Emma Holloway - A Study in Ashes

Imogen crowded close to look, her earring brushing Evelina’s cheek. “What is that thing?”

“I think it’s like Mouse and Bird.”

“Really?” Imogen sounded unconvinced. “It’s a little bit larger.”

“But strangely, less grumpy.”

“That’s not hard,” Imogen grumbled, but Evelina smiled. The two devas had bonded with her friend and refused to leave Hilliard House. Their devotion pleased Evelina no end, since she knew they would look after one another long into the future.

Several of the outriders, Nick included, drew their weapons as the hound approached, but Edmond held up a hand to stop them. Evelina could see by the set of his shoulders that the prince was tense, but he still opened the carriage door and jumped down, landing a few feet away from the dog.

The hound sat at his feet, not with the subservience of a true dog with its master, but more as one equal greeting another. The prince removed his top hat and gave a respectful bow.

Imogen leaned close to whisper. “Doesn’t the hound of the Baskervilles terrify the family members to death? Or did Dr. Watson make that up?”

The story had originally been a ruse to get Evelina to the moors so that she could go free. In an odd, convoluted way, it had worked far more profoundly than anyone could have predicted. “Stories sometimes develop a life of their own,” she replied softly, watching the terrifying creature give a wag of its tail. Like her dark magic, its power could protect as well as destroy. “And sometimes the things that terrify you turn out to be your best friend.”

A murmur went up as the hound lifted a massive paw. With a bemused expression, Prince Edmond shook it.

London, October 26, 1889

PORTMORE HOTEL

9:10 p.m. Saturday

THE GRATEFUL PRINCE HAD GIVEN NICK TWO THINGS: THE entire crew of the Athena was pardoned of its piratical past, and Nick was granted the best rooms at the Portmore Hotel until he decided where he wanted to call home. Officially Evelina was staying at Baker Street, but she’d been at the hotel just as much as at her uncle’s. Holmes had been patient about playing chaperone, but tonight he’d given up and gone down to the common room for a pint, leaving the couple to their own devices. Evelina was grateful.

Nick looked at home lounging on the sofa of the hotel suite’s parlor, but then, like a cat, he looked at home everywhere. Evelina stood at the window, studying him as he read an official-looking document. He’d shed his coat and his olive skin looked dark against the white of his shirt.

He raised his eyes, and they were bright with amusement. “His Princeliness has seen fit to solve the bureaucratic difficulty of my surname. Or lack thereof.”

“Excuse me?” Evelina scoffed. “Isn’t Captain Niccolo, Terror of the Skies, good enough?”

“He has officially declared me to be Nicholas Baskerville.”

“That has a nice ring.” She sat down on the sofa next to him, trying not to think of Dr. Watson’s hound. “And it implies that he considers you to be family.”

“As long as I don’t get stuck in that bloody great hall of theirs,” he grumbled, but she could tell he was pleased.

It turned out that Nick had a stack of papers from the hands of the prince’s new secretarial staff. Evelina tapped the top sheet. “What’s this one?”

“An official appointment. It’s for both of us. He wants us to talk it over and let him know whether it suits us.”

“An official appointment?” She frowned, propping herself up on her elbow. “What is it?”

“I would rather you’d been there when he explained it,” Nick said apologetically.

“It’s all right. I was with Imogen all afternoon, and that’s exactly where I needed to be.”

He nodded. “It seems that Edmond sees trouble ahead.”

“Where from?”

“The Steam Council had allies and they aren’t pleased with the new order. He wants someone he trusts to look into this and that.”

“This and that?” Evelina asked dryly.

“The sort of enemies that might require a steamspinner packed with clever pirates and one very mighty sorceress to solve.”

Evelina looked away. As intriguing as the offer sounded, her failure to save Tobias still stung. “I feel less than mighty.”

“After all you did?” Nick asked gently. “You blew the bollocks off half the dirigibles in the Empire.”

She gave a short, bitter laugh. “At first I worried about being too strong and becoming a monster. And now I’m crushed because I wasn’t powerful enough to save a good friend. I should have saved Tobias, Nick. I should have …”

“Played with life and death?” Nick sat back, visibly working through his answer. “What more could you have done? All this means is that you’re still completely human. You don’t have every answer, Evelina. And if you still have something to learn, you have a reason to get out of bed in the morning.”

She bit her lip, releasing an unhappy breath. He was right, of course—but that didn’t take the ache away. “Do you mind that I miss him?”

“I’d worry more if you didn’t.” He put a finger under her chin and kissed her forehead.

Tobias had possessed every advantage, and Nick nothing. The fact that he could be generous said a lot about who Nick was. “I love you.”

He gave the prince’s document a flick. “Fancy trying your hand at espionage?”

She settled back, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Are you sure you want to give up being a pirate?”

“It would be no fun without the steam barons, and Edmond’s a nice enough bloke.”

“All right, then.”

Even though she didn’t look up, she could feel Nick’s grin. She’d guessed he wanted to do it. It was the sort of thing he was made for. She straightened up just enough that they were face-to-face. His dark eyes looked liquid in the low light, and Evelina felt that familiar melting sensation she got when she was with him. Any moment now, she would dissolve into a puddle just from wanting him so much.

“But none of it means anything unless you’re with me,” he said, picking up yet another piece of paper and dangling it in front of her face.

She took it and held it up to read. “A special license. For marriage. For us!”

“We will marry, you and I,” he said with a sly grin.

Evelina’s heart stopped. Suddenly, it felt as if she had no limbs, no body at all. The only part of her that remained was her stuttering, astonished pulse. She supposed it was natural, with more missions in their future, but somewhere along the way she’d lost all notion of something so normal as becoming a wife.

“Will we, Captain Niccolo?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. She wasn’t even sure if the words were a challenge or squeak of surprise. “Shouldn’t that be framed as a question?”

His eyebrows quirked mischievously. “We’ll do it properly, in the eyes of the law, the Church, and any other rules they can dream up. Then everyone will know we belong together.”

Evelina reeled. She wanted to marry him—of course she did! But there was the dark magic, and Magnus, and … Her thoughts trailed off. Nick’s energy was growing sharp as he waited for her to say something. Nick, who saw everything she was but still wanted her. More than that, he wanted her because of everything she was. He would keep her true to herself, but he would never hold her back.

“Well?” he asked, the word barely more than a movement of air.

Evelina closed her eyes. He wants me to be his wife . The sheer rightness of it melted her like chocolate—the dark, sweet, rich perfection of the moment made her sway with all the giddy girlishness she would have felt had Nick prostrated himself in full dress uniform on a ballroom floor. But a pirate was a pirate, and he had asked for her hand and her partnership on their next mission in the same breath. That made it real, part of his life and not some fantasy from the pages of a book—and that gave a pinch of spice to all that sweetness.