Chapter 17
Seventeen
Given the urgency of the situation, it was beyond frustrating for Seth to simply cool his heels while they waited for the train that had been robbed to get moving down the tracks again.
In all honesty, he’d been considering hying off on foot to chase after Paulie, but Annaliese had made short shrift of that idea when she’d pointed out that it would be impossible to catch up with a man who’d stolen the only two horses the train had been transporting.
When he’d tried to argue the point, she’d then asked him what the odds would be for him to catch Paulie on foot, and given that they’d been a mere four percent, and that was only if Paulie happened to suffer an accident, he’d had to resign himself to waiting until they reached the next train station, where, hopefully, they could rent some horses.
“What in the world is this?” Louisa asked, dangling a corset from her finger that she’d just pulled from the rucksack of unfinished gadgets he’d brought on the chance he found some time to tinker with them during their hours of train travel.
“Electric corset,” Seth said before he stuck spare bullets into his pocket, wishing for the hundredth time that he’d had the foresight to pack essentials instead of less-than-useful objects.
His mother tugged another corset from the bag. “And this one?”
Seth’s gaze ran over the corset. “I didn’t realize that was in there, but it’s called an enhancer. It has rubber sacks that fill up with air and leave a lady sporting a more impressive, er, bosom.”
“And you’re inventing these corsets because . . . ?”
“I’m not inventing them,” Seth countered. “I nicked them from Norma Jean’s maid, Darcy.”
Louisa frowned. “I’m not sure, as your mother, I want to hear any additional details pertaining to Darcy and her corsets.”
Seth returned the frown until realization suddenly struck and he grinned.
“Honestly, Mother. Those aren’t Darcy’s corsets, they’re Norma Jean’s.
She sent Darcy off to purchase them after she heard they were all the rage, and I just so happened to run into Darcy as she was trying to whisk the corsets up to Norma Jean’s room.
” He shook his head. “I didn’t even have a chance to say more than hello to Darcy before the poor girl was confessing everything, saying she knew she should have run the corset purchase by you before buying them but didn’t because Norma Jean swore her to secrecy. ”
“And then Darcy just handed them over to you?”
“She did, but only after I told her that I should make sure they weren’t dangerous before Norma Jean had a chance to wear them.”
“And you’re intending on giving them back to Norma Jean?”
Seth added a few more bullets to his pocket and shook his head. “Not since I discovered that the electrical one is downright dangerous.”
“But you would have given them back to her if you hadn’t discovered that?”
“I would have, but . . .” He frowned. “I’m getting the distinct impression you wouldn’t have approved of that.”
“Of course I wouldn’t have approved of that,” Louisa didn’t hesitate to argue. “What I would have approved of, though, is you turning them over to me since having Norma Jean enhance her bosom is in poor taste, especially at her young age.”
“What’s in poor taste?” Annaliese asked, walking into his Pullman car, her gaze immediately settling on the corset Louisa was still holding aloft. “Is that one of those enhancer corsets?”
“You’re familiar with them?” Seth asked.
Annaliese shrugged. “Not personally, but I heard Caterina Zambarello discussing them with Eloise Whittenbecker in the hallway a few weeks back. I, being the decorum instructor, felt compelled to remind them that discussing unmentionables in a public setting was breaking a rule of civility if there ever was one.”
“How did they respond to that?”
“They asked me to refrain from telling their mothers, which led me to believe that while they’d promised not to discuss it again, they’d already made plans to purchase a few enhancers.”
Seth frowned. “I’m not certain they stopped discussing it since Norma Jean acquired one, as well as acquired an electrical corset that’s supposed to enhance a lady’s health.”
“Which lends credence to the notion that I’m not a very effective decorum instructor since students seem reluctant to adhere to my directives,” Annaliese said in a downright chippy voice, quite as if she was no longer bothered by her inadequacies as an instructor.
“But my ineffectiveness aside, I find myself wondering if that electrical corset you just mentioned actually does improve a lady’s heath. ”
Seth couldn’t help but think he was in the midst of a rather odd conversation, given that he’d always believed ladies did make a point to avoid discussing unmentionables, especially in mixed company, and yet, here they were, with Annaliese asking him about corsets as if she wasn’t all that concerned about breaking any rules of civility.
