Perilous Journey of the Much-Too-Spontaneous Girl by Leigh Statham

explosives and people missing their teeth.
    She touched her hair self-consciously and looked at the black gun oil stain on her fingers. A young man approached her and glanced at her grease-streaked hair, then the rank on her uniform. “Can I help you, Officer?”
    “Yes, I am Officer Vadnay, I believe Captain Laviolette requested my presence?” she tried to sound confident, even though she felt sheepish and nervous.
    “Yes, ma’am. I’ll go find him.”
    The boy hadn’t turned completely around before Jacques was upon them. When she saw his face, stern and furrowed, Marguerite couldn’t move. What was he going to say? She’d lied to him less than forty-eight hours earlier. She’d hidden her plans from him and even kissed him passionately goodbye when Outil hadn’t been looking. She began to panic. What had she done?
    Then he smiled his beautiful smile at her, all of his teeth white and sitting exactly where they should be, his eyes twinkling and his tone merry. “Ah! The lovely Lady Vadnay.” He bowed low. The warm welcome was worse than if he’d immediately berated her. Something was not right. Maybe he was ill? Except he looked healthy as ever and even quite dashing in his captain’s best. The rest of the bridge turned to look at the exchange and watched curiously.
    “Imagine my great surprise when I saw your name on my ship’s manifest this morning. What an honor to have a lady of your standing aboard the Renegade .” He smiled again. “I believe you are serving in ballistics?”
    “Yes, Captain.”
    He sounded genuinely pleasant. Maybe he wasn’t mad at all? Maybe he was happy to see her. She pushed aside the doubt and smiled.
    “That doesn’t seem like the right place for a lady to be serving on a warship.” He stretched out the word lady again and scratched his chin. Marguerite didn’t like the way he was saying lady.
    “Oh, but I scored excellent marks in ballistics. They made me second in command.”
    “Yes, I’m sure they did. Excellent.”
    “If you have something else in mind, Captain?”
    This could be it! She thought excitedly. He’s not mad, and he’s going to invite me to work with him on the bridge! He knows as well as anyone that I am cool under pressure and a crack shot. Plus, I know my way around the instruments, and I’m a quick learner. This is all just a show for the rest of the crew.
    “Actually, since you mentioned it, I do have something else in mind. Come with me. Henry! You have the bridge. I need ten minutes.” He smiled again, only Marguerite realized this time that his smile did not meet his eyes.
    He took her arm, not gently, and steered her back through the hall and down a tight corridor. It was too close to walk side by side, so he was pressed against her and forcing her to walk quickly in front of him. If she hadn’t been so confused about the direction events were about to take, she may have said something snarky to him about excuses to get close. She decided instead to try apologizing. Surely she owed him that.
    “Jacques, I’m very sorry. It’s just that I thought you’d be upset …”
    He held up a hand to silence her then pulled them both to a stop at a speaking port on the wall. He pressed a button and spoke into the screened circle opening. “Marshton, are we in place?”
    A squall answered back, “Yes, Captain.”
    “Good. I will be there in five minutes with the package.” He flipped the button off and directed Marguerite to a door across the way. He reached around her and pushed down the brass handle while shoving it open in one quick movement. His second movement was to shove Marguerite inside as well.
    The room was obviously private quarters. A bed sat in the middle. Made neatly, covers tight, pillows just so. A comfortable chair sat in one corner and a wardrobe in the other. A little table flanked the chair, and a large table in the middle of the room was covered in maps and sextons, a gleaming brass auto compass, and a pot of ink.