A Riveting Affair (Entangled Ever After)

by Candace Havens

  “That’s—”

  “So yes, I may have married you in part to be free of my father’s arranged nuptials, but I didn’t choose you to get away from my bride. I chose you because now that I’ve met you, I realize that no matter how hard I try, Eliza Deverly is never going to hold my attention in the way that you do. And it’s not fair to marry a woman and then resent her for not being someone else. Now, I would very much like to take my bride out onto the deck and kiss her before we land. Do you think we could arrange for such an assignation?”

  “It depends,” I said when the dance ended. “Am I the woman you’re going to resent or the someone else?”

  He leaned down to kiss my hand, letting his lips rest there slightly longer than appropriate. “I could never resent you, Aida Mulvaney Capshaw, my wife, my heart, my partner in all future scientific endeavors.” Rather than wait for my reply, he swept me out of the ballroom and back onto the deck.

  “Well,” I said, turning my face up to his, “I guess it is my wifely duty to kiss you on our safe return to land. Since today is Christmas and the Queen’s Jubilee both.”

  “Wonderful. A new tradition to celebrate together.” Julian wrapped his arms around me and kissed me so thoroughly, my brain got a bit fuzzy around the edges and my knees began to shake. This man and his intoxicating kisses now belonged to me. Only to me. My heart fluttered again, happily this time, and my stomach grew warm.

  The ship’s apprentices moved around the deck, tossing sandbags over the side to help speed our descent, and the gas engines hissed once more as they were cut in preparation for landing. The ship sank toward land.

  I wrapped my arms tighter around my new husband’s neck and reveled in the feel of his lips against mine. “God bless us everyone,” I said, quoting the story my mother had read to us every Christmas Eve before she died.

  Julian pressed his lips back against mine and all thoughts of the mother I’d lost fled my mind, and the Christmas melancholy we Mulvaney’s had suffered since her death fled along with it.

  There was a brief cough, and we broke apart just before the ship landed with a solid thud upon the dirt. “Didn’t want you knocking heads,” Putnam said smugly, handing Julian the heavy cloak and mask I had discarded earlier in the evening. “I was also concerned old Julian might swoon from lack of air.”

  “You’re a much better engineer than you are a comedic actor,” Julian said. “Miss Mulvaney—excuse me, Lady Capshaw—would have succumbed long before I did.”

  “Not very likely. She’s a strong Irish lass. Besides, I’ve been around to her father’s shop and heard her cussing some of the other engineers when they make a mistake. You, my dear Viscount, have definitely met your match,” Putnam said.

  Julian wrapped his cloak around my shoulders and settled his arm around my waist. “I look forward to the battles to come.”

  “Speaking of battles…” Putnam shoved his hands into his trouser pockets and looked between the two of us. “How do you intend to fight the one waiting for you once you disembark? Lady Teesil can’t be bribed to keep quiet, not for all the gold in Queen Vicky’s purse, and half the other ladies on board have already planned their routes to be crowned Queen of the Christmas Gossip.”

  “That is an issue.” Julian grimaced. “I had hoped to send a letter of explanation to Miss Deverly, apologizing for causing her any embarrassment, before the announcement was made about my marriage. It had seemed more gentlemanly somehow, but if Lady Teesil has this between her teeth, the gossip will reach them before any note of apology I might send.”

  “That does happen when dealing with the nobility,” I said with a grim smile.

  “Especially a busybody like Lady Teesil,” Putnam said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “Yes, thank you, I had realized that it might be an issue. Afterwards.” Julian leaned down to kiss me on the cheek and then sighed. “I’m just damned if I know how to handle this without turning Eliza Deverly into a laughingstock among her social set.”

  “You can’t.” Putnam shook his head. “You’ve married another woman and, while it’s a shame that she’s been put in this embarrassing position, Eliza Deverly will just have to make the best of the situation. She didn’t want you, you didn’t want her and in the end this is all for the best. Now, back to the matter at hand—what do you intend to do with the bride that you have? Install her in your home and let the gossips talk? Take her to the Christmas dinner and watch as your father has a coronary fit?”

