"We can be off to the Colonies as soon as possible. Thousands of miles away." Edmund placed a hand on her shoulder. "You'll be safe there."
Evangeline leaned against the wall of The Rusty Sparrow. Everything was topsy-turvy. Edmund was offering a chance to escape Charlie, leave London and start a new life with a well-to-do family, a Professor no less. But if Charlie found her and dragged her back a fifth time, she'd get a thrashing she would never forget.
"I need my locket. I have to go back," she said, her voice calm.
"I'll come with you." Edmund stepped forward, but Evangeline held up her hand.
"No. Wait here."
Ignoring Edmund, the wrestling men in the mud, and everything else around her, Evangeline marched along the alleys to the squat house. She slipped under the makeshift front door and into the hallway.
"About time." Charlie stood outside their door. "Where's my bottle, stupid girl?"
Charlie glared at her with red rimmed, flashing black eyes. She glared back.
"What? Nothing to say?"
Evangeline clenched her jaw. There were no words to describe how much she hated him.
"No excuse? No one stole your coins?" He snorted. His arm outstretched, blocking the entrance to their room.
With a heavy sigh, Evangeline looked down at her worn boots. She was a fool for coming back, but she couldn't bear to leave her keepsake behind.
"Useless."
He lunged out, backhanding her across the face and knocking her off her feet. She crashed against the wall and collapsed into a heap. She looked up at him, expressionless, hair strewn across her face, wiping blood from her nose.
"You want some more? I'll teach you."
He staggered towards her. She scrambled to her feet and ducked under his arm into the room.
"Where are you going?"
He grabbed for her hair but she was too quick. She ran to the corner of the room where she kept her belongings, scurrying through her coat pockets until her hand felt metal.
"Are you deaf as well as stupid?"
She groaned, his toe cracking against her rib. She tumbled to one side, still clutching her coat, wrapping her fingers around the chain and wrenching it from her pocket. She leapt to her feet and slammed a handful of coins down on the table.
"Get your own," she said, with hard eyes.
"What!" he roared.
Instinctively, she put her arms over her head. But he fooled her, punching her deep in the stomach. Dry retching, she doubled over.
"You ungrateful little..."
He clipped her around the ears. She wobbled on her feet, her ears ringing. All she needed to do was get past him and a new life was waiting for her. She clenched her fists, swallowed down her tears and slipped the chain around her neck. She had all she needed.
He struck again, knocking her to the ground, her head hitting the dirty wooden floor. He grabbed her neck, his fingers threading around the locket's chain. He tugged hard. The chain snagged around Evangeline's throat, digging into her skin. She spluttered, but the chain snapped, sending the small oval locket tumbling through a crack in the floorboards.
"No," she cried, as the locket slipped out of sight.
He held up the broken chain and flung it against the wall, sneering. Evangeline took a deep breath, said goodbye to the locket, and crawled towards the door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
He blocked her path. She got to her feet and stood up to her full height.
"I'm leaving," she said.
"You never learn." He guffawed. "Where are you gonna go? No one wants you."
He doubled over, his laugh throaty and mean, shaking his head.
This time Charlie Drigg was wrong.
Evangeline lunged across the floor and picked up an empty bottle. She smashed the bottle against his skull, connecting with a satisfying crack. He howled, clutching the back of his head.
Evangeline ran.
Nursing her ribs, she ran as fast as she could. Down the hall, through the door, across the canal. She didn't look back or wipe the blood from her face. She didn't stop until she saw her new Uncle Edmund waiting for her outside The Rusty Sparrow.
"Let's go," she panted, ignoring Edmund's aghast face.
She stepped into the hansom cab and the door closed. The horse clopping away from The Rusty Sparrow and transporting her to a new life. Evangeline settled back into the soft upholstery and caught her breath. Her smile widening with every step away from him.
Chapter 10
"Miss Evangeline." Miss Plockton appeared in the doorway, dragging Evangeline away from the past. "Your father requests your assistance."
