Shadow of the War Machine (The Secret Order)

by Kristin Bailey

  Only then was I able to face my home and this newest violation.

  The glass in the window had cracked and was splintering through the lead holding the small panes together. I could feel the bile rising in my throat, my heart pounding as soundly as the hooves of the horses as my friends cantered up the street.

  The door to the shop hung limply on the hinges, swinging open. The handle had been pulled loose. I reached out to open the door the rest of the way and stepped into the darkened shop.

  It was almost Christmas. I had decorated the shop with evergreen boughs and bright holly berries. My toys had filled the shelves in cheerful profusion. Now the shelves had been spilled callously upon the floor, the boughs shredded, and the needles scattered amid the fallen tin soldiers. Expensive porcelain dolls had been trampled upon. Marionettes, pulled from their strings, lay lifelessly on the floor.

  I felt the stinging in my nose as my eyes welled with tears.

  An arm reached across my shoulder. I instinctively turned into the embrace, surprised to find it was Michael who stood next to me. Noah came up on the other side. He too was a shopkeeper, and seemed as horrified as I felt. “Oh, Meg. I’m so sorry.”

  “At least he didn’t use a bomb,” I said, and sighed. “This can still be set right, and no one was hurt.” But that was a lie. I hurt. My heart was breaking, seeing all my hard work destroyed. The man in the clockwork mask had no cause to wreck the shop, other than to make it seem like a burglary. Or maybe it had been only for spite.

  I used the edge of my shawl to dry my eyes, then pulled away from the comfort of my friends to cross the gallery and inspect my parlor.

  I felt as if I were back in Rathford’s house when I’d been a maid, delicately stepping around the broken shards of the vase at the bottom of the stairs. Rathford had never allowed anyone to touch the fractured pieces. Only, this time I stepped over the shattered remains of a pair of music boxes and the tangled ribbons from a puppet lying limp across the floor.

  I didn’t have to bend down to see the strongbox. It lay open on its side. To add insult to injury, he had taken my money.

  Manoj approached. “Where is your housekeeper?” he asked as he made his way back toward the door that separated the shop from the parlor of my living space.

  I sniffed. “Thankfully, she left to be with her sister in Dover for the holiday. There was no one here tonight.”

  If not for David’s scheme, I would have been asleep in my bed, alone. I would surely now be in the clutches of a monster.

  “That was very fortunate,” Manoj said. “I’ll inspect upstairs. If this is the man who planted the bomb last time, we should take caution.”

  David entered, but Samuel remained outside.

  I reached up and twisted the top off the last alarm, which was near the door and was still valiantly attempting to whistle for help. The sound died and left the shop in utter silence.

  “Is there any wood we can use to board up the windows?” Noah asked.

  I nodded. “In the mews out back.” I picked up a doll. Her face was cracked, leaving a gaping hole where her eye should have been. She smiled sweetly at me as her head hung listlessly to the side. “There are tools there, a hammer, nails.” I choked on the last word and the doll slipped from my hands, the remains of her face shattering against the unforgiving floor.

  “David, take her away from here,” Noah said. “Manoj and I will secure the shop.”

  “Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without such friends,” I said, then turned to Michael. “I need to see the headmaster. He must know about this.”

  He nodded. We exited the shop and climbed back into the cab. It was a short drive to the Chadwick home in St. James. The duke’s coachmen met us at the gate and took the horses. I kept my eyes downcast and my shawl high around my neck to hide my face. I didn’t want rumors among the servants, and most wouldn’t notice me at all dressed as a housemaid.

  Staying several steps behind Michael and David, I followed the others up the stone steps. A footman quickly ushered us inside.

  The interior of the luxurious townhome provided a stark contrast to my dark thoughts. The house was adorned with holiday cheer. Holly boughs trimmed with apples decorated the foyer. The scents of orange, exotic cinnamon, and cloves filled me with warmth, even though only a few candles lit the large halls at so late an hour.

