The Race (Isaac Bell 4)
“In fact, so attractive that it is hard to believe that Marco Celere, or any man, would turn his back on her.”
“How did you escape?”
Bell touched his glass to hers. “I’m immune.”
“Blind to beauty?” she teased.
“I am in love with Marion Morgan, and she has spoken for my heart.”
Marion returned his smile. “Maybe Marco had his eye on Josephine.”
“Josephine is cute as a button but hardly in Miss Di Vecchio’s class. She’s a pretty little thing, pert and flirtatious, but more farm girl than femme fatale.
“But ambitious? At least about flying,” Bell said, “and very skilled navigating flying machines. There are men who are drawn to accomplished women.”
“Well, love is strange, isn’t it?”
“If Marco and Josephine were lovers at all. Archie thinks she was in love with Marco’s flying machines. And as you know Archie has a pretty good eye for that sort of thing.”
Marion asked, “What does your eye tell you?”
“Frankly, I don’t know. Except she vehemently defends Marco on the question of who stole whose invention.”
“Could it be that Josephine is defending her flying machine more than she’s defending her lover?”
“That is very possible,” said Bell. “While Marco, I suspect, was in love with a girl who could afford to buy his flying machines.”
“Then everyone got what they wanted.”
“Except Harry Frost.” Bell’s eyes grew bleak, then hot with anger. “Poor Archie. Frost did such a terrible thing. How a man would load such monstrous ammunition into a weapon is beyond me.”
Marion took his hand. “I spoke with Lillian on the telephone. I’ll see her at the hospital tomorrow.”
“How did she sound?”
“Tired and hopeful. Poor thing. It’s a nightmare – both of our nightmares – only I’m older and have loved you longer, and I don’t worry in that same way. Lillian admitted to me that since Archie returned to work after their honeymoon, she was afraid every day until he came home safe. Darling, are you taking such chances learning to fly because you’re worried about Archie? Or trying to make up for what happened to him?”
“I’ve always been keen to fly.”
“But are you keen to fly for the wrong reasons? Isaac, you know I never trouble you with worrying about your safety. But this seems unusually risky. What can you possibly do up in the air if Frost shoots at her?”
“Shoot back, and finish Harry Frost once and for all.”
“Who will fly the aeroplane while you’re busy shooting?”
“I can drive it with one hand. . Well, actually, to be perfectly honest,” he admitted with a rueful smile, “I will be able to drive with one hand soon. Today, I was hanging on tight with both.”
Marion extended her arms. “Can you demonstrate that?”
15
“WOULD YOU GIVE ME SOME ADVICE on that straightening-up-fast stunt just before you touch the ground?” Isaac Bell asked Josephine. The race was starting in three days, and he had scheduled a certification test to get an official pilot’s license from the Aero Club.
“Don’t!” Josephine grinned, “is the best advice I can give you. Practice blipping your magneto instead, and don’t try stunts your machine isn’t up to.”
“My alettoni are the same as yours.”
“No, they’re not,” she retorted, her grin fading.