  “I was thinking services at Westminster Abbey,” Julian said. “It’s the most public venue to display my new wife. Perhaps St. Paul’s.”

  “No.” I grabbed his arm.

  “No?” Julian looked at me. “You can’t expect to keep our marriage secret darling.”

  “I don’t want to keep it secret. But I don’t want to see it annulled before Boxing Day dawns either.”

  “My father would—” Julian froze. “He would absolutely dissolve the marriage if he thought he could manage it. You’re right, my dear. Rubbing the man’s nose in my newly wedded state will have to wait until we have been man and wife long enough to prevent him from seeking an annulment.”

  “Thank you, but that doesn’t bring us any closer to a solution. Where can we hide for a few weeks? Scotland? Leopold has a hunting lodge there. I’m sure if we sent him a brief note to explain—”

  “Absolutely not,” Julian said, his eyes glittering in the light of the gas lamps that lit the decks. “I’ll not be beholden to Prince Leopold to find us a lover’s retreat for our honeymoon.”

  “So where?” I asked.

  “America?” Julian looked at Putnam.

  “There’ll be no crossings until spring.” Putnam said. “The water’s too treacherous in winter for such a long voyage. There are no long haul crossings at all between now and March.”

  “Ireland?” I asked. “There are airships back and forth between London and Dublin every few hours, and I have family there we can stay with.”

  “No.” Julian pulled me tight against his side. “I’ll not be a burden on my new wife’s family. Besides, I don’t think we’d find the living accommodations very conducive to romance if I’m constantly waiting for your father to arrive and shoot me in the back. Or for your cousins to shoot me in the front in his stead.”

  “So where would you prefer, my lord? What hiding place does meet all your rather stringent needs?” I asked angrily.

  “There’s only one place romantic enough for a truly scandalous elopement, my heart.” Julian took my hand and kissed the inside of my wrist before turning to look at Putnam. “When does your transit dirigible for Paris leave?”

  “What do you know?” Putnam pulled out his pocket watch and pretended to consult it. “It leaves in thirty minutes, and the bridal suite is empty. Or at least, it will be once the captain has cleared out his things.”

  “Really?” I asked. “The captain will give us his cabin?”

  “He might, if the right person asks him.” Putnam touched his cheek lightly, winking at me. I leaned up to give him a quick peck and curled into Julian’s side again.

  “Besides, there are other cabins open. It will be no inconvenience to him to sleep elsewhere, and Roger barely sleeps on his flights. He’s too paranoid about accidents.”

  “Please watch your step, ladies and gentleman,” an apprentice said from the gangplank as he opened the gates for the guests to disembark, “and good evening to each of you.”

  “Quit pushing, Olivia Teesil!” A female voice said loudly. “You’ll wait your turn to reach land like the rest of us.”

  “I wouldn’t delay boarding the Lady Tatiana.” Putnam ushered us toward the back deck. An apprentice laid out another, rough-wood gangplank for the staff to use, and we hurried down it. “She’s two landing strips over, the ship with all its lights shining. Come along now, best we try to get you on without attracting any more attention.”

  “We’ll send word once we’ve settled in,” Julian said wh
ile we hurried through the shadows toward the other ship.

  “I’ve a cousin, Terrence, who lives on the Rue Pleiades. Bit of a stuffed shirt, but he knows society in Paris better than his own gloves. If he’s able to, he’ll help you land steady. He may even find a way for Lady Capshaw to continue her work until you can manage to move on to more amenable climes, come spring. But for right now, as they say amongst our kind, ‘any work is—’”

  “Good work,” I said as Putnam led us up the workers’ gangplank and onto the Lady Tatiana’s deck. “And any port in the oncoming storm will be much appreciated, but speaking of my work, Julian says you’re quite fond of my personal secretaries.”

  “Are you asking whether the rumors suggesting I may have used one of your inventions to spy on my competitors is true?” Putnam asked with a smirk.

