Clockworks and Corsets

by Tonia Brown

  Instead of a gut full of spear, she heard a low boom, a soft grunt, then nothing at all. Not even the drums or screams of the natives. All was quiet. Eternal silence. Death hurt a lot less than she thought it would.

  “Captain?” Jax asked.

  Rose opened her eyes. She patted down her blouse, but the spear wasn’t there. She turned a questioning eye to Jax. “What just happened?”

  Jax pointed to the ground between them

  Atom lay at Rose’s feet with a spear embedded in his lower part of his left shoulder.

  Rose lowered to his side. “What have you done?”

  “He took spear for you,” Jax announced.

  “I can see that,” Rose snapped. She lifted the young man as gently as she could.

  He moaned in response. A dark stain bloomed around the wound.

  “He didn’t even know you,” Jax said.

  “Get his feet, Jax. We need to get him back to the ship.”

  “He didn’t even know you,” Jax repeated. “But he took spear anyway.”

  “Jax!” Rose yelled.

  Jax started. Back in the moment, she bent over Atom’s still form and grabbed the spear. “Hold him still.” In one clean movement, Jax snapped the body of the spear away, leaving the head with its handful of bone-white splinters lodged in his chest. “Is best not to remove now.”

  Carting Atom between them, they ran through the remainder of the jungle. Rose cast a few looks over her shoulder, but the natives didn’t give chase.

  “What happened to the natives?” she asked.

  “He happened to them,” Jax said. She nodded to the body between them. “He fired that thing just before he went down. And all went quiet.”

  When they exploded onto the beach, Rose nearly cried aloud when she saw her ship still waiting. Somehow she wasn’t surprised to see the remainder of her crew making their way across the beach toward her, brandishing weapons.

  “Atom!” Gabriella called out. She ran up and fluttered around Atom like a nervous butterfly. She was the only one unarmed. “Atom. Oh, Captain, what happened?”

  “He took a hit for me,” Rose said. “Now get back to the ship so we can get the hell off of this God forsaken island!”

  Click relieved Rose of her end of the load and everyone ran for the ship. Within moments, the crew was aboard. Rose clambered up the ladder behind them.

  “Click, take him to my room and make him comfortable,” Rose commanded when she reached the deck. “Everyone else, get the Widow in the air!”

  Dot followed Click, helping him carry the wounded young man to Rose’s quarters. Jayne disappeared into the engine room while the others hoisted sandbags and tethers from the beach. The pistons creaked into movement when the engines fired. The props began their familiar vibrating hum. In record time, the Widow rose into the night air. Rose breathed a little easier. The moment she was sure they were clear of the island, she returned to her quarters and the guilt that waited there. The door was closed with Click waiting before it as if standing guard.

  “My captain,” Click said. He caught her up in his arms to hold her close. She wanted to collapse then. To cry, to bawl, to lean on his strength, to beg his forgiveness for putting the crew in such danger. Regret could wait until later. Now she had to remain strong and take responsibility for what happened.

  Click tightened his grip on her before he said in a low voice, “You couldn’t have known. She didn’t tell you. None of us knew the island was inhabited.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. She lifted away from him, taking his strength with her. “I see Dot’s kicked you out.”

  “She didn’t want my help.” Click shrugged.

  “Captain!” Gabriella yelled while she ran up the deck. “How is he? Let me see him.” She pushed past Rose, toward the closed door.

  “Hold up, Guppy.” Rose caught the young girl by the arm to hold her back.

  Gabriella jerked her arm away. “I want to see him!”

  “Please,” Rose begged. “Let Dot do her job.”

  Gabriella’s eyes welled up.

  “Is he okay?” Jax asked. The blonde joined them with a look of concern.

  Gabriella turned to Jax and buried her head in the big woman’s chest. Jax was surprised, but didn’t push the girl away. With a perplexed look, she patted Gabriella on the back gently. Sobbing rose from the girl in Jax’s arms.

  Rose didn’t begrudge the young girl one tear.

