Page 13 (2/2)

He held out a hand After buttoning the last button on her jacket, she took it, and he helped her stand

She wobbled for ahim in the chest "And what if I don’t care? What if I’ood scientist does," he answered, tracing one finger along her cheek "We’ll research And come up with a new hypothesis"

She sle "I find that I like to experiment with you But I also appreciate firm conclusions"

He snorted "Firm, indeed Let us hope this experiment doesn’t backfire"

"Backfire? My dear artificer, I find I like it better froard, it had always been aard afterward, like two strangers who had accidentally run into each other on the sidewalk Sometimes, in theher skirts and disappearing behind a convenient stuffedher to pick up the books she had dropped or the ledger she had been er or even warmth Most of the time, he had shown h there was soht, half-clad in his aret dressed warers buttoning her hat to her collar was nearly as inti theerous, right now, he was siet back here?" she asked, trying to fill the silence under the tent with so of her heart

"As you have seen, a clockwork guards each space betagons" He tucked his hair back under his hat and scratched his beard as if he wanted to rip it off "And each clockwork has a safe phrase that will shut it down for one h to here I know the passcode for every clockwork, but the carnivalleros are given only one They must enter and leave past Cadmus the cassowarrel This is, after all, a public space Should you ever wish to corotesque’ He will freeze and allow you through, in or out"

"What would happen if someone unfamiliar with the code atterinned "First, they would receive a warning, and then they would face some rather dastardly consequences, I’m afraid The clockworks are as much a defense as an entertainment, you see The caravan defends her own"

"But how do they work? Do they maim or kill? Are there other co her "I would love nothingI know No one has ever shown any interest in my work, other than Criminy, and I don’t consider hio and enjoy the last minutes of the carnival You’ve never actually been to one before, have you?"

"No My father didn’t believe in idleness, and mywell, my subsequent education didn’t include frivolity of any sort"

He s her hat just so and readjusting a button that was off with a gentle care that she found touching

"Let us go, then, you and I It’s been a long tihts"

He adjusted hishis fine eyes in slow of the rainbow-streaked tent He led her in a different direction and nudged her forward, and she spoke the passcode to the long-necked clockwork bird It paused in thestill and cold so they could duck beyond its neck Once safe on the other side, Henry paused, her arain, sing the egg in a strange, contortionist dance

They were in a different part of the caravan now, and they moved amid the croith bland anonyhts, his strength defying physics thanks to Cris and rode her unicycle high up on the wire, her liht sky Next up ca behind a curtain to amuse and entertain and, in the twins’ case, terrify A collection of bizarre creatures floating in large jars of liquid was surrounded by a crowd so deep that Ilimpse of the horrors within They passed Letitia in her turban, telling fortunes in a sequin-spangled tent She looked over an awestruck city girl’s stylishly huge bonnet to grin knowingly at theen blushed despite herself

"And how are you enjoying the caravan?"

Cririn as ," Iine how flustered she appeared to his predator’s eyes and hoped his sharp nose wouldn’t pick up on what had happened under the tent Wrapped again in hat and goggles and oversized black coat, Henry was a solid but unreadable enight squeeze of his glove on her arm

"And if it isn’t the Mysterious Mr Murdoch," Cri into step with theet-up"