Broken Promises (14 page)

“And you have a black smudge on your forehead, and another on your cheek.” He smiled. “Why don’t we find Patrick and get out of here?”

“Oh, yes. But I’m not going home without him this time,” she insisted. “Which might mean having to convince his mama to move to Yorkshire, and I’m certain she won’t handle that very well.”

“If we can face exploding airships, mad scientists, angry rogue agents of the War Office, and the tyrannical General Black—”

“Someone mentioned my name?” He stopped in front of them. The smirk on his face suggested he’d been called much worse.

“We were talking about Patrick,” she said.

“You know he’ll be coming with me, don’t you?”

“What do you mean?” She pressed a hand to her throat.

“The kid’s one of mine now. He proved himself today. Not only did he find me and my men in time, but after leading us here, he was the only one willing and able to crawl through the rubble to disable Dunsmoor’s last incendiary.”

“There was another explosive?” Jasper asked.

He nodded. “Hidden among the war machines.”

“How did you know?”

“We heard two distinct blasts as we approached the building. The kid said Dunsmoor’s hidey-hole had contained the remains of three disassembled timepieces and three hats.”

“Hats?” It took her a moment to remember. “Dunsmoor used a hat box to make the incendiary that he left on the airship.”

The general nodded. “When it was determined that the two of you remained inside the building, Patrick insisted on trying to find the last device. Just like a bloodhound. I’m surprised he found it in time, but it’s a good thing. A blast like that would have decimated the whole block.”

Callie swallowed, but she fought back her instincts. She’d learned her lesson. “Have you asked him if working for you is what he wants?”

Black had the decency not to gloat when he confirmed that it had indeed been the young man’s wish to take a permanent position with the War Office…under General Black’s command.

“General,” Callie stopped the man as he turned to leave. “I want to know what you’re planning to do with Captain Dunsmoor and the doctor.”

He lifted a brow. She thought about standing up, to show him she meant business, but that would only make the pain in her side worse…and it was bad enough already.

Jasper stood, a commanding presence at her side for which she was grateful. “I’d like to know the answer to that as well,” he said.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with the two of you.” The general shook his head. “No respect for authority, and more trouble than you’re worth.” He affected a dramatic sigh worthy of any stage actor. “That’s what I get for working with toffs.”

“And…”

He sighed. “Unfortunately, Captain Dunsmoor has already escaped.”

“He what?” Jasper laughed. “Don’t tell me he changed his features again and fooled your men into thinking you had the wrong guy?”

She remembered the unyielding spark of resistance in Jamie Dunsmoor’s eyes as he’d been led away with his hands manacled behind his back, and wasn’t surprised. In fact, maybe it was a mistake, but she wished him well and prayed he could reclaim some part of the man he’d once been, maybe find peace…just as she would try to find peace.

“What about Helmholtz?” Jasper pressed.

“Dr. Helmholtz can no longer be trusted to conduct his research in the best interests of the War Office. From a preliminary examination, it seems you were right. He injected himself with his own organisms. They were either of the highly-evolved variety, or he took an extremely large dose. Either way, it appears he has already been immutably affected, and will have to be kept under strict surveillance by our secondary physician.”

She gasped. “There’s another doctor like him?”

“Not exactly. Dr. Stoltz isn’t crazy, but he has been conducting similar research on our behalf.”

“It always pays to have a backup.” Sarcasm dripped from Jasper’s words.

“If he hadn’t been unreachable until last night, we might have known sooner that the problem with the doctor’s creations wasn’t due to a degenerative issue at all.”

“Can your other doctor fix it?” He was starting to sound impatient, but she knew it was because he worried about her.

The general looked at her closely. “What’s to fix? From what I understand, once the superficial adjustments are complete and the nanites progress to deeper levels of gene modification, the involuntary spasms, headaches and hallucinatory problems you might be experiencing will cease and you’re only going to get better, stronger.”

Jasper growled and started forward, but she grabbed his arm. “Don’t.”

