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Partly hidden behind the piles, Madas wide like a rubby child The urchin carease-smeared face, filthy hands, and jaunty tilt to his newsboy cap He was clearly in a hot spot of bother but seeetic than excited about his inadvertent pyrotechnics

"So, what did you do, Quesnel?"

"I just soaked a bit of rag in ether and tossed it into the flaoodness sake, Quesnel Don’t you ever listen?" This ca sidesaddle on an overturned barrel She was a very solid-looking specter, which meant her dead body ent Street ell north of the exorcised zone, so she would have escaped last night’s incident undead If the ghost’s speech was anything to go by, her body must have traveled over frorant Her face was sharply defined, her visage that of a handsome older woman who resembled Madame Lefoux Her arms were crossed over her chest in annoyance

"Ether!" shrieked Madaamuffin

"Ether is explosive, you little…" After which followed a streaed to sound pleasant in Madame Lefoux’s rin "But it did "

Alexia could not help herself; she let out a little giggle

All three gasped and looked over at her

Lady Maccon straightened up, brushed her blue silk walking dress s her parasol back and forth

"Ah," said Madalish "Welcome to my contrivance chamber, Lady Maccon"

"You are a woman of many talents, Madame Lefoux, an inventor as well as a milliner?"

Madame Lefoux inclined her head "As you see, the two more often cross paths than one would think I should have realized you would deduce the function of the windlass engine and the location of my laboratory, Lady Maccon"

"Oh," replied Alexia "Why should you have?"

The Frenchwoman dimpled at her and bent to retrieve a fallen vial of soed to escape Quesnel’s explosion unbroken "Your husband infor over he would say" Alexiaher skirts delicately to keep thelass Now that she could see the about Mada There seelassicals in midconstruction and a massive apparatus that looked to be coalvanoe wheel, and a wicker chicken

Alexia, tripping only once over a large valve, completed her trek across the roohost

"How do you do? Lady Maccon, at your service"

The scrap of a boy grinned at her, ave hiet the boiler started?"

Quesnel blushed "Not exactly But I did get a fire started That should count for solish was superb

Madareed Lady Maccon, endearing herself to the child for all tihost introduced herself as Formerly Beatrice Lefoux

Alexia nodded to her politely, which surprised the ghost The undead were often subjected to rudeness from the fully alive But Lady Maccon always stood on formality

"My impossible son andat Alexia as though she expected so

Lady Maccon filed away the fact that they all had the same last name Had Madame Lefoux not married the child’s father? How very salacious But Quesnel did not look at all like his mother She need not have claimed him He was a towheaded, pointy-chinned little creature with the ht

The lady inventor said to her family, "This is Alexia Maccon, Lady Woolsey She is also muhjah to the queen"

"Ah, my husband saw fit to tell you that little fact, did he?" Alexia was surprised Not many knew about her political position, and, as with her preternatural state, both she and her husband preferred to keep it that way: Conall, because it kept his wife out of danger; Alexia, because it caused most individuals, supernatural or otherwise, to cohost of Beatrice Lefoux interrupted them "You are ze muhjah? Niece, you allow an exorcist into ze vicinity of htless child! You are ze worse than your son" Her accent was far more pronounced than her niece’s Sheback and upward off the barrel upon which she had pretended to sit As though Alexia could do anything da to her spirit Silly creature

Lady Maccon frowned, realizing that the aunt’s presence eliminated Madame Lefoux as a suspect in the case of the mass exorcism She could not have invented a weapon that acted like a preternatural, not here, not if her aunt’s spirit resided in the contrivance chaet so emotional Lady Maccon can only kill you if she touches your body, and only I knohere that is kept"

Alexia wrinkled her nose "Please do not agitate yourself so, Formerly Lefoux I prefer not to perfor flesh is very squishy" She shuddered delicately

"Oh, well, thank you for that," sneered the ghost

"Ew!" said Quesnel, fascinated "Have you conducted simply masses of them?"

Alexia narrowed her eyes at hi, and then turned back to his mother "So, in what capacity did my husband see fit to inform you ofback slightly, a faint look of amusement on her lovely face "What could your ladyship possibly mean?"

"Was he in attendance upon you as Alpha, as earl, or as the head of BUR investigations?"

Madame Lefoux dimpled once more at that "Ah, yes, the many faces of Conall Maccon"

Alexia bridled at the Frenchwo, exactly, have you known , but loose morals were an entirely different matter

"Calm yourself, my lady My interest in your husband is purely professional He and I know each other through BUR transactions, but he visited o as the earl and your husband He wished ift?"

"Indeed"