Unexpect Turbulence, part 3

Happy Easter Sunday to you, dearest colleagues!  Or just a happy Sunday if you’re not an Easter-celebrating type.  As you can see, I’m choosing to spend my holiday pouring over Ladies Of Mischief artifacts, so to each his (or her) own.  Today I have the exciting conclusion of Miss O’ Hare’s forced landing in Constantinople, with a drenched and shell-shocked Kristoff in tow.  Having landed successfully and secured the dirigible, Miss O’ Hare seemed have a few ideas about how to pass the remainder of the evening (nudge, wink).  Let’s find out what they might be…

“Well,” I decided out loud.  “Assuming that is Constantinople we’ve landed near, first thing on the agenda for tomorrow is buying you some other clothes.”  My voice dropped to almost a purr.  “But first thing on the agenda for tonight…”

Kristoff swallowed, staring determinedly at the wall.

“…is getting out of this damn soaked nightgown and into something warm.”  I marched out of the galley, leaving Kristoff behind with the whispering kettle and popping fire.  “I’ll look through my things for something to lend you for tonight,” I called back over my shoulder.  “I promise it won’t be a nightgown!”

I managed to just catch a glimpse of the returning blush on his face as I ducked into my cabin.  I shucked the wet nightgown as quickly as possible and put on a dry one, then wrapped myself in a dressing robe and found my previously forgotten slippers.  Digging through my wardrobe revealed a knitted cabled jumper, a pair of men’s trousers, some socks I had knitted for myself but which had turned out to be entirely too large, and a set of striped nightclothes.  I squinted at them, trying to remember why I owned such things…  Oh, yes!  My absentminded younger brother Colin had left them behind when he joined me on the dirigible for a short journey a few years back.  I had to admit to being similarly absentminded, considering I had forgotten all about the items.  No matter!  They would be put to good use now.  I added a spare dressing gown to the pile and headed back to the galley, which I found empty except for a pot of hot tea on the table and a still-steaming kettle sitting on the sideboard.  Clearly Kristoff had gone to change out of his wet clothes…  But into what, I wondered, looking down at the folded garments in my hands.  I smirked a bit and headed to his cabin.

“Kristoff?”  I knocked on the closed door and giggled inwardly to hear him curse very quietly and politely.  “I found some spare clothing in my wardrobe.  I’m assuming you find yourself rather in need of it.”

The door cracked open and Kristoff eyed me through the opening, keeping his body carefully hidden behind the bulk of the door.  “Really?  What did you find?”

I offered the small pile of clothes.  “Trousers and nightclothes that used to be my brother’s.  A jumper that I think I knit a few years back, some socks that turned out too big for me, and one of my dressing gowns.  It’s the one with lions on it, so it should be sufficiently masculine.”  I smiled at him, the picture of innocence.  “May I come in?”

“No!  No.  Thank you.”  The blush was slowly re-emerging in his cheeks.  “You can just…  Leave them outside the door and I’ll grab them when I have a moment.”  He shut the door quickly, then cracked it again just as quickly.  “Anna…  Thank you.  I do appreciate it.”  His eyes dropped from mine to the pile of clothes, and then to the neckline of my second nightgown, visible under the my untied dressing gown.  His eyes snapped back to mine with a quickness, and the blush came back full-force.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”  He shut the door again, and as I bent down to deposit the clothes outside his door I heard him mutter, “Why must she walk around half-dressed?!”  I giggled wickedly as I slipped back to the galley and poured myself a cup of tea.  “Because it’s ever so entertaining, Kristoff…” I whispered into my cup.

Oh, I’m a terrible person, I really am.  He’s just so fun to tease!  How can I resist?  No one could resist once they saw that blush.  It’s simply adorable and ever so endearing.  I presume he’ll eventually become used to seeing me in a nightgown, so if I want to continue seeing that blush I may need to resort to other tactics in the future.  Perhaps a letter to Miss Alyssa Rynne is in order?

We shall see later.  For now, diary, I am off to my warm bed while the wind blows itself out around me.  I hope Kristoff sleeps well…  It was quite an evening.

Oh, that Anna!  Our ladies sure knew how properly (or perhaps improperly) intrigue a gentleman, while still conducting themselves appropriately – a skill lost on much of the modern dating scene, it seems.  Though we have another reference to the mysterious Miss Alyssa Rynne (you’ll recall Miss Sett’s correspondence with her) and her knowledge of such “tactics”.  Hmm… I hope to find some more information on her soon!  And I’m very glad Anna and Kristoff made it through the storm and landing intact.  Perhaps further diary entries of their journey into Constantinople will turn up as well.  I’ll keep my eye out, as always.  In the meantime, stay tuned for an exciting surprise coming next week!

Unexpected Turbulence, part 2

Good evening my colleagues!  I hope you’re having a lovely one.  Without further ado, I’d like to present to you the continuation of Miss O’ Hare’s exciting account of her sudden arrival in Constantinople.  We last left our heroes descending through the storm and into what they hoped was a city, rather than certain doom.  Let’s see how they did….

“Kristoff!  Now!”  I held tightly to the wheel as he pulled the lever with all his might.  Our descent leveled off with a speed that made our stomachs flip-flop inside of us, and I got a glimpse of the lights of the city, now at our eye level, before we struck the ground with a mighty thud and were knocked off our feet.

We lay there for a long moment, breathing deeply and trying to calm our nerves, before either of us spoke.  Kristoff broke the silence with a quiet, “Ow.”  I sighed deeply and pushed myself to a seated position.

