Steven Harper - The Doomsday Vault

Alice slipped her hand out of Gavin’s and turned toward him. “Getting some air, darling. I’m on my way in.”

“Come with me,” Gavin whispered. “Tell me how to find your aunt.”

She paused, caught between the two of them. She licked her lips. Gavin forced himself to remain still. Norbert glanced impatiently at a pocket watch.

“Alice,” he said, “we won’t be able to find our seats in the dark.”

“Madam?” Kemp said. “What do you wish to do?”

Alice glanced at Gavin, and he knew her answer. An icy shell crushed his heart as she turned toward Norbert. Abruptly she spun back and said, “I’ll send you a telegram about what I know.” Then she was up the steps and through the doorway with her fiance. Kemp gave Gavin a short glance with his expressionless eyes and shut the theater door.

Gavin sank to the bottom step, heedless of the damp and dirt. Every scar on his back ached, and they pulled him down like taut chains. He drew the little nightingale from his pocket and pressed the side of its head so it sang. The mechanical notes sounded dull as a pile of lead shot. Gavin silently swore he would never sing or play the fiddle again, not in a world where Alice would never hear him.

The theater doors banged open. Alice burst through them and rushed down to Gavin. He leapt to his feet just as she flung herself into his arms.

“I’m an idiot,” she whispered in his ear. “To hell with Norbert. It’s always been you, too.”

And then she was kissing him. Gavin pulled her to him and tightened his arms around her. His aches vanished and his heart soared. They joined hands and fled through the dark.

Gavin didn’t even remember how they got back to Ward headquarters or when Kemp caught up to them. He only knew he was running up the steps to the main doors of the house, and it felt as if his feet barely touched the ground. A breathless Alice ran beside him, her eyes bright. He stopped in the doorway to kiss her again. She kissed back, and he wanted to shout and laugh even while his body pressed hard against hers.

“Mr. Ennock!” she gasped when they parted. “One doesn’t kiss a baroness like that!”

“One doesn’t?” he said with a wide grin.

“Certainly not! One kisses a baroness like this.” She moved closer and kissed him again. Gavin closed his eyes and breathed hard. He’d died. That was the only explanation.

“Madam,” Kemp said uncertainly.

Alice ignored him. “Now it’s your turn,” she breathed against Gavin’s teeth.

He stepped back, touched her face with one gloved hand, found he couldn’t bear that, and flung the gloves aside. He let his bare fingers brush her face as lightly as wings, and he leaned down for another kiss, one that stopped time.

A gentle cough pulled them apart. Lieutenant Phipps stood a few feet away, her metal fingers drumming softly against her thigh. Alice covered her mouth, then put her hand down. Gavin, for his part, couldn’t stop smiling.

“I’m glad you plan to join us, Your Ladyship,” Phipps said.

Kemp regained his mental footing. “Since Madam has finally seen fit to take the advice of certain people and leave Sir, shall I arrange for the delivery of Madam’s things?”

“The only things I need,” Alice replied with a small toss of her head, “are Click and the box of little automatons from my workshop. My favorite tools are in my handbag”-she held it up-“and everything else came from my. . from Mr. Williamson, and I don’t want any of it.”

Phipps gave a curt nod. “I’ll send a pair of agents round for the automaton box.”

“What about Click?” Alice said.

“Strange about Click.” Phipps stepped aside, revealing the little clockwork cat, who was licking a paw. “He showed up about five minutes before you did.”

“Click!” Alice scooped him up, and Gavin felt glad that she was so glad. “How did you know to come here?”

The cat only looked pleased with himself. A rusty purr emerged from his chest. Kemp sniffed.

“We’ll also get you some clothes,” Phipps added. “Grand gestures may be dramatic, but they’re rarely practical. Welcome to the Ward, Baroness Michaels.” Phipps held out her flesh-and-blood hand.

“Shouldn’t it be just Alice?” she said, shaking hands around Click.

The corners of Phipps’s mouth twitched. “Indeed. We’ll start your training in the morning. Early.” With that, she strode away.

Alice started to say something, but Gavin stopped her. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Tell her you have an idea about finding Edwina. Let’s keep it to ourselves for now.”

“Why, for heaven’s sake?”

“Because the last two times she yelled at me,” Gavin said.

“Two times?” Alice repeated.

“Once after the incident at the Bank of England, and once after your adventure with the giant mechanical. You didn’t stick around for that one.” Gavin rubbed his face. “If your idea doesn’t pan out, I don’t want her to yell at me again. I don’t like being yelled at.”

Alice looked doubtful, but finally nodded.

“So tell me what’s going on.”

“Do you have a map room in this place?”

A few minutes later, she was unrolling a large, detailed map of London across a table in a room illuminated with gas jets Kemp lit for her. Click lounged on the table and batted idly at the scroll weights Alice used to prevent the unwieldy parchment from rolling back up.

“Aunt Edwina kept playing that same chord,” she said. “It was a message, one only someone with perfect pitch would understand.”

Gavin scratched his head. “Well, it didn’t work. I don’t understand it.”

“You did-you just didn’t decode it. Look here. You said the G-sharp has a frequency of fifty-one; the B’s frequency is thirty; the rest would be zero, of course; and the D is nine. Those four numbers were almost exactly the same as fifty-one, thirty, zero, and eight, the map coordinates Pilot gave for Buckingham Palace when he flew us on the airship from Father’s house. I don’t know much about map coordinates, but I reasoned the music numbers must give a spot for a place close by. And I was right. Look-fifty-one degrees, thirty minutes north and zero degrees nine minutes west.”

“Holy cow!” Gavin’s finger stabbed down onto the map. “Hyde Park!”

“Oh! We should have known from the beginning!” Alice exclaimed. “Everything comes back there. Norbert and I often went to Hyde Park, and you played in Hyde Park. I first heard you there, though I didn’t know it at the time. If that’s where Aunt Edwina’s hiding, no doubt she heard you as well. It may be the reason she settled on kidnapping you-availability.”

“It wouldn’t explain why she came back for me,” Gavin pointed out.

“What say we go ask her?” Alice asked.

“After you, Your Ladyship.”

“Might I suggest a change of clothing first?” Kemp said. “Neither Madam nor Sir is quite attired for tramping through the verge.”

“Oh! I hadn’t thought. Can you find something more appropriate for me, Gavin?”

Kemp’s eyes flickered and flashed. “I have already contacted the Third Ward’s main Babbage engine and discovered both the location of Sir’s room and the location of the main clothing stores. What color dress would Madam prefer?”

“Madam would prefer trousers, please,” Alice said wickedly. “If Madam is going to break the rules, she may as well break them badly. ”

“If Madam and Sir will give me a moment.”

“He’s full of surprises, isn’t he?” Gavin said as Kemp bustled away.

Her arms went around his neck. “We have more rules to break, Mr. Ennock.”

When Kemp returned a few minutes later with more appropriate clothing, he found Alice and Gavin in a state of dishabille. He coughed, and they separated. Gavin flushed, but Alice only laughed. It was the first time he had ever heard that sound from her, and his heart gave a little leap.