The Ingenious Mechanical Devices Box Set

by Kara Jorgensen

  “They were. Maybe I didn’t send them early enough. There are only three of them, and I had no idea the house would be this large... or filthy.”

  Taking Eilian’s hand, Hadley stepped into the great hall. The house groaned and yawned somewhere deep within. Hadley raised her eyes to the high Gothic windows and skylights she had seen on the drive up, but they were so choked with ivy they barely emitted enough light for her to make out the family coat of arms carved into the hearth on the other side of the room. A pile of furniture covered with once white sheets stood in the corner, blocking off the entrance to the dining room. The wood-paneled walls were caked in grime while the pointed arches in the upper arcade were cloaked in curtains of cobwebs as opaque as silk screens.

  Rubbing her arms, Hadley stared into the mouth of the massive hearth. A granite lion’s head snarled back at her, a spider skittering from his drawn lips to his meager mane. She pulled a handkerchief from her purse and stood on tiptoe to wipe the crest above his head. An otter and a fox stood on either side of a shield surrounded by acorns and leaves. In the fox’s paw was a key while the otter clutched a scallop. Between them an oak sprouted, and a banner stretched across its roots. With her finger wrapped in the linen square, she scrubbed at the stone until the thin letters peaked through. It all had significance. If only she knew what.

  “Eilian, what does it say?”

  The earl squinted, tracing the letters with his fingertip as he pronounced the familiar phrase. “Salus in Arduis. A refuge in difficulties. Maybe in better days. Come on, let’s see if we can find the library or the orangery.”

  Walking into the windowless hall, Eilian felt along the wall for the gas lamps’ switch but found only the dusty edge of a picture frame. He reached behind it, but when something in the shadows brushed against his hand, he lurched back, bumping into his wife. Raising his eyes, he met the face of a man in a powdered wig as the lamps lit with a gurgling sigh. The third earl stared down at him from the wall, the grey irises beneath the cocked brows and the signet ring on his finger were all that tied them together, and he still hadn’t been able to wear his father’s ring yet. He swallowed hard. So these were his ancestors. These were the men he had to live up to.

  Eilian took a step forward but stopped, moving back with his eyes locked on the painting.

  “What are you doing?”

  “His eyes follow you.” He shuddered and tried it with the fourth earl’s portrait further down the hall. “Do we really have to stay here? Can’t we just go to Greece instead?”

  Hadley rolled her eyes, avoiding the women hanging in a row on the opposite wall. Why look at them when she knew what she would see? They were a line of noblewomen, born and bred to be the wives of aristocrats, all perfected in oil and exuding a hauteur she couldn’t hope to emulate. She dreaded the day when she and Eilian would sit for their portraits, when their faces would be placed beside his ancestors and everyone would see the glaring deficiencies in the ninth Earl and Countess of Dorset. Reaching the end of the hall, she tugged at the pocket door. With each inch it slid, the thrumming hum of an engine grew louder, but on the other side stood the library. Eilian drifted in behind her, his eyes wide as they followed the bookcases up the wall where they melded with the coffered ceiling.

  All of the houses prior eccentricities and sins were forgiven at the sight of the library, which rivaled his back in Greenwich. He ran his hand over the edge of the cabinet before turning the key and pulling it open. Books by Pliny, Archimedes, Al Jazari, and the Banū Mūsā brothers stared back at him. Carefully pulling the last tome from the shelf, Eilian cradled it against his chest with his prosthetic arm and turned the fragile vellum pages with the tips of his fingers. His gaze darted over the tight lines of Arabic and intricate schematics as he settled in at the divan under the window. He wondered who else had cared about ancient engineers.

  Hadley’s cream gown floated at the edge of his vision until she knelt on the chair beside him and wiped at the window. She swatted at his shoulder, but his attention never wavered from the page.

  “Eilian.”

  He had never been able to find a pristine copy in Arabic, even in Cairo and Constantinople. His friends at the Oriental Club would be envious if they knew of his find.

  Hadley gripped his shoulder and squeezed. “Eilian, look!”

