Incorrigible

It was positively obscene, the thrill Leo’s close proximity shot through Alexi. As was the happy cloud that seemed to surround him as the evening progressed and that nearness remained, like Leo was tethered to him by an invisible cord that stretched no more than a few feet at any given time.

“Where did you get this Waistcoat, Leo?” Alexi asked at one point. The library had emptied out, as it did on occasion when some of the less bold men deemed it necessary to show their wives some attention and devotion, and others retired to the card room. Alexi had no such thing as a card face, so he didn’t play, but he enjoyed watching the others bet and lose fortunes. He was standing now, leaning on the back of Leo’s chair where they could observe without being obtrusive.

“Where do you think?” Leo didn’t look at him as he replied. His gaze was once again fixed on the man Alexi had been talking to earlier, his mind, no doubt, on the elegant stranger who had manhandled Alexi. His scowl was just as deep as it had been when Leo had witnessed the incident.

“I think you had an epiphany, my dear friend,” Alexi replied. He gave the collar of Leo’s dinner jacket a sharp tug to get his attention.

“An epiphany?” Finally, Leo glanced up at him. “Of what sort, pray tell?”

Alexi smiled his best, Masterful, seductive smile. “The sort that prompted you to come here tonight in a waistcoat matching my own that silently declares your true intentions. I think, my dear Leo, that you want people to look at us and know you are spoken for. My man, as it were.”

“Your—“ Leo huffed. “Your man?” He rose and strode quickly toward the library and the doors leading to the garden, but stopped half way through the door to the other room and turned. “Your man?” He said again. “Just what do you mean by that?”

“Alexi.” A gruff, rather slovenly voice interrupted them before Alexi could clarify, forcing his attention away.

“Professor.” Shock at seeing the older man standing before him momentarily had Alexi reeling. He had not imagined the rebuff earlier. But then a quick assessment of the professor now was enough to tell him the man was well into his cups. He had always been a rather sloppy, if amorous, drunk. Straightening, squaring his shoulders, Alexi faced him fully. “To what do I owe the pleasure,Jordan?”

A crooked leer crossed the professor’s face. “It could be a pleasure, indeed. Shall we step outside? I have a proposal I’d like to discuss—“

A gasp rippled through the card room and all three men turned to the far door where two men stood sharing a kiss with such passion even Leo seemed affected by it, if his parted lips and the flush riding his cheeks was anything to go by. Alexi recognized only one of the men as Anthony…somebody-or-other. The second man he couldn’t see well enough to identify, but he felt sure anyone with that kind of presence was someone he would remember if he’d ever encountered him before.

Beside him, Professor McKaskill blanched, muttered something and hurried away. No doubt the blatant display had him in a tizzy. The man was excruciatingly discreet in his predilections, at least when he was sober. That had been Alexi’s reasoning for finally deciding to expose his own secret, imagining the professor would be more inclined to accept the relationship if everyone on the outside could clearly see he was courting a woman. And Alexi could pass for a very charming young woman when it suited his purposes.

The kiss ended. The room stilled. For a moment balanced before the chaos every face in the room reflected varying degrees of shock or amusement. Some looked downright horrified. The man Alexi didn’t recognize disappeared back through the door he had arrived at, and his paramour quickly turned to follow. The hush was broken by the sound of shattering glass then Jack­­­­­­ Starrington bolted from his chair and went after them.

“Well.” Alexi turned to Leo, about to comment on the refreshing change from stuffy to titillating, but Leo was gone. Alexi caught only a brief glimpse of his friend’s form through a crack in the curtains as the door to the library snicked shut. Ignoring the rapidly rising volume of the room behind him, Alexi hurried after Leo.

It was chilly outside, and not as brightly lit as it could have been. Alexi followed the shadowy silhouette Leo made against the wavering light and lacy shadows of the garden toward the centre.

“Leo!”

“Go back to the party, Alexander,” Leo said without turning. “It is cold out here, and you without your coat.”

“You without yours, as well. What is it, Leo? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. I came to see you how you fared. Perhaps spare you the agony of the courting ritual to find a wife, and I find you the object of attention of strangers and old lovers both. Obviously, you don’t need my help.” He still hadn’t slowed his pace. “And I don’t need your innuendoes, either. I’m going home.”

“Wait.” Alexi stopped walking. “What is going on here? You came here dressed like that, and I’m not supposed to read anything into it?”

Leo stopped and flung his arms out. They came to rest against his thighs again with a soft slap. “But that is you all over, isn’t it, Alexander?” He turned. “I make one small gesture to show my solidarity, and you would have me admit it means something more. I’m sorry I went to the trouble.”

