Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond by Jayne Barnard Page A
Authors: Jayne Barnard
Tags: Steampunk
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composing a week’s worth of articles centered on Lady HH’s new Easter bonnet. This immense edifice of wire, linen, and lilies was worthy of a cathedral, and would be seen in one on Easter Sunday in London. Maddie had been granted an early viewing as a means of advertising where the nieces might be soonest seen. The London Season kicked off at Easter, and advance publicity for suitable girls might lead to early offers of marriage.
Poor Clarice. Her heart was spoken for, but her hand would go to the party deemed most satisfactory to her family. Perhaps Maddie would be invited to cover the wedding. She could wear a hat with a veil, dress in half-mourning as a disguise, and pass unremarked beneath the very noses of her parents’ friends. It would only be a violation of Father’s decree if she were recognized.
The next morning brought one message, not from Father, for which she was grateful, but from CJ. “No.”
Maddie crushed the flimsy paper in her fist, heedless of the purple ink smearing her last pair of spotless net gloves. She looked for the nearest ashtray, intent on condemning the missive as well as CJ to perdition by the fastest route. Before she could ask the elderly major seated there for a match, he started up out of his chair and hurried away talking to himself.
“My word, my word. I say, wot! That baron feller is dead after all. Must tell Neddy.” Maddie slid into a chair uncomfortably warm from his rotund rear and found the news on his open brass monkey:
The Cornwall Cog and Goggles
BODMIN’S BODY FOUND—
MYSTERY DEEPENS
The mortal remains of Baron Bodmin have washed ashore in Cornwall, only a few miles from isolated Bodmin Manor. The remains, much diminished by the action of waves and sea creatures, were lashed to a small, but weighty, White Sky Line trunk.
Those who discovered the body immediately opened the trunk, hoping to be the first to see the fabled Nubian treasure the baron sought in Africa, but were disappointed to find only books and papers, some of them damaged by water seepage.
Coast Guard officials say the trunk could not have floated and was probably dragged inshore by the tide over a number of days. The cork belt and escape canopy missing from the adrift airship were not located with the body, and it is unknown whether he had lost or traded them earlier on his expedition rather than using them to escape from what he must have deemed a foundering airship.
Why Bodmin should have elected to abandon ship with a heavy trunk is unknown. Local sea-goers say he might have bailed out at low altitude over shallow water and hoped to drag the trunk ashore safely. Whether the tide set against him or the wind was offshore cannot be known unless the time of his entering the sea can be determined by other means.
As Obie had predicted, Baron Bodmin was dead, and in England. There was no story at all left in Cairo, and the sooner Maddie left the better. She returned to the hotel’s long marble reception counter and told the clerk, “Have my steamer trunk sent to my chamber.”
Chapter Seven
IT WAS NOT easy to get passage out of Cairo at the pinnacle of the English departures. First the hotel’s travel concierge declined to book her a stateroom, saying sternly that most guests had booked weeks ago. Then, after delay while he pretended to adjust the magnification of his brass monoculus, he eventually wrote out the address of the nearest respectable airship booking office.
It was quite a walk on a hot morning, through streets alive with beggars, hawkers, business people striding along, and women, unseen under veils or enveloping chadors, gliding with baskets on their heads or loads on their backs. Horse-drawn carriages competed with piled-high donkeys and self-propelling drays, while occasional camels sneered at them all. Everywhere children darted, calling for baksheesh and occasionally picking the pockets of distracted shoppers.
The
Poor Clarice. Her heart was spoken for, but her hand would go to the party deemed most satisfactory to her family. Perhaps Maddie would be invited to cover the wedding. She could wear a hat with a veil, dress in half-mourning as a disguise, and pass unremarked beneath the very noses of her parents’ friends. It would only be a violation of Father’s decree if she were recognized.
The next morning brought one message, not from Father, for which she was grateful, but from CJ. “No.”
Maddie crushed the flimsy paper in her fist, heedless of the purple ink smearing her last pair of spotless net gloves. She looked for the nearest ashtray, intent on condemning the missive as well as CJ to perdition by the fastest route. Before she could ask the elderly major seated there for a match, he started up out of his chair and hurried away talking to himself.
“My word, my word. I say, wot! That baron feller is dead after all. Must tell Neddy.” Maddie slid into a chair uncomfortably warm from his rotund rear and found the news on his open brass monkey:
The Cornwall Cog and Goggles
BODMIN’S BODY FOUND—
MYSTERY DEEPENS
The mortal remains of Baron Bodmin have washed ashore in Cornwall, only a few miles from isolated Bodmin Manor. The remains, much diminished by the action of waves and sea creatures, were lashed to a small, but weighty, White Sky Line trunk.
Those who discovered the body immediately opened the trunk, hoping to be the first to see the fabled Nubian treasure the baron sought in Africa, but were disappointed to find only books and papers, some of them damaged by water seepage.
Coast Guard officials say the trunk could not have floated and was probably dragged inshore by the tide over a number of days. The cork belt and escape canopy missing from the adrift airship were not located with the body, and it is unknown whether he had lost or traded them earlier on his expedition rather than using them to escape from what he must have deemed a foundering airship.
Why Bodmin should have elected to abandon ship with a heavy trunk is unknown. Local sea-goers say he might have bailed out at low altitude over shallow water and hoped to drag the trunk ashore safely. Whether the tide set against him or the wind was offshore cannot be known unless the time of his entering the sea can be determined by other means.
As Obie had predicted, Baron Bodmin was dead, and in England. There was no story at all left in Cairo, and the sooner Maddie left the better. She returned to the hotel’s long marble reception counter and told the clerk, “Have my steamer trunk sent to my chamber.”
Chapter Seven
IT WAS NOT easy to get passage out of Cairo at the pinnacle of the English departures. First the hotel’s travel concierge declined to book her a stateroom, saying sternly that most guests had booked weeks ago. Then, after delay while he pretended to adjust the magnification of his brass monoculus, he eventually wrote out the address of the nearest respectable airship booking office.
It was quite a walk on a hot morning, through streets alive with beggars, hawkers, business people striding along, and women, unseen under veils or enveloping chadors, gliding with baskets on their heads or loads on their backs. Horse-drawn carriages competed with piled-high donkeys and self-propelling drays, while occasional camels sneered at them all. Everywhere children darted, calling for baksheesh and occasionally picking the pockets of distracted shoppers.
The
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