Ether & Elephants Read online

  Ether & Elephants

  By Cindy Spencer Pape

  Copyright © 2015 by Cindy Spencer Pape

  For more information, contact Lisa Wray

  (416) 445-5860 ext. 350; [email protected]

  Carina Press

  eBook / Steampunk / Science Fiction / Romance

  ISBN: 9781459290259

  Price: $3.99

  84,000 Words

  A Gaslight Chronicles Novel

  Sir Thomas Devere and Eleanor Hadrian have loved each other most of their lives—but sometimes love doesn't conquer all.

  Their chance at happiness was ruined by Tom's hasty marriage to someone else. Heartbroken, Nell left home, finding a new life as a teacher at a school for the blind. But when one of her supernaturally gifted students, Charlie, is kidnapped, Tom reappears and her worlds collide.

  Tom claims he hasn't seen his wife since the day of their marriage...yet he fears the missing student could be his son.

  The deeper they dig, the more Tom and Nell discover: a deadly alchemist, more missing gifted children and long-suppressed feelings neither of them is ready for. A race on airship across England and India may lead them to answers—including a second chance at love—but only if all of British Society isn't destroyed first.

  80,000 words

  Dedication

  This one’s for my father, Phillip Spencer, who just celebrated his 90th birthday. He taught me to go for my dreams and to dust myself off and try again as needed, to sing and dance, even if I didn’t know how. He also taught me the meaning of unconditional love. Through war, poverty, heartbreak and loss, he never forgot how to smile or laugh. He can probably still outrun me. Dad, I hope you’re around to see the next 50 stories published.

  Prologue

  Hadrian Hall, Northumberland, January 1855

  Nell Hadrian swirled around the dance floor in her first real ball gown. As usual, her parents’ Twelfth Night party was a smashing success. The difference was this time, Nell had been allowed to stay up, since it was a mostly family occasion and she was now sixteen. The night was magickal, most particularly because Tom had signed her dance card for the supper waltz.

  She was frantic with anticipation, but was too busy to dwell on it. She laughed with her elder sister Wink and their friends Melody, Connor and Geneva MacKay. She danced with Connor and her father, along with a dozen or so other family friends. Finally, just before midnight, she danced with Tom.

  She twirled in his powerful arms, breathing in the warm scent of him, her face close against his chest. The sparkling crystals dangling from the gasoliers cast a flickering, nearly magickal light over the crowded greenery-filled ballroom. Maybe it was a sign. Perhaps now that she was grown enough to dance at a ball, even though she wasn’t properly “out,” it was time for her to finally speak her heart. Her heart beat faster and she swallowed hard.

  She’d been wildly in love with Tom Devere since she was ten years old, maybe even before that. They’d never spoken of it, never dared so much as an inappropriate touch, but somehow, Nell believed with all her heart that Tom loved her too.

  “May I speak to you for a minute?” She gazed up into his eyes, terrified and excited all at the same time. “After the dance, but before we go in to supper?”

  “Sure.” The music was winding down, so Tom waltzed them away from the center of the crowd, toward a door to a sitting room beyond. “What’s wrong, Nelly-belly?”

  She winced at the old nickname and, still holding his hand, sat on a small sofa and tugged him down beside her. “Nothing’s wrong.” She pulled her hand away. “Except that you leave in the morning for university again.” Tom was halfway through his second year, and when he was gone, nothing felt right in her world.

  “I know. Can’t wait.” He grinned for a moment before his face fell. “Well, mostly. I will miss everyone, of course.”

  “Even me?” After another deep breath she said, “Will you miss me, Tommy?”

  “Of course.” He took her hand again and squeezed it. “You’re my favorite sister.”

  “Except I’m not.” She paused and looked directly into his vivid blue eyes. “We both know we’ve never truly been brother and sister. Not like the others.”

  Tom was nominally Nell’s foster brother. He, Nell, Nell’s brother Jamie, Wink and Piers had come together as children to survive on the soot-and-vampyre ridden streets of Wapping, and later all had been taken in by Merrick Hadrian.