  “Well yes, I am.”

  “All I’ll say is Rentfrow was a poor businessman who had no true love for the skies. And if he doesn’t have the stomach to handle a loss in his investment, he should have kept his money under the mattress,” Putnam said.

  “Oh, my apologies for suggesting—”

  “That doesn’t mean he wasn’t right,” Putnam said. “But he couldn’t prove it, and that’s what matters in the ruddy English courts under Queen Vicky’s reign. Long may it last.”

  “Hear hear,” Julian said with a laugh.

  “So, you have been naming your ships after my inventions!” I said, stunned that he’d admitted to such a thing as industrial espionage.

  “Only the ships we were able to buy after taking Rentfrow’s business. It did seem like the right thing to do, since you’d helped us take control of the skies,” Putnam replied, and my jaw dropped open. Both men burst into loud laughter and Julian tightened his hold on my waist.

  “That’s…” I stared at him, shocked.

  “Ingenious, I know,” Putnam said. “Now, I think it best if the two of you hide in your cabin until the ship has begun to float. The cabin at the end of the hall is the Captain’s. I’ll just go and have a word with him before you lift off, explain the presence of two more guests on his ship.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Putnam.” I threw my arms around him in a hurried embrace.

  “The pleasure is entirely mine,” Putnam said and embraced me in return. “Also, may I say just how much of an honor it is to have made your acquaintance, Lady Capshaw?”

  I gave him another quick kiss on the cheek and released him. He and Julian shook hands before they both smiled and gave each other jovial slaps on the arm.

  “You’re a good friend, Putnam. Thank you,” Julian said quietly. “I appreciate this more than you know, old chap.”

  “Yes, well, I did it for your lovely bride. She’s more than you deserve, but she seems happy with her choice, so who am I to protest?”

  “Who, indeed?”

  “I’ll send word when it’s safe to return again,” Putnam said before he turned and walked toward the front of the ship.

  Instead of answering, Julian led me toward the stairs. Once we’d reached the lower level, he laced his fingers together with mine and led me down the narrow, dimly lit hallway toward the large oak door at the end.

  “I’m sure this isn’t what you’d been planning for a wedding night,” Julian said quietly, turning to face me when we reached the door. “Prince Leopold would have planned something much grander if you had eloped with him.”

  “Who cares for what Leopold would have done?” I asked and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him gently. “I’ve married you, not him.”

  “I only hope you don’t come to regret such a hasty—”

  “I never once felt like I could talk about what I consider important when I was with Leopold. Somehow I always felt like I had to dumb down who I was so that I didn’t insult him by being too smart. I don’t have to do that with you, and there’s no way that I can regret that. I wasn’t marrying Leopold for love.” I tangled my fingers in his hair and kissed him more insistently.

  He pulled way and stared down at me. “Really?”

  “Of course not. Leopold was a good friend. A man I knew who would never stand between me and my career. We were companions who could have had a marriage based on affection and mutual respect—of a sort. So when he came to me, distressed over his mother’s plans to marry him off to the Princess Helena, I agreed to come to his aid. Much like I unwittingly did with you.”

  “Oh,” Julian said with a smile, then he broke away slightly and leaned his forehead against mine. “I guess you’ve very few reasons to regret marrying me instead of him then? Since marrying either of us was an act of charity on your part.”

  “No reason at all.” I reached for the door handle and gave it a twist. “Besides, Leopold would have never agreed to spend our wedding night on board a dirigible bound for Paris. He suffers terrible airsickness.”

  “Then it is very good that you chose me and not him for this particular wedding night.” Julian pulled me into the tiny cabin, outfitted with nothing more than a bed, a tiny desk attached to the wall that held a washbasin, and a tiny curtained-off alcove I assumed held the chamber pot.

  “Why is that?” I backed into the room, trying to keep my eyes on the smiling man I’d been married to for less than an hour. He closed the door with a decisive click and stepped toward me.

