Magnificent Devices 07 - A Lady of Integrity Read Online Free PDF Page B

bother. It is three months off, and now is not the time to think of such things. A boy’s life is in danger.”
    Andrew held back a sigh. She was utterly right—and therein lay the only cloud upon their nuptial horizon. Not for the first time, he wished that her loyalty and love for those around her would not precipitate her into rash action. She was forever charging off to save people, which someone had to do, of course. But it came at the expense of her own domestic felicity, to say nothing of his peace of mind.
    But if it was to be his fate to love a woman of resources and integrity, then the least he could do would be to live up to her. She believed him to be the partner best suited to a common happiness, and he would do everything in his power to support and protect that belief.
    Which is why he finally said, “We shall have a simpler wedding that requires less advance planning. If I am to build a prototype of some kind in two days, I shall have to visit the metal yard tomorrow.” The walk would give him time to think and possibly even come up with a design. “It is at times like this that I wish Tigg had not chosen the Corps as his career. I could use his skill.”
    “Oh, Andrew.” She flung herself into his arms, and he took a selfish moment to enjoy the warmth of her embrace and the scent of her auburn hair under his cheek. “Thank you.”
    “I shall seriously consider an elopement if this is to be my reward,” he murmured.
    “Not for that, you gumpus, though I am grateful you favor simplicity. I meant for throwing your lot in with mine, foolish and hopeless though it often seems to be.”
    “If we are to be married, we shall be throwing our lots in with each other,” he said with a slight return of his usual good humor. “It is wise to practice as much as possible beforehand.”
    This earned him a kiss, but as he held her, perhaps his arms were a little tighter about her slender form than usual. And he tried not to think of what would happen to his heart should she be torn away.
     
    *
     
    Alice may have been forbidden to leave Athena , but Claire was simply unable to.
    Her personal vessel, while not quite as shabby as it had been when she’d originally acquired it, still looked as out of place as ever in the grand park that doubled as an airfield at Schloss Schwanenburg, the Munich estate of Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Moored around her were examples of the finest air fleet in the world, with the possible exception of that of Her Majesty’s Aeronautic Corps, shining silver and blue in the late autumn sun. Athena , in conrast, was the brown of a sparrow, of canvas left too long in adverse conditions, and possessed a gondola not of brass, but of a material that might have begun as teak but was now built up and built on in a manner understood only by her present captain.
    “I cannot bear it.” Claire paced the narrow corridor between the engine compartment and the navigation gondola, from whence she would be able to hear the arrival of the pigeon from England. “It has been three days since Lady Dunsmuir’s message went to the Queen. How long does it take to decide whether or not one is going to save a boy’s life?”
    “Claire, you need to get your mind off it. Let me do the pacing,” Alice suggested, not for the first time. “You should be dressing for dinner with the count and his wife. They’ll be here in half an hour. Do you want them to find you in your shirtwaist?”
    “I don’t care if they find me in a pair of your pants and one of Mr. Stetson’s hats.” Claire reversed direction past Alice, who was holding up the wall near the cabin she tended to call her own when she was aboard. “I’m going mad.”
    “We all are, dearling.”
    Claire ran her hands over her face, as though that might help rub the worry wrinkles from between her brows. “I know you are right. Very well. You must come and change, too. You have a new middy now—assign Mr. Stringfellow to pigeon