Cogheart

by Peter Bunzl

  “Just a minute,” Robert said, and he bought a paper from the boy.

  As they walked towards the hospital he glanced quickly over the front-page story.

  Robert stopped reading there and scanned the rest of the article because he didn’t want to relive the details of that day. He’d told Anna as much when he recounted the truth to her – the whole truth – and then he’d vowed her to secrecy.

  She’d kept her word. There was no mention anywhere of John’s, or Lily’s, or his own involvement in the air crash, or the true cause of it. Nor did Anna reveal how the professor had fallen to his death trying to kill them.

  Robert knew she’d done all this on a single condition: she’d made him promise that one day, when he and Lily were older and had put everything behind them, they’d let her tell their sensational tale in a book. And Robert had agreed, for he could think of no better person to write it, and no more fitting monument to his da.

  He folded the paper under his arm and followed Malkin as the fox trotted up the steps and into St Thomas’s hospital.

  On ward nine, they found Lily and John dressed and packing to leave. John was putting things away in a suitcase, while Lily busily transferred her mama’s trinkets from her bedside into her pockets. Malkin had gone back to rescue them for her from the professor’s house during the days of her recovery.

  “Robert, Malkin!” Lily cried in delight as soon as she saw them. “So good to see you.”

  “And you too,” Malkin said.

  “How are you doing?” Robert asked.

  “All the better for seeing you both,” Lily said, and John nodded in agreement.

  Robert glanced into the rosewood box and saw Lily had added the cap he’d given her and a button from his da’s coat to her selection of mementos.

  He stepped to the window and gazed briefly out over the river at the clock tower. Teams of men, like tiny ants, were scaling the side of the tower on hanging ropes to repair the clock faces. Robert reckoned the same was probably going on inside too, at the clock’s heart, only that was invisible to anyone looking from the outside.

  He turned back into the room to see Lily closing the lid of her case.

  She stood it on the floor, and stepped over to give him a great big hug. “I’m so glad you’re here to collect us, Robert, and you too, Malkin.” She ruffled the fox’s fur. “I think now I’m finally ready to go home.”

  Robert’s face fell. He wished he could say the same. There were times in the last few days, since the adrenaline of the adventure had worn off, when he’d dearly wanted to go home to his shop and see his da again, but he knew it was not to be. There was nothing for him to go back to.

  “What about me?” he asked. “Where am I to go? I have no home. I suppose I could go to my ma, if I knew where she was, but I’ve not heard from her in years.”

  John put a hand on his back. “I thought we’d discussed this, Robert? You’re to come to live with us at Brackenbridge.”

  Robert shook his head. “Thank you, Sir,” he said. “But I don’t want you to help me just because you feel you have to.”

  Lily pressed his fingers softly between her palms. “It’s not that, Robert. It’s not that at all.”

  Then John spoke up again. “Robert, since we’ve been convalescing Lily has reminded me what an excellent man your da was. How brave, and how clever. He saved her life and Malkin’s, and yours too. We owe him a debt of gratitude. We owe you a debt too, Robert, for your courage. You are your father’s son and he would’ve been proud of what you did to help us.”

  John sat down on the edge of the bed so his face was level with Robert’s, and looked him in the eye.

  “You may not realize this, but your father and I were once friends. Seven years ago, when we first moved to Brackenbridge, he often came to the house to wind our clocks and, later, he’d order a part for me through his shop to help repair my mechanicals. On his visits we’d sit together in my workshop and talk about projects, or the clockwork things he was working on. He often told me about you: how you were getting on, learning the trade. How marvellous you were, and how proud he was to call you his son. I said to him then, if you showed promise in your craft, I’d help you learn as much as you could. Teach you how to make mechanicals, and mechanimals, as I did, and your da agreed it would be something he’d like for you. So if you decide to come live with us, I’d be pleased to teach you everything I know. What’s more, I’d be proud to call you my son.”

  “And I’d be proud to call you my brother,” Lily said.

