Valentina could only imagine what a fright she looked, with her hat in her hands and her hair unruly over her shoulders, even before they stepped out into the cool night air and the brisk endless breeze. Charlotte’s arm at her elbow felt like an anchor in a stormy sea and she clung to it until they got a quiet place on the walkway. Neither of them offered to let go of each other.
“They have our personal details from yesterday,” she observed unsteadily. “They may still pursue a civil case against my magic.”
Charlotte made a rude noise. “There is no case,” she scoffed. “You were instrumental in bringing a rogue to justice and putting a wretched soul to rest.”
“You came to my defense,” Valentina said softly, eyeing the un-tied ribbons at the hilt of Charlotte’s sword. “I had no answers for their questions.”
“You needed my protection,” Charlotte said off-handedly. “I’m sure you would have done the same. Tell me, because I am dying to know, what magic did your hat have?”
Valentina smiled wryly. “Clarity. I made it just today.” The hat was empty of magic now, drained to merely wool felt and silk ribbon. “I imagine it is my own fault that Lady Jamison came to the cityship at all; it cannot be coincidence that she appeared shortly after I made contact with Lord Jamison each time.”
Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. “So, some combination of your magic and her need for revenge gave her the power to cross over.”
Valentina sighed. “It is all a rather unfortunate turn of events.”
“I suppose it is rather better than either of us being married to a murderer,” Charlotte observed. Being Charlotte, she said it rather avidly, as if it was an exciting possibility.
“But now both of us have lost our best prospect for a husband,” Valentina pointed out. She reluctantly pulled her hand from where Charlotte’s rested in her elbow and felt a moment of loss when Charlotte let go of her. “I am unlikely to win another one after this scandal. Even if the Authorities bring no formal complaint, there were many witnesses to my act who will draw different conclusions.”
“There are other men who would marry you for your money,” Charlotte pointed out, turning to lean her elbows behind her on the railing. “No matter how magic you are.”
“You could seduce a wealthy tradesman, or rob a gambler’s den to repay your debt,” Valentina suggested archly.
They both chuckled humorlessly. Was this the end of it, then? Without their rivalry, what did they have? Valentina felt wound so tightly that it was hard to speak. She hated the idea of Charlotte marrying someone who couldn’t cherish her independence and she selfishly didn’t want to lose the fire it felt like Charlotte had lit in her. She’d never been so alive as she was with this woman.
The decks below them groaned with the great engine and they could hear distant chatter on the walkways beneath. The horizon had just a touch of color over a murky sea.
“What if there was another option?”
Valentina glanced at Charlotte, surprised by the uncertainty in her voice. Charlotte was never uncertain. She was playing with the ribbon at the hilt of her sword.
“If you need money—” Valentina started.
“What if you married me?”
Charlotte was blushing, like she had the night before, and Valentina was struck all over again by how beautiful she was with such color in her cheeks.
“Married…you?” Valentina’s breath left her as she considered the unexpected choice.
“Lord Hennings recently married a young man of his acquaintance. I won’t say that we would still be invited to all the most fashionable balls, but it does have legal precedent, and the laws only say that an unwed woman cannot own a business, not that she must be married to a man.” Charlotte spoke quickly, her words spilling over each other. “It would be practical.”
“A practical marriage?” Valentina felt like she had a swarm of bees in her chest, like the cityship was about to tip over into the sea and spill her into the dark water, and like she was in arm’s reach of every happiness she had ever imagined, all at once.
“You could easily pay off my gambling debts to the Underground,” Charlotte pointed out. “And I would allow you to legally keep your business.”
“Did you never think that you would marry for love, or passion?” Valentina could not resist saying lightly, as Charlotte had said to her.
Charlotte searched her face and suddenly grinned. “They don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” she pointed out. Valentina could only smile foolishly back at her.
Charlotte’s arms around her were everything she had imagined they would be, strong and clever, and her mouth on Valentina’s was firm and demanding. It was not a dutiful kiss, nor a practical one, and by the end of it, Valentina’s hair was even more mussed and the top buttons of Charlotte’s dress were undone.
“I take it you do not object to the arrangement,” Charlotte said breathlessly, when they stood apart again at last.
“I find it quite acceptable,” Valentina said. “But I do have one request.”
“Anything,” Charlotte said, drawing Valentina close with a hand at her waist, her eyes full of the threat of another unseemly, knee-shaking kiss.
“Let me make you a new hat,” Valentina said, and she reached up and found the hat pin anchoring Charlotte’s terrible headpiece. Freeing the hat, she tossed it away over the railing, and the wind caught it and tore it out into the ocean to sink in the dark water.
“You may make me all manner of hats,” Charlotte agreed. “And I will wear every one for you.”
* * *
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