Moonlight & Mechanicals (23 page)

“Stop!” Trumball stood just inside the ship’s opening, frantically pushing buttons. “Do as you’re told, damn it.”

“No.” Liam reached out and grabbed the box from the man’s hand. With great pleasure, he crushed it beneath his bronze-covered fingers while Trumball screamed. George bore the man to the ground, and Liam’s father ripped out his throat.

Liam turned away. He hadn’t planned to kill Trumball quite so quickly, but he didn’t care. All the soldiers in his phalanx had gone motionless. Only the dogs, still slaughtering the horses, jockeys and grooms, continued to move.

Others had followed Liam back to the airship. He didn’t see them until they passed, the mask limiting his vision. Merrick dashed into the ship to Eggerston, who stood at the far end with the other box. He cast a spell and the remote fell from the woman’s hand and sizzled. All the dogs went still.

Tom was right behind him and he tied Eggerston’s hands behind her while she screeched profanity.

Merrick stepped down and paused in front of Liam. “McCullough?”

“How did you know?” His voice sounded weak and far away through the minuscule mouth hole.

Merrick lifted an eyebrow. “George and your father seem to think so.” He put a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go get you out of that suit.”

Liam stepped on the remains of the box, crushing it to bits. He turned back toward the crowd, but before he could move, Wink came running up and threw her arms around him, suit and all.

“Thank God, thank God, thank God.” She backed away and clung to his arm. “Are you hurt?”

“Not much.” Thank God indeed. He held perfectly still, afraid to do her harm if he moved. He saw the wolves beside her and sighed. He’d thought the second was his brother, but, no, she was decidedly female. “Father, Imogene, allow me to introduce Miss Winifred Hadrian, my future bride, if she’ll have me.”

Chapter Thirteen

The Ascot Rebellion Massacre would go down in the annals of British history. Not a living soul present had any doubt of that. As Liam let the others lead him back to the stands, he saw the carnage on the fields and at the edges of the stands. Dozens of soldiers had been killed, along with any number of jockeys, grooms and those bystanders unfortunate enough to be next to the rail. Dead and dying race horses and cavalry mounts added to the blood and noise. Liam had no idea if any of the other mechanical soldiers could be saved. Obviously his ability to heal himself had somehow asserted itself at the very end, rejecting the wires controlling him. He had no idea if it would work on the humans.

“Can you sit?” Wink said as they reached a wooden bench that someone turned right side up for him.

Liam sat. “Someone needs to find and arrest Kersleigh, if he’s still alive.” He held himself motionless while she unscrewed the bronze helmet. “He’s in this up to his eyeballs.”

“What about Haversham and the others?” Tom asked.

Liam sighed. His entire body ached now that sensation had begun to return. “Just Kersleigh. The others were nothing but dupes.”

Tom and Kendall came back with Kersleigh, spitting and swearing. Piers looked at him and shook his head. “Your brother never knew, did he?”

Kersleigh looked up. “Knew what?”

“That you had no intention of letting him be king.” Piers, the genius Hadrian, sighed. “
You
were the older brother, and if he got the laws reversed to allow illegitimate sons to inherit, then he wasn’t the first Trumball’s logical heir. You were. You were simply letting him pave the way, weren’t you?”

“You can’t prove that.” He sneered. “You may have stopped me, but this isn’t the end, you know. The rich getting richer, the poor dying in the streets. Think of France before the Terror. Bad things are coming. At least if I was in charge, the peasants would think they had a chance at change.” His words turned to cursing as two of the Life Guards dragged him away.

Over on the lawn, some of the racegoers mobbed and tore apart one of the mechanical soldiers. The poor man was alive and screaming for just a moment.

“Everyone who isn’t injured, go help the army stop the rioting and start trying to free the others,” Kendall ordered. He carried his father’s still but breathing form into the enclosure.

“Not the ones we electrocuted. I suspect those are truly dead.” Wink paused to touch the shoulder of his suit. “I’m sorry, Liam. I was terrified you were one of them, but I couldn’t see any other way to save the Queen.”

“You were amazing,” he said, completely heedless of their audience which included both her parents and his. “No regrets, my love. If I’d been one of the men in front, I wouldn’t have blamed you. I knew what they were making me do, you know. I could see and hear everything. My body simply refused to obey me. I’m sure most of them would have considered their death a welcome release.”

“The duke will live. So will all of the Queen’s party except for a few of her guards.” Kendall came out of the structure. “Lord Drood, what are our casualties?”

“No Knights,” the older man replied. “We have some injured—MacKay and one of my sons.”

“I’ll mend,” Connor said. “All I have is a sore head where one of them clunked me.”

“Me too, Father,” said one of the Knights who bore a striking resemblance to Drood. “Broken leg is all.”

“Jamie will mend as well,” the lad piped up from where he sat with his mother bandaging his shoulder. “It’s only a flesh wound.”

