His Clockwork Canary

things used to be, before the Peace Rebels.

As they chugged along, the vibrations from the engine invigorating Amelia’s good senses, she cursed herself for giving in to her mother. For giving over to her curiosity regarding Lord Bingham’s personal air fleet. Instead, she could’ve spent the morning assisting Papa, who, day by day, had become almost psychotic in his mission to fly to the moon. Although he’d promised not to tinker with Apollo 02 (his second attempt at a futuristic rocket ship) until she returned, she didn’t wholly trust his word or judgment of late.

“Can’t you make this thing go any faster?” Anne asked, sounding suddenly anxious to return home.

“Regrettably, no,” Amelia said as Loco-Bug’s iron wheels rolled over the pitted, snow-dusted road. As with most of the shires, Kent had fallen upon hard times, and the much-traveled roads had fallen into ill repair. Not to mention that Loco-Bug was simply not made for great speed. “For what it’s worth, the journey would have been half the duration if we had taken Bess.” Her papa’s one-of-a-kind kitecycle. Unfortunately, among other things, Anne Darcy was aerophobic.

“If people were meant to fly,” she said with a sniff, “we’d have been born with wings.”

If only, Amelia thought with a wistful sigh.

They fell into a sullen silence. Really, what was there to say? Old Worlder and New Worlder, fatalist and utopian, repressed and emancipated. They would never see eye to eye. For the next hour they rode in tense silence—Amelia contemplating her papa’s moonship obsession whilst her mother no doubt plotted her next marriage match.

A short mile from their home, Loco-Bug stalled for the second time in thirty minutes.

Anne ridiculed her husband’s automocoach as Amelia hopped out to inspect the engine. Unlike her mother, she had faith in Papa’s inventions. Sometimes it just took a lot of positive thinking and a bit of elbow grease. And in this case, a hair ornament. Pulling a decorative comb from her braided hair, Amelia probed and unclogged a valve. Though pleased when Loco-Bug coughed back to life, she glanced at the sky, thinking how much more enjoyable it would have been to soar the seamless air as opposed to driving along rutted roads.

A deafening boom blasted her eardrums, tripping her pulse and stealing her breath.

Pushing her goggles to her forehead, Amelia gaped at a large plume of smoke and fireworks marring the near horizon—a mushrooming cloud littered with fragments of brass, iron, and clockwork.

It came from Ashford. The Darcy estate.

Her mother gasped. “What in heaven’s name?”

Apollo 02, Amelia thought, stifling a scream as she imagined Papa tinkering, then . . .

Please, God, no.

Refusing to think the worst, Amelia scrambled back into Loco-Bug, intending to push the machine to its limits. Upon reaching Ashford, she would find Papa singed and discombobulated but very much alive. She willed it with all her heart.

Amelia refitted her goggles, then engaged the clutch. “Hang on to your bonnet, Mama.”

PRAISE FOR HER SKY COWBOY

“Contemporary romance author Ciotta’s first steampunk series blasts off with this exhilarating riff on bodice-ripping romance, hurling twentieth-century technology into an alternate Victorian England . . . the start of a delectable series.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In this first in her new steampunk series, Ciotta brings us into a world where science and inventions abound within the Victorian era. Masterfully written, with an intriguing plot and a sassy, strong, and intelligent heroine at its center. Add to that a heroic-cowboy love interest and a supporting cast of distinctive characters, and this story is one fanciful, flying adventure.”

—Romantic Times (top pick, 4? stars)

“Freaks, Mods, Vics, Flatliners, cowboys in airships, evil scientists, nefarious flying pirates, and time-travel Victorian England was never so much fun. Ciotta’s whimsical steampunk romance, the first in the Glorious Victorious Darcys series, is too good to miss.”

—Booklist (starred review)

“Steampunk is still an evolving genre. In most cases, it’s a hit or miss with either the romance or the steampunk story line. [Ciotta’s] ‘vision’ on an alternate take on historical romance, though, was very well done, and I enjoyed reading it. . . . If you’re looking for something a bit different and fun, then I’d pick up Her Sky Cowboy.”

—USA Today Happy Ever After

“Ciotta’s delightfully imaginative steampunk historical has just the right mix of adventure and romance.”

—Chicago Tribune

“Beth Ciotta’s Her Sky Cowboy is pure charm. This is a must read for anyone who loves the genre—or hasn’t even tried it yet. You’ll be hooked!”

—New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham

“A wildly inventive, action-packed steampunk adventure! Lady inventors, sexy renegade lawmen, airships, acid rock, and flying horses—Her Sky Cowboy has it all!”

—Zoe Arche