Steamy Cogs

by Jessica Ripley

  “It’s fine, Freddie,” Faith said, although her hands itched to shove him back through the door and then to turn the clock back a minute. “What do you mean presents?”

  “Well, Cissy left some of her clothes at the house the last time she was in the city. Brice never met her, but she’s rather well known for her sporting style. Look at all this tweed!” Freddie yanked the cover off the bundle in his arms. He held several tweed suits in his arms. “There’s more in my office.”

  James laughed, a pure, happy laugh and Faith could have clapped for his joy. She wanted him to laugh again.

  3

  The ends of her sharp, bobbed hair brushed against her cheeks and she had to force her hands to stay down. But her brain kept insisting that she had flies on her skin. As Faith passed a large window, she caught a glance of herself and didn’t recognize what she saw. She looked as if she were about to ride to hunt, clad as she was in a smart wool tweed suit. She was even walking differently, taking longer strides.

  They had an entire compartment to themselves. It went with their cover story as besotted newlyweds. On the way to their compartment, James kept touching Faith, holding her hand or putting an arm about her waist. They smiled at each other and leaned towards each other, seemingly oblivious to everyone around them. Faith scanned the people around them. No one was paying more attention than was normal. She was grateful they hadn’t changed his face yet. Pretending to honeymoon with Freddie would have been beyond her acting abilities. She’d have laughed all the way through it.

  Once the door of the compartment closed behind them, Faith turned the lock and James pulled down the shades. Faith expected he would sit across from her, but he sat beside her, close enough that she could feel his thigh against hers. He was not as warm as she’d expected.

  “This isn’t exactly how I pictured my honeymoon,” he said. He twisted his false wedding ring around on his finger, but he was smiling.

  “No? I always expected I’d be heading to Scotland in disguise with a man I’d only just met,” Faith replied. He laughed. Over the last few weeks she rarely heard him genuinely, happily laugh. She liked it. She wanted to hear it again.

  As the train rocked back and forth and ate up the miles, Faith chattered to James, looking for a story that would make him laugh. She told him stories from her war days. Not all of them were grim. She and Freddie had gotten into many bizarre situations, including the time Freddie had disguised himself as a washerwoman.

  “He’s not a bad looking woman,” Faith said. “But his mustache comes in so fast. However, we learned there’s a lid for every pot. One of the Huns was overcome with Freddie’s mustache and we had a hard time getting out of there before the Hun’s hands wandered too far and he discovered what was really under Freddie’s dress.”

  Egged on by James’ laughter and his questions and remarks, Faith kept talking. James put his arm around her and, when she raised his eyebrows at him, he shrugged and said he thought they were supposed to be a couple. It felt right to have his arm around her. They fit together well. So she settled into his side and kept talking.

  “Then there was the time I crashed the ambulance,” she said.

  “Oh? Not a good driver?” James asked.

  “I’ll have you know I’m an excellent driver. But I was distracted. By my co-pilot.”

  “What was Freddie doing?”

  Faith blushed. She had started telling the story before she really thought of where it went. Or that was the lie she told herself.

  “It wasn’t Freddie. I was with—someone else.”

  “How was he distracting you?” James asked. He looked down at her. Even though he couldn’t make exactly the same expressions as most men, he managed a knowing air.

  She kissed him.

  “Oh, I see,” he said.

  “Do you think I’d crash a bus for a kiss?” Faith asked.

  “So that wasn’t a demonstration?” He asked. James looked at her. His face was so close to her own. His eyes were no longer odd to her.

  “No,” Faith said. Her voice was a bit breathier than she intended.

  “We’re not in public. We don’t need to pretend,” he said.

  “I’m not pretending. Are you?” She asked.

  He answered with another kiss. This one lasted longer, took more of her breath and would have taken his breath if he had any.

  James grinned at her. “So what were you doing when you crashed?”

  She grinned back at him. “Would you like a demonstration?”

  He checked the lock on their compartment door. “You know, I think I would.”

  At the town nearest to Brice’s estate, they took a hotel room for the night where Faith would give James his Freddie face. As well, they sent a coded telegram to E to let him know they were in place.

  The landlady was overjoyed to have a pair of newlyweds. “We need some romance in the world,” she said, grinning at them. She told them when meals were served and implied that they wouldn’t have time for that. The room she led them to was old-fashioned, crammed with Victorian furniture. Every surface was modestly swathed in floral printed fabric. The effect was overwhelming, almost claustrophobic.

  She left them with a wink and closed the door. James looked at Faith and they burst into laughter at the same time. James stepped towards Faith and kissed her.

  “She must have sensed how I couldn’t wait to get my hands on you,” he said.

  “I think she saw me looking at you like a lion looking at some poor deer,” Faith said. They nearly collided, so eager were they to grasp onto each other. James let his jacket fall to the floor. They both flung their hats into a corner of the room and kicked their shoes off. Faith started to unbutton James’ shirt. He put his hands over hers.

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” he said.

  “Oh,” Faith said and tried not to look down, tried not to peek.

  He smiled a little. “No. That works. He wanted us to be able to, you know, blend in.”

