs with fine curved bannisters. The gas-lights hissed, unforgivingly bright. Below, two women passed by, chattering, not looking up at the group creeping down towards them. The hallway seemed huge, the tiled floor stretching for miles to the front doors, and the backs of the pair of Cossack guards standing looking so tall and forbidding. It’s only their hats make them seem so tall, Beth told hers
elf.
“Hold up,” Adelita muttered. “It ain’t far.”
A burst of music, and a group of men came out of the ballroom, laughing together. “Must go look upon the hedge, old man,” one of them said, and started up the stairs. He was young, with a thick mop of blonde hair. “I say, everything all right?” he said.
“My daughter, she fainted,” Madeleine said. “The heat.”
“Oh, dear, what fragile flowers you ladies are! Need any help?”
“No, no...”
Madeleine’s voice sounded thin as mist. If she faints we’re done for, Beth thought.
“Why, sir, that’s terribly generous of you, but our chauffeur can manage.” Adelita rolled her eyes and flirted her fan. “My sister’s fainted a dozen times at least, it’s terribly vexatious of her.” She gave the rest of them a meaningful look. “Do take her out, Mama, so at least the rest of us don’t have to have a wasted evening.”
Beth felt Madeleine straighten. “Now don’t think I’m leaving you here alone,” she said, “... miss. Come along.”
“Yes, Mama. Now tell me, are you with the embassy?” Adelita smiled up at the young man. “Such an important job.”
Madeleine was trembling. Doris moved up to take Eveline’s shoulders, glanced down, and muttered, “Hurry.”
Beth realised that her arm felt warm. And damp.
The blood was coming through.
“Excuse us,” Madeleine said, as they approached the guards. “I have to take my daughter home.”
The guards barely glanced at them, but looked back as Adelita approached, all flurry and laughter, “Oh, I dropped my reticule.” She bent to pick it up, sweeping a corner of her skirt across the floor. “There, I have it. Mama, wait for me!”
They crunched across gravel. Oh, such a long way, and so many people looking. Beth’s arms were starting to shake, and a low, ugly pain was blooming in the small of her back like a dark red cloud.
The Aerymouse was surrounded by curious onlookers. Someone had even climbed in the cockpit. “Excuse us,” Madeleine said.