CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“This isn’t exactly how I thought I’d be getting you out of your skirts.” Ash’s muffled voice was playful, yet I heard the tension underneath his words, the fear. I heard it in his voice and I felt it moving through me, in endless tiny shock waves.
We had removed my veil and train first, checking every inch of them together, but I had known all along that it would come to this.
“It’s in the gown,” I said, resigned. “I know it is. This would never have been possible if women weren’t forced to wear such stupid, impractical get-ups.”
“It turns out it’s extremely practical for smuggling explosives,” Ash said, emerging from under my skirts. “I think there’s something sewn into the lining, but you’ll need to remove the dress.”
My teeth were chattering. “The presentation has almost finished,” I said. “The timer could run out any moment. You should leave. Evacuate the ballroom and get out of here.” I couldn’t bear it, that he was here and that I was the one who had put him in such danger.
Ash took my hand, stroked his fingers down and along my palm in a soothing gesture.
“Neither of us is going anywhere. So, instead of wasting time we might not have” – Ash’s deliberately cool voice managed to penetrate my panic – “why don’t we accept the situation and get on with it? The sooner we disarm the device, the sooner I can go and punch Laing in the face.”
“So long as I can punch him first,” I managed, forcing myself to give a weak smile.
“That’s the spirit.” Ash touched my cheek. “You’ve been saying you wanted out of that dress all day, love. Let’s make it happen.”
I nodded as he went round to my back and began the work to undo the hundreds of tiny buttons that held the gown together.
“Say something to distract me,” I said as Ash’s fingers gently brushed the nape of my neck.
“Remember when I told Laetitia I was half in love with you?” he asked.
Colour hit my cheeks. “Yes, I do.”
“That was a lie.” I heard the smile in his voice. “I was already the whole way in.”
“Oh,” I exhaled. “Me too.”
“Now that is convenient.” Ash kept his voice mild as I felt the glide of his touch along my spine. He seemed suspiciously competent at getting ladies out of their gowns. “When this is over,” he carried on, “I think we should make some plans for our future. What do you want?”
“I want to see your tattoo,” I said, blurting the first thing that came into my head.
Ash’s fingers stilled for a second, and then he went back to work on my buttons. “That can be arranged. But I was also thinking maybe we sail off into the sunset.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, you have had the good fortune to fall in love with a pirate. What if we took a tour of some far-flung places before you settle down to your studies?”
“You’d take me with you?” I said, and it felt as though my poor torn-up heart was stitching itself back together. “On an adventure?”
“We are the adventure, Felicity.” Ash stepped away from my back and moved round so that he was in front of me once more.
His thumb caught the tear on my cheek I didn’t know had fallen.
It was at that moment that Sylla burst through the door. She took in the sight of me and Ash alone in a room in Buckingham Palace, me half out of my ballgown, and closed the door behind her with a firm snick of the latch.
“I take it there’s been a complication?” she said.
“Laing has had another device sewn into my ballgown,” I replied.
There was only the tiniest hitch in her step as she walked towards us. “I see.”
“And I was distracting Felicity by telling her that after all this is over, we’ll travel the world in style – together,” Ash put in.
“I don’t have access to my trust yet,” I said shakily, determined to stay as cool and calm as the two of them. “We might not be able to do it in style. Not that I mind,” I added quickly as Sylla circled me, gesturing me to stand still. “I don’t care about being poor as long as I’m with you.”
Ash laughed, and Sylla made a sound of annoyance from over my shoulder.
“What?” I asked.
“Felicity, the man owns an incredibly successful gambling den and half of the East End of London,” Sylla said, speaking slowly, as though explaining something to a small child.
“You’re … rich?” I frowned.
“Don’t tell my father,” Ash quipped. “He thinks I’m a lazy reprobate, and that’s the way I like it.” He looked me over. “Why do you seem disappointed?”
“I don’t know,” I said wistfully. “I liked the idea of being a pirate stowaway with you.”
“God, I love you,” Ash said with fond amusement. “Didn’t I promise we’d never be respectable?”
“Now that is all sorted,” Sylla said dryly, “I think we should probably turn our attention to the ticking time bomb in the room. It’s time for you to get out of the dress, carefully .”
With another squeeze of my hand, Ash moved back, only a fraction, and Sylla held the sleeves of the gown as I pulled my arms free and stepped out of my skirts. There was so much fabric that the thing almost stayed upright on its own.
I stood in my thin chemise and eyed the gown with deep dislike. “Let’s lay it out on the floor,” I said. “If it didn’t go off when I was dancing, it must be fairly stable. Careful, though.”
