by L. C. Mawson
She took a deep breath as she realised that she hadn’t done anything to bring that into question; she had just forgotten that it was part of their story.
“This is the height of fashion in Paris right now,” he told James.
“We’re not in Paris now.”
“Oui, but I have been a tad nostalgic for home.”
James raised an eyebrow. “You’re French?”
“He’s English,” Ruth said, remembering the story Thomas had come up with. “But his mother was French and she insisted that he attend boarding school in Paris. He only returned a few years ago.”
James nodded, seemingly buying it.
“Sir,” a young man in a uniform said as he hurriedly approached. “There has been an issue that needs your urgent attention.”
“If you’ll excuse me,” James said before hurrying off with the boy.
“Well, that went well,” Mech said, though Ruth was already cursing under her breath as James’ sister saw them and made her way over.
“Lady Chapelstone,” she greeted. “It’s been a while since I saw you.”
Ruth nodded. “I don’t have the sturdiest disposition,” she explained. “I don’t often leave the house.”
“Yes, Thomas has told us. It’s such a shame. James was quite keen on getting better acquainted with you.” She turned to Mech. “But, of course, you don’t need attention from other men when you have one of your own.”
“Owl, this is Lady Anne Holly,” Ruth introduced.
“Owl?” Anne asked with a raised eyebrow. “Doesn’t he have a name beyond that?”
Ruth froze, not quite believing that they hadn’t thought of that.
“Michel,” she blurted out as her brain finally unfroze. “His name is Michel.”
Anne smiled, seemingly not picking up on Ruth’s nervousness.
“I’m glad I had the opportunity to meet you, Michel. Everyone has been quite excited about having the chance to meet the enigmatic mind behind some of the greatest inventions of the last few years.”
“Thank you,” Mech said, allowing Ruth to breathe a sigh of relief.
She was worried that he might make a social slip-up.
“Your hair ornament is quite fetching,” he continued.
Ruth froze. Where had that come from?
Anne blinked at the random comment, but didn’t otherwise comment, to Ruth’s relief.
“Thank you. It actually has this magnetic component that unclips.”
She had already unclipped it to show him before Ruth could think of a reasonable objection.
As soon as the ornament was near him, it sped off to attach itself to Mech’s chest.
“Oh! How odd,” Anne exclaimed.
Mech moved to extract it before Ruth could get to it and his arm became glued to his chest as Ruth did her best to suppress the urge to groan.
“How is it attaching like that with no metal?” Anne asked as Ruth yanked the magnet away from him, wondering just how strong it was.
“I have no idea,” Ruth said, with no clue what else to say as she gave Anne her ornament back.
Anne frowned, giving Mech an odd look, but otherwise not saying anything.
Ruth hoped that him being mechanical was too much of a leap for her.
“If you’ll excuse us, we should catch up with Thomas,” Ruth said before dragging Mech away.
“Put your arm back down,” she said as she realised that he was holding it up against his chest.
“I can’t,” he told her. “I appears to be stuck.”
Ruth tugged it down so that it was at his side before sighing. There was no way that wouldn’t attract attention if she didn’t fix it.
“His name is Michel,” Ruth said under her breath as she made her way back to Thomas and Ivy.
“Who?” Ivy asked.
“The Owl. We forgot to give him a name.”
“Have you had any trouble?” Thomas asked.
“Anne had a magnetic hair clip and now Mech’s arm doesn’t work.”
“Michel’s,” Thomas corrected.
“Right, Michel’s, though I don’t think that was the most important part of that sentence.”
“Can you fix it?”
“Maybe. I’ll need somewhere out of the way to take a look.”
Thomas frowned in thought. “If I disappear too it may draw suspicion, but for you to go with him alone without a chaperone...”
“Ivy can go with me.”
“Fine, but be quick.”
“I will,” Ruth promised before heading off with Mech — Michel — and Ivy.
“Where do you want to do this?” Ivy asked.
“Somewhere private. Beyond that, I don’t care.”
Ivy nodded before heading straight out into the hall and around a corner to a cupboard.
“How did you know this was here?”
“You predicted trouble, so I kept an eye out. You’re not exactly the most observant, so it seemed prudent to keep note of the area.”
Ivy grabbed a small gas lamp from a table and passed it to Ruth so that she would have some light.
“I’ll keep an eye out for you.”
“Thank you,” Ruth said before heading into the cupboard with Michel, placing the lamp onto the shelf.
“Let me have a look,” Ruth said before hiking up her skirt to reveal the tools she had strapped around her thigh.
Michel used his other arm to hoist up the broken one so that Ruth could inspect it. She pushed his sleeve up to look at the metal joints beneath.
“It seems Anne’s magnet shifted a part of your elbow out of alignment. I should be able to get it back into place easily enough.”
She got to work as quickly as she could.
She had barely started when there was a knock on the door.
“I’m not done yet,” she said, as quietly as she thought would still carry through the door.
“You are Miss Ivy, correct?” Ruth heard through the door, identifying James’ voice.
“That is correct, sir.”
“What are you doing loitering in this corridor?”
