A Dance Like Flame (Of Magic & Machine Book 1)

by Tammy Blackwell

  Basil. Caraway. Anise. Coriander.

  Either Mr. Chanse was working on a new cooking device or the contraption was filled with potions.

  “Where did you get this design?” Mr. Chanse asked, pulling her thoughts back to the matter at hand.

  Bits straightened and ran her hands along her skirts. “My father was an Ironmaster.”

  His eyes narrowed on the paper in his hands, and she thought he was going to call her out on not actually answering his question, but instead he said, “I would like to help you, my lady, but I am not able to take on any other projects at this time. Perhaps if you were to come back in a fortnight…?”

  Bits’s good mood collapsed like a hot air balloon robbed of its heat. “Oh, is there nothing I can do to convince you? It’s just the two parts circled there. They shouldn’t take overly long.”

  Mr. Chanse wiped his hands on his apron despite them already being clean. “I’m afraid no amount of money can sway me, my lady.”

  Money. Of course he would expect her to pay for his time and the materials. If she would have been thinking, she would have realized that, but she hadn’t been thinking of anything other than how good it felt to be useful and competent once more. Plus, she’d never had to think about money before. She’d merely picked out what she wanted from whatever shop she was in and her father, and later in life, her brother or brother-in-law, took care of the charges later.

  Here she had no one to come and settle her bill, nor did she have any funds of her own. The realization was a bit jarring.

  “What if I can offer you something more valuable than coin?” she asked, bargaining with the only thing she had left.

  Mr. Chanse’s gaze slid to her chest and back up to her face. “That is very tempting, Lady Elizabeth, but I am a happily married man.”

  It took some time for what he thought she was offering to sink in. Once it did, she felt as if her entire body went up in flames of embarrassment.

  “You misunderstand,” she sputtered. “I-I-I don’t want… I w-w-would never… Th-th-th-that is to say…” She took a deep, steadying breath. “Your contraption. You’re having a problem with stability, are you not? The wheels catch and jerk, causing the liquid to spill out of the containers.”

  Mr. Chanse stepped towards her, his hands tensing into fists at his side. She was reminded of just how much larger and stronger than she he was. “What interest do you have in my invention?” he asked, his voice sounding more like granite than honey.

  Bits swallowed down the fear clogging her throat and forced her chin up. “I can show you how to fix it.”

  Chapter 11

  Ezra rested his head on the window of the carriage, trying to ignore the man sitting across from him. His body felt every sleepless, Residual-filled moment of the past three days. He’d spent the long hours at a farm just outside the city overseeing the care of the entire Tyler family who had been victims of a house fire. The father and oldest son didn’t make it to the first morning, but the mother had clung on, fighting for her life until there was simply no more he could do. The two youngest children had survived, but at the cost of becoming orphans. He was not entirely sure he had done the right thing by healing their burned bodies and smoke-filled lungs.

  He was exhausted and soul weary. All he wanted to do was sleep. Unfortunately, Jack was wide awake and in the mood for conversation.

  “The children will be fine,” Jack said, uncaring that Ezra’s eyes were closed. “The Derns will be good to them. They’ve wanted children for a very long time, and their farm is prosperous. The little ones will want for nothing.”

  “Nothing save their parents and brother.” Ezra scrubbed a hand over his face and sat up. “I’m sorry. I know you have done them a great service. Thank you for coming out and seeing to the situation.”

  When he realized Mrs. Tyler would eventually succumb to her injuries, he’d sent for Jack. Placing orphans wasn’t typically the Oberon’s responsibility, but Ezra couldn’t just leave the children to whatever fate awaited them. He knew what it was like to be left alone in the world without parents to love and protect you, and he couldn’t bare the thought of others facing the same.

