Page 80 of Heart of Iron
He considered her words for a long moment.Then reached inside his pocket again.“I want you to keep this on you at all times,” he said, pulling out a whistle.It hung on a fine gold chain and he slipped it over her head, then tucked it into the bodice of her dress as though he barely noticed the shuddering intake of her breath “It makes a sound you won’t ’ear, but it’ll alert any blue bloods—or me—in the vicinity if you need help.”Stepping back, he shut the carriage door and nodded at the driver.“I’ll call on you tomorrow before the…the…”
“The balloon launch,” she reminded him.“In Hyde Park.With the Scandinavians.”
“Right.”Will grimaced.“We don’t have to go up in one of them?”
“Afraid of heights too?”
“I’m goin’ to ignore that.”He let go of the carriage and stepped back, shooting her a direct look—and a reminder.“No trouble tonight, Lena.”
“Would I get into trouble?”
“You’re a bloody magnet for it.”
Seventeen
A ruby.He’d bought her a ruby.
Lena held her bare hand out.She couldn’t stop looking at it, watching the play of light through the polished gem.It was the size of her littlest fingernail.She’d seen bigger.A dozen times over in the Echelon, where they liked to drape their thralls in jewels to indicate the status of their masters.But for Will to have bought her something like this made it more precious than the largest diamond in the world.
Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back against the seat.What was she going to do?How could she keep her heart safely locked away when he did things like this for her?For it was becoming dangerously apparent that her feelings for him were growing.
Dabbing at the perspiration across her brow, she sighed.From the pounding in her head, she was in for a good cup of willow bark tea when she got home.
A sudden jolt threw her across the seat.
Lena snatched at the carriage strap and glanced out the window.They’d stopped.The driver was one of Leo’s men, well skilled in the use of the horseless steam-driven carriages.Though they’d barely left Whitechapel behind, the roads weren’t bad and nobody would dare attack her this close to Blade’s turf.Every man and woman in the rookery knew who the gilded hawk on the carriage belonged to.Blade had declared Leo safe passage to his realm.The cost of crossing his word was death.
“Coachman?”she called as the carriage careened to a halt.“Henry?”There was no sign of the footman riding on back as she glanced out the window.“What’s going on?”
Silence greeted her.Considering it was early evening, the streets were frightfully deserted.
From the shadows of a nearby alley, a lambent blue eye suddenly lit up.Lena shrank back into the carriage as a shadow detached itself from the rest.It rose to a height of nearly six feet, then suddenly unfolded itself further until it stood almost eight or nine feet.The eerie gaslit blue of its eye was reminiscent of a metaljacket.
But no metaljacket had ever stood so tall.
Locking the carriage door, she looked around for something—anything—with which to defend herself.Only a few forlorn cushions greeted her gaze.Will had taken the pistol back, determined to improve it for her.
The metal creature stepped out of the alley, moving in large, jerking strides.Itwasa metaljacket, the overlapping plates of its chest and abdomen gleaming with cold steel.The head was square, crowned with a demonic steel helm.A thin slit of glass in its throat was the only sign of any weakness, and behind the glass were a pair of eyes.Human eyes.
Lifting its massive fist, it swung a blow toward her.Lena shrieked and dove across the seat as glass from the window sprayed throughout the carriage.She tore the other door open and fell onto the cobbles, collapsing in a puddle of yellow skirts.
Something tugged in her hair.Reaching up, she found the fine gold chain and followed it to the whistle Will had hung around her neck.Hydraulic hoses hissed behind her and the carriage shuddered.Lena stuck the whistle in her mouth and blew.
There was no sound.Nothing but steel screeching as the carriage slowly tipped on its edge, the monstrous creature trying to turn it over.
Grabbing her skirts, she bolted out of the way.The carriage smashed onto the cobbles, exactly where she’d just been kneeling.Gasping for breath, she darted forward blindly and crashed into something solid and warm.
Hands caught her by the arms.Lena jerked back instinctively and tore free from a man’s grip.A leering face came into view.He towered over her, wearing little more than a rough worker’s jerkin and tight leather pants.A seeming arsenal of metal hung at his belt.She didn’t take the time to look.Instead she turned and bolted back the way she’d come.
Men were everywhere.Ducking under snatching hands, she ran through a gauntlet of ragged, mismatched bandits.
Sound whirred behind her.“I’ve got ’er.”
Lena screamed as something wrapped around her ankles.Pitching forward onto her face, she hit the cobbles hard.Pain tore through her lip and her lungs shrank to a quarter of their size.For a moment she couldn’t breathe.There was a great, gaping vacuum in her chest and she sucked and sucked for air but none came.Then suddenly her lungs expanded and she dragged in a huge, rasping breath.
It hurt all the way through her.
The slow step of a pair of boots sounded on the cobbles behind her as someone made their way toward her.
