The Zeppelin Deception Read online

  If we hadn’t seen the fresh daisy sitting in the crusty snow, I might have thought we were wrong. Everything was so still. Surely no one was here.

  But, thanks to Evaline, we knew where we had to go: up.

  Up to the roof, where the airship was, I surmised, still moored.

  I allowed Grayling to lead the way only because he was obviously more familiar with the layout of the house. Evaline followed me, and I paused several times to silently ask her whether she sensed any UnDead.

  She either didn’t see my signal, or ignored me each time I did so. But I noticed she had a stake in one hand and a dagger in the other.

  Grayling took us up the main staircases instead of the servants’ stairs, a decision I applauded silently. There was only one resident of the house and numerous servants, and so avoiding the servants’ halls and steps was an obvious choice.

  At last, we reached the highest point of the house and a door that would open into what had to be the last set of stairs—a stretch that could only lead to the attic or the roof.

  Grayling reached for the latch just as Evaline came to sharp attention behind me. Her eyes widened and she spun, stake raised.

  “Good evening, Miss Stoker. Miss Holmes…and…Ambrose? Is that you? I confess I’d expected someone else, but what a pleasant surprise nonetheless.”

  The speaker was, obviously, Lady Isabella. She’d come from one of the chambers on the same corridor. She was flanked by four UnDead—fangs gleaming, eyes burning, long-nailed hands curling—as well as two substantial mortal beings that I recognized as Bastet and Amunet from her Society of Sekhmet days.

  “Please,” the Ankh said smoothly, and showed us the wicked-looking steam-stream shooter she held. “Don’t let me stop you now. Go on.” She gestured to the stairs that led to the roof. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  Miss Stoker

  ~ In Which the Journey Begins ~

  I was furious with myself.

  Four vampires, creeping up on us without me knowing until it was too late? How was that possible? For now, the back of my neck was as cold as if a clump of snow sat on it.

  “Oh, darling Evaline, no worries,” Lady Isabella said in a soothing voice. It was as if she read my mind. “We were waiting for you—just inside that chamber there. Its walls are lined in lead, which, as I’d anticipated, kept you from sensing the presence of the UnDead.” She gestured for me to precede her up the steps. “You passed the initial test quite handily when I invited you for tea earlier this week.”

  Ugh. So that was why! Blast it. She’d completely taken me in with her sad, lonely persona and her compliments. Well, she hadn’t completely taken me in. I’d suspected she was up to something. I just didn’t know what.

  But she hadn’t lied. Her reason for inviting me to tea had had to do with the UnDead.

  We reached the top step and found ourselves not on the roof but in what could only be described as a laboratory. However, I could tell that it only took up part of that floor. I expected one of the side doors would open to the flat roof where the airship was moored.

  The workshop was similar to her other ones in The Carnelian Crow and underground near the old monastery, with chairs and wires and other implements that probably drew blood and would make me ill and lightheaded if I saw them in action. I suppressed a shudder. There were no other people in the room.

  Not even Pix.

  My stomach knotted. Was he even here? Had he arrived yet? Had he gone somewhere else?

  Had he simply fled London, now that he was free?

  No. I didn’t believe that for a minute. If he wasn’t already here, he was on his way.

  Unless he’d gone to Oligary Tower…

  I still hadn’t had the chance to absorb what I’d learned back in Pix’s hideout. Sir Emmett Oligary and Lady Cosgrove-Pitt were in this—whatever this was—together?

  And what about Ned? I didn’t even want to consider whether he was involved in it, whether he knew about it. I felt ill.

  “You’re going to need to leave that stake and all of your weapons right here, Evaline. And you as well, Mina. Ambrose, I’m sorry to say that since you’ve taken up with these two young women, I’ve had to reconsider your position as my favorite nephew by marriage. Fortunately, I was able to convince Belmont to make certain changes to his will to reflect that adjustment before he, tragically, passed on. Otherwise, perhaps, you’d be living in a much nicer neighborhood than you do.” She gave a genteel laugh but held the steam-stream gun pointed at us.