  “Only a man would think of that,” Faith muttered, but it was a little funny too. To make an automaton that could make love was bizarre to her. It said a lot about the man’s priorities. But right now, she was grateful that James had been built by a lunatic.

  “I meant—what if, after—I don’t want you to be hurt or mourning me,”

  “James,” Faith said in a stern voice. She took his face in her hands and made him look into her eyes. “I want this. It’ll be good. Because it’s you. And me. And we both know you have to take the good things when you have them because you don’t know what will happen. I—” She couldn’t say it. Not yet. Not when they were about to go into battle and neither of them knew what was going to happen. “I’m mad for you.”

  He kissed her or she kissed him. It all became a little unclear to her.

  Later that night, James whispered, “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Or after,” he said. His voice was quiet. “But I need to say this and you don’t have to answer. I love you, Faith. It’ll have been worth it, just for this night.”

  She swallowed. How could she answer that? The words were trapped in her throat and her heart ached. Oh, love was terrible! She hugged him tightly and willed the night to be long.

  4

  When she first put the Freddie mask on James, they both laughed until they could hardly stand. It was too strange to see James transformed into Freddie. He had managed to pick up some of Freddie’s mannerisms and his tone, if not his exact voice.

  When they left their hotel, James kept his face covered with a muffler. The landlady was so concerned for his health that she forced some truly horrific smelling lozenges on Faith. And she hugged and kissed Faith. “If you don’t have a wee one within the year, I’ll be surprised,” the woman said and winked at Faith. Faith blushed. The old woman laughed and wished them a life of luck.

  They got into their hired car and once inside, James unwrapped his face. James stared ahead, hardly blinking. Faith clutched the steering wheel.
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  “I can’t stand this,” Faith said. “Talk, please. For the love of everything, talk.”

  “About what?”

  “What do you think about marriage? I mean, if we get out of this. When we get out of this,” Faith said.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Of course, I’m serious! Why wouldn’t I be serious?” Faith stretched her fingers. She tried not to grip the wheel quite so tightly. She glanced at him.

  “You’ll want to turn up here. Left,” James said, pointing. “Because that was the angriest marriage proposal ever. And backwards! It should be me asking you.”

  “Well?”

  “Yes! What about you? Don’t you want children, a home? A normal husband? Who’s actually real?”

  “I want you. The rest—we can figure out.”

  James covered his face or rather his Freddie mask and laughed. “This is not how I pictured this moment.”

  “But you want to?”

  “Yes! Pull over.”

  Faith pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned it off. She turned to face James. “I’m not kidding around. I really want to marry you,” Faith said. He shook his head, but he was smiling. She kissed him. “But we have to do one thing first.”

  “Yes. We have to save the world. Easy.”

  At the gate to Brice’s, James spoke into a device like a telephone. The huge gates swung open. Faith drove through the gates and down the long drive. Trees stood on either side of them. In spring, when it would all be green, it would be beautiful. At first, they couldn’t see the house, but as they crested a hill, the house—really manor—appeared in the distance.

  James made a sound almost like a gasp. Faith reached out to him. For a moment, he held her hand to his heart, but it was too awkward to drive like that.

  At the house, a man met the car and held out his hand for the keys. Without a word, he took the car away. Faith looked at James. He held her gaze and then nodded. Together, they stepped forward.

  As they walked up the sweeping staircase to the giant doors, Faith took deep breaths to calm the shaking. If their disguises weren’t going to work, it would only take a moment to find out. This was the most dangerous time in an operation. They’d planned everything else so carefully, but if Brice suspected them, there’d be no plan to go to. They’d have to improvise and fight their way out. She was aware of the gun loaded with metal-piercing bullets and the knife held in her garters.

  “Freddie! Good to see you,” Brice said, hand held out, ready to shake theirs. When he came to Faith, he clasped his free hand over their joined hands. “And finally, I get to meet the lovely Cissy. I’ve heard so much about you. My groom has horses ready for you to choose from tomorrow morning.”

  “You’re too kind,” Faith said.

  “I heard that you’re an excellent horsewoman. I don’t have enough time to ride my horses. It’ll do them good to have someone who can put them through the paces. Come! Let me give you the tour!”

  After a while, having been led through many wood-panelled rooms, Faith found it all blurring into one. She followed along with James’ map in her mind, but it was like a giant, tapestry-filled maze.

  As they passed through the library, James tipped his head towards a door in the corner. Brice didn’t take them through that door. There was the target. She tried to place it in the geography of the house as Brice led them towards their room.

  When left in their room to change for dinner, Faith knew there’d be nothing like the night before. They were now at work and had to be focused. She couldn’t think of what would happen after. But she watched James take off his travel clothes and change into a dinner jacket that Freddie had loaned him. She knew James was watching her too. She wanted to touch him, but she couldn’t, not if they were to keep their heads.

  “Faith,” James said as he stared into a mirror while tying his bowtie, “I—” His fingers fumbled with the fabric. Faith nudged him to turn to face her rather than the mirror and she pushed his hands away from the tie. She avoided looking in his eyes as she tied it.

  “There,” she said and brushed non-existent lint from his shoulders and lapels. He caught her hands in his.

