“Just like you to show up without a mechanic and hope someone will donate time. First things first. How soon will you be ready to ship?”
Jack ran through the remaining steps before departure. “If the weather holds,” he finished up, “I should be able to ship around the twenty-third. Get there in a couple days. Reassemble, test and be ready to fly around the end of the month.”
Too late. Even Darcy knew it. “You could save time if you flew to Newfoundland. Just send the supplies ahead by train, so they’re there when you arrive. That eliminates the reassembly time.”
Jack scoffed. “No one flies his plane to a major record attempt.”
“Why not?”
Burrows supported her. “Actually, it’s not a bad plan. That’s what we’re going to do with the NCs.”
“See? It’ll work.”
Jack resisted. “The NCs are flying boats and can land on water if they have a problem. I’d have to fly over Canada and some pretty remote terrain.”
“Then follow the St. Lawrence.” Months of staring at the map had taught her something about geography.
“I suppose you’d have me make a landing on Niagara Falls?”
Darcy refused to give in. “You’re being silly. I agree with Mr. Burrows. It’ll trim days off our plan. Let’s do it.”
“Just like that.”
“Why not?”
Burrows laughed. “Two against one. You lose, Jack.”
Darcy wished Jack didn’t look as though he’d lost the transatlantic prize. “We can do it. I know we can.”
Jack folded the newspaper and handed it back to Burrows. “Could you fly the last two test flights?” He didn’t even look at her when he asked him.
Burrows? He asked Burrows? How could he? He’d only been there ten minutes. She wanted to pound her fists against Jack’s thick head, but it wouldn’t do any good. Once Jack set his mind, he didn’t retreat. She had no choice. She watched as Jack Hunter threw away her dream.
Jack hated to hurt Darcy that way, but Burrows was the answer to all his problems. “Stay the week,” he begged his friend after they retired to the boardinghouse.
“Sorry, we’re getting close to launching the NC-4. She has four Liberty motors, Jack, four. Sixteen hundred horsepower.”
Jack could see the sparkle in Burrows’s eyes, but he couldn’t resist comparing, even though his paltry two engines and four hundred horsepower could never top the NC. “My girl’s a Curtiss, too.”
Burrows laughed. “Your girl’s a Shea.”
Jack squared his shoulders. “I meant the plane.”
“Just like you to keep your eyes on the machine and not the woman.”
“Women only bring trouble,” Jack pointed out as he unlocked the door to his room. If Burrows didn’t know that, with his string of failed relationships, no one would.
“Ah, but what sublime trouble it is. The French sing of it. The Italians romance it.”
“And Dick Burrows jumps in with both feet.”
“Watch that tongue of yours,” Burrows said, laughing.
“Got a minute?” Jack nodded toward his room. “I’d like to talk.”
“Me, too. If you’ve given up Miss Shea, is she fair game?”
“Who said I’ve given her up?”
Burrows whistled. “Jack Hunter is snared.”
The words made Jack flinch. “Let’s get serious. I meant what I said back at the barn. I could use your help for the last two flight tests.”
“I thought Darcy was flying navigator?”
“She’s not experienced.”
“Sounds to me like she is.”
“This isn’t a little hop across farm fields. This is deadly serious—emphasis on deadly—which she doesn’t understand. To her it’s a lark. She thinks she’ll be just like her heroine, Harriet Quimby, but we all know what happened to her. Darcy doesn’t realize the risk.”
“You like her, don’t you?”
“This has nothing to do with what you’re thinking.”
“What am I thinking?” But Burrows was grinning too broadly for Jack to think he didn’t understand.
“You know.”
“I don’t suppose this little reluctance has anything to do with the fact she’s a woman?” Burrows suggested.
“Of course not,” Jack snapped. “You know how dangerous this attempt is. I don’t want her hurt or…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the last word. Dead. Jack couldn’t live if Darcy died.
“Is that so?” said Burrows. “Or is the danger just an excuse? Darcy’s not your wife, she’s your student. I doubt you cried over the army pilots you sent to Europe.”
“That’s different.”
“Is it? Yet you trained her, despite insisting women shouldn’t fly.”
Jack shifted uncomfortably. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Suckered you into it, eh? Well, well. Don’t feel bad. Happens to the best of us. Besides, if there ever was an even playing field for the sexes, aviation is it.”