  “Now. Disarm yourselves. Or I’ll use this.” Her eyes glinted coldly, and I dropped my stake and dagger onto the table she indicated. “All of them, Evaline. I’ll be confirming that you are completely unarmed. And it won’t be pleasant.”

  At that moment, all I felt was anger. Pure, deep, boiling fury. About so many things—including my own stupidity, and Edison’s as well. I didn’t care whether the villainess put her hands on me, or even whether one of her goons did either. I was spoiling for a fight.

  While she watched, I pulled another blade from one of my boots. There was a slender vial of salted holy water tucked into the center of the high knot of my hair, and I left that one there, but withdrew another one from a tiny pocket on the side of my corset.

  “That’s all of it.”

  Lady Isabella looked at me. “I don’t believe you.”

  I spread my hands, fingers tickling the air, and gestured to my person. “Take a look, then. It’s not as if I have a long, flowing gown to hide anything in.”

  “In which to hide anything,” I heard Mina murmur.

  Really?

  “Very well, then. Ambrose. You as well. And Mina, of course.”

  She watched as my companions dropped their weapons on the table.

  We had just finished doing so when the door to the chamber opened and Sir Emmett Oligary strode in.

  “Oh my,” he said when he saw us. He’d removed whatever costume he’d been wearing at the ball (I never did see it) and was wearing normal clothing. “I didn’t expect you quite so soon. In fact, I didn’t expect you to get here before we left.”

  Lady Isabella gave him a look that reminded me of Mina when she was annoyed. “I told you they weren’t to be underestimated, Emmett. Why do you think I was so insistent that Ned marry the girl? We need to keep a close eye on them—at the very least.”

  I stiffened. “What do you mean, you insisted?”

  She looked at me with those glittering silvery eyes. “While I find you delightful, resourceful, and quite unique—in all of the best ways, of course—I’m afraid neither Emmett nor Ned fully appreciate your finer qualities, Evaline. It was only due to Emmett’s influence on Ned—that is to say, his restriction of his purse strings—that we convinced Ned to marry you. I’ve tried to convince Emmett of the necessity having your activities restricted—or at least under my watchful eye—but apparently until now he’s been unconvinced of how dangerous you really are to our plans.”

  I was both relieved and insulted (relieved that if I got out of this alive, I wouldn’t have to marry Ned—or break his heart, and insulted for, as Mina would say, obvious reasons).

  “Your plan to assassinate the princess of Betrovia?” I said, making a wild guess, since I had no idea what the plans that I was supposedly obstructing actually were.

  Lady Isabella smiled. “Princess Lurelia’s untimely death at the hand of the same man who murdered Hiram Bartholomew—and who meant to murder Ned Oligary’s fiancée—was merely a side benefit to our ultimate intentions. By the by, Evaline, I must compliment you on your deviousness in changing your costume at the last minute—and keeping it quite under wraps. Poor Emmett and Ned had no idea until Marie Antoinette was unmasked. I, of course, learned that you hadn’t come for your costume at Mrs. Glimmerston’s and seized the opportunity to make a slight adjustment to the evening’s festivities.”

  “As I deduced,” said Mina. “And then you further warned us with the messages to ‘be ready.’”
r />   Isabella lifted her brows. “Hmm. No, in fact I did not warn you with such a message. I assumed you’d already be prepared for any eventuality—as you always have been, with the exception of the very first night we made our acquaintance.”

  If Mina was taken aback by the fact that she’d been wrong about something, she didn’t let on. “You speak of the night Evaline and I attended your Society of Sekhmet meeting beneath the Thames. The night of the Roses Ball, when we were investigating the scarab affair. When we returned to Cosgrove Terrace after making our escape, you appeared to still be present at the festivities. But that person was a stand-in for you, wasn’t it? You made certain to be seen from the balcony at your home—far enough away that the deception wouldn’t be recognized.”

  The villainess smiled. “Of course. I confess I was rather shocked you saw through that sleight of hand so easily and were able to discern the true identity of the Ankh so soon after our first meeting. But that fact only instilled the great admiration and respect I have for you both. It has been a delight sparring with the two of you. Is it any wonder I wished for you to join me in my work instead of combating it?”

