I ran for the side of the carriage, opened the door, and started to scramble inside. “Madame,” he said, sounding scandalized, and I froze.
“It’s an emergency,” I said.
“Of course. What’s happened? You’re in your dressing gown.”
“My husband has been kidnapped.”
“The police then.”
“No. Not the police. The airfield.”
“But—”
“The airfield. Quickly.” I slid into the carriage and slammed the door behind me as the man snapped the leads over the horses’ backs. We raced through the twisting streets between our humble flat and the airfield in the center of Paris.
Chapter Ten
“Do you finally know where they’re keeping the whelp?” Da asked Putnam as we sat inside my father’s private workshop, drinking tea, three weeks later, after my mad dash to England in nothing more than my dressing gown.
“That whelp is your son-in-law,” I snapped, curling my hands around my cup.
“Aye, and he’s the whelp until we’ve had the chance to have a father to son-in-law talk about eloping with my best engineer and putting us weeks behind in production. Not to mention debauching my daughter.”
“I was hardly debauch—”
“I’ve had ships’ captains and apprentices scouring our port cities for the past week, listening for gossip on where Lord Capshaw may have stashed Julian,” Putnam said. He turned from the fire and joined us at the work table. “The captain of the Wilhelmina reported this morning that he’d heard something on their last stop.”
I straightened. “He did? Where?”
“Well, he heard from a lady known as Mrs. Constance that Lord Capshaw had stashed his oldest son at Llanlweyllan House.” Putnam picked up a piece of machinery and my father snatched it away with a glare.
“How would this Lady Constance have come by such interesting information? I hardly think Lord Capshaw would have boasted about it in her parlor.”
“She heard it while she was entertaining—” Putnam coughed once and then glanced over at me, color rising in his cheeks.
“Go on. Who was she entertaining?”
“The sea captain whose ship was used to transport Julian and his father to Wales. He said the younger man stuck in his mind because it had taken three large footmen to get him onto the ship he was fighting them so much. He thought for sure the man was being kidnapped.”
“So why didn’t he try to help him?” I asked.
“Perhaps he is,” Da said. “The sea captain did make a point of telling the rather scandalous story to Mrs. Constance, knowing she’d pass it along as idle pillow talk with her other clients.”
“What was that supposed to do?” I asked.
“Putnam, would you say your airship captains are a bit routine in their port activities? Frequent the same establishments over and over again?” Da narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at the other man.
“They do indeed, and Lady Constance’s parlor is one of their favorites, seeing as she and her girls give a ten percent discount to ships’ officers.” Putnam grinned and stood to make his way back to the fire.
“She’s a discount doxy. I hardly see what that has to do with rescuing my husband.”
“If a sea captain wanted to pass along information about the kidnapped friend of one James Putnam—without being seen to publicly anger Lord Capshaw—telling a whore who regularly does business with airship captains would be a good way to do it,” Da said.
“Oh that’s bloody ridiculous.” I slammed my tea cup down on the table and watched as the contents slopped over the edge to puddle on the table in front of me. “Why not just help Julian when he had the chance?”
“Because Lord Capshaw is a formidable political enemy for a merchant, especially a merchant who needs a license approved by Watling House to ply his trade.” Da patted my hand. “He can’t simply be opposed without fear of revenge.”
“Well, damn,” I said. “So what shall we do about this particular mess?”
“We’ll get him back, of course.” Putnam clenched his hands into fists behind his back while he stared into the dancing flames. “Llanlweyllan House isn’t more than an hour from the public landing strip in Cardiff, and the Wilhelmina flies every other day between the cities. One day to Cardiff, the next back to London.”
“I can’t believe Lord Capshaw stashed Julian in Wales. Wales, of all places. Those—those—horrible, nasty things with their hooves and their horns and that curly fur.” I shuddered in revulsion at the thought of all the livestock and sterile air that filled Wales. I had been born and raised in a city and the idea of good clean country air made my stomach churn.