“He caught a ricochet round from someone’s rifle,” Caroline said. “But it went straight through the muscle of his arm. He’ll be all right.”

It was Connor who said, “Where’s Superintendent Dugan?”

“Oh, hell,” Liam said. Wink pulled the face plate of his helmet off, allowing him a wider field of vision. “Man down. Over there by the rail.”

Merrick and Tom had gone off to help control the crowd, so Connor limped over and helped Lord Drood push aside one of the metal soldiers.

“Damn it.” Connor knelt and laid his head on Dugan’s chest before turning to Liam and shaking his head. “I’m sorry. His neck is broken.”

Wink pulled the helmet from Liam’s head, yanking the wires out of his neck as she did. He felt a tear splash on his scalp. “I’m sorry, Liam.”

“We won the day and saved the realm,” Liam said. “That’s the memorial he would have wanted.” A tear or two dripped down his own cheeks, and with his hands still armored he couldn’t wipe them away.

Liam’s father and stepmother emerged from behind the enclosure, both mostly dressed, but barefoot. Liam nodded to them both. “Thank you for your help. Tripping the soldiers was a brilliant idea.”

His father nodded. “Imogene thought of it. Couldn’t leave you out there to fend for yourself, could we?”

“Even Her Majesty’s ladies-in-waiting joined the fray,” Imogene said lightly. “We could hardly do less.”

Well, that explained everything, then. His stepmother had always been a stickler for appearances. Neither of them bothered to help tend the wounded or free Liam from his armor cage.

Meanwhile, Wink and Merrick pulled the chest and back plates off Liam. Soon, the armor was completely gone. Liam couldn’t stand. He was weak as a kitten after all the silver in the wires that had been stabbed into his skin. Someone wrapped a blanket around him, though at least the bastards had left his smalls on inside the suit. He thought he might be shivering, but he didn’t care. He was alive and she was unhurt. The royal family had been saved and justice was served. Nothing else mattered.

“I love you,” he whispered when Wink sat beside him and wound her arms around his chest. “I thought I’d never get the chance to say it, but I love you beyond all reason. You will marry me, won’t you? Take pity on a wounded copper and put me out of my misery.” It hadn’t escaped him that she’d failed to respond to his battlefield proposal. After all they’d been through, he couldn’t let her get away from him now.

“Of course I will, you idiot.” She kissed him sweetly, heedless of their audience. “Nothing would make me happier than to be your wife. I love you too.”

* * *

Wink didn’t get to talk to Liam again until much, much later. Hugs and congratulations from her parents, siblings and friends trickled in as she and Piers oversaw the disassembly of the mechanical soldiers, with the help of several armed guards, intent on keeping out the public who demanded retribution. Much of Britain’s populace would never believe that the captives hadn’t fought willingly, so an agreement to keep the names secret was quickly formed among law enforcement circles.

The good news was that slightly more than half of the men and women were alive when they were pulled from their suits. Looking into their eyes, though, Wink knew they’d all have a long road to recovery, Eamon Miller among them. Some of them, she suspected, would look for death in the Thames or in a bottle, but then some of them had been on that road before they were captured. Eamon would be all right. His mother wouldn’t let him be otherwise. More of the dogs survived. Nicky, the sole survivor from the circus, offered to help organize a shelter for them until their owners could be found. The footman from the brothel volunteered to help. Some showing amazing fortitude, the survivors rallied around to help one another.

It was a tired, wounded and bedraggled crowd that made their way back to London and Hadrian House that evening. With Windsor overflowing with soldiers, all the visiting nobility had been sent elsewhere. Naturally, in light of the impromptu announcement of their engagement, her parents had invited Lord and Lady Bell to come home with them and Liam’s parents had accepted, only after they’d seen the Queen herself thank the Hadrians for their roles in saving the day. Wink was rather glad she wouldn’t be living anywhere near her future in-laws.

Piers and Tom escorted Eamon Miller and Nicky Roman back to their families, while the wounded were tended to more carefully than they’d been on the field. Finally, after bathing and changing into blood-free clothing, the entire McCullough and Hadrian families sat down to a late supper. Wink wore Liam’s wolf brooch openly at the collar of her shirtwaist. His smile when he saw it made her blush.

Over the meal, Nell and Dorothy demanded a detailed accounting of the day’s events. Jamie made the most of his wounded warrior status and everyone silently mourned Superintendent Dugan. Kersleigh’s parting words were discussed in hushed, thoughtful tones. Mostly, Wink kept a watch on Liam. He might deny it, but the weakness lingered. She made a mental note to give any pieces of silver jewelry she had to Nell.

“So now that you’re to be married, you’ll be coming home to Ireland, of course,” Lord Bell said between enormous bites of cold roast beef. Wink made another note to stock large amounts of meat in a werewolf household. “We’ll find something for you to do on the estate, I imagine. You won’t want to raise cubs here in town.”