  Glancing up, he met her wide blue eyes, the freckles across her nose stark against her sudden pallor. She motioned for him to peer through the hole in the dust. Between the trees and dense foliage of the greenhouse, a figure sat in a wingback chair beside the algal pool.

  “Someone’s in there.”

  Chapter Two

  Derringers and Disappointment

  Hadley swallowed hard. “Did you hire footmen?”

  “No, the only male staff I have are Patrick and my gardener.”

  “That isn’t the gardener, is it?”

  He shook his head.

  She put a finger to her lips and backed away from the window, her eyes locked on the head swaying above the chair’s back. As Eilian crossed the room and grasped the rough fireplace poker, he frowned at the hearth. Despite the dust and cobwebs coating the rest of the room, the ash had recently been swept from the firebox. Inching toward the double doors at the far end of the library, Eilian listened to the chug of an engine on the other side. Hadley followed close behind, fishing through her clutch. He stared at the beaded purse. When had she started carrying that instead of her carpet bag? Her face brightened as she pulled out a snub-nosed gun the length of her palm.

  “You brought your derringer?”

  “It’s been useful thus far.” She checked the chambers before snapping it shut. “You didn’t think I would let you go in there alone, did you?”

  Holding Hadley's gaze, he counted off with his fingers. At three, he drew in a deep breath and inched open the door to the orangery. A puff of hot air hit them as they stepped into the artificial jungle. Massive palms and bushy camphor trees blocked the sun, casting the greenhouse in a balmy haze. The stench of fetid water was overwhelmed by the scent of plants. Everywhere was the smell of earth and the things that belonged to it, concentrated and bottled under the glass dome.

  Eilian pushed back a Jurassic fern and slowly followed the cobbled path toward the pool. Sweat collected under the leather brace around his upper arm, but he ignored the urge to wipe it and swept his eyes through the brush. With firecracker flowers and orchids of every shade and strange conformation crowding the path, he expected to hear the caw or flutter of a parrot, but the air was quiet, rolling and bubbling with the river and fog. As they rounded the corner, the man in the armchair came into sight. The hammer of Hadley’s derringer clicked in Eilian’s ear. He tightened his grip on the poker and watched the man turn. His sharp grey eyes never left his assailants as he stood and stepped around the chair.

  “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Eilian called, feeling Hadley tense beside him.

  His dark suit was impeccably pressed and the fabric even from a distance was fine, costlier than anything Eilian owned. Something in the intruder’s aquiline features was strangely familiar.

  “Is that any way to greet your cousin, Lord Dorset?”

  “Cousin?”

  “Put down the gun, Lady Dorset, before you hurt yourself.”

  Hadley’s jaw clenched, but she kept the muzzle pointed at the grey-haired man at the edge of the pool. Catching her eye, Eilian nodded, and she exhaled, dropping her arm only to keep the gun at her side. Eilian lowered the poker as the man approached with measured steps.

  The man’s lined, silver eyes fell on Hadley’s simple coiffure before lingering on her breasts and waist a moment too long. The new dress, while of good quality, was already dirty and the corset too loose, and though her features were pleasing, she was far from beautiful. The garter gun hung looped in her stained fingers. Where Lord Dorset had found such a creature, he could hazard a guess, but why would he marry it?

  “I’m surprised your father ne
ver spoke of me.”

  “We didn’t speak very often.”

  “Apparently. Lord Dorset, the last Lord Dorset and I were cousins. We were raised in this house.”

  When the man’s cutting gaze reached Eilian’s mechanical hand, the younger man tucked it out of sight. “How did you get in here? Did the maids let you in?”

  His eyes narrowed as he straightened and cocked his head with a scoff. “I have a key, and even if I didn’t, I know this house better than my own body.”

  “You still haven’t told us who you are,” Hadley said, resisting the urge to train the gun on him. There was something in his manner, the way all of his movement seemed to be in his eyes, that set her on edge. She had seen men like that in London— men who kept you busy with their eyes when you should have been watching their hands.

  “Randall Nash, and you are Hadley Fenice, the illustrious toy heiress who has risen to countess.”

  Hadley winced. The embellished wedding announcement in the society pages had not been her idea. Her future mother-in-law had taken it upon herself to soften the blow of an inter-class marriage with money. Heiress had a better ring than craftswoman, even if it was false. At least the article brought in as many orders as their Christmas advertisement.