“What does it mean, then?” Alexi asked, desperate not to acknowledge the sliding sludge of emotion that made Leo’s words feel more like rejection than anything Professor McKaskill had ever done or said. “If it doesn’t cement in the heads of all who might have noticed that you are my man, like you have been my man all our lives, then what does it mean?”

“Like I’ve been all our lives?” Leo tipped his head to one side. “Is that really what you were going to say in there, Alexander?” He finally turned around to face Alexi. “Really?”

No. Of course not.

But if it stopped Leo turning and walking in the other direction, then: “Yes, of course.” He managed a smile that fooled neither of them. “Whatever else would I have meant, Leonard?”

 

 

Leo was not fooled. But he could let himself be. He could let Alexi’s half-truth stand because neither of them wanted to throw away a lifetime of friendship and trust over a piece of clothing. Over a misunderstanding. Mostly, he could accept it because if he did not force Alexi to say what he really meant out loud, he wouldn’t have to deny anything, and his reasons could remain there in that space between them where truth was ambiguous and nothing need be spoken.

“You are right, of course.” He managed his own fake smile and made his way back toward the house and Alexi. “I read into your words what I was sure that boor was thinking when he groped you.”

Alexi grinned. “He did have strong hands. And a not unpleasant face.”

“Alexander, please.” Leo pursed his lips.

“What?” Alexi looped his arm lightly through Leo’s as he came abreast of his shorter friend, and they walked down the path together. “I refuse to believe you have never in your life groped a maid because you thought she had a pretty face.” He beamed up at Leo. “Even you, ensconced as you are in your frustratingly narrow world cannot deny my face is appealing. Pretty even.” He bumped his hip lightly into Leo’s. “And my arse gropable. I do not take any less care showing off my attributes when I dress as a man than I do when I dress as a woman, Leo. Surely you must have noticed.”

He had. How could he not? Alexi might not be promiscuous, but he did not shy away from showing off what he had at his disposal. “I’m sure I would have, had I occasion to look, Master Alexander.”

Alexi laughed and it lifted Leo’s heart to know his fit of pique hadn’t angered his friend overly much. “Ah, I knew I would hear you call me that again one day.” Alexi twinkled up at him. “Sarcastic or not. It does sound different now we are no longer boys, though.”

Leo gazed down at the imp. It felt different to say it, left him feeling slightly breathless because it was so very close to places he dared not tread. “You are incorrigible.”

Alexi smiled at him, the imp gone, replaced by nothing but honest happiness, as far as Leo could tell. “I don’t need correction, because I am already correct.”

They had arrived back full circle to the library door and Alexi stopped and rested his head briefly on Leo’s shoulder. He’d made the gesture thousands of times when they strolled down the street, Lexi on his arm in all her finery. Leo could not remember this kind of closeness when he didn’t have the comfort of the skirts to hide behind.

“’Lexi?” His voice came through gruff, almost a whisper.

“This party is tiresome, suddenly.” It was something Alexander would have said in his whiniest, most grating voice. Lexi just said it, matter of fact and calm.

Leo had the sudden urge to turn, face Lexi, run his fingers down one smooth, pale cheek and agree to anything this whimsical creature dreamed up and asked of him. The idea sent a shiver through him, a frission of confusion tinged with desperation.

“Shall I escort you back to your rooms?” He didn’t look down. If he focused on their reflected faces in the glass of the library door, it was just he and Lexi and he could say whatever he wanted.

Alexander turned him so they were face to face. In the near-darkness it was hard to see his features clearly, by Leo thought he looked almost sad. Certainly thoughtful.

“No, Leo, I have a better idea.” He forced a small smile onto his face and gazed up, his eyes dark, his lips slightly parted with an expectant breath.

He should kiss those lips.

He should step back and clear his head and realize this was his best friend. His childhood charge, and it was his responsibility to keep Alexi safe, not take advantage.

Indecision froze Leo into inaction.

“Yes.” Alexander nodded once, decisive. “I definitely have a better idea. You should call your carriage around. I will give your driver directions. Come on.” He moved, quick and sure, flinging open the garden door and striding inside, leaving Leo standing in the chill garden alone and baffled.

“Wait!” by the time he caught up, Alexi was in the front hall waiting on the houseboy who had gone to fetch their overcoats. “Alexander! What about your carriage?”