  “And I a friend,” said Malkin. “Though you’re still a pup,” he added grudgingly.

  Robert didn’t know what to say. A tear came to his eye and he brushed it away with the sleeve of his coat. “Thank you. But there’s Anna to think of,” he added. “I’ve been staying with her since I was discharged. Working on Ladybird. She’s been looking after me.”

  “Anna can come stay with us too, if she wants,” John said. “She can moor up in the garden for as long as she likes, and if she has to go off on an adventure you can go with her, if that’s where you feel your heart lies. Adventures are fun so long as you have a home to go to, and a loving family around you, when they’re all over. I want you to know, Robert, you’ll always have that at Brackenbridge, with us.”

  Robert smiled. “Then let’s go home,” he said.

  They set off that very afternoon, Robert arranged for Anna to fly everyone back in Ladybird. He and Anna had been busy patching her up, installing a new quiet clockwork-propulsion engine, so it would take them much less time to fly north, even including stopping overnight to allow Lily and John to rest. They were accompanied by Mrs Rust, Captain Springer, Miss Tock and Mr Wingnut, and though Malkin said it was still a terrible way to travel, and Lily pronounced it a bit of a squeeze, Robert thought it a fun journey. With his friends around him, he found he forgot his cares for a time.

  Anna and Papa got on well, and Anna told them all how pleased she was not to have to shovel coal any more, though she missed the range for cooking. “But I’m glad,” she added, “that I finally got to indulge in some spectacular sky piracy, and in the skies of London, no less. Who’d have believed it?”

  As darkness fell, they stopped and made camp in a field under the stars. The humans wrapped themselves in thick woollen coats, and the mechanicals pottered around collecting logs and seeing to the fire.

  Lily drank in the cold air, so fresh and free from the smog of London. She and Robert were helping Anna pick up kindling, but she still felt a little lost. When she glanced up, Robert was watching her.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure I can explain. It’s as if something’s still missing.”

  He waited.

  “I wish,” she said, “I wish I could be sure Papa made his choices because he loved me. Not because of a promise he made to Mama, or” – a worse thought struck her – “because he wanted to save his invention.”

  She shook her head to dislodge the idea. “The funny thing is,” she went on, “the Cogheart could’ve helped so many people. Done so much good in the world. And yet he chose to keep it secret. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that. I mean, could it really be so dangerous?”

  Robert shrugged. “Perhaps we’ll never know,” he said, “or perhaps you’ll be the one to find out.”

  “I keep thinking about the choices he made,” she told him. “How Mama died because of them. And I don’t know if I deserve to be here. Whether I can ever be good enough to ensure her death was not in vain.”

  “You know, once,” Robert said, “I was working in the shop, doing some repairs on a music box, and it was all going wrong. Da took me aside and told me to think of it like life: ‘It looks complicated when you see all the separate pieces, but the purpose of the music box is to play joyful music. You just have to remember how to fit them together so it will. The same with life really. It’s just about the living of it. That’s all you have, and a
ll you can do: live and be happy.’”

  Lily smiled. “That may take a little work.”

  “I know,” Robert told her. “Underneath, I feel the same way.”

  They glanced over at her papa, who was sitting on the other side of the frosted field. This man who she thought she knew, who’d saved her, but then had passed her off to various governesses and guardians, before sending her away to boarding school. She was sure he loved her, but maybe, just maybe, sometimes she wondered if he regretted his choice of saving her over Mama.

  “Even after all that’s happened,” she told Robert, “in my heart of hearts, I’m not sure who he is, what he believes in. He’s something of a stranger to me.”

  “So you should tell him that,” Robert said. “While you still can.”

  Lily nodded.

  Later, when they were all sitting round the fire, while Anna and Mrs Rust were busy cooking, and the rest of the mechanicals played cards on an old log, Robert and Malkin got up and went for a wander across the field, and Lily took the chance to speak to Papa alone.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked, leaning closer to him. “Save me over Mama?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at her thoughtfully. “I made the choice because we both loved you, Lil. She would have done the same.”

