Steamed by Katie MacAlister

He touched his head as his voice trailed off, a puzzled look on his face. “We were talking about something.”
    “Your companion is here,” I said, moving aside so he could see behind me.
    With a cry of, “Hallie!” he rushed over to the prone woman. “What’s wrong with her?”
    “Nothing that we could see, although I must admit that we did not notice the injury to your head,” I answered, moving around the woman’s feet.
    “Hal? Wake up!”
    “Nrrng.” The woman frowned, licking her lips for a second before rolling over onto her side.
    “Come on, Hal, make an effort to wake up.” Jack tried to roll her over, but she mumbled something incoherent as she slapped at his hands. He looked up from her to me. “What have you done to her?”
    There was ire in his voice, ire and an unspoken threat. I straightened my shoulders. “We have done nothing but move you both from where we found you.”
    “Found us?” He looked around again, his gaze this time taking in the visible contents of the hold, his expression growing more and more dark. “What the hell? Where are we?”
    “You are in the forward hold of His Imperial Majesty’s Tesla , an airship that is under my command,” I said, allowing a little sting of irritation to sound in my voice. “Perhaps, Mr. Fletcher, you would be good enough to tell me how your sister and you happened to be found behind a crate of salted beef?”
    “Jack,” he said, moving away to examine a crate of surveying equipment.
    “Mr. Fletcher,” I repeated, a bit more forcefully, following after him as he suddenly jetted down a narrow aisle between crates. “Sir, I must remind you that I am armed.”
    “Wow, this is really impressive. What is it, a warehouse?” he asked, pausing next to the salted meat, tracing the logo of the Aerocorps that had been painted on the wood. “I have to say, your group has gone to a tremendous amount of trouble to create an authentic setting.”
    I cast a glance behind me to Mr. Piper, who hobbled over to us. “If you could please answer my question, Mr. Fletcher, we might be a little forwarder.”
    He grinned at me, his laugh lines crinkling at me in a way that made my stomach flutter. With stern determination, I ignored the sensation.
    “You even talk like something straight out of a Victorian book. Brava, Octavia.”
    “Captain Pye,” I said sternly, taking a good firm grip on the patience that was fast slipping through my fingers.
    “But Octavia is such a pretty name,” he said, winking at me. “It fits you well. This isn’t by any chance a film set, is it? I hadn’t heard through the grapevine that there was a new steampunk movie being made, but this—” He turned around, gesturing toward the stacks of crates in the hold. “This is really amazing.”
    I gasped at the sign painted on the back of his undershirt, staring at it in disbelief. “You dare?”
    “Satan’s stones!” Mr. Piper gasped, as well, as soon as he caught sight of it. “Aw, lad, and ye seemed like such a nice fellow.”
    I leveled my gun at the man as he spun around. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “What do I dare?”
    “Your arrogance,” I said through a tight jaw. “Well, at least we know what you are now.”
    “I’m a nanoelectrical systems engineer,” he said, giving me a puzzled look. “I don’t see how that’s overly arrogant, although I have to admit to being labeled as a nerd once in a while. But usually the stories about Alaska and Mexico get out, and that reputation wipes out anything else. If I was to tell you that I was accidentally swept up in a group that hijacked a whaling ship, but had nothing to do with the whole thing, what would you say?”
    “That you were a scoundrel, rogue, and the worst sort of adventurer,” I said, indignant that my inner workings seemed to be wholly at odds with my brain. For some inexplicable reason, the confounded Mr. Fletcher seemed to hold an attraction for me. Well, I would have none of it. I had not