Evangeline extracted herself from the overstuffed armchair and headed for the laboratory-workshop.
"No, this way." Miss Plockton directed Evangeline along the hallway, into the Conservatory and through the open French doors.
The courtyard was covered, corner to corner, by a taupe tarpaulin. A large lump hidden underneath.
"Evangeline. Is that you?" said her father, his voice muffled under the canvas. "Can you fire up the engine? On the left there. Turn the crank."
Evangeline lifted up the fabric and grabbed hold of the crank handle with both hands. She turned the handle. After a series of clicks, the engine popped and snapped to life.
"Splendid," the hidden Professor exclaimed over the whirr of the engine.
The tarpaulin slowly inflated into a long oval shape and began rising from the earth.
"Fasten the guide ropes! Otherwise she'll fly off on us."
Evangeline looped the ropes around pins, hammered into the garden beds. The balloon and gondola drifted into the air, stopping short once the ropes were taut. The Professor emerged from the other side with a big grin.
"What do you think?"
"She's magnificent," Evangeline gasped, admiring the small airship, barely larger than a four wheeled carriage, with two propellers at the back and a keel underneath. On closer inspection, the airship was more like a rusty dinghy than one of the elegant Egmere Brothers' gondolas. The hull was a patchwork of mismatching steel, sewn together with rivets of all sizes and colours. But Evangeline didn’t mind one bit. She clapped her hands and bounced on her toes, her heart brimming. “You really are the cleverest man alive, Father.”
The Professor flapped his wrist. "No great shakes, m’dear. Cobbled together from a few bits and pieces floating about the workshop." He knocked on the steel hull. "I still remember the old Tobermory basics. Acid. Iron. Voila, hydrogen."
"Our very own family-sized airship. Everyone will be ever so envious. Can we go for a ride?" Evangeline tugged at her father's sleeve.
"Are you sure it's safe, Professor?" Miss Plockton tutted.
"Of course," the Professor said, his chin in the air. "I haven't tested it but I'm sure it is. Safe enough to protect us from your star men, Miss Plockton. Despite their advanced science."
Miss Plockton pursed her lips and disappeared back inside the house.
"Change of plans, m'dear. I had a rather spiffing idea while I was cleaning my pipes. Rather than mucking around in the dark in Flemington, I thought we'd catch those scallywags red-handed. In the sky." The Professor puffed out his chest. "As soon as it's dark, we'll go looking for them."
"In our own airship, Father. What an excellent idea."
And so much more fun. Evangeline couldn't wait until the sun set.
Luckily it was May and night came early.
"We'll leave as soon as we've finished our tea." The Professor grinned. "I'm keen to get up there. See what our little dirigible can do."
"Hopefully no one mistakes us for the mystery airships," Evangeline said, before taking the last bite of her fourth honey-covered crumpet.
"Or men from the stars." The Professor chuckled.
"It disnae hurt ta keep an open mind, sir," Miss Plockton said, collecting the plates from the table, her lips drawn into a thin white line.
"Not too open." The Professor raised his eyeb
rows. "Ready, m'dear?"
"One moment, Father."
Evangeline dashed from the room, up the stairs and into her bedroom. Another one of her new inventions sat on the writing desk, a set of magnetic bracelets, made of leftovers from the Bunyip catcher. She slapped the bracelets on her wrists, grabbed her parasol and headed back downstairs. Her father was waiting for her, dressed in a tweed three-piece walking suit, a leather cap with earflaps and a pair of brass goggles.
"Here. Safety first." He handed Evangeline a cap and a set of goggles of her own. "All that soot and smoke up there. Terribly irritating."
Evangeline pulled the cap over her head, but it would not fit over her chignon. She unpinned her bun, carefully constructed to hide the frazzled bald patch from her failed coiffure machine, and tied her brown hair in a long plait like Mei's. This time, the cap slipped on her head easily.
"You won't be needing that." The Professor pointed to the parasol.