  Lily had her hands in her lap, but her fingers twisted against each other. “How can you be sure?” she whispered finally.

  “Oh, Lily.” Papa hugged her. “Before any of this, when you were very young and Mama and I were both around, we made a pact that if anything happened we’d save you first. It’s a little morbid, I know, but we had to think of those things. My work – our work – was so dangerous. And there was always the chance something bad could occur.”

  “Mama worked with you too?” Lily asked, shocked. It was another thing he’d kept from her. “Why did you never tell me?”

  “I’m sorry, Lily. Sorry I hid the past for so long, but it was so painful, and I was silly enough to think that if I ignored everything that had happened eventually the pain would disappear.” He shook his head. “She was a great mechanist, your mother. A great inventor. But because of what we did we had to be careful. Whenever we had to go away, and we left you with Mrs Rust, we would always travel separately just in case. Your mama always made sure to put you first, Lily. All she thought about was you. So, in that horrible moment, when you were both at death’s door, and I had to make a choice, I knew who to save. Because it’s what she would’ve chosen too. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I had gone against her wishes. I loved her more than anything in this world and I feel the same way about you.” He brushed a tear from his eye.

  Lily smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

  They watched Robert throwing a stick. He was trying to shoo Malkin into catching it for him, but each time the mechanimal shook his head and refused.

  “Between the two of them,” Papa said, “I don’t know who’s more stubborn.”

  “Me neither,” Lily agreed.

  Early next morning they flew over Brackenbridge Manor and Anna brought Ladybird down on the frosted surface of the south lawn in the gardens furthest from the house.

  The family of friends descended from the airship. As they made their way up the steps, Lily ran ahead – she wanted to get there first, so she could greet everyone as they arrived.

  She opened the front door with Papa’s key, but when she stepped into the porch, she was distressed to find it filled with empty tea crates all stamped with address labels marked Rent and Sunder. The best furniture was clustered in the hallway, and a team of mechanical movers swarmed about, wrapping everything up in blankets and dust sheets. Madame Verdigris stood by the stairs directing the operation, while Mr Sunder dashed about, filling boxes with parcelled-up things. “Is this one for auction?” he asked as he pushed a tea crate along the hall, scratching the surface of the floor.

  “I think that one’s for the dump,” Madame said. She was busy wrapping a vase in newspaper; when she glanced up and saw Lily, she dropped it with a crash.

  “Mon Dieu, ma chérie. Where on earth have you been?” Madame said. “We’ve been worried sick. I’ve had to sell these things, I’m afraid. If you’d only given me your father’s perpetual motion machine, we would never have had this trouble.”

  Lily folded her arms across her chest. “I see that,” she said. “Now, before you leave here for ever, I think you’d better put everything back in its rightful place.”

  Madame laughed. “Zut alors! Don’t be so ridiculous, Lily. I’m your guardian now – the last remnant of your family – and if I decide to sell these things, there’s nothing you can do. Why even if your father was here—”

  “You are not my family,” Lily interrupted. “And you never will be. THIS is my family…”

  She pushed aside the crates in the porch and opened the double doors to reveal Papa, Robert, Malkin, Anna and her beloved Mrs Rust standing together on the steps in front of the house. Behind them in the driveway stood the rest of the mechanicals: Mr Wingnut, Miss Tock and Captain Springer. All wound up and spoiling for a fight.

  They’d been home a few weeks, and Lily sat eating her breakfast of honey and teacakes in the kitchen with Robert, Malkin, Papa and Mrs Rust. She loved this room. It was her favourite place to be.

  Malkin lay curled under her feet like some furry footstool. Papa was halfway through finishing his coffee and reading yesterday’s paper, and Mrs Rust bustled about behind him, whisking and frying and cooking with her various silver shining hands.