  “May I ask the purpose for your visit, my lord?” The footman addressed David, ignoring Michael and me completely, which was fine with me. I settled in next to Michael and attempted to remain invisible.

  “I’m afraid it is an emergency. I must speak with His Grace immediately,” David said.

  “Of course. He’s in the conservatory. Follow me.”

  At first I wondered what Oliver was doing in the conservatory this late at night, but once we reached it, the answer was clear.

  Normally the conservatory was warm and inviting, a haven for prize fruit trees and plants that bloom through the winter. The conservatory should have been both humid and warm, capturing the weak winter sun during the day and trapping it within the glass walls. I was shocked when the footman opened the door and we were greeted with a blast of frost.

  The entire room was filled with mounds of white fluffy snow.

  The footman bowed as we entered, then shut the door quickly behind us, most likely to protect the main house from the sudden chill. Frost had painted itself over the glass walls and ceiling in delicate swirls of branching ice. All the trees had been moved. In their stead were several tables and chairs surrounding brass caldrons for fires.

  As we turned a corner, I lost myself in awe.

  Before us, taking up the center of the conservatory, was a glimmering carousel. Icicles draped along the canopy, and I marveled at the mounts. Each exquisite creature had been carved from ice, then saddled with thick velvet pads in deep blue and embroidered with silver thread. The shining poles pierced through the hearts of the creatures, holding the crystalline beasts in perfect form.

  I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life.

  Oliver, the Duke of Chadwick, poked his head out from behind a frosted mirror panel that obscured the view of the gears and mechanical structure that made the carousel turn.

  His brown hair was as haphazard as I’d ever seen it, and the gleam in his eyes as bright as ever. One eye did not open quite as wide as the other because of an injury he had sustained over the summer, but this gave him an air of curiosity and a certain roguishness.

  “David?” Oliver straightened, removing thick gloves even as his heavy coat seemed to swallow him. “What on earth are you doing here? You’re not supposed to see this before tomorrow night.”

  Oliver then noticed me and Michael. “Dear Lord, Meg? Why are you dressed like a housemaid?”

  “There’s been another attack on Meg’s shop,” David said.

  Oliver came forward quickly, swinging himself between a glistening ice dragon and a delicate unicorn.

  “Are you hurt?” Oliver took my hands and looked me over. I didn’t know how to explain to him that I hadn’t even been in the shop at the time it had been attacked.

  “I’m quite all right, but the shop is in shambles.” The thought made my stomach twist into dreadful knots, but I knew it could have been far worse. The first two times the man in the clockwork mask had broken into my home, he’d intended to kill. He’d started the fire that had taken my parents, and only last summer he’d tried to destroy the shop with a bomb.

  Yet his intent now seemed fixed on kidnapping me. I had no doubt I was the “quarry” he had referred to on the ship. I just couldn’t figure why his intent had changed. “The man in the clockwork mask has been sailing upon a French merchant vessel named Méduse. It’s leaving for Le Havre tonight.”

  Oliver’s normally bright hazel eyes narrowed. “And how do you know this?” He turned his scrutinizing gaze to David. “What have you done?”

  “Well,” Michael announced, swinging his hands and clapping them
together. “It has been a lovely night, and your carousel is remarkable work, Headmaster, but it is really time for me to be going.” He turned on his heel while tipping his cap, and with rushed steps walked back the way we’d come.

  I reached out to stop him, but Oliver’s voice sent a chill down my spine. “Let him go. You two, follow me.”

  David and I walked in step, like dutiful soldiers behind our commander. We followed Oliver up the stairs and into his large study. He took his place behind a desk that seemed fitting for a duke. However, he didn’t kick his boots up onto it the way he normally would.

  We were in severe trouble.

  “Out with it.” He wove his fingers together and awaited whatever explanation we were about to give.

  “This was all my idea. Meg knew nothing about it before tonight, and she tried to warn me off the plan.” David’s words shocked me, and I looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted a tail.