“I just needed a moment to myself. This is my first ball and it’s all a little hectic.”
“Yes, I suppose that is what happens when someone like Thomas lets his tastes run a little... lower class.”
Ruth riled up immediately, but knew that giving away her presence would do nothing to help. She redoubled her efforts on Michel in the hope that they could leave the cupboard as soon as James turned his back so that she could comfort Ivy if she needed it.
“Maybe Thomas is just tired of all you aristocrats and your out-of-touch ways.”
Ruth held back a snort at that.
“Just because he wants something exotic for now doesn’t mean that he will still want it when it comes time to settle down.”
“Careful, sir. One might think your concern stemmed from a personal interest.”
Ruth frowned. What had Ivy meant by that?
She heard James splutter. “How dare you insinuate something of that nature.”
Of what nature? Ruth thought to herself as she finished aligning Michel’s elbow, only for a stray bolt to fall to the floor with a loud clang.
“What was that?” she heard James ask.
“Nothing,” Ivy said quickly.
Ruth cursed under her breath as she tried to figure out how to cover up what they had been really doing. After a moment, she came to the only logical conclusion and pulled Michel’s sleeve down over his exposed joints before ruffling his shirt.
“What are you doing?” Michel asked lowly as she tugged at her corset.
“Hopefully only tarnishing James’ idea of me, not my entire reputation.”
She moved into Michel’s arms as James yanked the door open, despite Ivy’s protests.
“James!” Ruth exclaimed as she extracted herself from Michel. “We were just...”
James became immediately flushed. “Ruth! This is highly inappropriate. You two aren�
�t even betrothed.”
“Actually they are,” Ivy said quickly. “He proposed just before we got here. You can forgive them their excitement, I’m sure. Unless, of course, you want me to tell Thomas who you want to get excited with.”
James spluttered before silently nodding.
Ruth and Michel followed Ivy back through to ballroom.
“What did you mean by that?” Ruth asked Ivy.
The younger woman smirked. “Much like me, James isn’t very discriminatory when it comes to the gender of his partners. Of course, given his position, he is a lot more careful with the information. The real shame is that Thomas feels the same way, but they’ll never get over their need to protect their images.”
Ruth frowned. “Wait, Thomas feels the same way? But I thought... You and Thomas seemed to be getting closer.”
Ivy snorted. “No, Ruth, Thomas is definitely not interested in women.”
Ruth blinked. “Oh. I hadn’t realised. If I had, I would not have made an assumption about your relationship.”
Ivy frowned. “How did you not know? He has never been subtle about it. In fact, I’m sure I’ve heard him outright refer to his preference in your presence at least twice in the past week.”
Ruth simply blinked again. “I had not noticed. If I am being honest, I tend to stop listening when you two discuss social matters.”
Ivy smiled, shaking her head. “Regardless, I’m just here to help you out and to keep your uncle’s reputation in good standing. Rumours start spreading if you go so long without a companion at social events, as I’m sure you would have learned if not for Michel.”
“Yes. Who I am now apparently engaged to.”
“I’m sorry, but I had to think on my feet. That seemed like the best way to do it.”
Anne spotted them at that point, approaching quickly.
“Ruth! Did you hear? James came back for just a moment before saying that there was an emergency the Queen had to attend to.” She turned to Michel. “It looks like you won’t get to meet her after all.”
“It’s alright,” Michel assured her. “I mostly came because my not having met James yet was becoming a security issue. Now that we have met, Thomas should be able to negotiate my contract with the Crown.”
Ruth smiled. “If you don’t mind, Anne, we should be heading home. I don’t do well with staying awake too late.”
AS SOON AS THEY RETURNED to the house, Ruth was bouncing up and down with excitement.
“Did you see that? We did it! James saw The Owl and no one figured out he wasn’t real.”
Thomas sighed, folding his arms. “Yes, except now you’re engaged to him. That’s not going to end well.”
“Oh, lighten up,” Ivy said with a grin. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how to extract myself from this cumbersome mess.” She pulled at her skirts.
“They aren’t that bad,” Ruth defended.
“Yes they are,” Ivy shouted back as she headed out of the room.
Ruth grinned as she offered Michel her arm. “Come on,” she said to the mechanical man. “You’ve been running all day. We should shut you off and make sure everything is still working.”
“Of course, my lady,” Michel said, taking her arm.
13
Ruth smiled as she sat back on her chair in the workshop, refining Michel’s new arms. They had better covering, which looked far more like their human counterparts, though they had a bit of intricate detailing because Ruth couldn’t resist, even though she knew no one was going to see them.
James was downstairs negotiating with Thomas, and Ruth was glad that he was no longer chasing after her. Ivy assured her that James had originally had feelings for both her and Thomas and her unavailability had shifted all of his focus to Thomas. She was downstairs serving them tea, mostly because she found it amusing to watch them blush around each other.
“Do you think we should go downstairs and see what they’re talking about?” Ruth asked, having reached a nice break in her work. “They are, after all, discussing my inventions.”
