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She was finally forced to look at hien," he said, voice ragged as he stepped closer to her, his feet brushing the wide swing of her skirts "Are you aware that I haven’t seen a woman this close in more than six years?"
"That seems excessive," she murmured "Are we such fierce creatures?"
He took another step, his knees denting her skirt "Machines are so much easier to understand," he said "I can puzzle out whatever ails thenals It has been a long time since I’ve spoken with anyone but Vil or co to have to forgive me if I muck it up I’ve lost the ways of niceties"
She fu nearness "I don’t know that I ever knew them I was barely raised bythan spent egg sacks I went to university just to spite him I was the only wo but scholarship if I was to keep up with ht me a joke I can’t even keep up with Emerlie’s chatter"
He chuckled "From what I can tell, no one can keep up with Eh his hair and smoothed down his beard, but he wouldn’t quite s from Vil, of course"
"And?"
"And I devised a syste in here, especially when I’ve burned a finger or otherwise injured myself and can’t work"
"You simply must show me," she said, as solemn as an owl
The aardness fled, replaced by his mischievous smile as he led her to the workshop There were two closed doors in the inner room, which she had assumed held a closet and a bathrooht, and it was indeed an ee apparatus of pipes hanging froles orn leather cups
"After hearing Cri a subo, I decided to e of a bow "Have a look"
Iena new speciainst his trousers He should have ive her room, but instead, he leaned close as she set her eyes to the eyepieces
"There are four different lenses, one pointing in each direction The device also functions as awatched"
"Mes," she murmured
The drizzle had slowed, and just the sh the clouds She could see E, thanks to the language barrier or the twin girls’ particular cleverness in feigning one The two-headed Bludon labeled Bolted Burlesque with a sack of soen didn’t care to conteons, her vieas blocked by a strange patchwork tent And Cri as they looked far off over the hills She could see the faintest srasses but couldn’t discern the shape
"Can I see nified?"
"At your service, Madam"
His arm brushed hers as he leaned forward to flick a switch and rotate a dial The iasped and pressed closer, straining against the leather
"Coppers! On bludmares Criminy and Letitia look worried"
"Probably not half as worried as you look"
She was shaking as she pulled back froles "Oh, heavens What do we do?"
He nodded, looking deters?"
"No Just two ood chance we’ll h"
"But my trunk! The butterflies! They’ll be found"
He set his hands on her shoulders, pinning her to the ground in a way that was strangely co and busy and bustling, but she had known her place Out in the country for the first tied by a sense of her own small stature in the vast world With no family, noto happen No matter how many tih, she felt in that moment as tiny and hapless as a leaf on the wind