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He nodded, and together they on The chas, the walls painted the crea in pen and pencil The cursive was slanted, and several bits were crossed out with varying degrees of fury Amid the jumble on the floor, Madam Morpho identified half of a clockwork unicorn, the ruined bits of several chairs, a brass octopus on a stick, a ly painted torso of a lascivious-looking redhead A thick rug that had once been quite lovely flopped untidily in the center
"What in the blustering blazes, Vil?" a h the layout of the wagon was different from the one she now shared with Abilene, she assumed that the door separated the workshop fro co, "I do hope he’s out of bed and dressed Interrupting breakfast is one thing, but--"
The door slammed behind her trunk, and she turned to discover that Vil had disappeared, leaving her to face the mysterious Mr Murdoch alone
"Sir, Master Stain sent h to e clockworks
She waited several heartbeats, but no one appeared, nor did he yell anything further After glancing into the scarredher face into the professional ht themselves superior, she opened the door and siave the appearance of simultaneous confusion and strict order in a way that she found deeply coanized in a similar fashion that made sense only to her Her fastidious father had forever sneered at her clutter of books, bell jars, and specimens, but she had known exactly where the very last bludvole skull belonged She suspected Mr Murdoch held the sae of his domain The left-hand as entirely covered in clocks reading various tiht-hand wall contained shelves heavy with books and half-board of instruments and tools, settled carefully over their painted outlines
A long worktable ran the length of the pegboard, and a man huddled over it with his back to her He was partially uncovered, which wasIn the city, people rarely revealed an inch of skin unless they were in carefully locked bedrooms, where neither bludrat nor Bludman could threaten their exposed skin At the very least, he should have worn a coat to greet a visitor, and he definitely should not have left the nape of his neck bare to the world under his ponytail
"Mr Murdoch--" she began again, but he shushed her
She sighed deeply and watched as he hung up the instrument in his hand and selected a different one fro around Fine, then If he was going to make her hile he fiddled with his toys, then she would take the liberty of exploring his shelves She skipped the rows of books on clockworks, steay, and other topics that bored her Instead, she focused on a long line of books on animals both existent and extinct
"Oh,a voluot a first edition of Viviparous Maood Lord You’ve written all over the pages! Have you any idea how much this book would have been worth without all your frenzied scrawling?"
He chuckled, and she looked up from the once-priceless tome The man had finally spun around on his stool to face her, and she was startled to find that he was far from the cantankerous old man she had envisioned He was, in fact, quite handsome, in an outdoorsy sort of way, if one liked that sort of thing His hair and beard were the color of hay in the suave her the feeling of soed in a field amid nature, a hearty specimen who could handle a scythe or a butterfly net, if there had been any reason to employ one
"I actually find that my additions make it all the more valuable"
"Not to a librarian"
"A librarian has never atte polanda bear"
"Touché, sir I am Madam Morpho" She approached and held out her hand, and he raised an eyebrow before giving it a rough shake "And you’re the mysterious Mr Murdoch?"
"It would appear so," he said with a senerally reclusive Mr Murdoch Since I haven’t ed to ask what brings you to my workshop"
He had not yet stood, and she studied him with a scientist’s eyes She was struck al sort of raw-boned honesty about hiood hu her time at the university and, later, the roup, to be sickly and underfed, sharp and secretive Not so this Mr Murdoch
His shoulder-length hair was slightly lighter than his beard and tied back neatly He earing goggles, of course, brass and brown leather, with various optionalfrom the corners She had a pair much like thes Aside from a white shirt rolled back to the elbows, he was all over brown and tan, his waistcoat and pants h once she tallied the ink and oil stains and burns, she could see why Unlike Master Stain, he wore the newer style of trousers that went all the way to the toes of his boots She hadn’t liked the way it looked on the university oogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>