  Oliver spared me a glance. “And yet I see she dressed appropriately for mischief.”

  I took a step forward. “We went to the docks to investigate the two possible ships the man in the clockwork mask might have used to escape after he attacked last summer. We were fruitful in that we discovered the man aboard the Méduse, and we were not caught.”

  David held his hand up. “I sent Samuel to fetch my men and have the fiend arrested tonight.”

  “What?” Oliver and I said in unison.

  Oliver pushed to his feet and then called loudly for his footman. The footman entered with his hands folded elegantly behind his back. “Fetch Hawkins. I don’t care about his state of dress. If he’s in his nightshirt, so be it.”

  The footman exited with a bow.

  Oliver then turned back to us. “If you were gallivanting around the docks at this late an hour without a chaperone, then what is this business about the shop?”

  “While we were at the docks, the man in the clockwork mask broke into the toy shop and ransacked it to look like a burglary. He had intended to kidnap me. He said as much when we spied on him at the docks. So you see, it was very fortunate I was not there,” I explained in an attempt to defuse the situation. Still my stomach twisted a bit with nerves. What if I had been home? Even with my alarms, there would have been little to stop him from abducting me, save the pistol I kept close at hand at all times while alone in the shop.

  Dear God, this night was a mess.

  Suddenly the door opened and Oliver’s valet, an older gentleman with close-set eyes and bushy eyebrows, entered in his dressing gown.

  I looked down at the hem of my dress out of decency.

  Oliver pulled out a small bit of paper and jotted down a note. “Hawkins, have this sent by swift bird to John Frank immediately. Then please rouse Mary and have her prepare the Rose Room for a guest. When it is ready, have her escort Miss Whitlock to her room. That is all.”

  The valet nodded, stepped forward and took the paper, and then bowed and left the room.

  “Now, as for the two of you.” Oliver planted his hands on his desk and leaned forward. “Meg, you are to stay here. So long as the man intent upon kidnapping you is in the city, I want you under my roof. And you . . .” I’d never seen him look as serious as he did when he turned to David. “I’d like a word with you in private. Meg, would you please wait in the corridor for Mary to collect you.”

  “Yes, Your Grace,” I said with a bow, knowing he hated it when I called him that. It was only a bit petulant, but he wasn’t being himself at all. On more than one occasion he had personally put me in far worse danger than David had done.

  “Meg,” he said with a note of warning in his voice. He came around the desk and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Forgive me if I’m being overbearing, but I’m feeling protective lately. I know I am only a guardian in name, but I do feel responsible for your welfare, and I don’t wish to see you come to a bad end. I have too many plans for you. If you feel the need to head out on an excursion to a shady part of town, do inform me first?”

  I nodded. “I’ll make an attempt.”

  He turned me toward the door. “Go with Mary. Rest well. You’re safe here for the night.”

  I exited the study, then shut the door. There was no one in the dark hall, so I pressed my ear up against the wood, determined to hear what was in store for David.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO do?” Oliver shouted. I heard him well enough through the door, though his voice was muffled. David’s answer was harder to discern, if he answered at all. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to compromise her on purpose.”

  I felt as if all the air had suddenly left my lungs. I had considered the dangers of having my reputation ruined, but I never would have thought that David would attempt to trap me in such a way.

  Oliver said something, but I couldn’t hear him, so I dropped down and pressed my cheek to the floor to better hear through the crack beneath the door.

  “I’m being practical. Everyone can see how well matched we are. There is no other who can come close to being my equal. Our marriage was arranged from the time we were infants, so why shouldn’t I pursue her? If she married another, it would be a waste of her potential.” I couldn’t see anything of the room, but David’s words had me feeling both very hot and strangely chilled at the same time.

  Oliver didn’t respond at once. When he did, his voice sounded softer but held no less warning. “David, you are my brother by law, and believe it or not, I’m looking out for your best interest. You cannot trap her and expect to make her yours. If you wish to be a man, do what is right, not foolish.”

