Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

the pages of a closed book—apparently she’d abandoned the wardroom to enjoy a few more minutes of reading here before her watch began. Across the narrow aisle, the other two bunks were empty. No surprise that Marguerite was gone; the steward’s assistant reported to the kitchen before breakfast and would be running ragged through supper, but was the only one of the four women who ever got a full night’s sleep. Mary Chandler ought to have been in the upper bunk, catching restwhile the first engineer was on watch. No doubt Annika would hear an earful from her later, going on and on about how tired she was.
    Glad that it was Elena who’d come in, Annika rolled up on her side and propped her chin on her fist. She liked Marguerite well enough, but her conversations with the older woman never seemed to range beyond food and the weather. Mary preferred to gossip, which was fascinating when Annika knew the person under discussion and unbearable when she didn’t. Since Mary had recently received letters from her family in Manhattan City, Annika knew from experience that it would run to unbearable over the next few days.
    She never tired of Elena’s company, however—and a good thing, too, given that they’d shared a cabin for almost four years. Annika had joined Phatéon ’s crew as the third engineer shortly after Elena had become the third mate. Their friendship had become fixed in the first months, with Elena spending every free moment teaching Annika to speak French and serving as her guide to the New World.
    The loneliness of leaving home had been easier to bear with Elena—and initially, Annika had hoped that friendship might become more. But the passionate longing she dreamed of never developed and her guts never felt riveted, no matter how much Annika would have welcomed it at the time.
    Perhaps it was for the best, though. Like most New Worlders, Elena probably wouldn’t have welcomed any romantic advances—and if found out, Annika would have lost her position on the airship…or worse, if she was reported to anyone other than the captain.
    In any case, as the years had passed, Annika had grown to value Elena’s friendship more. Love could wait until after she found Källa—if it ever came at all.
    Elena turned away from the washstand and stopped abruptly, spotting Annika. “Oh!” Apology tugged her lips into a grimace. “Ididn’t mean to wake you. They started bringing dinner into the wardroom, and with the jolting, I couldn’t bear the smell.”
    Her friend did appear a bit bald around the beak. Annika hadn’t even noticed the airship’s rough rocking, or that the storm had come in. Yet another reason to stop herself from daydreaming. “I wasn’t sleeping.”
    “How could anyone in this? I hope we cast off soon. The cargo’s almost all up and most of the crew aboard; we’re just waiting for the mail, and of course the post delivery is late. Did you just come back from the city?”
    “A little while ago.”
    “Have you spoken with the chief yet?”
    Chief Leroux, the head engineer. Annika hadn’t seen him since her return. “Why? Did he send for me while I was out?”
    “And got Mary, instead. She was steaming mad, too, having to take García’s watch.”
    The first engineer ought to have been on duty now, not Mary. “Why did she have to?”
    “Because García’s off ship. His wife came to visit. Five minutes later, he turned in his papers and decided to stay in Castile.” Elena’s arched brows and gleeful tone told Annika that she wouldn’t like whatever her friend had to say next. “And that makes you the first engineer.”
    Oh, blast. Annika hoped not. García had twice as many duties as she did.
    Elena laughed at her expression. “Look at you. Anyone else would be happy to take another step closer to a chief’s ticket. I’d be dancing for joy if I was dumped into the first mate’s position like this—and wouldn’t stop pushing until I was master of a ship.”
    Yes, but Annika wasn’t here to make a career out of it. “Leroux will bring someone else aboard as first. Neither Mary nor I know the electric generators well.”
    “You could learn.”
    That was Elena’s answer to everything. “I’d rather spend my time sewing than studying schematics.”
    Elena cast a critical look at Annika’s voluminous crimson skirt. “You could use the practice.”
    Annika gasped and narrowed her eyes at the other woman, but wasn’t the least bit upset. Elena often wore the