She nodded. “Plenty, thanks. Maybe I should see to your wound.”
“Don’t worry. I’m just catching my breath.”
She took a step into the room. “You are an incorrigible liar, Captain Hink.”
“Call me Lee.”
“All right, then. You are an incorrigible liar, Lee.”
That made him smile a little more. “Aren’t I just?”
He stood and closed the distance between them. She was caught once again by the sheer mass of the man, tall enough he had to duck doorways and with shoulders wide enough to send him at a tilt through hallways, corridors, and other tight spaces.
No wonder he loved the sky. There was all the space a man of his construction could want for.
“You’re thinking about the Swift, aren’t you?” he asked as he stopped in front of her.
“I…why?”
“I can always tell.” His hand slipped down to rest on her hip, casually, as if it belonged there. She could feel the heat of his palm, even through the heavy coat and her layers beneath.
“You can? Tell what?” she asked.
“When you’re thinking about my ship. You get this dreamy look in your eyes.” He leaned in close over her. “Always makes me want to kiss you.”
“Oh?”
He placed his other hand on the wall above her head. “What about that, Miss Small?”
“Kissing?” she said a little out of breath. “I…you do remember we just broke out of jail? Men are probably headed out here to kill us right now.”
“I remember jail. All those long minutes without you beside me. Stirs up a fire in a man.”
Rose grinned. “Minutes? It only takes you minutes away from a woman for your fire to get stirred up?”
“Well, not just any woman,” he said. “You.” And then the talking was over because his lips were against hers, in a most inappropriate and public display.
By glim, she didn’t care. She had almost died today. She’d been thrown in jail. And Hink could act as relaxed as he liked; she knew there were men on the way with guns to make sure one or the other previous events were carried through. She kissed him back with abandon. If this was their adventure, their horizon, she didn’t want to live it without him. Without his passion.
She was so busy with that kiss she figured she was missing most of the spell Mae was casting.
She finally pressed her palm against Hink’s chest, telling him without words that the kiss was as far as this moment was going to go.
He pulled back, and for a quick moment she saw something more than humor and fire in his eyes. She saw pain.
“Come with me to the kitchen. I want you to take off your shirt,” she ordered.
His eyebrows hitched up. “Go on. I like where this conversation is headed.”
“I’m going to look at that hole in your side.”
“I stand corrected. There’s no time for that, Rose.”
“I don’t care. Paisley Cage, don’t make me pull rank on you.”
“You don’t outrank me.”
“I’m your boilerman, aren’t I?”
He paused for a moment. “If you still want the job,” he said hesitantly.
“Then I have the right to tell you when your ship is flying and when it’s not. Right now, we’re not going anywhere until the captain is taken care of.”
“And just like that, I’m back to liking where this conversation is headed.”
“Out,” Rose said with one last glance at Mae, Cedar, Wil, and the Madders. Mae had stopped singing and Cedar swayed a bit on his feet, groaning like a mule had just kicked him in the chest. Bryn Madder was there to steady him, and Alun nodded, as if approving of the work Mae had done, work Rose could not see with her bare eyes.
They were nothing but in the way here, and Mr. Hunt would likely be needing the chair Hink had been occupying.
She started down the hall, and Miss Dupuis looked up. “Is it done?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. It might be. I’m going to tend Captain Hink’s wounds. Are there clean cloths in the kitchen?”
“Yes, there’s a cupboard with everything you’ll need. We’ll be right in.”
We. She was already talking for Thomas now too?
Rose tried not to let it bother her. She had made up her mind about Thomas long before now. It was just that his falling in with Miss Dupuis was so sudden it stung a bit.
Although it shouldn’t. She had just spent the last few minutes kissing another man.
“Sit,” she said as she crossed the kitchen and began searching cupboards.
Hink made some noise getting settled in a chair.
Miss Dupuis entered the kitchen next. “Can I help, Rose?”
“No,” she said a little too quickly, then, “I think I’ve got it. Do you know what we’re going to do next?”
“The Madders will have only one desire,” she said.
“The Holder?” Rose walked over to Hink. Instead of taking off his coat, he’d just unbuttoned it and tugged up the shirt beneath it to mostly reveal his side.
The makeshift bandage she’d put there from the train was soaked through with blood, not a stitch of white remaining.
This was worse than she’d thought.
She knelt and slid the kitchen blade up beneath the cloth, cutting the wrapping free as carefully as she could.
“Cold,” he noted.
“It’d be easier if you took your clothes off. Just coat and shirts, down to skin,” she clarified.
“All right, then.” He shrugged out of his coat and then shirt. Rose was close enough to see that he held his breath through it all, his jaw clenched tight. It hurt. A lot. But he refused to show his pain.
Swinging from a chain at the center of his chest was the finder compass she had given him.
“You kept it?” she asked, surprised.
“What?”
Rose touched the necklace.
“Of course I did. It’s the first gift you’ve ever given me.”
“Oh,” Miss Dupuis said, coming over to look at the wound more closely. “That does need some tending.”
“It’s a scratch,” Hink said.
Rose looked away from the tenderness in his face, and assessed the wound. No, the wounds. Somewhere in that struggle he’d gotten the worst end of a blunt instrument across his ribs. From the black bruise and tears in his skin, it was probably one of the cell-door bars. From the lumpy look of his side, he had several broken ribs.
“Miss Dupuis,” Rose said, “I think I could use your help.”
“Of course. More hot water?” she suggested.
“Yes,” Rose said. “Do you know how to make a compress? I saw comfrey on the shelf.”
“Yes.” She got busy putting that together and Rose looked up at Hink.
“You’ve got a bullet wound open and bleeding, and broken ribs. Someone also appears to have decided to tenderize all the meat on your bones. It’s a mess, Lee. And you’ll do as I say so that I can see it all doesn’t go to rot and kill you.”
“Pleased to see you so concerned for my welfare,” he said.
“Of course I’m concerned. Not much use for a boilerman if there isn’t a captain to fly the ship.”
He grunted and then slouched back a bit and stared at the door. He was breathing with a hitch, and his skin was hot to the touch, though he shivered. Fever, for certain. Not a good sign.
Rose lost herself to cleaning his wounds and trying not to make him flinch. Miss Dupuis proved to be invaluable, and handed her fresh water, wraps, and compresses just as she needed them. Even Thomas was helpful in finding a shirt from Father Kyne’s things that fit Hink well enough.
Once she was sure she had done everything she could think of, she helped him put his coat back on.