  “But if it wasn’t to kill Lurelia, what is this great plan?” I demanded.

  “Ah, Evaline. Always the decisive action and rarely the mind work. But that is why the two of you are so well suited to be partners, and I must commend Irene for suggesting it.

  “As for my plan? It’s really quite simple, although it has been far too long in the planning and execution. I loathe England and all of its restrictions and societal etiquette, and its suppression of the feminine person, from everything to the very clothing we wear, to the inability to have a say in our government by voting, to even being able to own our own property—well, you’ve heard my speech before, haven’t you?

  “And while I despise England, I love Betrovia and everything about it. I should have been on the Betrovian throne, married to the mindless prat of a man who will be king—but instead, my father insisted I wed Belmont. And so here I was exiled, to this cold, gray, suppressive place with unpalatable food ruled by a woman—and yet is not ruled by her at all. Instead, England shows herself as the antithesis of a nation with a female leader by allowing her to be a figurehead only, and controlling and restricting the females herein.”

  “And so your plan is to disrupt the relationship between England and Betrovia so decisively that it eventually escalates to war,” Mina said. “And presumably, you’ve planned this so that the ultimate benefit will be you on the throne of Betrovia.”

  I gawked at her. Where on earth had she come up with that ridiculous deduction? I glanced at Grayling, but he didn’t seem surprised or amused.

  “Succinctly put, Mina—but without all of the details of the nuances and finessing that are involved in such a long-term, complicated plot. Of which, of course, there are many. And, of course, I couldn’t have done it without the assistance—the funds, the resources, the criminal enterprise—of my dear Emmett.” Lady Isabella turned a smile on Sir Emmett that was so blinding in its warmth that it appeared simpering. “He’s quite conniving and cunning beneath all of his gentility—and philanthropy.”

  He looked down at her, reaching over to tuck a wayward curl behind her ear. “Indeed, Bella—we make an impressive and devious duo, do we not?”

  Beneath Sir Emmett’s head, Lady Isabella slyly slid her gaze back to Mina and me and allowed us to see the truth laughing in her eyes.

  Good gad, she was playing Emmett Oligary for a fool as well!

  “If you wanted me under your control,” I said, diverting the conversation back to the topic I was most interested in, “why didn’t you just trap me when I came to tea? Or when I was here the other night—instead of conking me on the head and leaving me in the street?”

  “Conking you on the head?” Isabella was obviously taken by surprise. “You were here the other night?”

  “That wasn’t you?” I was confused. It had been a woman who’d murmured, Brilliantly done, Evaline, after I’d staked the vampire—and before she coshed me—hadn’t it?

  “I’m afraid not. Does this mean you have another villainous admirer I’m not aware of?” Her laugh tinkled out as she gazed up at Sir Emmett, continuing the charade of being besotted with him.

  The poor man had no idea what he was up against.

  And it served him right, as far as I was concerned. I glanced at Grayling again to see if he was aware of this even more subtle example of Isabella’s chicanery, but I couldn’t tell.

  “To answer your question, of course I wouldn’t simply kidnap you, Evaline. You’d have been missed and it wouldn’t have taken Mina long to find you. No, I thought it best to have you married in a public event and then ensconced in the household where you could be watched carefully, restricted, and controlled—physically or by pharmaceutical means—as needed.” She smiled coolly, and I was reminded of the fact that she was a cold-blooded murderer.

  “And as for you, Mina, darling…fortunately, you’d been quite busy chasing simplistic, mind-numbing cases that my dear Irene kept putting in your way—I really ought to write her a thank-you letter for that once we’re gone. She has no idea how much I appreciate her unwitting assistance. Nonetheless, despite her attempts, I knew such things wouldn’t occupy your facile mind for long, and so I decided the best way to keep you busy was to have you permanently out of the way.”

  “The ultimate plan was for me to hang for the murder of Frederick Boggs,” Mina said in the same cool tone as Isabella. “But having me incarcerated at least for a time, while you made your escape, was helpful as well.”

  “Of course. And, in fact, once you were in prison, I would have certainly given you one last opportunity to ally yourself with me—and if you’d accepted my offer, I would have liberated you from Newgate—”

  “As you did Edison Smith,” Mina said.

