Steampunk Carnival (Steam World Book 1)

by Cassandra Leuthold

  “He had a little girl,” security added.

  “A little girl?” Katya knew she must sound stupid, but she could not fathom Ernst Lieber having a family. Not just any family, but a wife upset enough over his passing that she would accost the great William Warden on his own turf. “How old is she?”

  “Seven, maybe less.”

  “I’ve never seen Mrs. Lieber here before.”

  “She had no reason to come before.”

  “Did you know she was coming?” Katya watched the door to Mr. Warden’s office, wondering how long it would stay closed this time. The security guard gave no answer, and Katya glanced over. He no longer stood beside her or anywhere else she looked.

  “So I was right,” Katya murmured to herself under the great Warden wheel. “They do move and disappear through the crowd like ghosts.”

  Katya decided not to wait for the reemergence of Agna Lieber. She drifted back to the patrons and their numerous questions and problems. The sneaking suspicion tickled her brain that she should have known Agna existed, and by the end of the night, Katya remembered where she had first caught wind of a woman in Mr. Lieber’s life.

  The original argument Katya heard between Mr. Davies and Mr. Lieber had been about a woman. Katya had assumed she was a girlfriend or hopeful acquaintance of Mr. Lieber’s, but now she realized Mr. Lieber had raged on behalf of Agna. She wondered if Mr. Davies had actually been interested in her or if Mr. Lieber had taken a simple glance as the only trigger he needed to rip Mr. Davies in two.

  Katya did not think it mattered. Mr. Lieber was dead and buried. She did not expect to see Agna again, and she did not mention Agna’s visit to Mr. Davies when she left the carnival for the night.

  Three days later, Katya passed Agna in the crowd and almost did not recognize the widowed Mrs. Lieber. Katya stopped in her tracks and studied the woman. Agna’s hunched figure continued toward the water closets, clad in the pale, muddy colors the charwoman always wore. Against the wood and metal backdrop of the carnival, Agna labored nearly invisibly. She carried a bucket in each hand, one arm straining longer than the other. She set them down outside one of the water closets and eased the door open before she carried the buckets inside.

  That night in the carriage, the charwoman’s silence seemed more purposeful than usual. She pursed her lips as she stared out the window, her eyes focused on something Katya could never see.

  In the morning, Mr. Davies made his usual stop after picking up Katya and Magdalene from the Weekly Boarder. Irina’s form shifted the weight of the carriage as she stepped inside. She settled in across from Katya in her dark brown jacket and lighter brown dress. The carriage did not stop for the charwoman.

  “Is she sick?” Magdalene asked.

  Katya felt a pit deepen in her stomach. “I think she’s been replaced,” she said.

  Irina looked up from brushing at the fabric of her skirt. “Because of the security? Did they find something out?”

  Katya thought back to the scene Agna had played out with Mr. Warden. “It’s because Mr. Lieber was murdered. I think she’s been replaced by Mrs. Lieber.”

  Irina’s dark eyebrows shot up under her parted bangs. “There’s a Mrs. Lieber?”

  “Yes. She paid a visit to Mr. Warden the other night. I saw her again last night. She was cleaning out the water closets.”

  Irina nodded slowly, her eyelids heavy for thinking. “Any one of us could be next.”

  “No, I think she just needs a way to support herself. She has a little girl to look after.”

  Irina’s eyes widened again. “Mr. Lieber had a little girl?”

  “I was as surprised as you are. It’s hard to imagine him being a father, isn’t it?”

  “It’s hard to imagine a monster like him at all.”

  Magdalene spoke up. “He must’ve had a softer side we never saw.”

  Irina guffawed with gusto and raised her hand to cover her mouth. “Excuse me, dear, but there was nothing soft about Ernst Lieber. I’m sure his widow was well acquainted with the back of his hand.”

  Katya wondered if Mr. Davies could hear them from his high seat behind her. She hoped, if he did care anything for Agna Lieber, that the wind was drowning in his ears.

  “I feel sorry for the woman,” Irina admitted. “Marriage to Ernst Lieber couldn’t have been kind to her. She must’ve felt freer than a jay bird when he went to meet his maker.”