“You mean sheep?” Putnam turned to stare at me, one eyebrow raised.
“Exactly, and not a single one of them a machine. You think it would be much cheaper to make scenery that doesn’t need to eat.”
“Now, darling.” Da patted my hand again. “Even engineers can’t eat clockwork sheep. Besides, there are worse places he could be—shanghaied aboard a ship destined for Hong Kong, trapped on a spit of land near the Isle of Wight, stranded amongst the Scots. All of those are worse places than the Duke of Deverly’s hunting lodge in Wales.”
“Not that Ireland is much better.” Putnam quirked his lip upward and came back to sit at the table across from me. “Meanwhile, sheep or no sheep, Julian is locked inside a hunting lodge in Wales and, according to the gossip I’ve been careful to listen to, he’s set to marry Eliza Deverly in two days, then the Queen will reinstate his title, return his lands, and he’ll go back to being his father’s heir.”
“What?” My eyes widened in horror. “He can’t marry Eliza Deverly! He’s my husband.”
“Capshaw has petitioned Queen Victoria and the Archbishop of Canterbury to agree to annul your marriage on the basis of pre-contract. For both of you.”
“Pre…” I swallowed. “She’s going to use Leopold against me even though we never married?”
“She claims that your engagement had not yet dissolved,” Putnam said.
“But she’s the one who dissolved it! She wanted him to marry that German princess.”
“Yes, well.” Da shifted in his seat. “It seems negotiations may be breaking down with the German princes over the new steam technology import treaties. Your pre-contract to Leopold may work to keep him out of a no longer advantageous marriage as well.”
“So I’m not good enough for Leopold, or Julian for that matter, but I’m good enough to keep Leopold from tying himself to a marriage based on a poorly written treaty?”
“It’s the way of nobles.” Da shrugged. “They’re fickle creatures.”
“So I’m no longer Julian’s wife?” I felt my heart hammering in my chest. “Is that what you’re telling me? Queen Victoria has ordered the Church of England to dissolve my marriage?”
“It hasn’t been done yet.” Putnam reached over to grasp my hand in his and kept his eyes locked on mine. “Until the bill is delivered and Julian marries again we can still stop this.”
“What if we can’t?”
“We will,” Da said. “We know where we have to go and we know how long we have left to affect a rescue. That’s enough to form a plan.”
“We have two days.” I swallowed thickly and felt my knees knocking together. Julian was to be married to another woman on Sunday, and it was already Friday morning. That wasn’t much time to break in and save him. “I assume the hunting lodge where he’s being held is filled with people? Guests? Servants?”
“I think that can be guaranteed,” Putnam said.
“In the middle of the wilderness?” I felt my dread rising.
“It wouldn’t be much of a hunting lodge if it was located in town,” Da said.
“So the only thing we’re short is a hungry Welsh dragon guarding the dungeon where he’s being kept.”
“There is always hope for a miracle,” Putnam said.
I felt myself smiling in spite of the situation. “Wha
t are we going to do?”
“We’ll play to the strengths Lord Capshaw has always found so repellant about us.” Da gave me a wicked grin.
“You want me to build an automaton to rescue Julian? We don’t have the time.”
“Nah, poppet.” Da nudged me with his shoulder and smiled mischievously. “You’re Irish. We’ll simply disguise you as one of the housemaids and slip you in through the kitchens.”
“You don’t think the legitimate maids will notice an imposter in their midst?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“I think they’ll be useful allies. Sneaking you in is a thumb in the eye of the bloody English bastards after all.” He looked at Putnam. “No offense meant, of course.”
“None taken obviously,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I’m feeling rather annoyed at the nobility myself right now. Kidnapping one of the best chemists I know and forcibly marrying him to a twit like Eliza Deverly. The utter bloody gall. He’ll be useless to me if he’s chained to that girl and listening to her inane chatter every day for the rest of his life. She’ll keep him too busy with tea and social calls for him to do any work.”
