“Jesus, Gavin,” he said. “I nearly blasted you to Sussex. Are you drinking
“I would prefer,” Alice said in a small voice, “if you didn’t point that at me.”
“Alice?” Glenda holstered her weapon. “Good God, you look a fright. Are you all right? When did you start wearing trousers?”
There was a clatter of shackles as a set was closed over Edwina’s wrists. She did not protest or struggle. A look of sadness came over Alice’s face. Gavin wanted to hold her tight and let her head rest on his shoulder, let her cry if she needed to. He also knew she would be angry if he touched her in front of all these people. In the end, both of them just stood and watched Edwina be led toward the door in her long brown coat. One of the agents put the battered top hat on her head.
“Play ma que with the Queen, darlings,” Edwina called as she was towed out the door. “Ma que!”
“Poor bugger,” one of the remaining agents muttered. “Gone completely round the bend already.”
Lieutenant Phipps stood to one side. Her arms were folded, flesh on brass. Gavin hadn’t heard her arrive, and he wondered how much trouble he was in. “It’s three o’clock, ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “Smith, Peters-get the clockworker back to headquarters before morning traffic. The rest of you, dismantle this place immediately.”
A “yes, ma’am” chorus echoed around the room. Phipps dropped into Edwina’s chair. Alice and Gavin were on their feet.
“How did you know to come here, Lieutenant?” Gavin asked.
Phipps nodded at Alice. “Her automaton told us.”
“Kemp?” Gavin blinked. “He wasn’t supposed to-”
“I told him to tell them if we didn’t return within two hours,” Alice said quietly. “I’m sorry, Gavin. I didn’t think it was a good idea to go off alone.”
His mouth hung open. “You lied about the hot bath and the tea.”
“Yes.” She looked unhappy. “But it was a good thing, in the end.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Gavin said.
“Once again,” Phipps put in, “I’m torn between praising you and shooting you. This
“Yeah,” Gavin said. “She was also Alice’s aunt Edwina in disguise, so we got two for one.”
Phipps bolted to her feet. “
“It was,” Alice replied.
“You’re both in for a bonus and a holiday,” Phipps said. “See me back at headquarters for your report.” And she was gone.
“That was strange,” Gavin said. “She never gives bonuses, let alone holidays.”
“It’s not strange at all. The Queen’s letter said her job was in danger if Edwina wasn’t captured, remember? And Edwina can make the cure for the clockwork plague.”
“Which the Ward already has, if we can believe her,” Gavin said. “Alice, I hate to say it, but I think your aunt is entering the final stage. She said she has bad spells, and she was losing her mind there toward the end. All that business about ma que with the Queen. All that stuff about a cure may have been rambling.”
Alice shook her head. “I don’t think so. It was all too careful, too reasoned.”
Meanwhile, agents were rushing about the laboratory. They had already brought down crates and boxes and were packing up Edwina’s materials with swift movements that bespoke long practice. Simon was dismantling some equipment while Glenda took notes on how it went together. Glass clinked and metal clanged. Within three or four hours, all traces of the laboratory would be gone. Alice was swaying on her feet, her face drawn with exhaustion, and Gavin remembered how long they’d been awake. Their encounter at the symphony had happened this evening, but it felt like days ago. When had he last slept? He couldn’t remember, though he didn’t feel particularly tired-not with everything that had happened.
“We should get you back to headquarters,” he said to Alice. “You look half-dead.”
“If that’s the sort of compliment you’re going to give from here on out,” Alice said, yawning, “perhaps I should have stayed with Norbert.”
They left the other agents and went topside, where they found their snorting horses amid a crowd of Ward carts and carriages. The ride back was chilly, partly due to the early-morning mist, and partly due to the fatigue that drained the heat from Gavin’s bones. When they reached Ward headquarters, Kemp met them at the door with two cups of hot tea on a tray.
“Madam and Sir should have taken a hackney cab and let someone else bring the horses,” he fussed. “Shall I bring a warmed wrap for Madam?”
“Thank you, no, Kemp.”
Gavin drank hot tea and felt better as it warmed his insides. “You should go to bed, Alice.”
“I agree, Madam,” Kemp said. “I shall warm your sheets straightaway.”
Alice shook her head. “We still have to report to Phipps, and I want to check on Aunt Edwina.”
Kemp’s eyes flickered. “According to Mrs. Babbage-”
“Mrs. Babbage?” Alice interrupted.
“That is what the Third Ward’s primary Babbage engine prefers to be called,” Kemp said. “We have established an excellent working relationship. At any rate, Mrs. Babbage says Lieutenant Phipps is down on the clockworker level.”
“No doubt with Aunt Edwina,” Alice said. “Let’s go.”
Against Gavin’s better judgment, they headed for the creaking lift. Down in the stony underground, however, they found a pair of guards at the entrance to the hallway. Gavin scrambled to remember their names-Sean Something and Something Donaldson.
“Sorry, ma’am, sir,” Sean said. “Lieutenant Phipps left orders that no one is to enter the clockworker section until further notice.”
“But she’s my aunt!” Alice protested.
“Lieutenant Phipps?” said Donaldson, puzzled.
“No, I-oh, never mind.” She turned to Gavin. “I’m exhausted. Let’s go to bed.”
Despite the events of the day, the phrase went straight through Gavin’s brain to other parts of his body, which too happily responded. “Uh. .”
“Oh, good heavens.” Face flaming, Alice turned and stalked toward the lift. Gavin followed, though not before Sean shot him a small salute. In the lift itself, Alice stared resolutely forward. She was still wearing her cloth cap, though Gavin had taken his off indoors. Should women who wore male clothing remove their hats inside? He had no idea. Maybe some of the rules Alice worried so much about made sense-they told you what to do in a number of situations.
“I don’t like lies,” he said suddenly. Around them, the cage shuddered and creaked. “It bothers me that you lied to me about what you told Kemp.”
“Would you have gone along with it if I hadn’t?” she countered.
“No.”
She shrugged. “That’s why I did it.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Look, I’m not perfect. When I was little, back in Boston, I lied about all kinds of things so people would give me money, and on the
She thought about that. “Gavin, I lie to survive. I lied to my father about where I was going and what I was doing in order to sell my automatons or to sneak books out of the subscription library so I could read about science instead of poetry. I lied to Norbert about my feelings for him. And there’s more. My title hides who I really am. My clothes hide what I really look like. Even the Third Ward hides its true purpose. Our entire society lies. We give the lie so the truth can live beneath it.”
“You can lie to other people all you want,” Gavin said. “But not to me. I love you for the real you, for the truth.” He took both her hands in his. “I can’t do this if you’re going to lie.”