  “Is he okay, Captain?” Jax asked again.

  “Stay here,” Rose said. “I’m going to go find out.” She left Gabriella in the care of Jax, and then slipped away into her room where she found Dot standing over Atom. He was motionless on her bed with the many pointed head of the spear still imbedded in his shoulder. A dark pool gathered beneath him, staining her sheets with his very life.

  A worried look dressed the elder matron’s face.

  “Dot?” Rose asked.

  Dot drew a sharp breath before she said, “His heart isn’t beating.”

  “Damn it!” Rose yelled. She balled her fist and punched the door behind her. The pain of the blow didn’t take away the ache of Dot’s words. “Why did he do it?”

  “Captain,” Dot said.

  “Why?” Rose asked again as she stormed across the room to plead with the unconscious man. “Jax was right. You didn’t even know me! Why would you be so stupid?”

  “Captain,” Dot tried again.

  Rose ignored Dot, instead raging on. She had never been so infuriated by something so selfless. “Atom Loquacious, you are the stupidest, most foolish, dim-witted, thick-headed...” She paused as she sank to her knees over the still form before she added, “Bravest man I ever knew.” Tears pricked her eyes and stung her nose.

  “Captain, please,” Dot said a third time.

  Rose looked up at her. “What?”

  Dot held out her stethoscope. She nodded to Atom. “His heart isn’t beating.”

  Rose furrowed her brow. The woman shook the listening instrument at her again. Growling, she snapped the stethoscope from Dot and put it on. With a trembling hand she placed the cup over Atom’s chest. Her eyes widened as she listened. And as she listened, she understood. She understood everything. Rose got to her feet in a daze, unsure of how to handle this new situation. She touched the stain on her sheets, then rolled the slick substance between her fingertips.

  “Send for Jayne,” Rose said in a calm voice.

  “Aye-aye, Captain,” Dot said, and hurried from the room.

  Alone for a moment, Rose lowered the stethoscope to Atom’s chest again, and listened to the curious sound within. The hollow sound of steady, rhythmic ticks.

  The sound of clockworks.

  Chapter 11

  Origin of the Species

  In which we pray for Atom’s recovery, and our captain realizes our mistake.

  Click watched the captain’s door with longing. Jax paced the deck like a nervous tiger. Magpie withdrew to her loft for a rest. Gabriella sat on the deck with her back against the captain’s quarters, wondering what she did wrong.

  The captain had sent for Jayne. Out of the whole crew, she’d sent for Jayne.

  At first, when Dot came rushing from the room, Gabriella thought it was a joke.

  “We need Jayne,” Dot said. Jax ran to fetch the girl.

  “Jayne?” Gabriella asked. She tried to get past the doctor. “Surely she wants to talk to—”

  Dot pushed her away from the room and shook her head. “Let us take care of him, honey. He needs Jayne right now.”

  The words cut Gabriella like the dullest blade, slow and ragged, tearing a gaping hole in her aching heart.

  Jax rushed back with the surprised tinker. Dot disappeared with her into the forbidden room. That had been almost an hour ago. Gabriella was left to wonder why.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Click said. He sank to the deck beside her.

  “Nothing,” Gabriella sulked. “I’m not thinking about anything.”

&n
bsp; Click ran an arm around her shoulder before he whispered, “I’m worried about him too.”

  She rested her head against him and sighed. She was all out of tears. Besides, she wasn’t sure she wanted to cry for him anymore. Not if he needed Jayne so badly.

  “Why would he need Jayne?” she asked.

  Click shrugged. “Who knows? He’s a mystery to all of us.”

  She knew this was the truth, Atom was a stranger to them all, yet part of her felt like she had known him for years. “Yes, but why her? Jayne. Why would he ask for Jayne instead of... I mean out of all of us?”

  Click pulled her closer to him while he chuckled. “Do you want to hear a story? To take your mind off of things?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “When I was a baby,” Click began, “the village shaman took an interest in me because I was born with a cowl.”

  “A what?”

