A Clockwork Heart

by Liesel Schwarz

  Marsh ran over and started putting out the flames with his foot.

  “Don’t you mind Mrs. Hinges. She will understand,” he said between pats.

  Elle crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Good heavens, I think I’ve married my father,” she murmured. Since Marsh had given up his power and become an ordinary mortal, he was becoming more and more like the professor by the day.

  “Adele and I have invented a new game,” Marsh said, entirely unperturbed by Elle’s icy stare.

  He picked up one of the balls of paper and threw it into the air.

  “Go on, fairy, fetch!” he said.

  Adele dashed into the breakfast room and started zooming around the room at a speed faster than the eye could follow. Round and round the room she went in an attempt to create enough updraft to keep the paper afloat in the air. Her flight path made everything in the room rattle and even more sugar and paper scattered across the table and floor.

  “Oh, and before I forget, your father telephoned to say he is coming down to London this evening for dinner. I have some questions to ask him about aether conductors.” He beamed at her. “I never knew how much fun inventions were. I would have given up my position on the Council years ago had I known. I thought that binding my warlock power would be difficult, but this is fun.”

  “Oh, Marsh, you didn’t invite my father, did you? We are supposed to be going to the opera with Lady Mandeville and her daughters tonight. I cancelled a charter especially so I could go.” Elle closed her eyes in frustration.

  “That’s no bother. You go with the ladies and I’ll stay here with Adele and your father. Mrs. Hinges will look after us.”

  “What makes you think that I want to go to the opera with the Mandevilles by myself? I only accepted the invitation for your sake and because we had no option but to say yes. Did you not think to ask me first?”

  Marsh pulled the wires out of the spark tank and the sparks that were emanating from the umbrella stopped. He walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You weren’t here to ask. You, my dear, were too busy stealing airships from other pilots while I, your poor husband, was left alone to my own devices.”

  Just then the doors of the library burst open and Professor Charles Chance, followed closely by the housekeeper, Mrs. Hinges, burst into the room. “Ah, Eleanor! There you are, my girl. Couldn’t sleep, so I took the early train. Hope you don’t mind. Thought I’d catch one of those moving pictures at the cinema theatre while I’m here.” He kissed the top of her head as he walked past. “Oh, what a display of supra-kinetic energy. I say, old chap, you and the little green one have been hard at work.”

  “Papa …” Elle started to say, but the professor had already pushed past her and was staring at the paper balls, which Adele had now managed to suspend in the air in a pattern that resembled a solar system.

  “Wonderful, dear boy. Simply wonderful,” the professor said to Marsh as he shook his hand.

  “Good heavens! Look at the mess. It’s like the gates of the underworld have opened up in here,” Mrs. Hinges exclaimed.

  “Mrs. Hinges—” Elle started saying, but Mrs. Hinges also pushed past her and started waving her arms at Adele. “Put those papers down, you little green minx. Don]t make me fetch the broom!”

  In response, Adele screeched and started aiming the paper balls at Mrs. Hinges like missiles. Mrs. Hinges, unused to random aerial attacks by absinthe fairies, let out a most undignified squeal of surprise before setting off after the fairy while waving her hands in the air, but Adele simply darted up and perched on the chandelier, out of harm’s way.

  Mrs. Hinges stopped before Elle, slightly out of breath. “Eleanor, my dear, we really need to talk about …” She stared pointedly at Marsh. “It’s too much for the staff to take. And my nerves cannot take it. They cannot, I say. Very soon, no one will want to work here and you will find yourself without staff.”

  “I know, Mrs. Hinges—” Elle started to say, but just then Adele dashed off to one side, knocking a vase of flowers and the row of bric-a-brac from the mantelpiece. The whole lot came crashing to the floor in a cloud of papers and grains of sugar and dust.

  And all the while, the professor and Marsh continued their discussion on the umbrella carcass, utterly oblivious to the pandemonium that was unfurling around them.