  “I’m glad you sent for me,” Jack said, slouching in his seat and stretching his long legs across the length of the carriage. It was rare Jack had a chance to relax and drop the formality of being the Duke of Sidhe and Oberon of all the Touched in the British Empire. Only with Ezra and Hattie did his guard come down. “I was able to help two families today. I am thankful that you will at least allow me to assist you in the matters that affect my people.”

  “I do not require your assistance in any other manner,” Ezra said, aware of how clipped his words came out and not caring one bit. He was tired of this conversation, and more than tired of Jack seeing him and Lily as charity cases needing his interference. While they may not live in a grand house or have the most stylish clothes, they were doing better than a great many people.

  “Fine, we’ll talk about your stubbornness another day when you are more well-rested.” The corner of Jack’s mouth tugged upwards, and Ezra braced himself for whatever came next. “Tell me, how is Lady Elizabeth doing? I trust she is comfortable in your home?”

  Ezra’s teeth clenched to the point of pain. The problem with having a friend who had known you as long as you had known yourself was they always knew exactly where to strike a killing blow.

  While the home and luxuries he was able to provide were well and good enough for his family, they fell painfully short of being up to the standards of the daughter of an earl and sister-in-law of a duke. She didn’t say anything — she was much too kind and gentle for that — but she noticed the lack and resented it all the same. He could see it in the way she refused to meet his eyes or join him in conversation beyond the basic pleasantries. Lily said she was nothing but gracious and pleasant in her company, but once he was added to the mix she became quiet and solemn. Lily thought shyness towards men was to blame, but Ezra remembered their ride in this very carriage and knew it was merely her passing judgement on him for failing to provide better accommodations for someone of her rank.

  She didn’t belong here. Jack should have never allowed her to stay. Except, she’d wanted to remain here. She’d willingly turned away from the life she’d had, the silver spoon and all. She’d left her family and everything she knew behind for an uncertain future in Corrigan. What would cause a lady of her rank to seek refuge in Faeryland?

  It was a question he couldn’t stop asking himself. He thought of it, of her, constantly. Even while he was bargaining with the aether for the Tylers’ lives, he thought of her. If his thoughts were only about her hidden past — she was as stubborn as Alice when it came to revealing anything that happened in her life before that train car deconstructed — he might be able to justify them. What he couldn’t justify was how often he thought about the brilliant color of her hair or how a smile from her could brighten even the darkest of days.

  She was a distraction. One he couldn’t afford.

  “Lady Elizabeth is getting on well,” he said. “Lily is exceedingly fond of her.”

  The corner of Jack’s mouth kicked up another notch. He knew Ezra hadn’t answered his question.

  “Alice adores her as well. In fact, she has requested that the three of you join us tomorrow for dinner. She’s asked the cook prepare quail since it is apparently a favorite of Lady Elizabeth.”

  It was not unusual for Ezra and Lily to dine at Breena Manor. It was one of the few places Lily felt comfortable going outside of their home, even when Alice was not in residence. Now that her friend had returned, and seemingly for good, he expected their visits would only increase.

  But not yet. Certainly not now.

  “You can’t really mean to entertain with Lady Sidhe coming so close to the end of confinement?”

  “It’s a small affair. Just you, Lily, and Lady Elizabeth. That hardly counts as entertaining. You’re family.”

  “But she need
s her rest—“

  “She has to eat, Ezra, and should the baby decide to come early simply because we’ve set three extra places at the table, her favorite mage and surgeon will be right there.” Jack sat up and placed his elbows on his knees. “And before you can think of it, a bit of time away from the house will help Lily, not hurt her, and Lady Elizabeth is used to formal dining, so it will not inconvenience her in the least. As for you, there is no way you can practice for at least two or three more days. The Residual may have been expelled, but it has taken its toll. There is simply no reason for you to decline, so you are going to gratefully accept the invitation and see us tomorrow evening.”

  Ezra shoved his fingers through his hair. “Do you ever tire of getting what you want?”

  Jack’s laughter bounced off the walls of the carriage. “Not at all, my friend. Not at all.”