Ash stripped off his jacket and handed it to me, doing up the buttons on the front when I slipped my arms through the sleeves. It swamped me, wrapping me up in his warmth and delicious spicy scent. It was a small comfort.
Turning back to the dress, I rolled up the jacket’s sleeves in brisk movements.
“What are you doing?” Ash asked, moving in front of me.
“I’m going to disarm the bomb,” I said.
“Felicity.” Ash’s tone was carefully controlled, but again I caught the fear underneath. “You don’t know how to disarm a bomb.”
“She knows more than either of us,” Sylla said. “And I sent for Max’s men before I came but they might not make it in time.”
“I watched Winnie do it,” I said quietly. “I watched Fenton do it. And I understand the mechanics.” Sort of , I added in my mind. “I know how Laing thinks. I realized the bomb was here, didn’t I? I can do this.” I said the words with more confidence than I felt, but Ash had just promised me the world… I wasn’t about to let Laing put an abrupt end to that dream.
After another long look, Ash nodded. “You’re right,” he agreed. “If anyone can do this, it’s you, Felicity Vane.”
With that, I knelt and began running my fingers carefully over the fabric.
“Here,” I said, when I reached a section at the back. “There’s definitely something stitched between the layers.”
Sylla handed me a pair of scissors from her reticule, and I cut the entire section free from the rest of the dress, gently snipping through the tightly stitched seams. I forced myself to keep my breathing slow, my hands steady. Rushing this part could be catastrophic.
Finally, I unspooled the fabric to reveal the bomb. It was much smaller than the other device. A single, slim stick of dynamite, but it was made of the same component parts, including a small gold pocket watch.
I looked at the time on the face.
“It’s less than three minutes to the hour,” Sylla said calmly. “Do you think that’s significant?”
“It could be,” I said, knowing in my gut that it was. I reached for the scissors. “Let’s not find out. The two of you should really leave.”
“No one’s going anywhere,” Ash said. “We’re going to watch you do this, then I’m going to kiss you and tell you how clever you are, and Sylla is going to roll her eyes. All right?”
“All right.” I nodded, trying to ignore the wild wave of panic that was cresting through my body. I was no agent; I was a mathematician. I found attending parties stressful, for goodness’ sake. Now I was disarming an explosive device that threatened to kill me and people I loved. How had it come to this?
I took a deep breath, reeled in my mind, fought for control, and called all the information Winnie had shared to mind. There was no choice, I had to do this, and I had to do it now.
“It’s simple really,” I said aloud, my voice surprisingly steady. “I only need to disrupt the electrical circuit that will be completed when the watch reaches a certain time.” I followed the wires from the watch and made my first cut. When the world didn’t shatter around me, I exhaled. But I hadn’t done enough to stop the countdown.
“There’s a failsafe,” I murmured. “The first time – Winnie said she activated the failsafe.” I thought of Laing, remembered playing poker against that inscrutable face. I knew him better now. “He doesn’t like to lose. He plays three steps ahead. He always has a backup plan.”
I hesitated, my scissors poised to snip the next wire, shook my head. “No. that’s not right.” It took precious time, but I went back, followed the wires again.
I worked with dogged determination, my forehead beading with sweat. The seconds passed relentlessly, the ticking of the watch echoed loudly in my ears. One minute passed, then another. The countdown was almost complete.
I cut another wire.
“Finish it now,” Sylla said urgently.
Ash’s hand closed over my shoulder.
I cut the final wire.
And we didn’t explode.
The percussion caps, the watch and the detonator were removed and laid neatly on the floor.
“It’s disarmed,” I managed finally, slumping bonelessly so that I was sitting sprawled on the floor.
Ash’s hand came to the back of my neck, and I found myself being pulled roughly into the sort of delirious kiss that broke curses or signalled the end of the fairy tale.
“Felicity, you are so clever,” Ash said roughly against my lips after a brief, wonderful moment. His hands were fisted round the lapels of his jacket that I wore, and I rested my forehead against his.
“You can’t see me because your face is mashed against Ash, but I am rolling my eyes very hard,” Sylla said, and I gave a breathless gasp of laughter.
“I know you want a life of adventure,” Ash murmured, “but just to be clear – it doesn’t have to be this much adventure, does it?”
In response I rolled on top of him, laughing and kissing every part of him that I could reach. “I. Love. You,” I managed in between planting kisses on his jaw, his nose, his eyelid.
Wrapping his arms tightly around my waist, Ash squeezed me hard enough to hurt.
“When you children have quite finished,” Sylla said, and I looked up to find her glaring down at us, arms folded, “we have a villain to confront.” Her face transformed from a scowl to a smile. “I do enjoy this part.”