Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

the burning in his gut. “What could I say to convince her to risk them? Nothing. There is no hope.”
    And he’d ruined everything else between them as well.
    “You’re a stranger to her, David. When she knows you better, she’ll know you won’t hurt them. You’ve waited all these years; a bit more won’t matter. Give her time to trust you.”
    “I’ll only be a week on this ship.”
    “Yes, my dear, but she isn’t going anywhere. Next year, when this survey is over, you can try again—and in the meantime, write to her. I’ll pass on your letters. Give her a chance to know you.”
    His body suddenly feeling as heavy as his heart, David nodded. First, he’d apologize—not to win her good opinion again, but because it was the right thing to do. Then he’d beg for a chance to prove himself. His mother wouldn’t have asked this of him if she hadn’t trusted that he wouldn’t expose her people, whatever the danger was.
    He’d seek her out…as soon as his tongue didn’t feel so thick, and his head stopped throbbing. Jesus Christ. What had he just drunk?
    The pounding in his brain was soon echoed by a pounding from outside. David looked toward the door. The noise was coming from the passageway, and seemed overly loud—even for an airship.
    “It’s nothing.” Lucia was shaking her head. “Chief Leroux refuses to use the ear horn that I gave to him, which means that he hears nothing and we hear everything.”
    He smiled with her, then stilled at the first shout. Lucia’s lips parted, and they both looked to the door again.
    “Fridasdottor! Come in here, girl!”
    Annika answered, too low for David to make out—and apparently too low for the chief to make out, too.
    “Eh?”
    Her voice rose to match his. “I will be leaving Phatéon, monsieur, as soon as we return to Port-au-Prince!”
    No. David stood, staggered. Bracing his fist on the table and holding on to the back of his chair, he waited for the dizziness to pass. Lucia caught his arm, looked up at him with dismay.
    Walls and the passageway couldn’t muffle the chief’s irritation. “Why would you do that?”
    “I’ve been looking for my sister. She’s not on this route, so I’ll be seeking a position on another ship!”
    “So now I’ll have to find two new men?”
    “Or women, monsieur!”
    “You smile at that, girl? Go on, then. It’ll be a waste teaching you about the generator now, but I suppose a stamp on your license will make it easier to get rid of you.”
    “Thank you, Chief!”
    He made a sound of dismissal. Lucia released David’s arm and moved quickly to the door, opening it.
    “Annika!”
    She stopped in the passageway just outside the cabin, her expression tightening. Her flat gaze met David’s for an instant before she looked to his aunt. Her voice was a thin layer of civility over steel. “Doctor?”
    “I’m sorry, Annika, but we heard—You’re leaving Phatéon ?”
    “Yes. It’s been four years, and I’ve been to every American portand around the North Sea several times over. I should have done this before, but I kept making excuses not to.”
    “I see,” Lucia said, and so did David. He had spurred her into finally making this decision. “What route will you take now?”
    “To the Ivory Market, or to Australia.”
    “No.” David’s rough reply brought her gaze to his again. She stared at him for a long second, then dismissed him. His fingers tightened on the back of the chair.
    What could he do? Tie her here? Force her to stay?
    Threaten her again?
    He might. God help him, he might.
    Lucia wrung her hands. “Those routes are so dangerous for airships.”
    With a shrug, Annika said, “I cannot return home until Källa does.”
    “Will you send us word, letting us know where you are? How you are?”
    “No.”
    Clearly taken aback by Annika’s blunt response, Lucia tried again. “If your sister finally answers the advertisement, she will be looking for Phatéon —”
    “I’ll change the advertisements and tell her to go home instead.” Her expression softened as she regarded his aunt, but David didn’t see any fondness there. Only the same terrible sadness that he recognized from the wardroom, in the moment after he’d chosen to let her hate him. Only the same terrible hurt. “I’ve been thinking back to the conversations that we’ve had—and in almost all of them, you pried into my past. Why didn’t you just say that I reminded you of Inga Helgasdottor?”
    His aunt seemed