  Chapter 12

  Bracing himself for the dark cloud certain to be hovering over all the occupants of his house, Ezra pulled open the front door, not waiting for Mr. Green to realize he had finally arrived home. He immediately bounded up the stairs, both eager and dreading to see his sister.

  He hated leaving her alone in her bed, a fate he knew she considered worse than death, but he was left with few options. The Tylers had required constant vigilance, and with Garroway claiming the gods did not command him to intervene on behalf of the poor farmers, Ezra was left with the entire burden on his own. He had only eaten and slept when refraining from doing so was no longer an option.

  When Lily didn’t respond to the tapping on the door, he quietly turned the knob so as not to disturb her nap. Only once the door was open he found an empty and well-made bed.

  “Lily? Rose?” He turned, heart pounding. He half expected to see his sister’s broken body tossed carelessly in the middle of the hall.

  Where in the devil could she be?

  “Ezra? Is that you? Are you home?”

  The call came from the bottom of the stairs, which he hurried to despite the exhaustion weighing on him. Below, Lily sat smiling up at him from the chair he had purchased for her shortly after the accident.

  “How—?”

  “Wait. Watch,” Lily said as he slowly made his way back down the staircase. It wasn’t until she reached forward that he noticed two dials affixed to the front of the armrests. She turned them both counterclockwise and then pulled a lever at her side. When she did, the chair lurched in a backwards arch, pointing her towards the hall where a smiling Mrs. Green stood next to Bits, who seemed to be fascinated by the floor. “Isn’t it marvelous!”

  “Indeed.” The chair was most certainly the one he ordered, but improvements had been made beyond merely fixing whatever was keeping the wheels from turning. The front wheels were new and each linked to the dial above it. Some sort of clockwork device had been attached to the back and bottom of the chair. A thin line of steam emitted from it, floating like a small cloud behind Lily’s head. “I’m sorry, but the last few days have caused me to not think clearly. What is this? Where did it come from? How ever does it work? And how did you get downstairs?” It was impossible that Mr. Green could have carried her, and while the chair certainly defied common sense on what a chair was capable of doing, he highly doubted it could climb stairs.

  “It’s a steam-powered chair,” Lily said, smiling up at him. “It’s the only one of its kind. Bits created it especially for me. I don’t really understand the rhyme and reason of all these clockwork bits, but I do know it is as genius as my friend, who also, incidentally, is as strong as an ox.” She laughed, the sound doing more to soothe her brother’s soul than she would ever know. “Can you believe she came into my room and announced she was carrying me to the parlor and then just did it? Like it was nothing and I weighed no more than a feather!”

  “Lady Elizabeth?”

  “I’m sorry if I overstepped.” She did not look up from the floor, but he could see her blush all the same. It spread over the generous rise of her breasts.

  “You have nothing at all to apologize for.” He, however, should probably grovel for forgiveness over being unable to tear his gaze away from the dip of her gown’s neckline. She had the most lovely, perfect breasts he had ever seen. He thought on them far too often for his interest to be considered a mere appreciation. Obsession was a much more fitting term for his relationship with that particular bit of cream-colored flesh. “I am merely taken by surprise. I did not realize that watching your father work had turned you into such an accomplished Ironmaster yourself.”

  Bits’s gaze finally shot up from the floor. She obviously hadn’t taken his comment as the compliment he had intended. “Oh, no. I am nothing of the sort. Most of the work was already done. I merely gave the engine from an old steam-powered harvester a new life.”

  Ezra knew the steam-powered harvester to which she was referring. It had been sitting in the corner of his stables since Mr. Hale gave it to him in payment for helping his wife through a particularly tedious birthing experience. The machine had cost the man a great deal, but it had never worked properly, and so it was no hardship for him to part with it. Since Ezra had no fields of his own and every other farmer in the area knew enough to not purchase the worthless hunk of metal, Ezra had tossed it aside and forgotten its existence until this moment.