  Robert had his feet on the fender, warming his toes like Lily had shown him as he busily buttered a piece of toast with his penknife. She felt glad he was here. With everything they’d been through it was good they could all be together as a family.

  She snatched a teacake from the bright serving plate in the centre of the table, slathered it in butter and honey and, folding it in the palm of her hand, took the most enormous bite.

  “Cog-wheels and coat hangers!” Mrs Rust clucked. “At least use a plate.”

  “Robert isn’t,” Lily complained through her mouthful.

  “I am,” Robert said. “I just haven’t chosen one yet.” He pulled an empty saucer from the table and plonked his toast onto it. “There.”

  Funny how everyone still complained about Lily’s manners when Robert could eat anything any way he liked. But then he was a boy, and boys were always treated differently – had more freedom, got to do the good stuff – unlike Lily.

  Until recently, that is. Since they’d returned, and talked more, Papa had decided not to send her back to Miss Scrimshaw’s horrible academy and, instead, had been teaching her about mechanicals and engines along with Robert. Lily much preferred it to the endless book-balancing, embroidery and hair-don’ts she’d had to endure at the academy. If she could just get Papa to put Jack Door’s book on lock-picking on the syllabus, she felt sure her new education would soon be complete.

  “Listen to this,” Papa said from behind The Daily Cog. “The consortium of London clockmakers who were hired to repair Big Ben have finally finished fixing the tower’s clockwork…”

  “What good news,” Lily garbled through a mouthful of teacake. She checked the byline. It was Anna’s story: perhaps that was why the aeronaut had barely visited them in the past four weeks? Or was there some other reason?

  But Lily didn’t have time to think about this for too long because Robert had finished his toast. “Come on, Lil,” he said, standing up and brushing the crumbs from his trousers. “It’s almost ten thirty. Why don’t we take a walk before lessons?”

  “A capital idea,” Papa said. “You might be able to find a good Christmas tree we can chop down for next week. And make sure you wrap up warmly,” he added. “It’s colder than an icebox out there, and the forecast says it might snow again later.”

  “Watch springs and water buckets!” Mrs Rust muttered. “Don’t you go bringing any more snow into my house. I don’t want
to be washing the floors again at this tocking hour of the day. I already did it once this morning.”

  Lily nodded and plucked her coat from the back of her chair. As she and Robert struggled into their boots, she watched Mrs Rust take down a long-handled frying pan from her selection of replaceable hands hung on the dresser, and Papa turn the page of his paper, peering at it through his glasses. Since he’d been back everything had returned to normal.

  Almost: for Lily knew the truth of who she was now.

  She buttoned her coat and threw open the back door. More flakes had fallen during the night and the air was sharp and cold. With Robert and Malkin at her heels, Lily dashed out into the white garden making new tracks in the pristine snow.

  Her pulse quickened as she ran, and she put a hand up to her chest and felt for the Cogheart hidden beneath her many layers of clothes.

  There it was. These last few weeks its sound had changed, become stronger and deeper; more resonant. Until she could almost believe it might go on for ever. She still wasn’t entirely sure if possessing such a heart was a gift or a burden, but she knew one thing was clear: its beat was the music of living, the rhythm of life.

  And, to her, it sounded beautiful.

  A dictionary of curious words

  A glossary of words which may be uncommon to the reader

  Automaton: a self-operating mechanical device.

  Behemoth: an extremely large and powerful monster. (Which is a very fitting description for Roach and Mould’s huge silver airship.)

  Chronometer: a timepiece which has been specially tested to meet a certain standard of precision. (“Cogs and chronometers!”)

  Deportment: the way one stands or walks. At school, Lily is taught this by balancing books on her head in order to achieve the posture befitting of a young lady.

  Dirigible: another word for an airship.

  Harpoon: a spear-like weapon. Can be used in air combat by piercing the balloon of another zeppelin.

  Horology: the art or science of studying time. An horologist is someone who makes clocks and watches.