Clockworks and Corsets by Regina Riley Page A

Magpie said. She tipped her head to the opposite corner.
    The captain swung her head around to Jax, who was still snoring in the far corner of the cage.
    “Her I understand. But why would they see me as more of a threat than anyone else?”
    “It’s the hair,” Atom said.
    Everyone turned to him. Gabriella was surprised to find him seated with his back to the cage, watching the rest of the crew curiously.
    “The red hair.” He motioned to Jayne, then Jax. “The blond and the white hair they have seen before on past visitors. But they have never seen that shade of red before. They think she’s a demon of some kind.”
    Click sniggered under his hand. The captain cut him a harsh look.
    “Atom?” Gabriella asked. She could hardly believe he was back from his self-induced trance, not to mention the fact that he was talking out of his mind.
    “Yes, my angel?” he asked in a soft voice.
    Gabriella’s stomach fluttered at the sweet nickname.
    “How do you know all of this?” Magpie asked.
    “I’m afraid I owe you all an apology,” he answered.
    Jayne stood over him, jabbing her finger into his chest while she shouted, “You’re damned right you do, You knew about those savages! Yet you let us walk around the jungle like nothing was wrong. This is all your fault.”
    Atom stared at Jayne for a moment as if unsure what she meant. “Oh, you think I had a hand in this? Please believe I assumed that you either knew about the natives or they didn’t care about you because you made it all the way to the lab without being bothered by them.”
    “You say that like it’s uncommon,” the captain whispered.

    “It is. Usually they attack anyone who lands on the beach. Sometimes they toy with visitors by letting them roam, but the natives end up slaughtering anyone within an hour of landing.”
    Click whistled low.
    “Yes,” Atom said. “As it turns out, I was wrong. They have been trailing you since you first set foot on the beach. I’m sorry for the miscalculation.”
    “Miscalculation?” Jayne asked with a huff. “You’d think with your own private peepshow spying on us all the way from the Widow, you’d have seen a bunch of spear wielding maniacs hot on our trail.”
    Atom lowered his gaze. “I should have, but I was...distracted. I don’t get visitors very often.”
    He returned his look to Gabriella, adding, “And never such beautiful ones.”
    “So,” Magpie said, “if getting us all strung up by a bunch of barbarians ain’t what you were planning on apologizing for, what is?”
    “I lied,” Atom said.
    Gabriella started. A lie. He had known her for just a few hours and already he’d lied to her?
    “You lied?” she asked.
    “Twice,” he said.
    “About?” the captain encouraged him.
    “I didn’t hear you outside the lab,” he explained.
    Jayne gasped in awe. “You read lips.”
    “Lip reading?” Click asked.
    “He can make out what you’re saying by the shape of your words when they leave your mouth,” Magpie said.
    Jayne snapped her mouth closed, robbed of the chance to explain. Gabriella enjoyed the rare sight.
    “My cousin is deaf,” Magpie explained. “It took him years to learn how, and even then, he ain’t much good at it.”
    “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” the captain said, her voice gaining some strength.
    “It’s an uncommon skill true,” Atom said. “But I have always seemed able to do so. In fact, I have been watching our native friends out there, and I’m sorry to say that I know what they intend to do with us.”
    “Lip reading,” the captain said. “Who knew that was even possible... Hey, wait! You understand them?”
    Atom nodded.
    “Then why didn’t you say so when we were still free?” the captain asked.
    “Because you didn’t ask.”
    The captain groaned and fell back into Click’s arms. “He’s going to be the death of me.”
    Click chuckled. He gathered the captain close to him with such affection that it made Gabriella’s heart