  “A veil of mucus, over my face.”

  “Oh.” Gabriella resisted the urge to wince at the horrible image such a description brought with it.

  “Do you have any guesses what the shaman said it meant?”

  “No.”

  “He said I was cursed. That I was doomed to wander the earth for my entire life, seeking a happiness that I would never find in any one place.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “I agree. When I grew up, my mother passed the prediction on to me, and I believed it. I really thought I would never be happy, that I would always be forced to wander. I left my home, my family behind because I thought I would be unhappy if I stayed with them.”

  “Not because you wanted to?”

  Click smiled. “Perhaps it was a bit of both, because truth be told I wasn’t happy there. So, I wandered a long time, and it was true. I’ve ventured to England. To Spain. I spent several months in China and a few memorable weeks in Japan. I have been to a lot of different places, but everywhere I went, I was always very unhappy.”

  “You’re happy now.”

  “Am I? How can you tell?”

  “You’re always smiling.”

  “So I am.” The native man gave a sharp laugh. “So I am.”

  “I thought the shaman said you couldn’t be happy?” Gabriella asked. This story was confusing her.

  “He said I wouldn’t be happy in one place,” Click reminded her.

  Gabriella understood. “The Widow. You’re happy here because the ship moves around.”

  Click smiled wider.

  “I don’t want to seem ungrateful, really,” Gabriella said. “But what does this have to do with anything?”

  “Don’t you wonder what a man is doing aboard an all female ship?” Click asked.

  Gabriella blushed and dropped her head.

  “Come on now, be honest,” Click said. “I’m sure my presence has crossed your mind more than once.”

  “Yes, I admit I have wondered.”

  “The captain didn’t make joining this crew easy.” He lost a bit of his shining smile.

  Gabriella found that hard to believe. “She seems to...umm...like you well enough.”

  “It’s true though. She was dead set on an all female crew. No men allowed, please.”

  “How did you join the crew then?”

  Click’s smile returned. “I refused to leave. From the moment I saw her, I knew I would find my peace with her.”

  Gabriella got the impression they weren’t talking about the Widow any more.

  “I suppose what I am saying,” Click said, “is that happiness is where you find it. Sometimes you have to take it to make it your own.” He stood and flexed his back. He looked like a panther lazily stretching in the early morning hour, muscles taut and toned. Gabriella shuddered at the handsome sight.

  “You love her, don’t you?” she asked.

  Click lifted his hands as if in surrender, but didn’t answer. He stepped back to the door and leaned against it, waiting patiently for his captain’s next order.

  Gabriella swore that if Atom Loquacious lived through this then she was going to have him for herself. She smiled a Clickish smile as she made her plans.

  * * * *

  “So this is what Ruby was after?” Dot asked.

  Rose nodded. “I think so. It makes sense in a twisted kind of way.”

  The three women stood around the bed, staring at the sleeping form of Atom. After all that time they spent believing they would leave the island empty handed, their prize had been with them all along.

  “What would the madam of a bordello want with him?” Dot asked.

  “I’m not thinking of her,” Rose said. “I’m thinking of her cliental.”

  “Ah,” Dot said. “Of course. Anyone of them would pay a fortune to take advantage of this poor young thing. We aren’t going to give her the opportunity. Are we, Captain?”

  Rose shook her head. She was too angry to talk about this right now.

  “He is absolutely magnificent,” Jayne said. She added, just under her breath, “Just like the masters said he would be.”

  Rose eyed the tinker with worry. “Jayne? Are you okay?”

  Jayne snapped out of her memory and nodded. “I’m fine. Just fine.”

  “Are you sure?” Rose asked.

  Jayne closed her eyes. She drew a few deep breaths before she said, “Yes, sir.”

  Rose was just going to have to trust her. With everything. “Once again. I’m going to ask you both to keep this between us. It’s up to him who knows what happened here. So keep your mouths shut. Understood?”

  “Aye-aye, Captain!” the women answered.

