“Welcome, Captain Orlov,” I said, turning to the woman. “This must be your wife?” To my surprise, all three laughed as if I’d told the most hysterical joke.
“Evgenia Orlova,” she said. “Maxim is my brother.”
My cheeks heated furiously as I stammered out an apology.
“An easy mistake,” the captain said. “And you may call me Max. This is Ewan Reid, my husband.” He indicated the other man.
“Pleased to meet you,” Ewan said, a lilt to his tone that was clearly not Russian. He must have caught my puzzlement. “It’s Scottish.”
“Are you from the Empire?” I asked.
“The Islay, a private ship, not unlike your own, by way of the Saint Petersburg.”
“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Captain Max said. “Your sister escorted us here from our transport, but you are apparently the keeper of the keys, so to speak.”
I nodded. “I’ll get all your bio scans coded in so you can come and go as you please.”
“Perfect,” Max said. “We’re just waiting for one more person. He slipped away to check out the party.”
“Eager to mingle with the ladies,” Evgenia said with a laugh.
“You judge me too harshly, Evy,” said a voice I recognized immediately. Soft and firm and infuriatingly calm.
He rounded the corner, and my breath caught. I hadn’t imagined him at all. It was the boy whose heart I’d broken and for whom my heart still fluttered.
It was Elliot.
Two
I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat as my heart thudded hard in my chest. Everyone else was oblivious.
“Wentworth!” Max bellowed. “Excellent timing. Now we can get ourselves settled and finally go to bed.”
“But I wanted to go to the party,” Evgenia said with an exaggerated pout.
“It’ll be going a few hours more, at least,” I said, careful to keep my tone even, my eyes locked on anyone except Elliot. I could not betray my panic, nor could I bear to look at him.
“They have champagne,” Elliot said, half-breathless beside me. I risked a quick glance, catching his lopsided grin paired with my favorite dimple. Still the perfect mix of awkward and beautiful. “And vodka.”
“But no whiskey?” Ewan asked. “Heathens.”
Everyone laughed at a joke I did not understand.
“So I can get all of you set up on the bio-scan system now.” I unlocked the door with my own fingerprints and led them through the loading bay to the aft control room. I stayed in front, throwing my shoulders back, affecting confidence, resisting the urge to check my hair.
“Maybe you’re still in the system, El,” Evgenia said as we came to a stop beside the control panel. “You two know each other, right?”
Finally I met Elliot’s eyes. Carefully controlled fire burned behind his glasses. It caught me off-guard, though it shouldn’t have. Of course he hated me now. I stammered out my response. “Uh, yes, of course. I wasn’t sure you remembered me,” I lied poorly, and for no good reason but for being stupidly blindsided by his disdain, yet Elliot did not betray me. He replied tightly.
“Good to see you again, Princess Leonie.”
His words were a dagger jabbed into my rib cage and twisted just so. Princess Leonie. Formal, and the name he knew very well I hated. In return, I gave a small curtsy, playing the princess he wished me to be. I could be formal too.
“Unfortunately your bio scan was erased when you left. But setting up a new one is easy. Here.” I pressed my index finger and thumb to the bio scan, then keyed in a code set, followed by my admin password. “Now you place your fingers on the scanner.” Elliot did so, hovering close. I breathed in the faint scent of smoke and some spice I could not name, a swooping sadness tugging at my insides. He’d left me, and now he even smelled different. This was not my Elliot. “There, all done,” I said.
“Me next!” Evgenia jumped forward. “So you and I can go enjoy the party.” She nudged Elliot’s shoulder and threw him a wink. He smiled, and my insides swirled, champagne threatening its way up my throat.
“Of course,” I ground out, repeating the process for her, though I miscoded my admin password twice. Elliot and Evgenia left, leaving me heartsick yet relieved. I took care of Max and Ewan in short order.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Max said as I finished him off.
“Oh, please don’t call me that,” I begged as we moved out into the corridor. “I hate titles. Feel free to use pomp and circumstance with my father. He’s a bit . . . old-fashioned. But please call me Leo.”
Max nodded. “Good name, Leo. Like the lion.”
“I’m more like a kitten,” I joked.
“Don’t sell yourself short.” He patted me on the shoulder.
“So are you guys here for the Valg Season?” I made small talk as they walked me to the exit.
Max and Ewan shared a look that was meaningful only to the two of them. “Yes,” Maxim replied with mild hesitance. “Those two are. Ewan and I are here to drum up some new business, I suppose you could say.”
“Oh? What is it that you do?” I asked, forcing a bright nonchalance into my tone. Beneath that, my heart wrenched in my chest. Elliot was here to find a spouse.
“Transports,” Maxim replied. “Elliot insisted we rent somewhere nicer for the Season, but we’ve got our usual vessel docked here. Every so often we’ll jet off for a few days on a job.”
“So that explained the Captain thing. Well, have a good night,” I said. “If you need anything, you can ping me anytime. You’ll find tab consoles in every room.”
“We definitely will,” Ewan said with a broad smile, and then finally I was able to extricate myself. Passing back through the loading bay, I estimated how long I’d have to stay at the party before I could turn in for bed. If I left before one in the morning, my father would whine for days about my lack of effort in securing our fortunes, never mind that I was the only family member coming up with concrete solutions. The four weeks’ rent from the Orlovs would float us for the rest of the year, at least, with just enough left over that I could invest in our long-term solution: a patent for my water-filtration system.
If I could just sell it to another ship, the license fees would solve all our financial problems. I would still have to marry eventually, but I could put it off until the next Season, and as the one with money, I would have my choice of beaus. But filing the patent would require a trip to the Olympus, whose docking fees I could not afford, and then still more fees to file the patent itself.
I reminded myself of the overwhelming practicality of my rental plan as I marched with somber steps toward the exit. Leaving home was never easy.
“We thought we’d wait for you!” a voice chirped as I stepped out into the Scandinavian’s corridor. I yelped, startling off-balance, falling right into him. Elliot. I blinked past my panic, bringing a smiling Evgenia into focus, and quickly righted myself, away from Elliot, who brushed a hand down his shoulder as if I’d burned him.
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that—”
“Nonsense! You’re the closest we have to a friend on board, and this way we can get to know one another!” Evgenia linked arms with me, pulling me into a stroll. “Your dress is exquisite, by the way.”