  “I’m not sure,” Katya said. “She seemed pretty upset.”

  “Well...” Irina trailed off. “Sometimes the more they bruise, the more used to it they become.”

  Mr. Davies stopped the carriage at the carnival gates. It pained Katya to see Mr. Warden’s name in huge letters near the opening. Mr. Kelly’s name deserved to be there, not someone who used the carnival to lure every eligible woman to him within fifty miles.

  “I wonder if Mrs. Lieber will be riding with us,” Katya said as she stepped down from the carriage.

  The next morning, only Katya, Magdalene, and Irina were dropped off.

  That evening, Mr. Davies made a new third stop, and Mrs. Agna Lieber climbed into the carriage.

  Chapter Twenty

  Agna settled into the back corner of the carriage, keeping her head down and her mouth shut. Katya felt too uncomfortable at her unexpected appearance to greet her.

  Magdalene attempted a polite “Good evening,” but Agna gave only the slightest nod in return.

  Irina, like Katya, sat without speaking.

  Maybe because Katya felt so aware of Agna’s presence, she saw Agna much more during her nights at the carnival than she had ever noticed the previous charwoman. The usual woman had proven no slacker. Katya knew from glimpses of her bare hands that the woman’s palms and fingers were worn into rough, peeling patches of what could loosely be called skin.

  Agna worked every bit as hard if not harder. Katya observed her time and time again carrying buckets weighing her hands down to her knees. Agna did not just clean and tidy the water closets, making sure they smelled fresh and kept a full supply of toilet paper. She ducked in and out of Mr. Warden’s office quite often with a bucket of cleaning supplies. Katya learned from listening in on the maintenance men that Agna had even organized their storage room for them without being asked.

  If Katya had heard about Mrs. Lieber before meeting her in such a peculiar way, she would have prepared herself to dislike her. But as the nights wore on, Katya realized that Agna never enjoyed herself. The charwoman she replaced had not been a bundle of mirth, but Agna’s frown sank deeper. Her movements were not simply purposeful and efficient. They were labored, desperate to please, and hurried to complete each task.

  Agna’s misery tore Katya’s heart to pieces until she could not stand to ignore the woman anymore. Katya approached her in front of the maintenance office behind the western food stall. Agna let her buckets down with a controlled drop, one full of dirty water and the other brimming with supplies.

  “Mrs. Lieber?” Katya said, her voice lilting. “We haven’t met formally. I’m Katya Romanova. I help direct the guests here.”

  Agna squinted at Katya with a guarded expression that could have hidden anything from suspicion to physical exhaustion.

  “I’m sorry about your husband,” Katya added. She did not clarify that she was only sorry that Agna had lost her husband and not that Ernst Lieber no longer walked among the living.

  Agna opened the door to the maintenance office and hoisted the bucket of supplies inside. Katya followed her. She had not ventured into the small building since she toured the carnival before its opening. Like Mr. Warden’s office, a wall and door split it into two rooms. The front room surrounded Katya with shelves and bins of tools and spare parts. A work bench stretched across the right-hand wall. Through the open doorway to the inner room, Katya could see a few chairs around a table where maintenance could sit and relax. Finding no men in the building, Katya closed the door.

  “What do you want?” Agna asked in a hoarse voice
, her back to Katya. She lowered the bucket of supplies on the workbench.

  “I thought you might want a friend at the carnival.”

  Agna chuckled ruefully by the time Katya finished her sentence. “I don’t need a friend.”

  “What do you need?”

  Agna faced Katya, her dim blue eyes dissecting her. “I don’t know you.”

  “I saw you talking to Mr. Warden. You have a daughter to take care of, don’t you? You need this job.”

  “Yes, and he gave it to me. What do you want from me?”

  “I think you deserve better. That’s all.” Suddenly doubting her ability to reach Agna, Katya fumbled for the door handle.

  “Wait.” Agna stood as proud as anyone in her position could. Her head was pulled back, even her shoulders lifted, but her face stretched taut with anguish. “I have one question. Nobody can tell me where my husband died. Do you know where he was when it happened?”