“That does sound like a good idea,” Michel agreed, though Ruth knew it was just because he was programmed to agree with her.
“I’ll just get changed and we can head down.”
As soon as she had a clean dress on, Michel accompanied her downstairs to where Thomas and James were talking.
“This is truly a work of genius,” Ruth heard James say and couldn’t help but grin as she and and Michel approached.
“You boys admiring The Owl’s new invention?” Ruth asked and she and Michel entered the room.
Thomas stiffened a bit but she didn’t notice as James was pouring over her plans.
“Admiring? This could revolutionise the Empire!” James exclaimed. “A mechanical soldier... Amazing!”
Ruth froze dead as she identified the plans on the table as the ones for Michel.
“Soldier?” she eventually managed. “It’s not a soldier, it’s... It’s... Well, anything else.”
James gave her an odd look and she realised that, as far as he was concerned, she had no authority on the matter.
She turned to Michel. “Tell them. It’s not a soldier design.”
“It’s not a soldier design,” he repeated.
James turned back to Thomas. “If you sell us it, we will use it as a soldier. Think of all of the lives we can spare. All those soldiers who no longer have to die.”
“And what about those on the other side, fighting soldiers who are so easily replaced?” Ruth demanded.
“Enemies of the Empire.”
“Human beings!”
“Alright,” Thomas said loudly as he stood up. “I have a policy against politics in my house. James, I will be in touch about these designs and about finalising Michel’s contract with The Crown.”
James nodded before leaving.
As soon as Thomas had finished seeing him out, he headed back to where Ruth and Michel were waiting.
“You cannot sell my designs as weapons,” she protested, her hands on her hips.
“What did you think I was selling them as? Why do you think the Crown was so interested?”
She drew up short at that. She hadn’t really thought about what happened to her designs once Thomas sold them. She hadn’t thought of any of them as weapons but, the more she thought about it, she realised that many had military applications.
Thomas sighed, shaking his head. “Why do you care? If these things are going to exist, better that they’re in Queen Victoria’s hands.”
Ruth felt a sting behind her eyes as she tried to fit the idea of her inventions being sold as weapons with her idea of them. As far as she was concerned, she was an artist who used metal instead of a canvas. Her inventions were about making the world a better place for people, not killing them. She had originally designed the parts for Michel to help people who had lost limbs, and now Thomas wanted to sell them as weapons that would probably take more.
“They were never meant to be weapons.”
“Intent doesn’t matter, Ruth. If they have military applications, someone will use them. As I said, better that it’s Queen Victoria.”
“No. Better that it’s no one.” Ruth turned to Michel. “Come on, let’s go pack.”
“Pack?” Thomas asked.
“If you’re selling my designs as weapons, then I won’t design any more. I’ll go home.”
Thomas sighed. “Fine,” he said as she reached the stairs. “I’ll try to alter the deal with the Queen. Lord knows how I’ll do it, but I will figure it out.”
Ruth smiled. “Thank you.”
14
Ruth fidgeted with one of her favourite dresses. It had just the barest ornamentation, and she thought that it helped to sharpen her features, making her seem more formidable.
Thomas had arranged another meeting with James to talk over the terms of Ruth’s contract with the Crown. Ruth hoped to add clauses to stipulate that none of her inventions would be used by the m
ilitary, but Thomas had warned her that it would be unlikely. He thought it more likely that there would be conditions put in place to outline exactly which circumstances her inventions could be used in, many of which would favour the Crown over Ruth. But she was determined to get as much as she could.
She took Michel’s arm and headed downstairs as she heard a knock on the door. She had talked over most of her ideas for what she wanted with Michel, but also knew that he would back her up with whatever she said in the meeting.
“Ruth, Michel,” James greeted coldly as he entered.
“If you’ll follow me,” Ivy said, leading them through to the room Thomas usually used for his business meetings.
“Is it really necessary for your fiance to sit in on this meeting?” James asked.
Michel, thankfully, repeated back the words Ruth had taught him. “Ruth is my muse. It would be bad luck not to have her with me.”
Ruth was pretty sure she heard James mutter “French men,” under his breath like a swear. Or maybe it had actually been a swear. She was too far away to tell for certain.
They sat down around the table as they entered the room, but James didn’t follow them.
“It’s time to stop playing games,” James said as he loomed over the others before dropping a bolt onto the table.
The bolt that had fallen from Michel back at the palace. Ruth had forgotten to pick it back up.
“It’s a spare bolt,” she noted, hoping that her tone was level. “Why are you dropping it on our table?”
“It wasn’t difficult to figure out your little ruse, especially after I saw the designs for a mechanical man.” He moved over to Michel before ripping off his wig and mask, showing the metal skull beneath.
“The Owl isn’t real. He never was.” James turned to Ruth. “It was you all along, wasn’t it? There is no reason for Thomas to hide behind the persona, and you only brought Ivy onto your staff when you arrived in London, long after The Owl had started working.”
“James, that’s enough,” Thomas said. “What do you want?”
“I want The Owl,” he glared at Ruth, “to sign the contract to work with the Crown, as it is, and to abide by it.”