  “Excuse me, miss. Did you drop something?”

  I scrambled up, hitting the back of my head on the door handle. Wincing, I rubbed it as I turned to the maid. “I lost a button. It slid under the door.”

  “I can fetch it for you,” she said, reaching for the handle.

  My arms felt shaky as I smoothed my skirt. “No need. Mary, is it? I’m quite tired. It’s very late.” I folded my hands in front of me and hoped the girl hadn’t noticed we were wearing the exact same dress.

  “Yes, miss. Follow me.” She turned on her heel and then walked down the hall. I followed because I had little choice, but if I had had my druthers, I would have continued to listen to Oliver and David at the door. If that made me a horrible person, I’d have to live with my faults.

  Mary turned up the lamps in the rose bedroom. The light seemed to bleed into the dusky pink silk adorning the walls and the rosewood furniture. The scent of dried rose petals was as overpowering as the luxury, and this was one of the more humble guest rooms.

  I didn’t belong here.

  “Is there anything you might need, miss?” Mary asked.

  “No. Thank you.”

  The maid left, and I perched on the corner of the bed. The feather mattress sank beneath me, but I couldn’t let myself fall into it.

  I had too much to think about.

  What was I to do about David? I hated bearing the burden of having to discourage him. Unfortunately, it simply wasn’t in his nature to give up the hunt. The trouble was, I admired David. I even enjoyed his company and his wit, but in his world I became a shadow or a prop for lovely dresses, someone who happened to be capable of hosting tea.

  All my property, what little I had, would transfer to him. If I were a married woman, my husband would be in control of my life, my body—everything. I would have no recourse, and if I wished to pursue any of my own interests, it would have to be on his mercy until the day he died and I became a widow, and even then it would be my sons who could control my affairs. David would not allow me to continue running my shop, that much I knew for certain. It would be beneath my station as a countess.

  Whomever I married, I had to trust that he would willingly give me my freedom when I asked, because by law and custom he would not be obligated to do so. I didn’t believe I could trust David in that way. That was the problem.

  I wasn’t r
eady to marry. Not anyone, and if I weren’t careful, that choice could be taken from me. I had to protect it.

  I watched soft flakes of snow land against the cold glass of the window, where they hesitated before melting and dripping down the pane like tears. My heart was back in my lovely shop. I couldn’t get the image of it wrecked from my mind. What was worse were the moments when the images of the shattered toys mixed with the memories I still carried of burned wood and shattered glass from the fire that had taken everything from me.

  I hated living in the shadow of destruction.

  It was exhausting.

  But not exhausting enough to allow me to sleep.

  The chill in the deep winter night seeped into my bones as I sat on the bed and waited for dawn to break.

  • • •

  It was only in the light of the new morning that I settled enough to finally sleep. I ended up dozing off in a large armchair fully dressed. The maids must have been under orders not to disturb me. When I finally did wake in the late afternoon, my lavish surroundings baffled me for several moments as I struggled to remember where I was.

  Then Lady Briony, David’s younger sister, burst through the door. “Meg! I heard you were here, but oh it is late, and you should be dressed. The other Amusementists are already gathering.”

  I stared blankly at the young girl with slightly garish ginger hair and the unfortunate freckles that covered every inch of her face and arms even in the dead of winter. She was dressed in a pale gray ball gown with her hair curled and done up in lavender ribbons. She hadn’t been given the beauty of her sister, Lucinda, or the stature of her brother, David, but I liked her immensely. She reminded me of myself in a more innocent time.

  Blinking, I rose from the chair, but I was stiff, and feared my foot had fallen asleep. “What is all this?”

  “His Grace is demonstrating his latest Amusement tonight, and you’re going to miss it.” Lady Briony waved a rather intimidating platoon of maids into the room. “Lucinda sent me to make sure you were ready in time.”