  Lady Isabelle’s mouth tightened at the reminder of what she could only consider a failure. “Yes. That slippery sneak nearly ruined everything tonight. If Emmett here hadn’t come prepared, it all would have been for naught.”

  “So it was Emmett, then,” Mina said. “I wondered. His lute was an excellent way to hide a rifle until he was required to use it. The only problem is that the angle of the bullet wound—particularly the exit wound—indicates that Lurelia was shot not by someone high up on the balcony, but someone at closer proximity—and at the same elevation she was.”

  “Oh dear,” Isabella said, her eyes wide. “I hadn’t quite thought of that, Emmett. But surely there’s no way to trace the actual bullet to the firearm that fired it.”

  “On the contrary,” Mina said grandly. “It’s becoming quite the accepted practice to match the markings on the bullet to the interior of the gun’s barrel and match them.” She trailed off in her pompous explanation when she recognized the same glint in Isabella’s eye that I saw. She quickly changed the course of her speech. “I’ve known for some time that Mr. Smith wasn’t who murdered Mr. Bartholomew, but why did you find it necessary to do so, Sir Emmett?”

  “Couldn’t have electricity come to England, is all,” Sir Emmett replied. “Hiram wanted to make a partnership with the Edison Company and I didn’t—it would ruin our monopoly on the manufacture of steam-works products, of course. The day we were to sign the agreement with Smith, I confronted Hiram in his office and told him I wouldn’t do it. He argued with me, and I did what I had to do—pushed him into the electrical mechanism we’d been testing out. He pulled me with him, the bas—the fool, and I barely got away from being electrofied myself. I told everyone I tried to save him and that was how I injured my leg.”

  “And then you made it look as if Edison Smith had actually done the deed—and that he’d killed Mr. Bartholomew for trying to back out of the deal.”

  “I knew Smith was coming for the signing of the contract, and so I waited for him to arrive and find Hiram—and while he was there at the scene, I appeared and then called for several other witnesses. They
arrived to find me attempting to subdue him while disengaging Hiram from the electrical wires. Smith slipped away in the confusion, the rotter, but it was very simple to accuse him of doing the deed. And no one present would say anything different.”

  “Including Frederick Boggs,” Mina said. “That was why you had to have him killed, wasn’t it? I found a photograph of him in your office with Mr. Bartholomew, and—and some other people. You were afraid Edison Smith was going to tell the truth of what happened, and now that Boggs had returned to London after being abroad for several years—you probably even arranged for him to be gone, didn’t you?—you knew that Boggs could contradict your story.”

  “No one would believe it of Emmett Oligary,” Sir Emmett said, speaking of himself. “I’m so beloved by this city for everything I’ve done for it. New Vauxhall Gardens is quite a success, isn’t it? I could go out on the street and drive a team of horses to trample over a man and they’d look the other way. Why do you think I’ve just recently been knighted? And now that Bella has her secret weapon—”

  “That will be the crowning glory, so to speak, of everything,” Isabella said. “If only you had gotten to the Theophanine Chess Table sooner, Mina.” She smiled at us with feigned regret, then turned back to Sir Emmett and said, “Surely they’re finished loading by now. I suppose we’d best take these two young ladies with us. They could come in handy.”

  He grunted in reply, but Isabella hadn’t waited for his agreement. She gave a sharp gesture to her goons, who’d been waiting silently during this entire conversation.

  The next thing I knew, we’d each been taken in hand—one of the UnDead grabbed my arms and jerked them behind me, and the mortals took Mina and Grayling—and we were being ushered to the side door.

  I was right. The door opened onto a flat area of the roof, which was completely enclosed by tall walls that hid the airship from the ground and nearby windows.

  The zeppelin seemed much smaller now that I was up close to it, and it took me a moment to realize the balloon part of it was only partially deflated. That made sense, because it would be too big not to be noticed on the roof during the day. I could hear a low, roaring hoooshhh and realized the balloon was in the process of being inflated. The gondola or cabin or whatever the part below the balloon was called, where I guessed the driver rode, was as large as a train car.