Chapter 2

"If it's in the exhibition brochure," Helen asks sipping her tea, "why is it in the professors pack? I'd think if it's in the brochure it's in the exhibition."

"You think one of them is a forgery mum?" Ruby asks.

"There 'ave been a lot of cursed expeditions to Venus," Mariette says taking another spoonful of soup. "Do you know which one it was in particular?""Just cuz folks keep dying don't mean it's a curse," Buford mutters, "bunch a fellers I used to run with got their hands on some CSA gold. Gold weren't cursed, boys just kept killin' one another till there was only a couple of them left and no one remembered where they'd hid the gold."

"Where would you like to go that's more private?" Buford asks, "I think there's a sitting room across the hall or we could use one of the bedrooms upstairs."

"Give us a moment then to check Mariette's dressings I'm certain her room is plenty large enough to accommodate everyone." Helen says.

"Top of the stairs, end of the hall," Ruby says clearing everyone's plates and taking them back towards the kitchen.

Helen helps Mariette to her feet and they head towards the stairs.

"What you reckon?" Buford asks looking at Napoleon and Nathaniel, "Think those fellers from the airship got someone in town?"

Heading upstairs they find Helen about to come downstairs, "We're done," Helen says quietly, "she looks worse than she is I'm certain. No signs of infections, what ever was in that old woman's poultice seems to have done the trick."

She leads the men back to the door at the end of the hall, inside there's a large room with two beds, a small one and a larger bed intended for a couple. Marianne is propped up against a number of large pillows on the bigger bed and Ruby is finishing disposing of a number of bandages soaked in dried blood.

Marianne smiles just a little, "Welcome to my parlor, entrer, entrer." She gestures towards a couple of high backed chairs near the window and the smaller bed. "I don't 'ave much to offer but make yourselves comfortable."

Helen closes the door behind them checking the hall twice before latching it.

"Well, what do we know," Buford says in his baritone rumble.

"They are German and they 'ave a Zeppelin with some kind of exotic weapon," Mariette begins.

"They took, Lady Fortingall and Professor Higgins," Ruby adds.

"And her sister," Buford says.

"Oui," Mariette says.

Looking at the pamphlet, Nathaniel makes a curious observation, the one in the pamphlet does not appear to be the same object, it is similar but it's shape is different. While the one you possess is a quarter of a circle with a large diamond on the end, the one in the pamphlet does not have a diamond on the end, it has instead an indent where the diamond shape would go.

"The wreck was so terrible," Ruby says standing next to Mariette's bed, "how could they assume any of us would survive?"

"The people they took were all in the last car," Helen says, "I think they may have presumed that the damage they inflicted would be considerably less than what occurred."

Buford nods, "They did hit the engine as soon as it came out of the tunnel, they probably figured everything inside the tunnel would be fine. Boy howdy were they wrong, reduced everything in front of our car to ash."

"This professor," Mariette asks, "what was 'e a professor of?"

"I think he was an Egyptologist," Ruby says, "I saw him looking at a small parchment full of hieroglyphs, he kept it in his jacket pocket."

"What did Lady Fortingall do?" Helen asks, "She was a lady so I assume tea parties and fancy lunches."

"Oh no," Ruby says, "my lady was an inventor, much to her fathers disapproval. He did not think a proper lady should have axle grease on her hands and carbon soot on her nose."

"What about yer sister?" Buford asks, "What did she do?"

Mariette smiles, "My sisters was a great many things, a good girl was not one of them. She was however, not especially bright."

"How about you?" Helen asks looking at Mariette.

"I am a designer, an architect of sorts," Mariette smiles, "I do not invent things, I refine them, make them better. That is where my talents lie."