by Beth Ciotta
Sighing, Amelia shoved aside that whimsical scenario and helped her mother up into the rear seat of the six-person cab. As the prim woman fussed and fidgeted, Amelia gathered her own bothersome skirts, compounded by the added layer of her leather duster, and climbed aboard the open-air driver’s throne. She pulled on her leather gauntlets and tinted fur-rimmed goggles, then tugged her worn top hat, a gift from Papa, over her blond coiled braids. Unfashionable perhaps, but comfortable. Sensible as well—which was more than she could say for bustles and bonnets. Grasping the steering wheel, she rolled back her shoulders, feeling deliciously in control. Why anyone would prefer the role of passenger to pilot was beyond her imagination. Loco-Bug vibrated and puffed, primed for action—same as Amelia. She would have smiled were she not conscious of Lady Bingham’s scorn and her own mother’s disappointment; were she not repelled by Lord Bingham’s lecherous attention, damn his eyes. “Are you going to glare at me for the entire journey home, Mother?”
“Quite possibly.”
At least she knew what to expect. Unlike with Lord Bingham. She’d expected—or, perhaps more accurately, hoped for—a tour of his collection of aerostats and aeronefs—flying machines of all manner, each a technological marvel—but she’d never gotten farther than the drawing room, and tea and watercress sandwiches. Her own fault, true. Still . . . Blast.
“You are a beautiful young woman, Amelia, in spite of your peculiar taste in fashion. Well educated. Charming, when you strive to be. Yet you are twenty summers old and without a husband.”
Smiling now, Amelia breathed in the crisp winter air and engaged the clutch, setting them on a course for home. “Life is good.”
“Why in heaven’s name did you even agree to this meeting, only to sabotage it? You could have saved me the humiliation by simply refusing.”
“If I had refused you would have pressured me until I relented,” she said reasonably as they rolled through the ornate iron gates. “I know this, since you have tried to match me six—”
“Seven.”
“—times before. This time I bypassed prolonged misery by giving in at the outset.”
“I would have preferred an outright refusal. At least it would have saved me the embarrassment of being tossed from the grounds.” Her mother sniffed, and Amelia knew without looking that she was using a dainty handkerchief to dab away tears. “Honestly!” she said, choking back a dramatic sob.
Since her back was to the woman, Amelia indulged in a disrespectful eye roll. She’d never outwardly insult her mother, but blooming hell, it was difficult to hide her frustration. Anne Darcy possessed the extraordinary skill of crying at the drop of a hat. It was a weapon she used quite often against Amelia’s father, Reginald Darcy, a baron by happenstance, an inventor by choice, and it drove Amelia to distraction, because her papa always relented. Always. Whatever Anne wanted, which was faithfully more than was reasonable, given the family’s status and moderate wealth, her dear, sweet, brilliant, yet ofttimes scatterbrained husband strove to deliver.
Amelia, who could scarcely remember the last time she’d cried, rarely put stock in her mother’s tears. This time, however, she acknowledged a morsel of guilt. True, she’d hoped to circumvent her mother’s nagging by giving in and agreeing to at least meet with the viscount. But she’d also been driven by her desire to see and to perhaps climb aboard his magnificent zeppelin.
Oh, to pilot an airship of superior design, one that stayed afloat for longer than thirty minutes. Amelia had been obsessed with flying since she was a little girl. Thanks to her papa, who shared her obsession, she’d had the opportunity to sample the skies in his assorted flying machines. Unfortunately, like most of his inventions, his aerostats malfunctioned with extraordinary regularity, and her flights were thus often quite short.
“He was perfect for you, Amelia.”
Meaning Lord Bingham. Although she wished her mother would dismiss the thought, she could not wholly disagree. His worldviews, or lack thereof, aside, she supposed he was perfect in that she could discuss aviation with him for aeons and he wouldn’t grow bored. He could expose her to advanced technology and she would be mesmerized, but other than that, she saw no sense in the union. She did not love, nor was she even physically attracted to the man—in spite of his handsome features. Not to mention their extreme social and political differences. She didn’t bother to explain those differences to her mother. She wouldn’t understand. As an Old Worlder, Anne expected Amelia to conform to convention. She had no interest in technology or saving the future from chaos and destruction. She wanted everything to move forward with the natural march of time, the way things used to be, before the Peace Rebels.