  While the Hadrians had adopted the others three-and-a-half years ago, Tom was the exception. They’d discovered he was the missing heir to an elderly baronet. Shortly after their meeting, Tom’s grandfather had passed away, leaving him in the Hadrians’ care. The rest of their group had become Hadrians, but Tommy had become Sir Thomas Aloysius Porter Devere.

  Tom was family, but to Nell he had always been so much more. She gazed at him, fiddling with her fan and long gloves. His hair was gold with just a hint of a wave, and she wanted more than anything to run her fingers through it.

  He sat silent for a moment before letting out a long, tense breath. “No.” He lifted their clasped hands to her cheek. “You’re right. I’ll probably go to hell for it, but I don’t think of you as a sister. Never did.” Nell licked her lips and a delicious heat filled his eyes before he turned his face away. “But we can’t talk about this, Nell. Not yet. You’re too young.”

  “I’m sixteen.” Her voice cracked. “In Wapping, I’d be married by now if I was lucky enough not to have gone the other direction. I don’t know why the upper classes have such different rules about waiting.”

  “True.” He kissed her knuckles. “But they do. And I have responsibilities. I have to finish my education.”

  She smiled. “I know. But isn’t it perfect that you’ll finish just about the same time I make my debut?”

  Tom looked into Nell’s glorious dark eyes and reached out with his free hand to touch one silky curl. All the blood in his body seemed to be pooled below his waist, leaving not much for his brain. It seemed he had loved Nell all his life, but he’d promised her father to wait until she was grown to speak of it.

  In fact, it was one of the reasons the Hadrians hadn’t adopted him with the others. It would have complicated the baronetcy, but even more importantly, it would have been prohibitive to marrying Nell. Tom had chosen to remain apart from the others just so he could one day join them as brother-in-law.

  One thing that arrangement had allowed him to do was sow some wild oats with the other chaps while at university. Not anymore. Once he and Nell talked, it would be a commitment. He couldn’t lie about feelings that were a big part of who he was, but he couldn’t leave her hanging either. He drew in a deep breath. “It does sound like the perfect coincidence. I do love you, Miss Eleanor Hadrian.”

  She flung herself in his lap and kissed his lips. Her backside pressed against his groin and all rationality went out the window.

  Her kiss lacked the experience of his previous partners’, but it burned right through him. Nothing had ever felt so good, and yet it left him wanting so much more. Her slim curves pressed against him. All he could do was kiss her back, parting her lips with his tongue to delve inside.

  Eventually, of course, they had to pause for breath. He held her tightly against his chest.

  “It’s going to be perfect, Tom.” She grinned up at him, her eyes wide. “Sir Thomas and Lady Devere. We’ll be the most dazzling couple in England. Stonechase will be the perfect place for raising children. How many will we have, do you think?”

  Tom groaned at the thought of giving Nell children. “Dozens,” he muttered, licking his way around the shell of her ear. “As many as you want.”

  “Definitely a dozen or more. You’ll teach t
he boys about the Order and magick, I’ll teach the girls music and how to manage a household. We’ll throw the grandest parties for all our families and friends.”

  “Yes.” It was all he could manage to say. He took her lips again, dipping even deeper this time. She was a quick learner and soon her tongue tangled with his, even as her clever hands found their way inside his coat and under the hem of his waistcoat to grip the muscles at his waist.

  Not to be outdone, he brought one hand up to slide inside the neckline of her gown and even her corset, finding her high, small breast through nothing but her thin shift. He’d dreamed of touching her like this since he was a schoolboy. He squeezed lightly and she cried out his name.

  “Ahem.”

  They broke apart at the amused but stern voice of great-aunt Dorothy, both of them flushed, flustered and panting. Under Dorothy’s watchful gaze, they tidied themselves and returned to the party, where they pretended to eat the lavish supper laid out.

  The next morning, when the entire family lined up to say goodbye to Tom, he whispered in her ear, “Just two more years, dearest. Two more years, just you wait.”

