Rebel Mechanics

by Shanna Swendson

  He froze when he saw me and blurted, “Verity? What on earth are you doing in here?”

  IN WHICH WE ENTER THE LIONS’ DEN

  It was Henry’s voice, but that only confirmed what I’d suspected from the start and had known for a while. “I’m doing the same thing you are, helping the rebels,” I snapped. “Now, Henry, get in here before someone sees you.”

  He climbed the rest of the way through the window and pulled the mask off, revealing a sheepish expression. “You knew?”

  “I figured it out long ago. But this isn’t the time to discuss it. I think the message the governor received is there on his desk.”

  Henry conjured a small light in his hand and moved to the desk. Even as close as I was, I could barely sense his magic, and I admired his control. We bent over the piece of paper together and saw that the message was from a downtown garrison. The rebels had struck that night while the officers were at the ball and many of the soldiers were attending the theater, and the situation had become desperate.

  “That would explain the rapidly disappearing officers,” Henry whispered.

  I ran my fingers lightly over the blotter, feeling the indentations from a pen. “It looks like he’s written something here recently—his orders in response?”

  “Let’s find out.” He waved his hand over the blotter, and letters became visible, glowing against the paper. “Forget about fighting the people,” the words said. “Seize the machines. I don’t care if they’re technically legal. Tear up every building in that area to find them. It’s the only way to end the rebellion.”

  Henry and I looked up from the page to each other. “Oh, no,” I breathed. “He’s right, though. The machines are what give us a chance against magic. If they take the machines, it’s over. We have to warn them.”

  “I’m assuming you know how to get to them, and that they’d trust you?”

  “Yes, I know them, and I think they trust me. We just have to get to them in time.”

  “And then find a way to hide the machines or get them away. How many do they have?”

  “I don’t think I’ve seen them all, and I don’t know where they all are. But there are a number, and they’re not the sort of thing one could slip under one’s coat and walk off with. They’re large and noisy.”

  “We’ll get away from this ball as soon as possible, and then we’ll go warn the rebels.” He pulled out a pocketknife and carefully slit the top page off the blotter, folding it and tucking it away in his pocket before returning the message to its original position.

  He tied his mask back on, speaking as he did so. “Get back to the ballroom. I’ll join you soon, and when we can leave without looking suspicious, we will.” With a wry smile, he added, “When all this is over, you and I have much to discuss.”

  He headed for the window, and I followed him. “Are you going to dismiss me for being a rebel spy?” I asked.

  He paused with one leg over the sill. “Heavens, no. I think it’s excellent.” Then he disappeared over the side.

  I listened at the door, determined that it was safe to leave, relocked the door with my hairpin, and hurried back to the ballroom, hoping I didn’t look as flushed and anxious as I felt. Flora was where I left her, looking more bored than she did when reading a book. “Did Aunt Elinor approve of your gown?” she asked.

  So much had happened since I saw Elinor that it took me a moment to remember why I’d left the ballroom. “She did. And she took me to task for not dancing.”

  “Chaperones seldom dance. Only at very small balls where there are few ladies.” She frowned at the dance floor, then added, “Though this was one of them. I’m surprised none of the officers asked you to dance. Henry probably scared them all away.”

  “Where is your uncle?” I asked, trying to sound only mildly curious, even as my heart pounded madly against my stays. “Hasn’t he returned yet?”

  “No, he hasn’t. If I know Henry, after he talked to Matthews he wandered into the library and forgot he was attending a ball. We’ll have to send servants to find him so we can go home.”

  Henry entered the room then, looking mostly the way he had when he left, though his hair was more rumpled. He stopped and spoke briefly with a few young men as he made his way to us. “My apologies for leaving you ladies alone,” he said when he reached us.

  “I hope there’s nothing the matter,” I said. I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face if I did.

  “Only a minor situation that required my immediate attention.”

  “And you were eternally grateful to have an excuse to leave,” Flora teased. “I know what you think about balls.”

  “I’m surprised to see you sitting,” he replied.

  “I’ve decided soldiers are even worse than scientists when it comes to conversation.”

  “I suppose soldiers aren’t very good at talking about gowns.”

  I wished I had Flora’s fan as I tried to hold back a smile. They sounded just like Rollo and Olive.

  After bickering a little more with Flora, Henry turned to me. “Miss Newton, have you danced at all this evening?”

  “I am here as a chaperone,” I demurred, but he stood in front of me and held out his hand.

  “Please do me the honor, Miss Newton.”

  “Oh, I couldn’t.”

  “I insist.”

  Flora glared daggers at me, and I knew it would be wisest to refuse, but I did want to dance. It was, after all, my first ball. I tried to tell myself it had nothing to do with Henry, but I didn’t believe it.

  The orchestra finished a song, and there was polite applause from the guests. “Come now, they’re about to start another song,” Henry said, taking my hand, so I felt I had no choice. He led me to the dance floor, then bowed to me before taking my right hand in his left and resting his right hand against my back. I placed my hand on his shoulder as the music began.

  Elinor was right, he was a good dancer. We made one circuit of the floor before he spoke. “I know how we could move the machines,” he murmured into my ear, nearly throwing me off rhythm.