He tilted his head as the odd thought struck that perhaps the reason behind why some of the students didn’t adhere to Annaliese’s advice might be because they sensed they’d found a kindred spirit in their unusual decorum instructor, and a spirit that seemed to embrace, if ever so slightly, a certain disregard for the rules, and . . .
Louisa cleared her throat. “I believe Annaliese is still waiting for an answer, dear.”
Yanking himself back to the conversation at hand, Seth returned his attention to Annaliese, who was now examining the enhancer corset, squeezing one of the rubber pieces that was used to do all the enhancing.
She held the corset up to her ear. “I’m not certain this would enhance a figure for long because .
. . you can hear the air releasing. At the rate this piece is deflating, any lady who purchased this unmentionable would need to repair to the retiring room frequently to blow it back up or risk having everyone notice that her charms were shrinking right in front of them. ”
He swallowed the laugh that took that moment to bubble up his throat.
“I’ll be sure to speak to Norma Jean about that, if she doesn’t decide to quit speaking to me altogether after we run her down and cart her back to Chicago, although .
. .” He paused. “Maybe it would be best if you or my mother had that particular talk with her since having me broach the matter of unmentionables might leave her rather disconcerted.”
“I suppose it might at that,” Annaliese said. “Although I doubt she’ll listen to me.”
“She will if you tell her that the electrical corset has at least a seventy-two percent chance of the battery corroding within a month, at which point the corset is likely to catch fire.”
“Or you could simply get rid of the corsets so Norma Jean won’t be tempted to prove you wrong by wearing them,” Annaliese said before she set the corset aside.
“But speaking of your sister, dare I hope you have a few gadgets in your rucksack that may prove more useful than unmentionables? I don’t think Paulie, when we catch up to him, will cooperate if we ask him to don an electrical corset and then hope that corset saves the day by catching on fire. ”
Seth was exchanging a grin with Annaliese a second later before he dumped the contents of his rucksack on the table right as the train began moving again, a sign that the other train was finally getting on its way, which would finally allow them to make their way to the nearest train depot.”
He took a moment to consider the items now spread over the table, picking up what, at first glance, looked like a pocketknife.
“I suppose this wouldn’t be useless since it’s a prototype for a knife revolver, which I decided to make because it would take an opponent by surprise.
It’s still at an iffy stage, though, since I’m not sure the sight on the barrel is adjusted properly. ”
“Does that mean it’s not going to fire at the person it’s aimed at?” Annaliese asked.
“Perhaps, but the knife part might come in handy.” He set it aside and picked up a heavy metal object that resembled an overly large stapler.
“This is an automatic nail hammer that has a hopper at the top that feeds nails forward and into a highly sprung mechanism. When pressed, it bashes the nails into place. I’ve been working on having the nails feed more rapidly, and so far, it seems to be working well. ”
“Definitely more useful than a corset since we could always shoot nails at Paulie in a pinch,” Annaliese said before she nodded to a clunky-looking pistol. “A spare gun will undoubtedly come in handy.”
“Except that isn’t a gun,” Seth countered. “It’s a gun torch, a smaller version of my original flame thrower, but it only shoots sparks right now.”
“Still . . .” Louisa said as she moved up next to the table and took hold of the gun torch, tucking it into her pocket before she glanced at the remaining gadgets on the table. “Anything else we can use?”
“I suppose my fire grenade might be useful, even though it’s only filled with bicarbonate of soda, which is hardly lethal.”
Annaliese pointed to the last item on the table. “What is that?”
“Something not useful at all. It’s a tie perfector, something I made after I was having difficulty tying a Windsor knot, or worse yet, a Four-in-Hand.”
“I was wondering how you’ve been able to tie such intricate ties,” Louisa said, smiling. “As well as wondering why you’ve suddenly taken to looking like quite the dapper gentleman about town, especially after you asked me to have my hairdresser have a go at your hair.”
Since there was absolutely no way he was going to admit in front of Annaliese that he’d decided to improve his appearance after his talk with Rhenick, who’d mentioned that ladies enjoyed a well-dressed man, Seth settled for merely sending his mother a smile.