by Regina Riley
Everyone exhaled together, clearly relieved by her decision. Rose looked at Click, who smiled and gave her an impish wink.
“What will we do with him?” Jax asked.
It was just like Jax to plan ahead. They couldn’t have five minutes to just congratulate themselves for their magnanimous decision. No. With Jax, they always had to leap into the next phase of things.
What would they do with him? Again, all eyes turned to Rose.
“I don’t think that’s up to us,” Dot said. Like an ocean wave, faces turned to the doctor at the opposite end of the table. Dot ignored them, instead staring straight ahead, at Rose. “He’s not an object. We can’t make his choices for him.”
Rose smiled at the doctor’s words, thankful for not only the discretion, but also the gentle reminder. “She is right of course. It’s not our decision to make.”
“He has no home,” Magpie said. “No one to take him in. Nowhere to go. What will he do?
What can he do?”
“Perhaps we should ask him,” Rose said. She stood and went to the speaking tubes in the corner of the room. Lifting the cap marked guest quarters, she shouted into the copper pipe. “Mr. Loquacious! Are you there?”
A few seconds passed and the trembling voice of Gabriella echoed up the tube. ”Is there a problem, sir?”
“No problem, Guppy,” Rose said. “Is Atom listening?”
“I’m here,” Atom said in a distant voice.
“I have the crew gathered here,” Rose said. “We have decided to take your employment.
Will you still have us?”
A quiet moment passed before Atom’s reply slipped up the tube, very faint and unsure.
“You’ll help me find my father?”
“Yes,” Rose answered. “Will you hire us?”
Whispers whisked across the metal tube—the sound of Atom imploring Gabriella for some assurance to the validity of Rose’s offer.
“I assure you, Atom,” Rose said with a laugh, “I’m serious. Now will you hire us, young man?”
Again a small pause.
“Yes?” he half said, half asked.
A great whoop went up over the room as the rest of the crew rejoiced in his decision. Whether they were glad of the employment, or the promise of adventure, Rose would never be sure.
“Good,” she shouted back down the tubes. “Then we start first thing in the morning. I suggest you get a good night’s rest.”
The tubes shuddered with the laughter of the young couple. Rose snapped the lid closed, leaving them to their moment. In fact, she was ready for some moments of her own.
“That goes for the rest of you too,” she said. “Get plenty of sleep, for tomorrow we begin the search for an un-locatable man.”
“I would say the same to you, Cap,” Magpie said. “But with Click in your bed, I think we all know there’s a fat chance of that happening!”
Rose smirked while her crew laughed at her expense.
“Come on, Click.” Grabbing her cabin boy by the hand, she tossed her head back overdramatically. “Let’s give them something to talk about!”
Whistles and catcalls followed them from the room.
Once again, all was as it should be.
About Regina Riley
http://www.lyricalpress.com/regina_riley
Regina doesn’t live on a fantastic airship, nor does she have a mechanical lover. She does, however, have steam driven dreams of such things, and scrambles on awakening to translate them into cohesive tales so you can enjoy them with her. As an anglophile she’s enchanted by the idea of Victorian England, but as a down home Southern girl she finds it easier to write Steampunk with an American slant. When she isn’t fantasizing about handsome men made of clockworks, she enjoys writing paranormal erotica, as well as the occasional good old fashioned romance.
Regina’s Website:
http:// www.thebackseatwriter.com
Reader eMail:
[email protected]
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Table of Contents
Clockworks and Corsets
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