  “Are you insinuating something, Mr. Nash?” Eilian asked, but before the man could reply, the butler’s harried voice rang through the walls. His voice grew fainter as he retreated through the gallery. “In the greenhouse, Pat!”

  Eilian and Hadley turned as a crash resounded behind them, and when they looked back, Randall Nash was gone. Using the end of the poker, Eilian pushed back the bushes growing at the edge of the pool but could find no trace of him. He stared down at the empty armchair. From the humidity of the orangery, the fabric had rippled and dampened, raising the varnish on the arms and legs. Beside it sat an open bottle of champagne, a chipped glass, and a book on Caesar Augustus.

  “I wonder how long he’s been raiding the wine cellar. He’s definitely been in the library, too.” The butler’s flushed face appeared in the doorway. “Pat, did you know he was here?”

  “Who?”

  “Randall Nash.”

  “He’s the estate manager, sir.” Patrick pulled off his fogged spectacles and cleaned them with his handkerchief. “I had to write to him, so he could let the maids inside when they got here.”

  Hadley shuddered at the thought of the maids trapped in the house with that man. “Does he live in the house?”

  “No, ma’am. On the grounds in the dower house.”

  “Good. Don’t let him wander in unescorted, and make sure any doors leading to the greenhouse are locked at night.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Should I have Mrs. Negi make lunch?”

  Hadley nodded, and Patrick disappeared into the library. As she reached Eilian's side, her eyes swept over the soaring vaults and the paths around the pool leading deeper into the greenhouse. What secrets laid buried beneath weeds and dust?

  Slipping her hand into her husband’s metal palm, she felt his fingers curl around hers. “Shall we explore some more?”

  ***

  Eilian groaned as he collapsed onto the bed. Hadley had put him to work dusting and moving furniture until he was too sore to move. His body ached all over, throbbing in his lower back and heels despite soaking in the tub for the better part of an hour. How had he not realized when he saw her attack the grime on the family crest or the library window that Hadley would take it upon herself to clean the entire house? Exploring had merely been a ruse to find a maid and a bucket of soapy water. He ran a hand through his wet hair and let out a stifled chuckle at the look on the poor chambermaid’s face when the lady of house stole her bucket and brush before she could protest. At least part of the house was clean or would be when the maids put their final polish on it. Closing his eyes, he slid lower until the hearth at the end of the bed warmed his sore feet.

  He raised his head at the squeal of a board and found Hadley standing in the doorway with a red silk caftan hanging over her nightgown. Climbing onto the antique bed, Hadley settled beside him. Her light eyes ran over his face before following the faint burn scars that trailed like vines down his neck, across his chest, and under the edge of his dressing gown. With her free hand, she traced his sternum in a slow line, but as she reached the satin of his dressing gown, Eilian brought her hand to his lips.

  “You still have your prosthesis on.”

  “Don’t worry, I took it off and cleaned it. I just didn’t feel like carrying all the parts.” Sitting up, he shrugged off his robe and unhooked the springs of his prosthesis one by one. “So what did you think of our guest?”

  “He gave me the creeps.”

  “And he has a key. We’ll probably find him sitting at the breakfast table tomorrow.”

  Hadley shook her head. “Maybe we should change the locks. Here, let me get that.”

  Eilian held out his arm as his wife removed the triceps coils on the back of his arm and tugged at the knot in the leather couter. Those grey eyes laced with malice combined with the evident disdain for what he was brought back too many bad memories. The image of his father dressed in his tailcoat with his bison head and black beard as he loomed over the dinner table floated to the surface. I forbid it.

  “He reminds me of my father.”

  “I hope your father didn’t stare like that.”

  “No, no, but his tone, his voice—” He sighed as the leather corset encircling his arm finally slid off. “I had hoped we wouldn’t have to deal with patronizing family members for a while. My brother’s toast at the wedding was bad enough.”

  “Oh yes, being called an upstart in front of our guests made my day.”

  “If I had known how much he had to drink, I would have stopped him. At least mother gave him a proper earful for that.”