  Chapter One

  Cornwall, April, 1863

  “Oh, Papa, thank goodness you’re here!” Eleanor Jenkins Hadrian threw herself into her adoptive father’s arms just as if she were a girl instead of a grown woman of twenty-five.

  “Of course I’m here.” Merrick Hadrian, Baron Northland and Knight of the Round Table, smoothed her wavy black hair just as he had when she was twelve. “That’s what fathers are for.”

  Nell sighed. It was so good to see him for the first time since Christmas. Reluctantly she pulled back from her father’s arms and looked up into his face. It was a little craggier than it had been twelve years ago when he’d first taken in a mob of street children, and there was more silver in his dark brown hair. He was still tall, still strong, still Nell’s rock. She hugged him tightly. “One of my pupils has gone missing.”

  “So you said when you telephoned.” Merrick waited patiently for her to continue.

  The man beside him snorted. “He probably just ran away.”

  Nell reluctantly disengaged herself from her father’s embrace and turned her attention to the last man she wanted to see, Sir Thomas Devere, baronet and now a full member of the Order. Even taller than Merrick, though not quite as broad, Tom fairly twitched with his anticipation to finish up and get away as he leaned against a wall and crossed his arms over his leanly muscled chest. Protecting himself in case she tried to hug him? Nell gave her foster brother a polite smile, not allowing herself to linger on his chiseled face. “Tom. I didn’t expect to see you.” She turned back to her father. “Charlie didn’t run away. Something is very wrong, Papa.”

  Both men dwarfed the dainty furniture of the headmistress’s private parlor. Merrick took a seat in one of the delicate needlepoint chairs, causing it to creak ominously. “Are you sure? Boys do scarper off from time to time. For any number of reasons. Although for a lad who can’t see, I realize it could be considerably more dangerous.” It was a safe assumption that Charlie couldn’t see, given that Nell taught at the Glenbury School for the Blind. “How old is he?”

  “Only eight.” Nell sat beside her father and let him take her hand. “It isn’t even that. I know he was taken. Papa, Glenbury is an old house. It was even an abbey at one time. There are ghosts.”

  “Of course.” Merrick met her gaze. “Did one of them see something? Say something to you?”

  Only among family did she admit to her gift, or curse, as she sometimes thought of it. “Old Lord Michael Pentworth. He’s been here since the Civil War, the first owner of the house after Cromwell was deposed. He’s quite a character and he likes to walk the courtyard at night. He’s also rather fond of me, since there aren’t many people he can chat with. He saw a woman leading Charlie away, pulling him roughly along. Lord Michael followed to the gates—that’s as far as he can go—and heard Charlie crying. I don’t know why he didn’t come to me right away, but even ghosts can be foolish if that’s the way they were in life.”

  “What did the headmistress have to say?” Merrick looked into Nell’s eyes. “You did speak with her?”

  “I did.” Nell looked down at her hands, which were so brown compared to other English girls’, a heritage from her unknown natural father. “She said Charlie had been collected by his aunt and was no longer a student at Glenbury. The thing is, Papa, Charlie doesn’t have an aunt. Nor living parents, not that he knows of. He was found alone in a squalid flat, told his mother was dead, then dropped on the school’s doorstep by a neighbor as a child of four.”

  “Being abandoned isn’t the same thing as having no family,” Tom said. “We both know that. It’s possible the aunt just discovered his existence somehow.” Tom’s parents had both died when he was an infant, and he’d learned at sixteen that he was legitimate.

  Nell’s case was a bit different. She’d known her biological mother, but her father could have been any one of her mother’s many customers. Fanny Jenkins had been a dockside streetwalker, and wasn’t too fussy to accept coin from foreign sailors. According to Fanny’s memories, which were sketchy at best, the man who’d sired Nell was likely from India or thereabouts. He could be alive somewhere in the world and Nell would never know, not even if she ran into him on the street.

  “Nonetheless,” she said. “Our own histories aside, I don’t believe that’s the case here. Charlie was taken in a hurry, and against his will. Even if this woman is a relative, I don’t believe she means to do well by him.”