  “How?” I whispered.

  “Magic. But I can’t do it alone. I’ll need help. I’ve begun notifying my gang.” His breath was warm on my cheek, and I was glad we both wore gloves because my palms felt clammy.

  “I’ll have a difficult enough time getting them to accept you. They really don’t like magisters.”

  “I’ll go alone with you at first, and then once we’ve persuaded them, I’ll bring in the others.”

  “You’re very optimistic.”

  “It’s only logical. They can either accept my help or lose their machines and lose the revolution before it can go anywhere.” He grinned at me, his eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. “Besides, I have every faith in your persuasive abilities. If they won’t listen to reason, you can hit them in the head with your bag.”

  I feared that people would get entirely the wrong impression from us murmuring to each other. He was so much taller than I that it was obvious he was bending to whisper in my ear. “People are giving us odd looks,” I said. “Is it proper for you to dance with your governess?”

  “They’re probably wondering who this mysterious beauty is. They may not realize you’re the governess.”

  “I wasn’t announced when we entered.”

  “No one pays attention to that. We all know each other already.” The song ended, and we applauded the orchestra. Then he took my hand and bowed over it. “Thank you for the dance, Miss Newton.” Still holding my hand, he led me back to Flora.

  “Now that you and Miss Newton have had your dance, do you think Grandfather would mind terribly if we left, even if it is barely midnight?” she asked.

  “I think he’ll understand.” He released my hand and extended his hand to help Flora rise. The three of us made our way around the room toward the governor, where Henry and Flora thanked him for the evening and I, not sure what I was supposed
to do, gave him a slight curtsy.

  When we stepped outside, the view of the city wasn’t nearly as serene as it had been when we arrived. There was a glowing red spot in the distance that had to have been made by either dozens of fires or one huge inferno. Henry glanced over his shoulder at me, a look of dismay on his face. The ride home was as quiet as the ride to the ball had been, but I felt like the quiet had an underlying tension to it.

  As we entered the house, Flora said, “I’ll send Jenkins to you in a moment to help you undress, Miss Newton.”

  As she swept up the stairs, Henry leaned over and whispered in my ear, “My study, as soon as the maid is gone. Dress for action.” I nodded before following Flora up the stairs.

  Although I would have preferred to undress myself, I did need assistance with the many tiny buttons and layers of garments. Miss Jenkins started to undo my hair, but I stopped her. I’d be there all night if she had to find and remove all those pins. “It’s so beautiful, I’d like to keep it this way a little longer,” I said.

  “I’ll help you into your nightgown.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of dressing myself for bed. I do it every night. You should get to bed. It’s very late.”

  “Thank you, miss,” she said. When she was gone, I put on a simple day dress, stuck a hat on my head as well as I could over the elaborate arrangement of curls, and tiptoed to Henry’s study in my stocking feet with my coat over my arm and my boots in my hand.

  He must have been listening for me, for he opened the door before I could knock and hustled me inside. He was dressed in sporting clothes, like he wore when he went out in search of bugs. “We should wait until we’re certain the house has settled down for the night,” he whispered.

  “We don’t have much time.”

  “It’s just past one. I can get us downtown quickly, but we don’t want to make Mrs. Talbot suspicious. I think she’s a spy for the governor.”

  “Does he suspect you?”

  “I’m not sure. I think—I hope—that he merely put her in place to report on how I’m doing as guardian. The housekeeper who’d worked for Robert suddenly got an excellent position elsewhere, and His Grace was so kind as to send someone who came highly recommended so I wouldn’t have to bother hiring anyone when I had so many other responsibilities.” His sarcastic tone told me how thrilled he’d been about that.

  “And you would have looked more suspicious if you’d rejected her.”

  “Exactly. I felt that if I could fool her, that would only strengthen my cover. I don’t know that she cares about politics or has the slightest inkling of my criminal behavior, but she would report it if she knew I was sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night with the governess.”

  He doused the single magical lamp in the room with a wave of his hand, and we waited in darkness and silence, straining our ears for any sign of life. “I think that’s everyone in bed now,” he breathed. I nodded, and then he helped me put on my coat, put on his own overcoat, picked up his shoes, and eased the door open. We tiptoed down the stairs, then he led me to the rear of the house, into the kitchen and out the back door.

  We stopped to put on our shoes, then ran across the small back yard to the carriage house, where he opened a side door and gestured me inside. The family carriage was in there, along with a small, sporty roadster. “It’s a relic of my bachelor days,” Henry whispered.

  “Aren’t you still a bachelor?” I asked.

  “Can one truly be a bachelor while bringing up three children? I know I certainly can’t live like one.” He gave a wistful sigh. “Alas, my wild bachelor days ended when I was barely twenty-one.”

  “You’re a bandit,” I reminded him. “I think you manage your share of wildness.”

  He didn’t comment on that, saying instead, “The trick will be to get it out of the carriage house without waking the driver, who lives above.”

  “That should be good practice for spiriting steam engines out of the city.”