  At the sound of their shout, Atom’s eyelids flickered for a moment before he opened his eyes wide. His strange copper eyes darted around the room in surprise.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Loquacious,” Rose said.

  Atom looked at her, then at Jayne, then at Dot.

  “Would you look at those eyes,” Dot whispered.

  “Atom Loquacious,” Rose said, “This is Dorothy Johnson. She’s our resident doctor.”

  “Oh, now,” Dot said, oddly shy in front of the young man. “I’m a nurse by training. I worked with my husband for so long...well, one picks up things, don’t they?”

  “What happened?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

  “You stepped in front of a stingray spear,” Rose said. She tossed a handkerchief full of the spearheads onto the bed beside of him. “It took us almost an hour to extract those from your shoulder.”

  He pulled the cloth open and cringed at the serrated stingers within. He ran his mechanical hand across his bandaged shoulder.

  “You shouldn’t even be alive,” Dot said.

  Jayne snorted. Rose gave her a look that silenced the tinker.

  “Then I owe you my life,” Atom said to Dot.

  Jayne opened her mouth, most likely to protest. Rose’s was quicker.

  “No, Atom,” she said. “I owe you my life. That was quite brave of you.”

  Atom grinned before he dipped his head in obvious embarrassment.

  “It was also stupid,” she added.

  He opened and closed his mouth several times in succession as if unsure how to address the backhanded compliment.

  “But brave nonetheless,” Rose finished.

  Atom settled on a smile. “It was my honor. Really.”

  “Just don’t do it again,” Rose said. “I can’t have people thinking that it’s deadly to travel with me. Can I?”

  With care, Atom tried to sit upright. Dot rushed forward and helped him lean against the headboard. “Doctor, I cannot thank you enough—”

  “Hey!” Jayne shouted.

  “Dot, Jayne,” Rose said. “Will you please wait outside?”

  “He just—” Jayne tried to say.

  “Come on,” Dot said over Jayne. She gathered the young girl by the shoulders and escorted her to the door. “She needs a moment alone with him. You can tell me all about what happened out there.”

  “Jayne?” Ato
m asked.

  The tinker turned back with a hateful look.

  “Thank you too.” He motioned to his wound before he added, “I know you had a hand in this.”

  Jayne seemed ready to deliver another speech. Before she could, Dot pushed her through the door. The room fell quiet. Rose stood with her back to her desk, staring at the stranger on her bed. Atom’s gaze darted around the room, looking everywhere but her.

  “I’m sorry to be such an inconvenience,” he said. “I really had hoped this would be—”

  “Who are you?” Rose asked.

  Atom stopped. He looked down at his mechanical hand, flexing it over and over while he considered the question. A light creak filled the air with every curl of the metal fingers.

  Rose sighed. This was going to be more difficult than she would have liked. She pulled her chair across the room to the side of the bed, where she sat and propped her feet beside of him. She eyed Atom before she asked again, “Who are you?”

  “All I know is that I’m Atom Loquacious,” he answered. He still wouldn’t meet her gaze.

  Rose leaned in closer to him. “Then let’s try a different question, shall we?”

  Atom continued to look at his hand.

  Flex, creak.

  Flex, creak.

  Flex, creak.

  “What are you, Atom Loquacious?” Rose asked.

  The creaking stopped. The silence that followed seemed as accusatory as Rose’s tone.

  Atom turned up to her with a pain-filled expression. “I don’t know. All I know is that I am Atom Loquacious.”

  Rose hated to do this, hated to make him dig so deep when it obviously caused him distress. Damn it! She needed to know what the hell was going on with her ship! She pressed on. “You aren’t Doctor Loquacious’s real son, are you?”

  Atom shook his head. “I never said I was.”

  “You said he was your father.”

  “Yes, because he...” Atom paused, looking away before he finished with, “He made me.”

  That was the answer Rose had been looking for. “I see.”

  Atom hung his head, as if in shame.

  “How long were you with the doctor?” Rose asked. “Before he left you, I mean.”

  “Ten years.”

  “When did he leave?”