Page 11 of Heart of Iron
For a moment nothing happened.The virile iron man quivered, and then slowly the gears started turning.The plates slid back upon each other, revealing a swift glimpse of the cogs within.Then a creature began to form, just as wild and fierce as the iron man had been.
Mandeville sucked in a breath.Lena watched his face as he tugged his magnifying glassicals up and peered closer.“My goodness, Lena!It’s incredible.Look at it transform!One moment a man, the next a wolf.”
She put her hand on his.“Wait.”
Breathlessly they both watched as the wolf slid back into the man, the clockwork gears grinding slower and slower, until finally it stopped, caught in transition, the man’s face scowling out over a hint of the wolf’s jaws.
“Well?What do you think?”
Mandeville let out his breath and cleaned his glassicals.“You truly have a gift, my dear.This is beyond compare.Beyond!”Her heart swelled, until she saw him shake his head.“However, you’ll never sell it.What on earth possessed you to create such a thing?The Echelon will have you thrown in the dungeons of the Ivory Tower!”
“Maybe a year ago,” she replied, glancing over her shoulder at Mrs.Wade.Her voice dropped.“Times are changing, Mr.Mandeville.There’s talk of the Scandinavian Empire sending an embassy to London.”
Mr.Mandeville stilled.“Where did you hear that?”
“There’s a loose grate…in the ceiling of my guardian’s study,” she admitted.“I often do some of my work in the solar above.”
A conspiratorial smile.As though her ingenuity had surprised him.
“Leo was entertaining the dukes of Malloryn and Goethe yesterday morning.It’s not common knowledge yet, but the Council is concerned.”
Mandeville leaned closer, peering at the clockwork transformational through his glassicals.His attention, however, was all upon her.“I still don’t see how this changes matters.The Echelon exterminated the Scottish verwulfen clans at Culloden.This…this piece stirs dangerous sentiments toward an ancient enemy.”
He picked the clockwork back up and began to nestle it safely in its box, where it might never again see the light of day.
“The Duke of Malloryn said that the Echelon were considering a peace treaty with the Scandinavian clans,” she blurted.
Mr.Mandeville froze.Both his eyebrows slowly vanished into his hairline.“That’s unheard of.The Scandinavian verwulfen have been at odds with Britain since Culloden.There’s no chance they would agree to a treaty.”
“That’s all I know.Mrs.Wade discovered me and I was forced to go look at bonnets.”
“Goodness,” Mandeville whispered.“I shall have to pass this information on.At once.”
Lena glanced at Mrs.Wade, who was tapping her reticule impatiently.“Do you think I should meet with Mercury?To tell him what I know?Firsthand?”
For months Mercury had been only a dashing figment of her imagination.As the mysterious head of the secret humanist movement working right here in London, he was little more than cloaks and shadows.Rumor had it that the Council of Dukes had posted an extravagant reward with the infamous Nighthawks for his capture.
“No.No, I’ll pass the information on.It wouldn’t do at all to have you involved any further.The fewer people who know of Mercury’s identity the safer he is.”
“I would never tell a soul.”
“Oh, Lena, you’re so terribly innocent still.”He gave her a sad smile.“There are ways for a blue blood to make a young woman tell them everything they want to know.Especially those rotten bastards in the Ivory Tower.”He patted her hand.“I’ll pass the message on.Hopefully we can use this information.If this alliance between the Echelon and verwulfen clans goes ahead, there’ll be little chance for the humanists to defeat the Echelon.They’ll be too powerful.”
He slid a folded envelope toward her, beneath a sheaf of orders.“The usual spot, if you will?”
Lena palmed it, pretending to rifle through the orders.Her voice rose.“Of course.Thank you for the commissions.I shall select which ones I deem appropriate.”
“Let me know if you hear more.”A frown crossed his face.“I am most curious about why they’re talking of peace.”
“I will.”
Lena picked up the box with the snubbed clockwork inside and turned her back on him.Pasting a smile on her face, she ignored the curiosity that lit Mrs.Wade’s face and gestured toward the carriage.She was about to make her companion’s day much worse.
“Oh look, we’ve time to visit my brother and sister,” she said lightly, though in fact she’d planned on it.
Mrs.Wade paled.“Not the rookeries, Lena.If anyone sees—”
“We’ll be discreet.And they’re my family, after all—even if they are consideredpersonanongratato the Echelon.”She stepped through the shop door into the warm sunshine.“I’ve a mind to gift Charlie with this toy.Mr.Mandeville doesn’t want it.”And she couldn’t bear to let it go to waste.It was the finest thing she’d ever created, even if it bore striking familiarity to a certain hulking brute that she knew.