  “That machine required a coal furnace to work. Are you telling me my sister is setting on a boiler?” Dear gods. What would happen if the thing exploded?

  “Don’t be silly, Ez,” Lily said with a laugh. “Even I know better than to strap myself to a boiler.”

  “Then were does the steam come from?”

  This time it was Bits’s turn to smile. “We’re in Corrigan. Where do you think it comes from?”

  He didn’t know if it was exhaustion or sudden chaos of emotions caused by the sight of her dimples causing his brain to malfunction, but for the life of him he had no idea what she was trying to say.

  “It’s magic,” she finally informed him.

  “Magic?”

  “It’s my water heating spell,” Mrs. Green chimed in, clearly too excited to hold her tongue any longer. “It took some practice, but eventually we got it to make enough steam to power the thing without having to refill the water reservoir every little bit.”

  Lily pushed the lever at her side and the chair moved forward, causing Bits and Mrs. Green to jump out of its way. Lily giggled like the little girl he still thought she should be. He couldn’t stop his own grin from forming. To see her so happy and carefree was nothing short of a miracle. A miracle he owed to Bits.

  With gratitude clogging his throat, he stepped down the hall to where she watched as Lily attempted to turn the chair in a way that might allow her to enter the parlor. Before he could consider what he was doing, he grabbed her hand and lifted it to his mouth. She wore no gloves, and her skin was soft and warm beneath his lips.

  “You, Lady Elizabeth, are extraordinary,” he said, meeting her wide-eyed stare.

  “I… I mean to say… It’s… I…” The air she drew in through her nose had a staccato rhythm, and he felt a surge of pride at affecting her so. “It was nothing, Mr. Nash. Truly. Mrs. Green’s spell is doing all the work.”

  He realized, somewhat belatedly, that he still held her hand in his. Instead of releasing it as he should, he traced her delicate knuckles with the pad of his thumb. “You know I will never believe that.”

  She pulled her hand out of his hold. “Oh, but I do wish you would.”

  And she did. He could see it in her pleading eyes and hear it in the strain of her voice. Why would she not take credit for what she had done? Was she ashamed of her work? He knew aristocrats frowned on doing anything other than sitting about while others broke their back for the money they spent with little thought, but he thought she would be different. Her father held an occupation, after all, and she had no shame in admitting it.

  “Regardless of what you did or did not do, I owe my sister’s happiness to you.” She started to protest and he
halted her with a single raised finger. “That chair would have languished forever in the stables if it had not been for you, so do not say you did nothing. You’re the reason for any of it happening, and for that, I am eternally grateful. I don’t know how I will ever repay you.”

  “There is nothing to repay,” she said, her chin lifting defiantly as if begging him to argue. “You have given me a place to sleep, food to eat, and apparently the protection of the Duke of Sidhe. You have saved me from my the life I once lived, and for that, I owe you.”

  What he’d given her was a lifetime of living without. No matter what became of her in Corrigan — whether she stayed on with them or found a new position — she would never regain the lifestyle she once had. There was a wide chasm between the Touched and the aristocrats, one that existed for a reason. She didn’t belong in his world any more than he belonged in hers. He’d learned that lesson well long ago.

  Why was it she could not see that for herself?

  “Is it so bad? Whatever was waiting for you out there?”

  Her teeth bit into her bottom lip as she considered his question. “I don’t know,” she finally said, her voice so soft he had to strain to hear it. “But I know it’s not this good.”

  Chapter 13

  Breena Manor was no less impressive on Bits’s second visit. In fact, arriving at the grand entrance instead of waking up in one of the many rooms made it even more spectacular in her estimation.

  “I do wish we could have brought my chair,” Lily said as the carriage, once again borrowed from the Duke of Sidhe, came to a halt at the end of the long drive. Bits was pleased with how well she was taking to the device. She had caught onto how to use it almost immediately and was soon wheeling around the lower floor of the house simply because she could.