  “I’ve never once suffered airsickness,” Julian said when my knees bumped against the captain’s bed.

  Chapter Four

  “Well.” I swallowed and looked around the room. It wasn’t like I should be nervous. This was my husband, after all, and I wasn’t some ignorant twit who had no knowledge about what took place in a bed between a man and a woman. It was just that, unlike a lot of other young professional women, I had never taken part in it. “That is good. The airsickness, I mean.”

  “Aida?” Julian stepped closer to me. “Would you prefer for me to find another cabin to sleep in? I’m sure that I could locate other accommodations if it will make you more comfortable.”

  “No.” I shook my head and tried my best to smile at him. “We’re married, and there’s no reason that we shouldn’t share a room. Or a bed for that matter. Even if it is a rather small bed.”

  “I’ll sleep on the floor so that you can have more room.” Julian turned his back.

  “But aren’t we supposed to, well, you know.” I swallowed again and cursed myself for my own nervousness. It wasn’t like the man was going to bite me. Was he? “Consummate the marriage? To make it legal, of course.”

  Instead of answering, Julian dropped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I highly doubt that anyone will have the bad manners to ask what took place on our wedding night, and even if my father was that crass, I doubt he’d cast aspersions on my abilities. Not if he has any desire to further his schemes to marry me off to Deverly’s youngest daughter.”

  “Oh.”

  “Besides, given the rather public knowledge of your special relationship with Leopold, there isn’t much that could be proven in any regard.”

  I coughed. This was awkward. When I had taken my required morality and manners classes at University they had always claimed that a woman should keep her virtue to avoid disappointing her husband on her wedding night. Our teachers had beaten into our heads that no man wanted someone else’s used goods. Now I found myself married to the one man who was hoping someone else had already done the breaking in for him.

  “Well you see…”

  Julian turned to look at me and raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting that during your relationship with Prince Leopold that you and he didn’t—”

  “He’d hope my virtuous nature would be seen in a favorable light by Her Majesty. Also, we were merely friends and nothing more.” I felt my cheeks fill with blood, and I kept my eyes on the floor, embarrassed to be found wanting on my wedding night.

  “Dear God,” Julian said. “It’s just as I expected. Leopold isn’t a real person, he’s been replaced by a very lifelike automato
n from your father’s workshop. That’s it, isn’t it? You replaced Leopold with a machine, and you thought that by marrying him you could gain control of the English throne and bring about a technological revolution that would steamroll my father and his cronies in the House of Lords.”

  “Don’t be absurd.” I wrapped my arms around my waist, shielding myself from his prying eyes. “Leopold is not an automaton. He simply happens to be a gentleman.”

  “Refusing a gorgeous and intelligent woman like you? That’s not how a gentleman behaves. A eunuch, certainly, but no gentleman I know would forgo such ample charms.”

  “Then what are you, husband?” I asked and stepped closer to him, still keeping my body covered from his gaze. “For that’s exactly what you’re proposing to do.”

  “I’m not the type of man who forces himself on unwilling women,” Julian said as he sucked in a breath and stepped away from me. I stepped closer, deciding to take the clockwork fairy by the wings, as it were.

  “Then it’s a good thing that I’m not unwilling. Otherwise, we would be facing a rather tense wedding night, given the size of this bed and the fact that there is only one blanket.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and molded my body against his. I might be innocent, but no one had ever accused me of being a shrinking violet, especially when it was in my best interest to be brave.

  “I’m trying to be a decent man.” Julian tried to step away from me, but his back hit the door to the room. “I wouldn’t ask you to share my bed just to take care of some ridiculous legal technicality. I’m better than that.”

  “Then it’s a good thing that I think it’s more than a simple checkbox on a form.” I leaned up on my tiptoes to kiss him and rubbed my hips against him.

  “You’re making it very difficult to be chivalrous.” Julian tried to pull away from me ineffectively.

  “Then don’t be.” I laced my fingers through his hair, pulling his face back down to mine.