  “What makes you say that?” Merrick lifted an eyebrow. “Perhaps she simply couldn’t afford the school fees, so she took him home. Or she wanted time to get to know him.”

  Nell shook her head. “No. Charlie left me a message. He asked for help. But Mrs. Chisholm, the headmistress, is new here. She doesn’t believe me.”

  “What kind of message?” Tom asked, his eyes running over the titles in Mrs. Chisholm’s bookshelf. Three years after breaking Nell’s heart, he still couldn’t look her in the eye. “A note? Perhaps in some sort of arcane musical code that the old witch couldn’t comprehend?”

  “A note, yes.” She tried to keep her eyes focused on her father instead of Tom, though they kept straying anyway. “But nothing so complicated as a code. Are you familiar with Braille writing?”

  Both men nodded.

  She handed Merrick a scrap of paper from the pocket of her gray woolen gown. Raised ink showed a musical staff, but instead of notes, dots had been pressed into the paper between the lines, with the tip of a pencil. Two patterns of dots repeated themselves over and over. Across one bit of staff, the boy—or someone—had spelled out “Miss H,” followed by a repeating sequence.

  “Mrs. Chisholm hasn’t bothered to learn it yet. We do teach them to write letters, so others can read things,” Nell said. “But that Braille letter is an S—”

  “And the other is an O.” Merrick handed the scrap to Tom. “Your thoughts?”

  Tom studied it, then closed his eyes and rested one finger on the writing.

  Nell studied his hands. It had been years since she’d held one of those hands in hers, yet she couldn’t forget the gentleness of his touch when they’d danced, nor the ferocity of his kiss. Damn him for being so ridiculously attractive, and damn her for not being able to ignore it.

  “There’s distress,” he said. “Obviously, given the message. Duress of some kind. For any more than that, you’d need Lord Drood.” The Marquess of Drood, a descendent of Merlin, was the Order of the Round Table’s most powerful wizard, although Tom had some gift for the craft as well.

  Merrick’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think we need to call in Rhys when Nell has given us the most likely explanation. When, last night, was the boy taken?”

  “Just after bedtime, so all the children were shut in their rooms and most of the teachers were back in theirs, grading papers or preparing today’s lessons. I didn’t know he was
missing until this morning when he missed his piano lesson. Music means the world to Charlie. He’s talented enough to make a career of it, despite his disability. He wouldn’t skip our lesson by choice. When I went to his room, I found Lord Michael there, fretting over that note, which was stuck to the inside of a drawer with a bit of taffy. Charlie was careful to hide his message.”

  “The students have individual rooms?” Tom snorted. “This must be a luxury school.”

  “No.” Nell had no experience with boarding school as a student, but she knew Tom had found the transition from street rat to schoolboy a difficult one. “The big rooms house four, the smaller rooms usually two. Charlie and one other boy share what used to be a dressing room. His roommate, however, is in the infirmary with the measles, so for the moment, Charlie was alone. The older boys in the adjacent room were supposedly asleep, but more likely playing cards, and claim not to have heard anything.”

  “Have you no idea why this woman might have taken him, aunt or no?” Merrick studied Nell’s face.

  She gazed back unblinkingly. “Actually I do. Charlie is gifted, beyond his ability with music. Our kind of gifted.”

  Merrick lifted an eyebrow and even Tom straightened and turned toward Nell.

  She drew in a deep breath. “He finds things. If a teacher loses her favorite pen, he can tell her where it is, almost unerringly. He told me where the former porter hid his gin bottles. It’s not always clear-cut, because of his blindness. He doesn’t see things in his mind, he sort of feels them. He can’t say, for instance, it’s in a yellow room under a striped chair. But he might say it’s near a window or under a piano, since those are tangible objects, while colors and designs are strictly visual. He also has a sense of direction and can tell if the object is to the right or left, above or below him. All he needs is to touch someone who has a connection to the object. The closer the connection, the easier it is for him. And the stronger the desire, the better his power works.”