“Well, at least we know that you’re helping us for noble reasons,” I said before taking a final drink of my tea.
“Of course I am,” Putnam said. “Julian would be absolutely miserable with her. Besides, I like you much better than Eliza Deverly. You’re the sort of girl a man like Julian needs.”
“Once I’ve snuck in, how am I supposed to sneak myself and Julian back out again without his father catching us?”
“When you locate Julian, you will find a way to spirit him out the kitchen entrance and into a waiting carriage.” Da said. “How else would we do it?”
“I don’t know, but this seems a bit of a risk. I mean, you want me to break into a house full of nobles—who will most likely be looking for me—and then stage a daring rescue? What if something goes wrong? What if we’re caught?”
“Then you’ll have to do your best, my girl,” Da said with a hearty slap on my back that knocked me forward slightly.
“I think,” Putnam said, “once you’ve rescued Julian, instead of returning to London, it may be better if you avail yourselves of a scenic flight to the land of your ancestors, which will be leaving from the Cardiff station early Sunday morning.”
“How early?”
“Three in the morning.”
“Why would we want to travel to Ireland? If Lord Capshaw is capable of capturing his son in France, an escape to Ireland will provide him with even fewer difficulties. Besides, he has some advantages in the courts there. Or he used to, at least. Wouldn’t you say, Da?”
“Ah, but you haven’t asked why Limerick is such an attractive option for your escape.” Putnam shook a finger at me.
“You brilliant bastard.” Da slapped his hands on the table. “Putnam and Son’s dirigible landing spot is on a spit of land near the docks.”
“Indeed it is,” Putnam said, “and the Dulcinea will set sail for Boston at six thirty that morning with the two of you aboard. Plenty early for Julian to take up his new post as head of research for P&C Air Technologies.”
“P&C Air Technologies?” I asked.
“Only the finest new firm for the development of mass air transit. I’m sure within the next year Putnam and Capshaw air cabs will fill the Boston skies.”
“I should have known you were behind the scheme for the flying hansom cabs.” I stood and patted Da on the back, my stomach feeling lighter than it had in days. Once we saved Julian, there was still a chance that we could have a life together.
“I thought it was rather obvious,” Putnam said. “Now, if I were you I’d go and pack some things.”
“Some things?”
“Aye, if we succeed, you’ll need more than one dress, and it will be a very long time before you can return.”
“Of course,” I said, my heart churning at the bittersweet thought. To get the man I loved back and have a life with him, I would be forced to leave everyone I knew and cared about behind. “I should write Esther a note as well. To tell her goodbye.”
“Don’t,” Da said quietly. “Not yet. You’ll have time for notes once you’re safe. Best not to risk putting anything in writing until our plans are a success.”
“Of course.” I felt my shoulders slump.
“Aida?” Putnam asked quietly.
“Yes?” I looked up at him.
“When this is over, I’ll go to your friend personally and explain why you didn’t come to say goodbye.”
“Thank you.” I felt my heart clench in a mixture of fear and sadness before I turned on my heel and started toward my rooms.
Chapter Eleven
The next night I was sitting in my cousin Ewan’s tiny back garden in Cardiff with its neat hedgerow and pink climbing roses on a white trellis. Tidy beds full of colorful flowers blossomed around me. I stared absently at the blooms, tugging on the plain, black woolen dress Ewan’s wife Birgitte had acquired for me so that I would blend in with the other house maids.
“What are you thinking?” Da asked and I turned to see him standing in the cottage’s narrow doorway.
“I’m thinking that this could very quickly go pear shaped, and we’ll find ourselves neck deep in the muck. Between the combined forces of Lord Capshaw and the Duke of Deverly, our business could be destroyed.”
“Not likely.” Da took my arm and led me around the side of the cottage and out into Birgitte and Ewan’s even tinier front garden. “Besides, what do we care if they do? It’s just a business.”