“I concur.  Unfortunately, we’re not done here.”  I pushed myself to my feet on shaky and slightly nauseated legs (I hate sudden landings.  Hate them!) and staggered toward the door with determination.  Kristoff groaned and pushed himself up onto his elbows.  “What?  Do we need to crash again?  Because once was enough for me, thanks.”  He pulled himself to his feet with the help of a trusty guardrail and trailed after me.

“Well, if you’d like to avoid any more crashes tonight, we need to go outside and anchor the ship.”  I hurried down the steep flight of steps into the hold and opened the door to the driving wind and rain.  I grimaced at the awful weather but snatched up the sledgehammer I needed to anchor the stakes and headed out into the storm.

Kristoff stuck his head out the door behind me.  “Are you mad?” he shouted as I removed the first of the anchor stakes from the outside of the airship and prepared to drive it into the ground.  “It’s freezing out there!  You’ll catch your death!”  I rolled my eyes and commenced pounding the first stake into the muddy grass beneath my feet.

“Would you prefer I catch my death from an unrestrained airship being blown all over the goddamn land?” I shouted back between the ringing strikes of the sledgehammer.  “Make yourself useful and uncoil the bloody rope so we can tie this down properly!”  I pointed at the mooring rope wrapped up next to the slot that had held the anchor stake that was now firmly lodged in the ground beneath my feet.  My bare feet.  I hadn’t actually noticed until that moment that I was barefoot.  Excitement does such strange things to the mind…

Kristoff staggered out into the wind with the rope as I had asked, and held the sledgehammer while I tied the wet knots with the surety of a sailor.  “Three more!” I shouted to him as we darted through the pouring rain and howling wind to the next mooring point.  We struggled a bit with that one, but by the third we had learned to work together quickly, and with the fourth it was as if we’d been mooring airships in the pouring rain for years.  It certainly felt like I’d been out in that rain for years, I grumbled inwardly as we hurried back into the hold with numb feet and soaked clothes.  I returned the sledgehammer to its tool hook and hurried upstairs to the galley and the iron stove that lived there with a fire always banked in its belly.  Kristoff followed, dripping water onto the floor, and collapsed into a chair as I threw coal on the banked embers and stoked the fire.

“Does this happen often?  Crashing, I mean?”  He stared out the window at the rain-blurred city lights.  I wrung some water out of my skirt and warmed my hands in front of the stove with a shiver.

“Not usually.  Normally I have a bit of warning about storms and can land before they become an issue.  This one was moving fast and I didn’t predict it.”  I turned from the stove and grabbed the kettle.  I could at least start some water for tea before I went and changed out of my wet things.  Kristoff looked up as I moved and made a sound the likes of which I’d never heard before.  It was like a mouse being startled by a large piece of cheese that it didn’t think it deserved.  “What…” I trailed off as I looked at him, kettle suspended in my hand just above the top of the stove.

He was staring at me, his gaze traveling from my shoulders to my feet in disbelief.  A blush heated his cheeks.  His mouth worked ineffectually for a moment or two, and then he blurted, “Your nightgown!  You did all of that in your nightgown!”  The blush on his cheeks was furious now as he turned away and shielded his eyes.  “And now you’re only wearing your nightgown and it’s all wet!”

Confused, I set the kettle on the stove and looked down at myself.  I was, in fact, in my nightgown…  Which was made out of sensible black cotton, had cap sleeves and fell to my calves.  It was, admittedly, very wet.  And cold.  And plastered to me.  But still…  My eyes snapped back up to him.  “You just now noticed?”  I suppressed a laugh.  “I didn’t exactly have time to change, unlike some people…”  I indicated his soaked trousers and dress shirt.

“I was distracted earlier, what with the storm and the crash-landing!  I didn’t have time to notice!”  He still was looking carefully away from me, lest his eyes wander again.  “And I’ll have you know I didn’t have time to get dressed, either.  I have to sleep in this.  You didn’t exactly give me time to pack, you know.”

I pursed my lips.  He had, in fact, been wearing the same suit in various combinations since I picked him up.  I had simply assumed he was very attached to that suit.  I had a favorite wrench, after all, so who was I to judge what other people liked?

“Well,” I decided out loud.  “Assuming that is Constantinople we’ve landed near, first thing on the agenda for tomorrow is buying you some other clothes.”  My voice dropped to almost a purr.  “But first thing on the agenda for tonight…”

Kristoff swallowed, staring determinedly at the wall.

And since I’m as much of a tease as Miss O’ Hare I’ll leave you with that until next time!  Which will be soon, I promise.  I hope you all stay cozy and warm and out of any horrible rainstorms in the meantime.  Brrr!  Better go start a pot of tea myself…

She’ll be waiting in Instanbul

Good afternoon my colleagues!  I have a quick update for you today with another telegram from the trunk:

 

TO: LADIES OF MISCHIEF

EMERGENCY DIRIGIBLE LANDING FORCED BY STORM STOP HAVE TAKEN SOME DAMAGE NOTHING SERIOUS STOP SENDING THIS FROM CONSTANTINOPLE STOP WILL REPAIR AND RESTOCK HERE STOP KRISTOFF HAS NOT YET FLED ME IN FEAR STOP WANTED TO UPDATE YOU STOP

ANNA ROISIN O’HARE

As you might guess, I’m anxious to find any more news of what befell them in Constantinople (as it was know then).  At least Anna and Kristoff seem to have made it through unharmed, thank goodness, and have stuck together.  I’d honestly be much more worried about him surviving in a unfamiliar city than her!  I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.

Antsily yours,

~The Archivist