  As every heartbeat pounded in Katya’s ears, she remembered promising Mr. Warden she would keep the information to herself. Faced with Agna’s grief, she heard her lips break that promise. “He died in Mr. Warden’s office, in the back room.”

  Agna’s fingers grasped at her throat. “I was in that room.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Katya opened the door and let herself out. Twenty feet away, Isolde Neumann strolled past the corner of the near food stall. She tilted her head back, taking in the sights rising into the sky around her. Katya imagined she had just come from Mr. Warden’s office and was finally convinced to spend some time getting to know the rest of the carnival.

  Katya stayed by the maintenance door to give Isolde time to move farther away. Katya did not take more than a few steps to her left when Maddox approached her from the opposite direction.

  Maddox beamed in recognition and tipped his hat. “Miss Romanova. I never thought I’d see you over here by the maintenance storage. Don’t tell me one of the customers wanted to borrow a hammer?”

  Katya tried to sweep past Maddox. “No, Mr. O’Sullivan, they did not.”

  Maddox turned to follow her with his gaze. “Have you been reading the papers? The police arrested the man who shot President Cleveland. He’ll be going to trial soon.”

  “Yes, I heard.”

  “The maintenance men are putting bets on whether or not he’ll be hanged. I think he will be. The man who shot President Garfield was.”

  Katya nodded and tried to slip away.

  “I barely remember that,” Maddox rambled on. “I was only fourteen when they hanged him. It was exciting, though.”

  Katya huffed. “Mr. O’Sullivan, I have work to do, and I’m sure you do, too.”

  Maddox angled his hat back a little, his good mood only brightening. “I heard you’re not above shirking your work every now and again.”

  Katya lowered her chin. “You’ve started hearing bad things about me.”

  “Nothing that bad, Miss Romanova. I’m sure you’ll hear some interesting things about me.”

  “I don’t talk to maintenance very often.”

  “Let me fill you in, then. I’ve been roaming half the country most of my life. Never been here before. I just spent over two years on the east coast, like I said.”

  Katya sighed and put off her thoughts of running away from him. “Did you like it there?”

  “It was all right. There’s excitement to be had everywhere. You don’t have to go west for it.”

  “The West is supposed to be one of the most exciting parts of the country.”

  Maddox shrugged. “I like it here. They don’t have machines like this out west.”

  “No, they don’t.”

  Another maintenance man draped in a suit of drab colors called for Maddox, and with his attention diverted, Katya stole away into the crowd. She passed the water closets and the Cannon firing its cars onto the sloping tracks behind them. She did not know how to react to Maddox’s presence at the carnival. Katya felt more like herself when the patrons began asking for help: Which flavor of hard candy tasted the best? Was the Warden wheel safe for rambunctious little boys? Katya was not used to avoiding such a pervasive, moving target. Not even Mr. Warden pursued her that incessantly.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Every time Katya saw Agna Lieber – riding in the carriage or working at the carnival – she remembered Mr. Lieber’s violent argument with Mr. Davies.

  Mr. Davies never spoke to Agna in any special way. He greeted her stiffly, as if he, along with everyone else, knew Agna primarily by the way she had come to work at the carnival. She was a struggling widow first and a fellow worker second. Katya listened closely to Mr. Davies’ scant words, trying to discern the least amount of secret desire or hidden feeling. She could never find any, but she knew it could be due to a certain cleverness or great respect for Agna’s mourning on Mr. Davies’ part.

  Katya could picture the scenario either way. Perhaps Mr. Davies’ eyes had only fallen on Agna a single time, and Mr. Lieber had taken his protectiveness to the extreme. Katya liked the other path better, a story she wove to be larger than life. Poor Mr. Davies, unmarried and childless, pined for Agna from the driver’s seat of his carriage. He rarely dared to sneak glances at her, much less speak to her, and the only time he let his eyes linger too long, Mr. Lieber’s jealous temper wrung him out for it. Poor Mr. Davies, with his lonely job of driving four women who shared the good fortune of having each other’s company for support and conversation. He had only the horse to mutter to in the sparsely populated hours of the early morning.

