Luckily for Sophronia, the driver didn’t feel the need to look up. Both she and the airdinghy remained unnoticed. She wondered if those were the only other people on the train, the sleeping man with the transmitter, the driver, his stoker, and the lady. Could such a thing be possible, all six carriages for four people and an aetherographic transmitter?
The driver safely inside the locomotive, the train started up again.
Sophronia retreated in relief to the relative security of their first-class coach.
Dimity and Felix were waiting for her, looking frightened and impatient.
Soap was still awake. He cracked an eyelid from his prone position the moment she entered. He evaluated her from head to toe and, apparently satisfied, went back to sleep.
“Where were you?” hissed Dimity. “Really, Sophronia, sometimes you are quite impossible.” She sounded snooty in her relief. She sounded almost like…
Which was when Sophronia remembered who belonged to that voice. Pieces began to click into place.
“You’ve been gone an awful long time for watching a sunrise,” added Felix.
Sophronia said, “Wake up, everyone, we need to talk. I figured out what the freight is, and who’s carrying it. Now we simply need to know why.”
Soap sat up and shook Sidheag awake.
She blinked at them. “What’s going on?”
Sophronia wished they had tea. Tea would do them up a treat right now. However, without tea, it would have to be gossip.
“On the positive, we are definitely headed toward Oxford, Sidheag. Hopefully, there will be a northbound train we can hop there. Unfortunately, this train we’re on is almost certainly a vampire concern. For some reason they’ve got themselves an aetherographic transmitter fitted with one of the new crystalline valves, and are relocating it.”
“Gracious me,” said Felix primly, “how on earth did you learn all that?”
“I overheard a woman giving orders to the driver. I recognized her voice. She sounds a little older and more cultured, but I’m pretty confident it was Monique de Pelouse.”
Sidheag gasped.
“Oh, dear,” said Dimity.
Dimity didn’t know the half of it. Sophronia cursed inside. Was Lord Akeldama in on it, too? Vampires could be very tricky.
However, her tone was prosaic. “At least we are familiar with her methods.” She explained for Felix’s benefit, “You met her on that trip to London. Older girl who was forced to sit at our table. Now she’s drone to Westminster Hive.”
Felix’s lip curled. “So sad.”
Sophronia, annoyed by Felix’s bias, found herself unexpectedly defending Monique. “It’s a valid option in our field, if perhaps not considered the most honorable. Not everyone has the same choices you have, Lord Mersey.”
Sidheag said, gruffly, “Unfortunately, she’s also had all the same lessons we have. So she knows all our tricks, just as we know all hers.”
Sophronia said, “Except that she doesn’t know we’re on board. Unfortunately, she also knows our faces. There’s no disguising ourselves from Monique.”
“When we stop, will she come check this coach, do you think?” wondered Dimity, glancing frantically around the interior. There was nowhere to hide.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t tell if there are any other drones on board. There’s a man asleep with the transmitter. Good looking enough to be a drone. Perhaps this mission is one of such secrecy they could only entrust it to the two.”
“Vampires always muck everything up,” grumbled Felix.
“You mean, just like the Picklemen do? Everyone has their own agenda, Lord Mersey. The key is to manipulate motivations without being sucked into them.” Sophronia looked hard at Felix, hoping he might take her words as a lesson, think about his own position for a change.
Unfortunately, he seemed mainly annoyed at her tone of voice.
“So much for our grand escape to Scotland,” said Sidheag, slumping onto a bench. The lack of sleep was catching up to her.
“Of course it’s the vampires.” Felix didn’t seem surprised enough by Sophronia’s revelation. And she was pretty darn certain it wasn’t simply his bigotry talking.
Sophronia gave him a hard stare. “Felix, do you know something you’re not telling us?”
The young lord shrugged. “It’s only that I thought I recognized the writing on the freight carriage as we approached, but I couldn’t understand what it implied until now.”
“You didn’t think that might be relevant?”
“Not until I knew there was a vampire drone on board.”
“That’s not the point; the point is, you might have said something sooner if you had suspicions! What did it say?” Sophronia demanded. Blast his Pickleman secrecy. What had they landed themselves in?
Felix was sullen. “Well, I couldn’t tell at the time. I didn’t see much of it. But now, I believe it was the brand of the East India Company.”
“Bloody Jack?” Dimity was intrigued. She had a fancy to someday visit exotic lands. Most girls wanted to tour Europe after their weddings. Dimity had plans to visit places with more color. After she caught herself a sensible, tour-minded husband, of course.
“Indeed,” acknowledged Felix. “My father has always suspected they had vampire ties.”
Sophronia nibbled her lip in consideration. “Has the East India Company, by any chance, put in an order for crystalline valves recently?”