The general left with a grin and a warning that he’d be in touch soon with their next assignment. Pulling his forehead tight, Jasper turned to her with an argument.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this now.” She was so tired. “My side hurts, my head aches and I need to rest.”

“Your side? What’s wrong with your side?”

“It’s just sore.”

Jasper gently pulled the blanket off her shoulders, only to find that her clothes were covered in blood. “Jesus Christ, you were shot!”

She looked down at herself, feeling suddenly faint. “I thought I felt something, but at the time it didn’t seem that bad.”

He called for the medic. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t need you taking care of me.” Stubborn. Yes, she was being stubborn…and didn’t care.

When the medic arrived, he poked gently through the charred hole and pronounced her well on the way to recovery.

“What?” Jasper looked up in surprise.

The wound had been caused by the beam from the doctor’s weapon, but was almost closed already. She wouldn’t even need stitches.

“Those nanites work fast,” she muttered. A few months ago, the injuries she’d sustained in the fire had still taken a few days to heal completely. The little “parasites,” as Jamie had called them, were indeed evolving and becoming more efficient.

The medic gave her some instructions for caring for the wound and left again.

“This is exactly the reason I didn’t want you doing this kind of work,” Jasper said.

She puffed and struggled to stand, slapping his hand away when he moved to make her sit back down. “Why would you say something like that?”

He threw up his hands. “Look at you. You almost died…again!”

“Obviously I’m not that easy to kill. And this wouldn’t have happened if you started training with me months ago like I asked you to,” she hissed.

“You’re so pigheaded! Why can’t you just accept that this is no career for a woman?”

“And what shall I do, then?” She shook with the force of her emotions. “If I can’t dance, can’t have children, and can’t be your partner, then why did you bother to have them save my damned life?”

He stopped. “What do you mean, you can’t have children?”

She closed her eyes.

“Callie.” He grabbed her and shook her. “This has to stop now. Is it true? Why have you been keeping these things to yourself? You didn’t tell me about the changes to your mechanical implants, and now I find out you’ve kept this from me as well? For how long?” He spun away from her, running his hands through his hair. She swallowed back the hurt. “Jesus. I could see it in your face too. I knew there was something. I waited patiently for you to tell me, and you didn’t. When I finally asked, you still refused.” He turned back to face her, and she moaned at the pain in his eyes, her heart cracking. “Why?”

“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give you another reason to leave me.”

“Leave you? Oh, my God. Is that what you think I’m going to do? I went through hell to get you back. There isn’t anything on earth that could make me leave.”

Her hands fisted in her skirts. “I can’t be the woman you married.”

“You will always be the woman I married. I married a woman named Calliandra who fills my life with so much love that I refuse to be without her.”

“I know you want me to dance, but I can’t. I can’t have your children either. And you were so adamant about not letting me help you in these missions—”

“I only wanted you to try to dance again because I thought it was what you wanted. And we’ll get another opinion about the baby,” he insisted. “But even if it’s true, I don’t care.”

“How can you say that?”

He lifted his hand to her face and gathered the tear from her cheek. “Because always, the thing that made me the happiest man
in all England was never that I had the most famous ballerina on my arm at the opera, or the most beautiful wife in my bed, and it wasn’t the prospect of our near-perfect children one day inheriting my worthless title—as wonderful as it all would have been. It was, and ever shall be, the simple fact that you shared your love with me, and in doing so, filled my life with the most joy I’ve ever known.”

“Oh,” she whispered.

“When are you going to believe that all I need is for us to be together?”

She threw herself into his arms. “That’s all I want too. When I learned I was never going to have a baby, and then General Black arrived and dropped the rest of that mess on us, I kept thinking you couldn’t possibly keep loving me. I had ruined all our plans for our life together, and—”

His hands buried in her hair, he clutched her head, leaned over her and forced her to meet his gaze. She winced at the sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. “You know better.” His voice was hoarse and thick with frustration.