  “Enough!” Elle shouted at the top of her voice.

  Everyone stopped and stared at her. In the silence, a small porcelain dog, the last ornament standing, slid off the edge of the mantelpiece and smashed on the floor where the bits rattled for a moment.

  Elle walked up to the cabinet and pulled out the bottle of absinthe. She yanked the cork out and held the bottle aloft. “Adele. Inside. Now.”

  The fairy obeyed and wisped into the bottle. Elle fastened the cork, sealing the fairy inside with a tad more force than needed.

  She took a long, deep, steadying breath. “Hugh. Go upstairs and ask Neville to go to town to see if he can get us an extra ticket for my father for this evening. I’m sure Mrs. Mandeville would love to meet the professor.”

  She turned to the housekeeper. “Mrs. Hinges, take my father to the drawing room. Prepare the blue guest room for him and ask Neville to see that the professor’s tails are pressed. He is going to the opera.”

  “Yes, my lady,” Mrs. Hinges said, for once without comment.

  Elle turned to Neville who had appeared in the doorway, but seeing the commotion was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible by hiding behind one of the ferns that stood in copper pots on stands by the doors. This was proving to be an impossible task, given that Neville was almost as tall as Marsh, with a shock of dark-blond hair that stood up no matter how much he combed it.

  “Neville, there you are,” she said. “Please go and find Caruthers. Ask him to assemble the staff. Volunteers for this clean up get an extra half-day wages as compensation for helping to clear up this mess.”

  “Yes, my lady,” Neville nodded and disappeared from the room as quickly as he could.

  “And Mrs. Hinges, I was going to wait to discuss this with you, but I think it would be better for all if you went home with my father when he returns. He needs you more than we do at the moment.” She gestured at her father who appeared to be dressed in an unstarched collar and shirt that, despite his best efforts to hide it behind his waistcoat, had clearly not been pressed. Judging by the angle of the collar, it looked like he had done his buttons up wrong without noticing.

  Mrs. Hinges put her hand to her throat in shock. “I do say,” she started mumbling, “I’ve never been spoken to like this in all my life. If there is anything wrong with my work, I would that you say so, but to be dismissed like that—”

  Elle turned on her, eyes blazing. “Oh no you don’t. You know very well that this has nothing to do with the quality of your work.”

  Mrs. Hinges closed her mouth, sealing off whatever she was about to say.

  “And you two!” Elle turned and pointed at Marsh and the professor. “No more spark experiments in the house.”

  Neither of them answered and Marsh guiltily kicked a stray ball of paper under the table.

  “And now I am going upstairs. When I come down again, I don’t want to see a single thing out of place. Do I make myself clear?”

  Everyone mumbled various form of the affirmative.

  And with that, Elle set the absinthe bottle down on the top of the cabinet, turned upon her heel and marched upstairs.

  CHAPTER 5

  Later that evening Marsh came to her as she was putting the finishing touches to her hair and face. She was, at this stage, still in the process of looking for a proper lady’s maid as befitted her new rank and station. But Elle had always prided herself on her self-sufficiency, and with the exception of enlisting Edie to help her with her laces, she managed quite well on her own. She had been so busy that hiring a maid to dress her had been fairly low on her list of things to accomplish.

  “You look lovely,”
Marsh said. He rested against the doorframe of Elle’s dressing room.

  “Thank you.” She smiled at him in the mirror. “Although I always did think it a little silly to get this dressed up only to sit in the dark for a few hours.”

  “You have such a strange way of looking at the world. But I have something for you. To wear in the dark.” He sauntered over to where she was sitting and produced a flat velvet box from behind his back. “For you, my dear wife.” He opened the box with a flourish.

  She gasped. A diamond-and-emerald necklace along with a pair of matching earrings nestled inside its cushioned interior. “Oh Hugh, they are magnificent. But aren’t they a little much for an evening out with the Mandevilles?”

