A Study in Silks

nod.

Evelina quickly catalogued the items on display. Battery. Wires. A pair of glass globes flickering with crazy arcs of electricity.

“Some fool is going to get a nasty shock,” Tobias muttered under his breath.

Evelina glanced up, realizing the buffer between them was gone. Imogen had sidled to a different position and was frowning at Bucky Penner, who was chatting with two other young bucks. Evelina wondered what nonsense Bucky had got up to now, and returned her attention to the unfolding drama.

“For those who do not know me, my name is Mr. Aragon Jackson, and I am fortunate enough to be in the employ of Mr. Keating. My purpose at Keating Utility is to come up with new ways to make gas, steam, and other types of power a useful part of your households. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I have something entirely new!”

Evelina half expected Jackson to whip out a bottle of cure-all tonic.

He pointed to the crowd, making a slow arc to capture them all in his gesture. “I ask you, who here has rung and rung the bell for lazy servants who never came?”

With an inward groan, she wondered if they were about to endure another new model of automaton.

“Who here has waited for refreshments, or the newspaper, or for the lights to be adjusted? Who can bear to bother with dull and inattentive servants one more day?”

A murmur rippled through the party. Evelina cast a nervous glance at the staff standing still as wax figures around the periphery of the crowd. Three of their number had just been murdered. This was not the time to persecute them.

“This invention is the answer!” Jackson swept an arm toward his creation. “I require a volunteer.”

Two of Keating’s men dragged forward a maid in black and white. Evelina’s stomach clenched. It was Dora. Jackson strapped something to her arm, then placed an odd-looking circlet on her head. It had a pair of antennae sticking up that reminded her of a bug. A wire ran from headgear to the armband, another from her wrist to the enormous battery sitting on the lawn.

“What is this?” Tobias growled under his breath.

“Using the very latest in wireless radio transmission, your summons can be communicated directly to staff on duty.” He pointed to what looked like a telegraph key sitting on a table beside the battery. “No more pulling on a bell rope only to have your desires lost in an empty servant’s hall. Now they have no excuse to ignore your wishes.”

Jackson leaned over and tapped the key. Dora cried out, fingers flying to the wristband.

Evelina started, looking around for an explanation. “What’s happening?”

Then she realized she was the only one who spoke.

“Yes,” Jackson announced to the suddenly silent audience. “This new invention wirelessly delivers a soundless summons anywhere within your house. No more shirking, no more hiding. All that is required is the equipment you see here, with the addition of one of our new patented portable energy cells, small enough for an active servant to strap onto her waistband. Obviously, the staff can’t be tethered to a large battery such as the one you see here.”

He paused, waiting for a polite chuckle to ripple through the crowd. Then he tapped the key again. Dora yelped a second time.

This time Evelina saw sparks. Smoke. There’s something wrong. Surely he can’t mean to hurt her! But maybe he did. There was something in the way Keating was glaring at Lord Bancroft that held a warning.

e’s gotHhhhHekkkkkkThe crowd had fallen raptly silent again, except for someone who tittered. Evelina scanned the gathering. Imogen had turned pale. Bucky was gone. Lord Bancroft looked outraged, Lady B horrified. Yet no one made a move as Jackson bent to adjust some dials. The crowd all looked at Jasper Keating, as if they understood a subtext Evelina could only guess at.

Then she heard an older woman behind her murmuring to her friend. “I would be careful if I were Bancroft. He’s been on thin ice this past week, ever since they caught him putting his money in the Harter Engine Company. Betting on the competition is hardly wise, especially with all the chitchat about the Quality throwing in with the rebels. I’d say that shock was meant for him, not his parlor maid. Keating’s just sending a warning through her.”

No one moved, no one objected. It was as if they had all silently agreed that the public torture of servants was entirely normal. They’re all too afraid of the Gold King to tell him to stop.

So was she. She was there at the invitation of Lord and Lady Bancroft. It would be the height of ingratitude to embarrass them in front of London’s elite. Crossing the steam barons would mean not just embarrassment, but punishment. And, unlike most of the richly clad guests, Evelina actually knew what being cast down to the gutter would mean.

But she also knew what it meant to have no power. No one had stood up for Grace Child. What would happen if no one spoke up for Dora now? Evelina’s heart pounded in her throat, afraid to move, too horrified to keep silent.

Her foot, as if with a mind of its own, was already poised to take a step off the social precipice when Tobias grabbed her wrist, pinning her to his side. He shot her a glance, shaking his head slightly. His eyes were wide with exasperation, but maybe with a touch of admiration, too.

“Mr. Jackson,” he said, raising his voice. “Surely you mean to summon the staff, not cook them.”

Nervous laughter went around the garden. Tobias slowly released Evelina’s wrist, as if he was unsure if she would bolt forward anyway to cause a scene.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

A fleeting smile touched his lips, but he turned and strode toward the machine before she could say any more. On the way past Dora, he unfastened the device from her wrist, plucked the odd-looking tiara from her head, and gave her a gentle push toward the house. She didn’t need to be told twice.

Tobias turned to face his father’s guests. “This demonstration is done. The unit is clearly defective.”

“Tobias!” his father barked.

But the spell was already broken. A general hubbub broke out as the guests scrabbled for a sense of normality. A great many of them nearly ran for the table with the brandy. Evelina used the milling bodies as cover to get a closer look at the machine and, even more, to see what Tobias would do next. He always surprises me.

“Does the young gentleman care to demonstrate his superior skill?” Jackson said with a hint of insolence. He might not have Tobias’s blue blood, but he had Jasper Keating as a protector, and that counted for much these days. “Does he have some acquaintance with machinery?”

By way of reply, Tobias shouldered him out of the way and crouched down to examine the machine. He turned a dial to his left and glared at Jackson. “You idiot, you had this set high enough to give the young woman a fatal shock. Wireless technology is far from perfected yet.”

“Obviously that is not the case,” Keating said. He stood closest to Jackson and near enough to overhear Tobias’s muttered remark. “As you can see, she did not die.”

“Tobias,” Lord Bancroft said again in a low, strained voice. The single word held a world of warning.

Be careful, Evelina thought. If Lord B was worried, so was she. Keating was in motion now, closing the brief distance to the Bancrofts.

The younger man ignored them both, intent on checking the wires connecting to the battery. Evelina knew that when Tobias was working on something mechanical, he was lost to the mortal world. “I could make this work, though,” he said.

“Perhaps,” said Keating. “Although you assume the device wasn’t set exactly the way we wished it to be.”

The furious expression on Lord Bancroft’s face sent a chill down Evelina’s spine. “Tobias is merely young, Mr. Keating. Hot blood will sometimes outweigh good sense at that age.”

There would be words between father and son before the day was over.

“Such an independent temperament can also bring unpleasantness.” Keating laid two fingers on Lady Bancroft’s butterfly brooch, stopping its wings. The brooch’s gentle chime stuttered to a sickly chatter. She stepped back, and Keating let her. He had crossed a thousand social lines by touching her at all, but once again no one