Alexi gave him an exasperated look. “I hired a steam carriage, of course, and sent it back to the city. Extravagant enough to have arrived in style, I think, and not hauled at the end of a prancing manure factory.” The houseboy arrived back with their outerwear and Alexi handed Leo’s over. “I made my point. Paying to have the vehicle remain here would have been ostentatious.” He beamed at Leo. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Incorrigible,” Leo muttered, hauling on his coat. Though he had to admit, albeit silently and only to himself, that Alexi was doing better at maintaining a more modest spending habit. If hiring the steam carriage in the first place could even remotely be called modest. In the past, Alexi would have thought nothing of paying the driver to remain all night and never given heed to the cost. Not that his vast fortune would run out any time soon. Probably not even in his lifetime, but nothing in life was guaranteed, and Alexi had a bad habit of going off on inexplicable sprees on occasion that could make even the fattest of pocket books groan with the strain.

“Well.” Alexi feigned petulance and did a passing fair job at it, but for the twinkle in his dark eyes. “And here I thought you would be proud of me for exercising moderation.”

“Moderation?” Leo snorted. “A steam carriage is moderation?” He pulled on his gloves as another houseboy announced that his carriage had pulled ‘round. “Then I fear your excesses, Alexi. I truly do.”

It wasn’t until they were safely ensconced in the carriage under layers of furs and blankets for the long ride back into the city proper that Leo realized they had fled the party without a word of thanks or farewell to their hosts. That would surely cost them a rung on the social ladder. He snuck a glance at his companion. Alexi rode in silence, a contended grin on his face, his gaze soft as he watched out the window, and Leo couldn’t bring himself to care about social niceties.

 

The sun had topped the horizon by the time they arrived back in the city centre and Alexi perked up considerably. Rather than taking the main road and delivering them at the foot of the Lords of Aether club, however, their driver turned early and headed down towards the docks and warehouses.

“Alexi?” Leo eyed him. “Now what?”

“Relax.” Alexi pointed to a building rather larger and better kept than its neighbours. It had rows of high, small windows, one very outsized main door in front and a smaller door leading inside from a narrow alley. Two hefty men stood outside the bigger door and another lounged at the head of the alley. They all watched the carriage roll up, guarded looks on their faces and hands twitching.

“Relax, fellows.” Alexi stepped out of the carriage first and waved the big men down. “It’s just me. And I bring a friend. Leo?” He turned as Leo stepped down. “Meet the Dodge brothers. Peter, Eli and Adam. Boys, this is Leo. He is to be afforded the same regard you afford me, yes?”

The men were all older than either Leo or Alexi. Peter looked to be the eldest, and he nodded, sending a shock of vibrant red hair into a wild dance across his forehead. “Of course, Master Silsbury.”

Leo’s brows shot up. “Master Silsbury?” he muttered under his breath so only Alexi could hear.

Alexi ignored him. “The others are inside?”

Again, Peter nodded. “Had the lamps burning all night, didn’t they, Master Silsbury. They’ll be ready.”

“Good. Leo, you can send your man home. We will have no further need of him today.”

“Um, Alexander…”

Alexi waved a hand over his shoulder. “Come on. You’ll like this. Send him home and come inside.”

A strange quiver of excitement shot through Leo. He so rarely got to see this side of his Alexi. Usually he was faced with the satiny strength of the femme willing to let him be the man, or the bumbling but endearing absentmindedness that convinced him Alexi needed him close. This take charge, commanding presence only rarely surfaced and Leo took notice.

He dismissed his driver and hurried into the warehouse through the small door in the alley where Alexi had disappeared.

The inside was smaller than he expected. A room not much bigger than Alexi’s rooms at the Club, it was occupied by two people who’s attention was all on whatever lay across their work table. They didn’t even look up at the sound of Alexi’s voice announcing his arrival.

The room was surprisingly well-lit, and it took Leo a moment to realize the illumination was coming from a series of glass globes strung along the wall and attached together by tubes and wires. He ran his fingers over the surface of one. Inside, wisps of energy sparkled and zapped and he yanked his hand back just as Alexi slapped the back of his hand sharply.

The sting made him gasp.

“What was that for?”

“Alana? Darling, come here, please.” Alexi called a young woman over and she sprang to his request. Alexi took her face in slender fingers and turned it so Leo could see the other side. A fine network of scars marred her alabaster skin, plucking her lips up into a slight, permanent half smile and puckering the skin over her cheekbone. They stopped a mere hair’s breadth from her left eye. She blinked at Leo, completely unashamed at the marks or the way Alexi showed them to a complete stranger.

“They can explode at the slightest mishandling, Leo. You see?”

“Yes, I see…”

“Good.” Alexi released her. “As you were, darling.”

She gave a quick curtsy and hurried back to whatever task she had been doing.