  He laughed. “And don’t forget dinner at Simpson’s. Everyone is going to be looking at the breathtakingly beautiful Viscountess Greychester this evening. And what kind of a husband would I be if I didn’t drape my wife in the most extravagant jewels money could buy?”

  She touched one of the earrings and it twinkled back at her.

  “I asked the bank to withdraw my mother’s jewels from the Greychester family vault when we got back from our trip. I was planning to give these to you for your birthday, but you were so cross this morning that I thought these might cheer you up a little.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I may have overreacted a little.”

  He shrugged. “You were right. Things had become a little out of hand by the time you arrived. Seeing you so angry this morning made me pause to think. It has been a very long time since there has been a Lady Greychester in this house and even longer since anyone wore these jewels, so I thought it was high time to do something about it.” He set the box down on the little table behind him and lifted up the necklace. “I asked Edie what you were wearing tonight and when she said that it would be this dress …” He motioned to the ludicrously expensive Worth creation she was wearing. It was layer upon layer of gold and ivory silk and lace with a subtle floral pattern woven into the fabric. “I thought the emeralds would be perfect.” He draped the necklace around her neck and gently he placed a kiss on the back of her neck, just below the clasp.

  Elle felt a shiver of pleasure at his touch. “They’re beautiful,” she murmured.

  “Better keep away from Adele when you are wearing them, though.”

  Elle laughed. The last time Elle had worn diamonds, Adele had used them to escape from the café in Paris where she had been forced to work.

  “Shall I help you with your gloves?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Hugh, you are so naughty,” she said but handed him the long ivory-colored gloves with the satin-covered buttons. Who was she to deny a gentleman his pleasure?

  “Is my father ready?” Elle asked as she slipped her hand into the first glove.

  “Yes, between Neville and Mrs. Hinges, they have worked miracles. The professor is a new man,” he said as he slid the fabric up her arm, sending little shivers through her.

  “Sometimes it is hard to distinguish who is the parent and who is the child when it comes to my father. It was wonderful fun when I was a child, but as I grow older, I do worry about him,” Elle said, trying to keep her thoughts on matters mundane, but finding it increasingly difficult.

  “The professor is quite capable of looking after himself. You worry too much about other people, my darling,” Marsh said as he started doing up the tiny buttons.

  Elle sighed with pleasure and she felt herself flush as his fingers caressed the buttons. He closed the last button and placed a kiss on the delicate skin that was left exposed on her upper arm between the sleeve of her dress and the top of the glove.

  “And you spend far too little time on yourself,” he said in a low voice that suggested that they were definitely going to be late for the opera.

  Elle cleared her throat. “It takes so much work to run a household. I had no idea. Life was so much simpler when—” She broke off her sentence when she realized what she was about to say.

  Marsh frowned.

  “It’s just that I never considered the possibility of getting married and having my own home, let alone all this.” She gestured at the opulence of the room around her. “It’s so very different from how I had thought I would end up in life.” The words were coming out all wrong and she watched the hurt spread across his face as she said them.

  “I’m sorry you feel that way.” He lifted the second glove, his touch suddenly perfunctory and matter-of-fact.

  “That’s not what I meant,” she said, trying to mend the damage she had done.

  He looked away. “This isn’t enough for you, is it?” He finished buttoning the second glove. “What more do I need to do, Elle? Tell me.”

  “Nothing, Hugh. I want to be here and be your wife, but I also want to fly and be my own woman. Is it so hard to understand that I need both things in life to be happy?”

  He ran an exasperated hand over his face.

  Elle stood and put her hand on his arm. “Thank you for the jewels. They are beautiful and I’m sorry if I’ve upset you. I don’t think I am expressing things quite they way I mean. And I certainly don’t want to argue with you and spoil our evening, I just want you to understand.”

  He pressed his lips together. “Fair enough. Let’s not argue then. Lady Mandeville and her daughters are fine gossips and the last thing we want is for them to start spreading rumors.” He gave her a tight little smile and offered his arm. “Shall we?”