  “Well, unlike Dylan, we will only have to deal with Cousin Randall for a few more weeks. Then, it will be back to London or Greece or wherever.”

  “Now, that sounds like a real holiday.” He watched Hadley arrange the pieces of his arm on the nightstand. “You know, I wasn’t expecting you to clean the house, Had. I sent the maids up for that.”

  “I know,” Hadley began, slipping her finger under the stocking covering what was left of his right arm, “but what if someone stops by? We can’t show them into a filthy sitting room. They will think we’re inept.”

  “But we kind of are. At least with these things.”

  Hadley stopped, locking eyes with her husband who regarded her with a lopsided frown. “They don’t need to know that. Eilian, I know you don’t care what anyone thinks, but I want to make a good impression.”

  “I do care. I’m just not very good at any of this.”

  “Well, I’m paying calls tomorrow, and if you want to accompany me, all you have to do is be your charming self.”

  “Fine. Then can we do something more fun?”

  A coy smile played on her lips as she ran her hands across her husband’s bare shoulders. “Oh? What do you have in mind?”

  “I was thinking we could go for a bicycle ride around the grounds or down to the beach.” His grey eyes brightened. “They call it the Jurassic Coast, so maybe we’ll even find some fossils there.”

  “Anything else?”

  Eilian thought for a moment. “There might be some Roman ruins nearby. I don’t know what else is around here, and we can’t go too far with the steamer in the shop. Why? What were you thinking?”

  Her face lurched into a stiff grin. “Nothing in particular.”

  Hopping off the Gothic bed, Eilian pulled back the covers. With his forearm unprotected and barely more than a titanium rod with a hand at the end, he kept it tucked against his chest as he shimmied into bed, careful not to put too much weight on it. As Hadley slipped off her caftan and settled in beside him, he grinned. He had forgotten how much he missed waking up to find her beside him or listening to her gentle snoring in the dark. Those months when they slept beneath the cool de
sert stars only an arm’s length away seemed so long ago.

  Wrapping his arm around her, Eilian pulled her closer until he could feel the warmth of her skin radiating beneath her cotton shift. She tipped her head back and caught his lips, cupping the back of his head and running her hand along the hilly terrain of his right arm. The heat rose in her breast with the brush of his hand against her cheek and down her neck, but as soon as his lungs tightened, he pulled away. For a moment, she waited, hoping he would continue. Instead, he reached into the nightstand and withdrew a copy of The Royal Egyptology Society Chronicle.

  “Mind if I read? I can turn the lamp down.”

  “It’s fine. I’ll read Mrs. Beeton’s.”

  Hadley found her stack of etiquette and advice books arranged on her bedside table. Grabbing her mother’s worn copy of Mrs. Beeton’s, she sunk lower until she was lying with her back to her husband. Her eyes followed the rickety, uniform type, but after a few lines, her mind drifted as she stared at the heading of chapter one, The Mistress. Tonight was their third night together, and while the sheepishness of crawling into bed together had ended the first night, something felt off. On their wedding night, they had been so tired that they fell into bed, lulled into sleep by rich food and exhaustion, and while traveling to Folkesbury, they had stopped at an inn where the only rooms left had a single bed. She slept with her face buried in his neck and his hand on the small of her back to keep her from falling off the narrow cot. Now that they were in Folkesbury in a real bed, clean and relaxed, she expected things to progress, yet it seemed to be the same as it had been for months.

  “Eilian, I—” The words dropped as she watched the journal with its sharp-eyed sphinxes flutter in time with the slow, steady cadence of his breath. She plucked the paper from his lax grip, but he didn’t stir. “Never mind.”

  Chapter Three

  Keeping Up Appearances

  Hadley gritted her teeth and gripped the handlebars until her fingers turned white as her velocipede rattled down the cobbled hill. Her beaded clutch bounced in the bicycle’s front basket, threatening to fly out for a third time. The people of Folkesbury flattened against the thatch and stone cottages to let the earl and countess rumble by. As they flew past shops with painted signs swinging in the salt-kissed breeze, she tried to take note of what the town had to offer, but the moment she nearly collided with another child or wizened gentleman, her mental map muddled.