“If you don’t know what it is, or how it works, best to not touch, agreed?” Alexi peered up at Leo, clearly expecting a prompt response.

“Uh, yes.” Leo nodded, nonplussed by the frank, confident look in Alexi’s gaze. “Agreed. Of course.”

“Good.” Alexi smiled, and it was like the sweetest reward for good behaviour, or a right answer in class from a stern teacher, and Leo breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I would hate for anything to happen to you, Leo. So stay close and try not to let curiosity get you into trouble.”

The role reversal was abrupt and complete. Suddenly, Leo was no longer the one in charge. No longer the one who knew what came next. It was more than a little disconcerting. He wasn’t sure he liked the role very much.

He didn’t have time to think about it right then, though. Alexi led him to another small door and through, and the sight that met his eyes struck him speechless. Alexi stood at his side, all but bursting with pride, waiting for him to take it all in.

This was the warehouse proper. They had entered at street level, and now stood on a high catwalk circling the entire building. The inside had been dug out to bring the floor level down to that of the water of the river. The river itself flowed right into the building. Clearly, the construction of the place had been purposeful and carefully planned. The far wall was built on pylons out in the water, and beneath the placid flow, Leo could just make out forms, shadowy under the dark water, but visible through a slight phosphorescence that seemed to emanate from their skin.

Below them, resting on a huge platform was the strangest boat Leo had ever seen. At it’s centre, it was a bubble of steel and copper and glass, but surrounding the bubble, decking of cured teak spread out like the wings of a sea bird gliding on the wind. The top of the bubble was covered in glass, thick, supported by strong steel frames, and beyond the glass, Leo could make out a space that looked remarkably like a sitting room. Below the decking was more glass, what had to be the pilot’s station at the front, and the final section of bubble hidden from view by sectioned steel shutters arranged like long scales.

“What…?” Leo didn’t know where to start. What to ask.

Alexi grinned at him, obviously over the moon with his speechlessness. “It’s ready, Leo. Can you believe it?” He turned to face the odd contraption and clapped his hands together, a little kid with a favourite toy. “Home. It’s done. We’ve done it.”

A wide fling of his arms took in the two men working below, the entire building, and presumably, those outside and in the workroom who had helped Alexi create this…whatever this was.

“The decking furls up. That’s what Sasha is doing now. Watch.”

Even as he spoke, the wide swaths of decking began to move, each plack dropping and the entire thing folding in like the slats of a fan, tight against the sides of the ship. It took only a few minutes and when it was done, there were only narrow strips along each side.

“Makes it much more manoeuvrable underwater,” Alexi explained. “Just enough of a fin to keep her stable, but not so much as to get caught on anything. Also allows for more visibility. From the dining area, there,” he pointed to the upper level inside the glass confines, “you can enjoy your tea and watch the fishes. It really is amazing.”

“Have your tea?” Leo shuffled a step forward to get a better look, hands tightening on the thin pipe serving as railing before him. “Underwater, Alexi?” he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea Alexi had built a house that could float. Even more astounding, a house he could sink at will.

“We’ve had it in the water a few times already. Taken her below twice now, and not a single leak. It’s perfect, Leo. Only takes ten minutes to get to depth, and I’ve redesign the entire steam system to constantly build and store power in a plasma field so that she can stay under for hours.”

“Below?” Leo glanced at his friend. “Below what?” He knew the answer but dreaded the confirmation. The thought of his Alexi inside that thing, below the surface of the water protected only by a few flimsy inches of glass and steel made his knees a little weak and his gut flip.

“The water! Don’t be daft. You know this is what I’ve been working towards!”

“In theory, yes, but—“

“But what?” Alexi turned to him. “You thought theory was all it would ever be? That I couldn’t figure out how to do it? How to make it work? How to improve on the bungling of the past?”

“No! I never thought that.” In fact, Leo hadn’t though much about it at all. Alexi liked his books and his physics, and was fascinated by the water. Leo had always known that. He’d just never really thought all the talk of building a boat that could go beneath the waves was actually a possibility Alexi took seriously.

And yet, apparently, here it was.

Alexi strode to the railing of the catwalk and shouted down to the men below. “Uncle Jasper! Fire her up!” he turned to face Leo, a hard light in his eye. “I’m not what you think, Leo. Come down and see. Or go home. The choice is yours.”

He wheeled away and took the steps down two at a time, swinging his weight between the railings as he went. Below, the machine gave a bellow of a sigh and everything Leo thought he knew about his Alexi went up in a thick blast of steam from the submersible’s stack.

Jaime Samms Alexi Silsbury, Leonard Stokes