  She picked up her fur-trimmed opera cape and took his arm. “Monsieur Puccini’s La Bohème awaits.”

  The light from the Royal Opera House spilled out of the brightly lit windows and onto the cobbled street below, illuminating the evening rain and fog until the air looked like a fine sheet of spangle.

  The streets around Covent Garden were congested with carriages and steam cars attempting to deposit their occupants as close to the entrance as possible.

  Footmen with large umbrellas stepped onto the cobbles to help glittering ladies in evening gowns and furs negotiate the puddles. Their evening dresses stood out like exotic pastel-shaded flowers in the gloom around them. London society had come out in full force to see Nellie Melba, the world’s greatest soprano, perform Monsieur Puccini’s exquisite work.

  “Good heavens, how do you think she manages to breathe between sentences?” Elle whispered to Marsh below the relentless chatter of Lady Mandeville and her daughters as they made their way through the gold trim and red velvet of the grand foyer. Lady Mandeville was a rotund woman in her late forties. Her two daughters, despite valiant corsetry, looked to be heading the same way. And although Elle was about the same age as the Mandeville girls, she found it very difficult to maintain a conversation with them. Their minds were filled with the type of feminine frippery and frivolity that Elle hated. They were also quite clearly in complete awe and envy at the fact that she was married to London’s former most eligible bachelor. To make matters worse, they swooned and giggled each time Marsh paid them the slightest bit of attention.

  Above them, huge crystal chandeliers shimmered brightly. The light caught and echoed in the glitter of diamonds and other precious gems on the people below.

  “I honestly don’t know,” Marsh murmured back. “I think your father is starting to regret his decision to join us.” They both watched the professor with amusement as he tried to stem the tidal wave of verbosity aimed at him.

  “Just look at the diamonds on the duchess,” Miss Mandeville the elder whispered to Elle.

  Elle looked over to where she was indicating.

  “Paste,” she whispered back. Elle was an expert at spotting costume jewelry.

  “Are you sure?” Miss Mandeville looked scandalized.

  “Almost as sure as I am that we are both standing here,” Elle said. The big diamond draped round the neck of the lady in question was most definitely polished glass. The real one would be far too valuable to wear out on public like this. But she did not bother explaining that to Mis
s Mandeville, who was at that moment whispering furiously at her sister.

  She smiled up at her husband. Marsh was every bit the handsome viscount in his formal top hat and tails and Elle had caught more than one lady studying him surreptitiously from behind a strategically placed opera program or fan.

  “Everything all right?” he said.

  “Everything is more than all right,” she said with a rush of pride.

  “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” he murmured. “I keep thinking about dragging you into one of these dark little recesses so I can have you all to myself,” he said. “We have some unfinished business that started with those gloves of yours.”

  Elle felt herself blush. “Behave, or else I might take you up on the offer.”

  He made a strange growly noise, which told her she had scored a point.

  At that moment, she caught her father’s eye. He stared at her with all hope of safe rescue.

  “We had better save my father,” she said.

  “At least the performance will force them into silence for a little while. Until intermission that is.” Marsh placed his hand on the small of her back. “Let’s escape while we can. I believe our seats are this way.”

  And so it was, with no small measure of relief, that Elle sat back in her seat as the lights dimmed to signal the start of the performance.

  “Thank goodness for that,” the professor muttered a little too loudly in the moment of silence before the orchestra started up.

  Elle heard Marsh snort and shudder with laughter, which he did his best to disguise as a cough.

  Then the music filled the theatre. Elle pulled her new brass opera glasses from her reticule and slowly adjusted the gears in order to bring the famous tenor who had just stepped on to the stage into focus. She became so enraptured by the sad story of Mimi and Rudolpho that she barely noticed when Marsh took her hand in his.

  Suddenly, the world shifted. Elle gasped as she felt the barrier between Shadow and Light lurch violently.