“What are you smiling about, Captain?” Rose asked.
He gestured for her to walk with him to the front of the ship, where there were two chairs, and a wide expanse of windows facing east.
“Pretty morning, pretty ship, pretty woman—why wouldn’t I be smiling, Miss Small?”
“Look who’s recovered his charm.” Rose sat and Hink dropped down in the other chair.
“Just needed to get out under the sky,” he said, “to clear my head.”
“It’s beautiful,” Rose said as the brush of lavender light washed the sky, framed by the brass and tin and wood of the Swift’s controls near the windows.
“It is. And out here, on the ship, it’s like I can breathe again.”
“You don’t like being tied to the ground, do you, Captain?”
“It’s never done me much good. And I thought you were going to call me Lee.”
“Paisley.”
He sighed. “You really going to keep at that?”
“Is it really your first name?”
“I could lie to you.”
“I’d find out.”
He paused, then, “She didn’t know the name of one of her suitors. My mother. One of the men who might have been my father. But she was sweet on him. See, he’d bought her the prettiest thing she’d ever owned. A paisley dress.” He stared out at the sky, as if he could still see his mother and her dress. “She thought it fine enough to remember him by. To name me by. It is my first name.”
Rose turned and looked at him. He had a good profile, strong, wide features, and a mouth that couldn’t seem to stay away from a smile for long. Even the bandage and scar beneath his yellow bangs gave him a little something, an aura of danger and adventure.
Just the look of him made her heart pound faster, and when he rankled under her teasing, she thought she’d melt away from the pleasure of it.
“You know she bound me to the ship, don’t you?” he asked. “Your friend Mae?”
“Yes,” Rose said. “I’m sure she can break that now. Here, with the…others helping her.”
“I’m sure she can,” he said. “But I’ve asked her not to.”
“What? When? Why?”
“Yesterday before she took care of you and the Holder. And as for why”—he turned to look at her—“I can see when I’m on the Swift. Like I still have two eyes. Better than that. Being a part of the Swift, tied to her like this, means I can still fly her. Means I still have wings.”
“But I thought when the ship is damaged, it harms you too.”
“Contrary to the last few weeks you’ve known me,” Hink said, “I do not make it a habit to crash my ship at every chance.”
“You want to stay this way? All tied up and such?”
“For as long as it lasts. Mae isn’t sure how long that will be. Said it could be years, or days. I’ll take what I can get, as long as I can get it with the Swift.”
“So I suppose you’ll be leaving, then?” Rose asked.
“As soon as I can patch her up and catch a fair wind, which isn’t looking likely until spring, but yes. I’ll be burning sky the first chance I get.”
“And your crew?”
“They’re happy enough to stay here or in town so long as the wine and food hold out. Lazy nits. Figure they’ll fly with me when I leave.”
“Well,” Rose said, her throat tight with a sadness she had not expected. “I wish you all the best with that, Captain.”
Hink frowned. “You’re going with me, Rose.”
“What? Is that what you’ve decided?” Okay, now she was getting angry. Sure, she liked him, maybe was more than a little infatuated with him. But he couldn’t just assume she was going to do anything he told her to do.
“No, it’s what I’m asking you. I did ask you, didn’t I?” His eye went wide, then he closed it. “No. I didn’t. I practiced it so many times in my head, I meant to, it’s just…” He opened his eye and spread his hand.
“Let me try this again. Proper. Rose Small, would you fly with me?”
Rose had always thought a marriage proposal would be the sweetest words she ever heard from a man. She was wrong. Every inch of her wanted to say yes. But she was a practical woman. She wasn’t going to jump on a ship because some handsome pirate lawman airship captain sweet-talked her into it.
“And do what, Captain? Be your concubine?”
“Well, I was going to offer you to be my boilerman,” he drawled, “but I could go with concubine if that’s the job you’d rather take on.”