“It’s our business. You built it from nothing when you and Mama came to England. You laid the floor in the workshop with your own two hands when the place was nothing more than a jumble shop with pig pens in the back.”
“I did.” My father sat on a narrow stone bench near the garden wall and leaned his forearms against his knees. I sat beside him and tugged at the lacy trim edging the sleeves of my dress. “Since then I’ve become very profitable, patent of the Queen herself outside the door. What does that have to do with rescuing that young man of yours?”
“We might lose our business because of my foolishness.”
“Might, but then again we could lose it if Capshaw passes his repatriation laws again. Or if Capshaw finds some way to send me to prison like he’s been threatening for years. Or passes a law like the ones in France that won’t allow you to inherit the business. Or any of a hundred things. If that man has his way, he’ll have all of us loaded onto boats and shipped back to the old sod with nothing but our names and the clothes on our backs. Even less if he could manage it. I wouldn’t put it past the man to make us swim naked if he thought he could justify it to Parliament as saving a few shillings.”
“But—”
“We’d do the same thing then as we’ll do if you fail tonight. Pick ourselves up, dust off our backsides, and rebuild somewhere else. You never worry about that. We Mulvaneys are made of tougher stuff than most people realize.”
“I just—”
“Look here, now.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pistol.
“What’s that for?”
“It’s not much, only two shots, but if worse comes to worst, it’ll get you out of a tight spot.”
“Da, I wouldn’t even know how to use it.” I swallowed and felt my heart pounding as I looked at the weapon cradled in his hand.
“Get on with you,” he said and then laughed. “You’re a master engineer, and that’s a wee little gun. I imagine you’ll figure out which end points where without any difficulties.”
The garden gate creaked slightly and I stowed the tiny pistol in the pocket of my dress before glancing up to see Leopold standing in front of us.
“I thought I might find you here,” he said, his voice glum. “It didn’t take more than ten shillings to sniff out the fact that there was a new cousin staying at the Mulvaney place. The last man I spoke to even gave me directions.”
; “How did you know that I’d be here?” I asked. “In Cardiff, I mean. I didn’t tell anyone I was coming.”
“Because you’re much too brave to give up without a fight,” he said. “No matter how foolish and futile that fight might be.”
“You’re not here to try and stop me are you?” I asked, clutching at the pistol in my pocket. “Since you think it’s foolish.”
“Could I?” His eyes were sad. “Stop you, I mean.”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Then that’s why I’ve come to help,” Leopold said. “I convinced my mother to let me travel with the Archbishop. He’s taken rooms at Llanlweyllan House but I haven’t. I’m staying at Caerdydd House with John Stuart. He’s the Earl of—”
“Of Bute, yes I know.”
“Of course.” Leopold shifted from side to side. “So my proposal is this. We take my carriage to Llanlweyllan House and I provide a distraction by showing up unannounced during their supper. Everyone will be so distracted seeing to me that you can slip in, rescue Capshaw, and slip back out again before they’ve rearranged the seating and found me a plate.”
“Do you think that will work?”
“Of course, then for your final dastardly act, you’ll steal my carriage, threaten my willing driver—who will be waiting with the horses already harnessed on the road just outside the manor house—and force him to help you escape.”
“They’ll suspect you helped me,” I said.
“My dearest girl, I am Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and fourth in line for my mother’s throne. They can suspect all they like, but to try and stop me is treason. Besides, how did you intend to get there without me? You weren’t going to walk were you?”
“I was going to take Gertie.”
“Gertie?”
“My cousin’s horse.”
“I think you’ll find my plan is better.” Leopold stepped forward to take my arm. “Now come along, I’ve a carriage that is in desperate need of being stolen during a midnight escapade.”
“Well, then.” Da stood and pulled me into a tight squeeze. “Kiss me for luck, girl. I’ll see you and your young man at the Queen Katherine.
A Riveting Affair (Entangled Ever After) Page 19