“Logically, yes. I know.” She nodded, openly crying now too. “At least I do now. But it wasn’t logical, Jasper. When the physician told me…I felt the loss of that child as if it had already started to grow in my womb, and then—” she snapped her fingers, “—just like that, it was suddenly gone forever.”

“You should have shared it with me. We could have borne that sorrow together.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” He swallowed hard. “Just…don’t.” He bent his head.

She’d hurt him deeply and the payment for her actions was an answering ache in her chest, and an overwhelming sense of loss. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

On tiptoes, she lifted her hands to his shoulders and pulled him forward so she could press soft kisses to his face. His chin, his cheeks, lips and nose. “I love you so much. Please—”

Gathering her closer, he crushed his lips to hers with a harsh groan. The kiss was filled with pain and hurt and anger, but also understanding, forgiveness and such boundless love that her heart was filled to overflowing.

There was a time not too long ago when she would have welcomed death, and in fact had prayed for it to take her. But now Callie knew just how lucky she was to have been given this life, to have been given
him,
and she would guard it fiercely with everything she had.

Epilogue

Callie paced back and forth across the floor of the ballroom. The ballet shoes were gone, and so was the gramophone and the barre.

A variety of other equipment had taken their places—including the automaton, which, so far, had only been used as Callie’s punching bag—in the boxing ring Jasper had built right in the middle of the ballroom. He promised her it was exactly like the ring at Gentleman Jackson’s, if a little bit smaller.

The full-length floor-to-ceiling mirror remained, but the side wall now housed a storage locker for her weapons. Jasper had started her with the Chinese war sword because it was huge and heavy and perfect for building strength and developing balance and agility.

She’d taken so well to it, they’d moved on to the katana, the saber and twin Japanese warrior blades, all of which had their place in the cabinet, along with a selection of deadly ray-guns, pistols and even a pair of boots in her size, with spring-loaded knives brilliantly hidden in the thick soles.

True to his word, Jasper had finally embraced her as his equal partner, ceased all talk of her taking up residence in the parlor like a normal,
safe
wife should, and had begun her training as soon as they arrived back home.

They had even been on another assignment for General Black. A simple information-gathering mission to Calais, but nonetheless, it had gone smoothly and helped both of them discover how to work best together.

Callie halted in the middle of the room. She couldn’t remember why she’d come in here now…oh, yes. She’d been hoping to find something to keep her occupied until Jasper returned and she could share her news with him. But now that she was here, she didn’t want to pick up a sword or don her boxing gloves.

Abruptly, she turned and jumped when Jasper filled the doorway. “When did you get here?”

He came forward with an answering smile and took her in his arms for a slow kiss. “What’s on your mind?” he asked when they came up for air.

She lifted her chin. “What makes you think anything is on my mind?”

“Are you going to deny it? Do we have to set aside the weapons training for a while and work on the art of subterfuge and evasion?” His laughter filled her with a warm glow, and she was suddenly desperate to tell him. She needed him to share her joy and assuage her fears.

“I’m pregnant.”

He stopped laughing, mouth hanging open. He looked her up and down, as if searching for the signs. “But…how?”

This wasn’t quite the reaction she expected. She’d hoped he would be happy. “Dr. Stoltz confirmed it today during his visit.” She’d been seeing the War Office physician regularly since Dr. Helmholtz had been taken into custody, in order to monitor the status of the nanites still running rampant inside her.

Nobody had discovered a way of stopping their evolution, or halting their reproduction, but she had ceased to experience the twitches and vision problems, and the doctor hadn’t noticed any disparities in her brain function upon examination. It seemed to be just as they’d been told, and the modifications the things continued to make only benefited her. She was stronger, healed more easily, required less sleep, and her reflexes were like lightning.

“He said that the biomechanical organisms must have been working hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“The doctor thinks they detected the damage in my womb and targeted it for repair. Given their nature, he said, he wasn’t very surprised. He ran a few extra tests, but…”