Free The Lady Machinist (Curiosity Chronicles Book 1) by Ava Morgan

his teeth as he viewed the crimson heavens above the rising sun. Dark clouds moved in. “That will reach us before noon.”
    The ship reached a small breaker and dipped. That was enough for Lydia to leave her post at the railing. “I think I’ve had enough fresh air for the time being.” She passed Rhys and walked on unsteady feet down to the second level.
    He remembered Nikolaos situated on the other side of the ship. The man’s head disappeared over the rails again. “Someone take Lord Abeiron to quarters before he falls overboard.”
    The engineer O’Neil accepted the task.
    “Captain.” Two of the deckhands, Duncan and Thomas, ran towards Rhys.
    Duncan was the first to catch his breath. “Ship sighted east at three o’ clock.”
    Rhys aimed the telescope in the appropriate direction. Through the lens, he saw the sails and three masts of a frigate. The vessel was coming upon them. He adjusted the telescope lens to focus on the flag flying from the highest mast. A crimson jolie rouge .
    “What is it?” Malcolm came with porridge bowl in hand.
    “Pirates,” Rhys ground out. “French.”
    He marched to the row of flip switches on the forecastle deck. He pulled down three, shutting off reserve valves for the water pipes, galley stove, and boilers. He flipped two in the upward position before returning to the main deck and shouting, “All hands.”
    Within seconds, five crewmen assembled from all sides of the top deck, exchanging worried glances as they awaited his orders.
    “I’ve deviated all power to the engine and side cannons. Smythe, find O’Neil and both of you go monitor the engine room. Malcolm, steer us northwest of that ship. We can’t rely on auto pilot configuration. Finley, stand by him with navigation. Duncan, Thomas, I need you both to man the cannons in case they need reloading.”
    “Are we gonna make a stand against the pirates?” Duncan asked.
    “If need be, but our ship is fast. I intend to outdistance them.”
    Finley raised his eyes skyward. “I don’t know how fast we can outdistance a storm and pirates with all that weight in the cargo hold.”
    Rhys saw Finley’s point. The extra weight of the automatons did slow them down, but not enough to make the ship a sitting duck on the water. “We’ll make it.”
    He thought about Lydia, but he didn’t have time to warn her of the pirates. The best thing she could do was stay in the cabin and pray for better weather, a speedy engine, and quick cannons.
    As the crew moved to carry out his orders, Rhys went to gather rope to secure the supplies stationed on deck. The pirate frigate was getting closer. All the while, the storm gathered overhead.
     
    #
     
    Thunder jarred Lydia awake.
    She sat up in bed where she dozed off, despite her queasiness. The thrum of the engine grew louder until the sound resonated in the walls and through the furniture. It sounded like it was clogged.
    She donned her boots before rising, and promptly fell back onto the bed as the room tilted. The glass panel of the bookcase opened and spilled tens of volumes on the floor, along with her books and papers she placed on the outside mantle.
    Lydia threw all of her belongings back into her trunk and shut the lid. She picked up the encyclopedias. A set of folded papers lay at the foot of the bookcase.
    She unfolded them to see if they belonged to her.
    The letterhead read Cabinet of International Curiosities . Correspondence from Rhys’ organization. No, it wasn’t correspondence, but orders of some kind. Lydia thumbed through the documents and saw references to coastal towns and trade routes along the Mediterranean. She spotted the words mission and reconnaissance on the pages.
    The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Since when did a merchant need to partake in reconnaissance?
    Rhys lied to her about the details of his line of work. Or rather, withheld information. He came to Aspasia to purchase the automatons, but what else did he collect? Lydia