"I might." Evangeline pouted.
"Blades? Gas balloons?" the Professor said, eyebrows raised.
"Perhaps you're right." Evangeline's shoulders slumped. She did not want to be responsible for piercing the balloon and incinerating her own father. That would be rather unfortunate.
"Let's go solve a mystery. All aboard!" the Professor said.
They rushed into the courtyard, the Professor cranked the handle and the airship engine whirred into action. Evangeline opened the gate and stepped inside the gondola. The interior was completely sparse. Two long metal benches running down each side and at the stern end, the controlling lever and three dials. A few soft furnishings wouldn't go astray.
The Professor jumped inside, closed the door and took his place at the lever.
"May God be with you," Miss Plockton called as she released the rope. The Professor saluted her and slowly released the lever with one hand, then turning a dial to inflate the gas balloons with the other.
Goggles on, Evangeline's stomach tingled as they left the ground with ease. Gracefully drifting past the first floor bedrooms, the second floor attic where Miss Plockton slept, and over the terracotta roof tiles into the air above the homes and buildings of Collins Street.
Evangeline sighed as she watched Melbourne sweep beneath her. The gas-lit streets were quietening, people heading indoors, curtains drawing and woodsmoke spiralling from chimneys. Melbourne was inside having its tea and all was right with the world. Except, of course, for the mysterious lights in the sky, but Evangeline and the Professor were on the case.
Switching on a gas-lamp, the Professor accelerated, and the airship forged through the sky. Heading east over the sandstone Parliament House, the neighbouring Ministry buildings with their classic Greek columns, and Fitzroy Gardens, where the last of the amber leaves drifted from the trees.
A telescope fixed to his eye, the Professor scanned in all directions.
"Ha. Ha. There!" he exclaimed. "Past Normanby's house."
Evangeline squinted. She could see nothing over the imposing gothic home of the Governor.
Then she looked harder.
Three lights blinked in the distance, growing bigger with each passing moment and heading their way.
Chapter 11
"They're coming towards us! Fast!" Evangeline said, with a gasp and a grin.
The three lights flew in a straight line, catapulting towards them.
"Peculiar." The Professor stroked his substantial black moustache with his clockwork fingers. "By my rough calculations, they are flying faster than any airship I know. It must be some interesting new style of engine. But let's see what our little craft is capable of, eh? Come on, old girl."
The Professor revved the engine and the little dirigible lurched forward.
The lights merged together and swapped positions, from a straight line to a diagonal formation.
"What on earth?" Evangeline murmured.
"Golly," said the Professor. "That's rather nifty. I can't wait to inspect their rudders."
The lights began to circle and spin, around and around, like a Catherine Wheel in the sky.
"Now, that's just showing off," the Professor said with a furrowed brow.
"What kind of airship can manoeuvre like that?"
"None I know," the Professor whispered. "It's almost unnatural."
"You don't suppose..."
Evangeline and her father looked at each other with wide eyes and clenched jaws.
"Miss Plockton could be right?" the Professor said hesitantly.
Evangeline and her father went quiet for a moment, then shook their heads and replied in unison.
"It's not possible."
"Of course not."
A chill ran down Evangeline's spine.
The lights came closer and closer, three comets barrelling towards them. Evangeline shaded her eyes against the glare, her heart galloping under her bodice as she realised the lights were heading straight for them.
"Are we going to collide?" she yelled, over the roar of the whirring propellers.
"Not if I have any say in this matter." The Professor wrenched the lever and changed direction. "That should do the trick. We're out of their trajectory now. They'll pass right over us."
But one light followed, peeling away from the others, adjusting its path and coming right for them. Evangeline's heart thumped in her chest like a marching band. How vulnerable they were, in their little steel boat in the sky, battling an unknown assailant. Next time, Evangeline would insist on cannons.
"Hold on. I'll shake them."