  Katya spun wild tales as she rode in the carriage or waited for carnival patrons to approach with a need. Mr. Davies would break from his normally mundane routine and reassuring manners. He would drive off with Agna into the night instead of escorting her home. The horse’s sprinting speed would frighten her, but Mr. Davies’ presence would comfort her. At last the carriage would stop, and Mr. Davies would fling himself down from the driver’s chair. Agna would climb down to meet him, only farmers’ fields surrounding them now. Her eyes would water with a rise of affection she had barely acknowledged when her husband lived. She would throw her arms around Mr. Davies, and he would kiss her with unrivaled passion. He would press her back against the side of the carriage, reaching for the buttons on the front of her jacket...

  “Do you know what contest is being held tomorrow?”

  A man’s harsh German accent splintered Katya’s fantasy. It could hardly be mistaken for Mr. Davies’ lyrical, rustic English speech.

  Katya blinked at a young blond couple watching her expectantly. Two small, pale-haired boys stood at their sides. Katya tried to remember what Mr. Warden had told her. “I believe it’s a dancing contest. It starts over every hour. The best couple in each group wins a five-dollar certificate to Montani and Company grocers.”

  The young woman turned to her husband, her eyebrows raised as she nodded at him. The young man tipped his hat to Katya.

  “You’re welcome,” Katya gushed. “Enjoy the carnival. Make sure you get some snacks for the children.”

  The family walked away, and Katya returned to her tales of Agna and Mr. Davies. She passed the rest of the night uneventfully, and once she had helped the two men in the ticket booth chase down loose tickets blowing away across the grass, Katya set her sights squarely on Mr. Davies. She left the band to fold up their own music stands and strolled over to the gate as soon as the carriage pulled up.

  Mr. Davies tipped his hat as Katya approached him. “Good morning, Miss Romanova. Are you early, or am I late?”

  “I’m early, Mr. Davies. I wanted to ask you something, but I’ll warn you. I’m sure it’s none of my business.”

  Mr. Davies tilted his head, waiting.

  “Do you mind if I climb up and talk to you?”

  “Not at all.”

  Katya stepped up into the driver’s seat and settled in next to Mr. Davies. He set his horse whip aside.

  Katya cringed to see the tool up close.
“I’m sure you remember the night Mr. Lieber used your whip against the horse.”

  Mr. Davies’ back stiffened. “You saw that. Yes, I remember.”

  “I heard you arguing about a woman.” Katya paused to see if Mr. Davies caught on to what she was saying. “Now that I know Mr. Lieber was married, I wondered if you weren’t arguing about Agna.”

  “In a way,” Mr. Davies replied. “No argument with Mr. Lieber was ever about anything but power and his need to control everything.”

  “He accused you of being interested in his wife.”

  “I remember.”

  Katya paused again, on the verge of truth after so many of her own detailed versions of it. “I wanted to ask you if you were. Are you interested in Agna?”

  Mr. Davies chuckled. “I wouldn’t have imagined you for a busybody, Miss Romanova.”

  “I try not to be. I only wondered because you and Mr. Lieber were having such a terrific argument. I wondered if there was any shred of truth to what he said. And I also wanted to ask because she works here now. You see her twice a day. I thought if you did like her, it might be torture for you.”

  “No, I was never interested in Mrs. Lieber. She deserved better, but everyone knows that. I believe I ran into them a few times around the city. At a restaurant or a park. I might have looked at her in passing before I realized whom she was with. I was always keen to avoid Mr. Lieber, as I’m sure you can appreciate.”

  “Yes. I’m sorry if I offended you.” Katya glanced away through the open gates of the carnival.

  The band members moseyed past, wiping sweat off their foreheads as they traded jokes and observations about the night. They turned and followed the sidewalk toward the streetcar stop.

  Katya waited until most of them walked past the carriage to continue her conversation with Mr. Davies. “I’m not trying to meddle,” she explained. “You’re just one of the few people here who treats me with an ounce of respect. To most of them, even Irina, I’m a lazy whore and nothing more.”