  “Very good point, Verity.” He studied the carriage house door, rubbing his hands together thoughtfully. “First, I think a noise-dampening spell on the door.” He placed his hands on the door, and it slid silently aside. He returned to the roadster, helped me into the passenger seat, then ran his hands along the vehicle, from front to back. Taking his seat behind the steering wheel, he brought the engine to life, and the roadster crept forward, the only sound the slight crunch of gravel. Once we were outside, he stopped to close the carriage house door, and then we were off into the alley and onto the side street.

  Instead of heading to Fifth Avenue, he went a few blocks east, to an area that was less restricted. Traffic was light at this time of night, but it wasn’t gone entirely, even with a curfew and martial law. The city was too busy to ever stop completely.

  Once we’d blended into the flow of traffic, Henry asked, his eyes still on the road, “If you’ve known who I was all along, why didn’t you ever report me?”

  “Positions aren’t that easy to come by, and having my employer in prison would have hurt my prospects. I have nowhere to go if I fail here. And then I learned what you do with your loot.” I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell him that I liked him too much to turn him in. “But why do you take such risks, especially when you’re responsible for children? Are you that committed to revolution?”

  He turned onto another street, and I thought he would avoid the question until he finally said, “It started because I was bored. I know it sounds terribly gauche to complain about having too much privilege, but if you’re clever and ambitious, being the younger son of a nobleman isn’t fun. It would be unheard of to have a career or trade, and yet there’s not even the work of maintaining the family estate because that’s the eldest son’s job.”

  “Train robbery was the only other option?”

  “We don’t just rob trains.”

  “Yes, sometimes there are boats.”

  He turned to look at me. “How could you know?”

  “I’m a spy. I know a great many things.”

  Henry slowed the roadster as we approached a military checkpoint. “This should be interesting,” he muttered.

  “Could we go around it?”

  “There’s probably something blocking every street heading downtown.”

  “Your name should get you through it.”

  “Only if you want everyone thinking I’ve eloped with the nonmagister governess.” He turned to me with a grin. “That would get both of us in trouble. I have an idea, though.”

  He stopped when the soldiers flagged him down, but before they could speak to him, I felt a wave of magic. The soldiers went still, like the couriers at the fort had, and Henry sent the roadster flying down the street. He took a few turns so that we were no longer visible from the checkpoint, and then he leaned back against the driver’s seat, letting out a pent-up breath.

  “There was a gang of us in school, all of us in similar positions,” he then said, continuing his story as though there had been no interruption. “We’d heard of the rebel groups, and to us revolution sounded like a good idea, mostly because if the social order was upset enough, we might get the chance to do something with our lives. We came up with the idea of stealing from the government to finance the revolution, and when we finished school and came home, we decided to see if all our intricately laid plans would work. When they did, we kept doing it. We talked of revolution and made enough connections with the rebel movement to anonymously send money to them, but we mostly did it for fun.”

  “How long have you been doing this?”

  “Several years.”

  “And no one ever suspected?”

  “That was part of the fun, acting in such a way that we would be the last people anyone would suspect of being the Masked Bandits.”

  “You did that very well. You almost fooled me. But didn’t your family notice that you’d changed? Surely you weren’t always the absentminded entomologist.”

  “I went off to England
for boarding school when I was eight and stayed for university. I only came home for holidays, so they barely saw me for nearly ten years. Lily was the one who would have noticed a difference, but she died while I was gone. After her death, I’m not sure Robert would have noticed if I’d returned acting like a circus clown. The children were too young to remember me from before.”

  “Why bugs?”

  “I’d always been interested in them. I’m not saying that if I had my choice of careers, I would have studied bugs, but I like them well enough that it wasn’t too painful to spend so much time talking about them. The charade was easier before Robert died. Then I only had to play the obsessed amateur scientist in public. When I moved in with the children, in a house full of staff, I had to begin living the lie.”

  He saw a police carriage ahead and turned the corner. “We’re getting close now, aren’t we?”

  “You know the old theater on Eighth, just east of Broadway?”

  “That’s it? You’re sure?”

  “I’ve been there several times.”

  He gave me a sidelong glance, then said, “Your charity project a couple of weeks ago—you were on the Battery when the troops fired on the children, weren’t you? That was why you were so shaken when you got home.” It was a statement of fact, not a question.

  I nodded, even though he was focused on the road and wouldn’t see. “Yes. We were acting on information I overheard when I was at the governor’s house for that dinner party. The rebels decided to counteract the governor’s show of force and prevent a confrontation by having children there. I don’t think anyone counted on the soldiers being so spooked that they’d fire on the children.”

  “That was what made the difference,” he said softly. “I’d been playing at revolution before, paying lip service to the cause. But that changed things. I don’t want my brother’s children growing up in a world where that could happen.”

  “You almost got caught last weekend, though.”

  “We got reckless, and one of my friends paid the price. We’re having to rethink our strategy now that the authorities know magisters might be involved.” With a shaky smile, he added, “And you withheld information from the authorities for me.” He stopped the roadster on the side of a residential street. After a long, serious look at me, he said, “To be honest, I initially hired you because I thought it wise to keep you under my power. You’d be dependent on me for a job and think twice about turning me in if you did figure it out.”