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Nemo patted him on the back. “Never fear, Jules. I promise to tell you all about our excursion when we return.”

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After months of preparations, Fergusson’s equipment was carefully loaded aboard a British naval vessel tied up in the London estuary. The ship was bound for a trip around Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and back up to Zanzibar on the east coast of the mysterious continent.

Jules Verne did not manage to attend the launch of the ship, though. In his heart, he had wanted to be there to bid Nemo and Caroline farewell, but he could not summon the nerve to cross the choppy waters to England. He had heard that the Channel could be treacherous that time of year, and he was afraid of storms.

v

With full sails flapping in a brisk breeze, the British navy ship set off en route to India. Nemo stood in the open air, grasping one of the thick tie-ropes as he watched the African coastline roll by. He had a strange, empty feeling in his chest, remembering the fateful time he had made a similar voyage as a cabin boy with Captain Grant and Ned Land.

The British vessel journeyed southward, following the Coralie’s path around the Cape of Good Hope. This time, of course, Nemo was a passenger, not a crewman. And this voyage had one other tremendous advantage: He would spend a great the time with Caroline.

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In England, after the Royal Geographical Society had balked at funding the risky and unproven expedition -- leaving Caroline Aronnax to finance the balloon, supplies, and equipment herself -- Dr. Fergusson missed no opportunity to point out to the press that a mere woman (and a French woman, at that!) had been willing to invest more in the furtherance of human knowledge than either the Royal Geographical Society, or indeed the entire British government.

Thus shamed, the President of the Society used his political influence to arrange for their passage aboard a British naval vessel around Africa and up the eastern coast to the British protectorate of Zanzibar. Still skeptical, the Society President said that they were willing to take this risk, even with Dr. Fergusson’s unproven designs, even despite his previous disastrous failures. The explorer himself dismissed any doubts.

The ship’s hold contained the ingenious double-balloon, along with the weapons, foodstuffs, and clothing they would need for the journey across the continent. Nemo had spent a month supervising the construction of the lighter-than-air vessel. With staunch British pride, Fergusson had insisted on naming it the Victoria after the Queen of England, and Nemo did not argue. After all, he thought, the Emperor of France had assigned him to rebuild Parisian sewers. . . .

Nemo and Caroline walked the deck together in a fine afternoon breeze. Without speaking of their feelings, they had settled into a calm facade of friendship. “We must adjust to life’s expectations,” he said quietly to her, “regardless of our missed opportunities.”

But just beneath the surface their thoughts burned hot, building an unrequited tension between them. Nemo refused to extend it beyond the bounds of propriety, and Caroline was comfortable with that, though he loved her even more now than during the hot-blooded days of his youth.

Aboard the ship, Caroline wore full skirts and appropriate “women’s clothing” as a minor concession to social expectations. After the three of them boarded the balloon, though, she intended to wear trousers and serviceable clothes. Caroline expected to work just as hard as the two men, and Nemo knew better than to argue with her. After all, the scandal about her activities couldn’t get much worse.

Since she had done so well running her father’s shipping company, that gossip had no teeth. She had increased her family’s wealth through a shrewd but unorthodox decision to refit merchant ships to carry more passengers instead of cargo. With the frenzied news of the California Gold Rush in 1849, hundreds of fortune-seekers were willing to exchange their life’s savings for the fastest possible ship