  “These last few days have been the best days in my life since the start of the war,” he said. It was odd hearing his voice and seeing his bright eyes in Freddie’s face. The incongruity sent her into hysterical giggles.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just—Freddie’s face!”

  He laughed too. “You’re spoiling the moment. Or rather, Freddie is. Look, Faith, you deserve more than a man who’s just a brain and gears, but—after, if we can—”

  She nodded. “Yes, after.” She kissed him quickly, just a peck on the lips and then pulled her hands away gently. She held out her arm. “Walk me into dinner.”

  When they entered the dining room, Brice stood and invited them to be seated. Faith pretended not to notice his assessing stare. It felt as if he had invisible calipers in hand and was taking all of her measurements. He was more thorough in his measuring glance than any man she’d come across in her life. It occurred to her that James hadn’t mentioned if there were any women among Brice’s automatons and now she suspected that Brice was deciding if she would be his first.

  Now that she thought about it, she was surprised that he’d started with men. Of course, the war had given him the perfect cover for his body snatching, but still. Many men would have started with women. They would have been attracted to the idea of a perfectly compliant woman who was totally under their control. She shivered a little at the thought.

  “Cold? I can ask my man to stoke the fire,” Brice said.

  “Thank you, but there’s no need. A goose must have walked over my grave,” Faith said. She smiled as James helped her into her chair.

  Through dinner, Brice gossiped about mutual acquaintances of his and Freddie’s. As she took small mouthfuls of her dinner, Faith sent a silent thank you to Freddie for his vast social memory. He’d filled James in on every detail he could think of about anyone both he and Brice might know. And James. He’d learned it all so quickly and so completely. She’d never worked with anyone of his abilities.

  Their dishes were cleared by a man who had a wide-eyed look about him. He was silent and efficient, but every now and then, he’d catch Faith’s eyes and she’d have the sense of him trying to say something to her through them. His remarkably shiny eyes. When he set the main course before her, she watched the man’s hands. They were perfectly smooth, hairless. He was one of the automatons. She tapped James with her foot. He raised one of his hands ever so slightly. She’d never had a partner so in tune with her. Not even Freddie.

  Brice spoke of his experiences during the war, inflating his work as a surgeon, based on what James had told Faith. “And that is why you’re here. I need someone to help me with these poor unfortunates. The current design in prosthetics leaves much to be desire. What good is a stiff wooden arm or a jointed tool? These men need something that both looks like what is gone and functions as what they lost. I heard about the work you were doing in London and thought you were just the man for me.”

  “Thank you for thinking of me. I have to admit, country life may suit me if I can enjoy it from splendor such as this. That is, if I decide to take the position. I’m eager to see your workshops, perhaps after dinner?” James almost had Freddie’s voice perfectly. It was a wonder that E hadn’t tried to recruit James, despite his situation. He was an excellent mimic and he could be made to look like anyone. He was the perfect spy.

  As James drank his wine, Brice watched him with that same assessing gaze he’d turned on Faith earlier. Faith didn’t touch her wine. It had to be drugged. When Brice encouraged her to drink, she explained that she had recently joined a temperance group. “Although, I can’t get this one to abstain,” she laughed. It sounded false to her ears, but Brice laughed along with her. “He is, though, much more moderate than when you knew him.”

  “If you’ve managed t
hat, my dear, you must be quite the charmer. Freddie here was a noted scoundrel when we were at school. The stories I could tell you!”

  They retired to the library. Faith had to force her eyes away from the small door. When Brice invited her to examine the books to see if there was anything she’d like to read during her stay, Faith took the opportunity to measure distances. They’d have to navigate this room in the dark. She counted her steps under her breath as she went around the room, pretending to peruse the old books.

  Did James know he was supposed to be drugged? Faith glanced over her shoulder. Oh, he was good. As Brice droned on about his plans, James let his eyelids fall and his head droop. A few times, he seemed to jerk awake. Brice watched James like a cat watching a mouse. Finally, Brice suggested that it was time for everyone to retire for the night. He rang a bell and the same man who had served them dinner entered. Faith and James followed him to their room.

  When the man left them at the door, he turned to them. He looked around, over his shoulders and down the hallway in both directions. He leaned in close to James. “I know who you are,” he whispered. “Save us.”

  The man walked away as if he’d said nothing at all.

  In their room, James leaned against the door. “They know. My god, he’s got them following his orders, but they know. The program isn’t working as it should. They shouldn’t know they’re under control.” He sighed. “Well, time to get rid of dinner.”

  Faith wanted to ask how he had been able to eat and what he needed to do now, but it seemed impolite, like inquiring after someone’s bowel movements.

  James pulled a face at her. “Trust me, you don’t want to know what’s about to happen. I suggest you step out on the balcony while I’m in the water closet. I’d like to preserve some of the mystery between us.”

  The night was beautiful. Spring was beginning to give way to summer. It wasn’t as warm as it had been in London, but the breeze was soft and there was no dirty fog to obscure the stars. She gazed up and tried not to think about what they were about to do and what would happen after. In the distance, she saw a blinking light. Morse code. E and his men were in position.