The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele #1)(68)
My admonishment had no effect on him. His gaze didn't waver, his jaw didn't soften. "It is my affair."
"Why?"
Finally, he blinked. He looked away and rubbed his chin. "What if he's the intruder?"
I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Clearly you need more sleep if that's the direction your mind is wandering."
"I am simply worried about your welfare."
"Don't be. I can take care of myself where the likes of Mr. Dorchester are concerned. He's quite harmless."
His gaze snapped back to mine. "How can you be sure?"
"He's been very nice to me. He saved me from a brute the other night, if you must know. That's not the action of someone intent on doing me harm. Quite the opposite."
"What do you mean, he saved you?"
I waved his question off. "It no longer matters. Mr. Dorchester is a good man, and I think he likes me. That's all. Or are you telling me that I'm not the sort of woman who would interest a gentleman?"
"That is not what I'm saying at all," he ground out through a rigid jaw.
"Then what are you saying?"
He planted his hands on his knees and leaned forward. "I'm saying that not everyone is as they seem. You hardly know him."
My blood turned to ice in my veins. A foggy sensation descended over me, and I felt somewhat disembodied, like I wasn't in control of my mind any longer. "I hardly know you, either." My voice sounded hard, sharp. "And the facts I do know frighten me. Yet you dare to call him the untrustworthy one."
He straightened. "What facts?"
"The fact that your mother's family are outlaws. The fact that a sheriff is chasing you. The fact that you arrived in England at the same time as the Dark Rider." Each sentence was like a punch, pushing him a little further toward the back of the seat. "The fact that your special watch temporarily reinvigorates you by injecting a…substance into your veins that makes them glow."
His hands gripped the seat edge on either side of him. The knuckles turned white. "You are an observant woman."
I pressed a hand to my stomach and waited for him to refute my facts. He did not. Not even one. He turned to look out the window and declined to speak to me for the remainder of the journey.
We ended our search well before the sun set. Mr. Glass was too tired to continue, despite using his watch to re-energize himself a little after we paused for lunch at an inn in Hampstead. He pretended he needed to speak to Cyclops in the yard, but I knew he'd gone to use his watch in private. Why else would he close the carriage curtains?
We had no success. Some of the watchmakers we visited weren't home, and those that were treated us with reservation. We were not offered tea, and children and wives were ordered to leave our presence. One watchmaker shut the door upon spying me approaching. I remained in the carriage after that and allowed Mr. Glass to do all the talking.
We returned to the house and he went immediately to his rooms. Willie and Duke must have noticed the carriage roll up. They greeted us at the door, hope lifting their faces. Their expressions soon fell when they saw Mr. Glass's stooped shoulders and heavy eyelids. He didn't exchange a single word with them and headed straight for the stairs. Every step seemed to take enormous effort, as if he could barely put one foot in front of the other. We watched him until he disappeared.
"It's hopeless, isn't it?" Willie looked to Duke, tears in her eyes.
"There's always hope." He turned to look at me and frowned. I waited, but he said nothing, he simply looked.
"Do you think…?" Willie asked him.
"I don't know," he said.
"Ask her."
"Ask me what?" I looked from one to the other, but it was as if I wasn't there anymore. Unspoken words seemed to pass between them, and I hadn't a clue as to their nature. I cleared my throat.
"He'll be furious if we do," Duke cautioned.
"Only if she doesn't know," Willie said. "If she does know, then no harm done. In fact, if she does know then it could change everything. She could cure him."
"What?" I blurted out, half laughing.
"But if she does know, wouldn't she have said something already?" Duke said. "That's what he says."
I stamped my hands on my hips. "Will you tell me what you're talking about!"
"I'm asking her," Willie declared.
Duke clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I don't think—"
"India, are you magical?"
Chapter 14
Magical? Had Willie lost her mind? Duke too?
"I don't know what stories your government tells you in America, but magic doesn't exist," I said. "Not here and not there." I laughed and waited for them to join in. They didn't. "It's the stuff of children's fantasies," I added, sobering.
The hope glinting in their eyes vanished. Willie looked as if she were trying not to cry. "Do you, or do you not, possess magic?" she said again in a thin, strained voice.
"Going by her shocked expression, she doesn't." Duke sighed. "Forget we said anything, Miss Steele. And don't tell Mr. Glass about this discussion. He'd have our heads."