“Absolutely not.” Liam continued eating, brushing off his father’s words without even looking at the man. “I have responsibilities here. We’ll manage.”

Lord Bell snarled, but a sharp rap on the elbow from his wife stopped whatever he was about to say.

While Wink was grateful to Liam’s father and his lady for helping in the battle, she recognized a bully when she saw one. It was no wonder Liam had wanted to distance himself from this man. She gave her future father-in-law a polite smile. “Actually, we’d discussed the purchase of a small property just outside London. That way, we’ll have sufficient space, but can easily commute in by train or steam car like so many others who work in the city.”

Liam shot her a glance. They’d discussed no such thing, but he didn’t gainsay her.

Lady Bell’s eyes widened when Wink mentioned the word
we
regarding work. “You intend to be…
employed?
Even after your marriage?” She might as well have said the word
leper,
she put so much horror into it.

“Of course.” She had no intention of giving up her employment, though her duties might change in the future, when they had children.

Liam nodded and patted her hand. “I wouldn’t expect otherwise.”

Her own family just nodded and smiled fondly.

“There’s already been talk of Liam taking Dugan’s position as Superintendent,” Merrick said. “And, more than likely, a knighthood.”

“Excellent.” This time Lady Bell smiled. She, unlike her husband, was making some effort to be polite.

“Like we need more
sirs
in this family,” Jamie grumbled, making everyone laugh.

Liam’s stepmother pushed forward. “So when is the wedding? Will it be here, or at your home in the North? Autumn is a lovely time for weddings.”

“Here.” This time Liam answered, lacing his fingers through Wink’s. The look he gave her took her breath away. “Soon.”

Caroline laughed and turned to Liam’s parents. “Don’t worry, Lady Bell. We can put together a decent wedding on short notice. I’ve already got most of a trousseau squirreled away for Wink. I’ve been expecting this for some time, you see. Those two have had eyes for each other since they met.”

“She was just a child when they met,” Merrick objected. “He better not have had eyes for her then.”

“Admiration, yes.” Liam held up a hand. “I promise I had no inappropriate thoughts—not until she was significantly older.”

Wink grinned and slanted her eyes in a gaze meant to sizzle his toes. “Sorry. I can’t say the same.”

Lady Bell gasped in horror and her husband snorted in derision. Liam sent Wink a look apologizing for their rudeness but she shook her head. He wasn’t at fault for their bad behavior. Just the fact that he recognized it meant he was nothing like them.

“Not that anyone cares about the man who was
shot
today.” Jamie’s arm hung in a sling, but he sat at the table, eating heartily. “But if anyone should happen to remember a promise she made, before her brain turned into girlish wedding-happy mush…”

Wink sighed. “I said I would, and I will. Don’t be a brat.” She turned to their parents. “I think you should send this scapegrace to a military academy. Preferably the day after my wedding. Maybe they can drum some sense into his thick head.”

“Seamus, is that what you want?” Caroline bit her lip and looked to her husband. “Truly?”

Jamie nodded, his eyes wide and hopeful. “It is. Really.”

Merrick patted his wife’s hand. “And you’ll behave there? Not get sent down?”

Jamie nodded again, while his brothers and sisters rolled their eyes in disbelief.

Merrick shrugged. “Why not?”

Jamie whooped. An aborted attempt to pump his fist in the air ended in a yelp of pain.

Lady Bell shuddered. “I don’t know how you managed with four children,” she said to Caroline. “Even if they’re not shifters, they’re so…rambunctious.”

“Discipline,” Lord Bell muttered. He cast Jamie a look filled with disgust and more than a little fury. “That’s what’s needed. A firm hand.” He lifted his as if to show the rest of them how it was done.

Merrick half rose from his seat, as did Tom and even Piers. Liam shifted so his shoulders were slightly between his father and Jamie, making Wink want to kiss him. Not that he needed to bother, but the instinct was perfect.

“Oh, but we have nine. Didn’t you know that?” Caroline’s clear voice diffused the tension. She blinked with a faux-innocent expression that made her daughters giggle and Lady Bell’s eyes widen in shock. The men subsided in their seats, but kept cold eyes on Lord Bell.

Caroline stared at him too, her uncanny green eyes narrowed. “That’s right. I have nine children and I wouldn’t trade even one of them. Not for the world.” She didn’t bother to explain that one was fostered and others were adopted. To her, it simply didn’t matter, which was part of why Wink loved her so dearly.

“N-nine?” Lady Bell reached for her fan.

Caroline smiled coldly. “Quite. Oh—and by the way.” She glared daggers at Liam’s father. “Anyone—regardless of relationship, rank, or even species, who dares strike a child in my presence, or even to my knowledge, won’t live long enough to regret it. Tom, dear, can you please pass the brussels sprouts?” Her gaze never left Lord Bell.