As they chugged along, the vibrations from the engine invigorating Amelia’s good senses, she cursed herself for giving in to her mother. For giving over to her curiosity regarding Lord Bingham’s personal air fleet. Instead, she could’ve spent the morning assisting Papa, who, day by day, had become almost psychotic in his mission to fly to the moon. Although he’d promised not to tinker with Apollo 02 (his second attempt at a futuristic rocket ship) until she returned, she didn’t wholly trust his word or judgment of late.
“Can’t you make this thing go any faster?” Anne asked, sounding suddenly anxious to return home.
“Regrettably, no,” Amelia said as Loco-Bug’s iron wheels rolled over the pitted, snow-dusted road. As with most of the shires, Kent had fallen upon hard times, and the much-traveled roads had fallen into ill repair. Not to mention that Loco-Bug was simply not made for great speed. “For what it’s worth, the journey would have been half the duration if we had taken Bess.” Her papa’s one-of-a-kind kitecycle. Unfortunately, among other things, Anne Darcy was aerophobic.
“If people were meant to fly,” she said with a sniff, “we’d have been born with wings.”
If only, Amelia thought with a wistful sigh.
They fell into a sullen silence. Really, what was there to say? Old Worlder and New Worlder, fatalist and utopian, repressed and emancipated. They would never see eye to eye. For the next hour they rode in tense silence—Amelia contemplating her papa’s moonship obsession whilst her mother no doubt plotted her next marriage match.
A short mile from their home, Loco-Bug stalled for the second time in thirty minutes.
Anne ridiculed her husband’s automocoach as Amelia hopped out to inspect the engine. Unlike her mother, she had faith in Papa’s inventions. Sometimes it just took a lot of positive thinking and a bit of elbow grease. And in this case, a hair ornament. Pulling a decorative comb from her braided hair, Amelia probed and unclogged a valve. Though pleased when Loco-Bug coughed back to life, she glanced at the sky, thinking how much more enjoyable it would have been to soar the seamless air as opposed to driving along rutted roads.
A deafening boom blasted her eardrums, tripping her pulse and stealing her breath.
Pushing her goggles to her forehead, Amelia gaped at a large plume of smoke and fireworks marring the near horizon—a mushrooming cloud littered with fragments of brass, iron, and clockwork.
It came from Ashford. The Darcy estate.
Her mother gasped. “What in heaven’s name?”
Apollo 02, Amelia thought, stifling a scream as she imagined Papa tinkering, then . . .
Please, God, no.
Refusing to think the worst, Amelia scrambled back into Loco-Bug, intending to push the machine to its limits. Upon reaching Ashford, she would find Papa singed and discombobulated but very much alive. She willed it with all her heart.
Amelia refitted her goggles, then engaged the clutch. “Hang on to your bonnet, Mama.”
PRAISE FOR HER SKY COWBOY
“Contemporary romance author Ciotta’s first steampunk series blasts off with this exhilarating riff on bodice-ripping romance, hurling twentieth-century technology into an alternate Victorian England . . . the start of a delectable series.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“In this first in her new stea
mpunk series, Ciotta brings us into a world where science and inventions abound within the Victorian era. Masterfully written, with an intriguing plot and a sassy, strong, and intelligent heroine at its center. Add to that a heroic-cowboy love interest and a supporting cast of distinctive characters, and this story is one fanciful, flying adventure.”
—Romantic Times (top pick, 4½ stars)
“Freaks, Mods, Vics, Flatliners, cowboys in airships, evil scientists, nefarious flying pirates, and time-travel Victorian England was never so much fun. Ciotta’s whimsical steampunk romance, the first in the Glorious Victorious Darcys series, is too good to miss.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Steampunk is still an evolving genre. In most cases, it’s a hit or miss with either the romance or the steampunk story line. [Ciotta’s] ‘vision’ on an alternate take on historical romance, though, was very well done, and I enjoyed reading it. . . . If you’re looking for something a bit different and fun, then I’d pick up Her Sky Cowboy.”
—USA Today Happy Ever After
“Ciotta’s delightfully imaginative steampunk historical has just the right mix of adventure and romance.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Beth Ciotta’s Her Sky Cowboy is pure charm. This is a must read for anyone who loves the genre—or hasn’t even tried it yet. You’ll be hooked!”
—New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham
“A wildly inventive, action-packed steampunk adventure! Lady inventors, sexy renegade lawmen, airships, acid rock, and flying horses—Her Sky Cowboy has it all!”
—Zoë Arche
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