The Professor pointed the small airship towards the ground, Evangeline clutched the outer railing with white knuckles
But again like a reflection in a looking glass, the light followed their lead, descending rapidly.
"Persistent fellow, aren't you," the Professor grumbled.
"It's awfully close" Evangeline said, shakily. "Should we...?"
Crash!
The gondola jerked forward, throwing Evangeline and the Professor from their feet. They hit the steel deck with a thud.
Evangeline bounded back to her feet, counting her limbs, fingers and toes. Thankfully, everything was in its proper place.
"Father?" She turned.
The Professor lay flat on the deck with his eyes firmly closed.
"Father. Father." She rushed to his side, patting his plentiful cheeks and gently shaking him, but his body was limp. His leather cap providing little protection against the hard steel floor.
The light loomed over them again. The dark sky lit up like a blazing January day. The earth was the safest place for them and her father urgently needed a doctor.
Evangeline rushed to the controls and stared at the three unfamiliar dials. She chewed on her lip.
"Next time," she said to herself. "Driving lessons before we depart."
She took a deep breath and a firm grip on the lever.
"Here goes nothing."
She pushed the lever down.
Crash!
A second strike and the gondola lurched on its side, sending Evangeline and the unconscious Professor skidding along the steel floor. Evangeline toppled up and over the metal bench. She thrust out her hands and clutched hold of the edge of the ship. Her body flailing in mid-air, her fingers the last defence against plummeting to the ground.
Acrobatics were Evangeline's forte, but she'd never been very good at aerial feats. She wasn't scared of heights, merely a healthy respect for gravity.
Foolishly, Evangeline glanced down to the streets and roofs below. She gulped. One slip and she'd splatter on the cobblestones like an overripe apple.
She gritted her teeth. Her hands howling under the strain. She set her jaw, tensing every muscle. But one by one, her fingers gave up, until there was nothing left and Evangeline tumbled out of the gondola into the sky.
Chapter 12
"Silly me," Evangeline said, grimacing.
As her fingers gave way, she flung out her wrist. But her magnetic bracelet failed to connect with the hull
and she bounced over the steel surface.
"Knickers."
She swung her other wrist above her head as she fell.
Clunk.
The bracelet locked hard, jolting her to a stop. Fixing her wrist to the hull, the rest of her body dangled like washing on a line.
Crash!
For a third time, the airship rammed the little Caldicott sky dinghy. But this time Evangeline was attached to the hull like a barnacle.
The sky went black, the airship's harsh headlamps snuffed out. She glanced up and caught her first proper glimpse of the mysterious craft. Painted black, it was bigger than any of the airships they'd seen in Flemington, its full shape hidden against the dark sky. The ship slipped left, darted right and then hovered in one position. Waiting for something. Or someone.
Gravity was unforgiving as always. Evangeline's shoulder screamed with pain as the weight of her body tugged her arm from its socket. She slung her right hand behind her head and her other bracelet latched onto the hull tightly.
She heaved and grunted in a very unbecoming way as she strained to release her wrist from the hull. But her bracelet was stuck firm. She grimaced and tugged again, screeching like a laneway cat. This time, the magnet released, and she inched herself towards the deck, slowly scaling up the hull like a two-legged crab. She kept her eyes closed, learning her lesson. The wind billowed, flapping and lifting her skirts for all the world to see. But modesty was the least of Evangeline's concerns.
After what felt like an eternity, but probably less than a minute, she reached the edge and flipped back over into the little dirigible. Her heart beat like a hummingbird's wings as she rested against the side, panting and perspiring, rubbing her aching wrists.
"Father?"
She glanced around and found the Professor crumpled under the bench, still out cold. Stretching him out flat on his back, she placed her hand against his forehead. She was hardly Florence Nightingale but his temperature seemed normal and his breathing natural. If she ignored the nasty red swelling on his forehead, he might be enjoying one of his afternoon snoozes.
The Antics of Evangeline: Collection 1: Mystery and Mayhem in steampunk Melbourne Page 25