The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele #1)(81)

She screwed up her face in a most unladylike expression. "Not damned likely. Besides, I can't come shopping. I'm going to see Travers again to tell him I've decided to play for my locket."

"No! Willie, you shouldn't. You promised Matt."

She strode to the door. "I have to."

"How? You said you have no money."

"I don't need money."

"You've asked Matt for a loan?"

She shook her head. "He's got too much on his plate." She jerked the door open, surprising her cousin who had his fist poised to knock.

He stepped aside with a raise of his brows as she stormed past him.

"Why is she in a foul mood?" he asked. "She was contrite when I spoke to her earlier."

I sighed. "She's still upset about her locket." I didn't tell him she was planning on gambling to win it back. It was none of my affair, and she wouldn't like me to tattle. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Better."

He did look better, but I'd come to expect to see the tiredness in his eyes now. "But not completely healthy."

A beat passed. Two. "I don't expect to be," he said.

My heart ached. What an awful thing to always feel tired, to be worried about one's health. No one should have to, particularly not a young, athletic and capable man like Matt.

"Don't, India." The low ebb of his voice washed over me. "Don't pity me."

Easy enough to say, not so easy to do. I studied the watch in my hand, tracing my thumbnail over the monogram. "Tell me about your magic watch, Matt. Tell me everything."

He touched his waistcoat pocket. Perhaps he didn't want to be parted from it for one moment, even at home. Having witnessed what happened when he was separated from it for too long, I could see why.

He closed the door and sat on the trunk at the foot of the bed. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at me. "So you believe in magic."

"I…I don't know yet. It seems so childish and fantastical, yet I've seen things. Tell me what you know. And tell me why I've never heard of such things as magical health-giving watches before."

"You've never heard of them because magic has been suppressed for hundreds of years. Magicians were almost wiped out in medieval times, after a small group committed heinous crimes using their magic. People panicked and attacked all magicians, not just the guilty few. Those who managed to escape have kept their secret all these years, out of fear."

I nodded, hardly daring to breathe. Could such a story truly be possible? "How do you know all this?"

"One of the men who gave me this watch told me about it. One of them was the watchmaker, known as Chronos, the other a surgeon. They saved my life."

"Surgeon? I think you need to start from the beginning."

He cast me a crooked smile. "I will, Miss Impatience. Five years ago, I nearly died from a bullet wound. The wound my grandfather gave me, as it happens."

"Oh, Matt," I murmured.

"No pity, India."

I pressed my lips together and nodded.

"I was in a town called Broken Creek, and the gunfight happened outside the saloon. A surgeon from one of the most prestigious hospitals in New York also happened to be in town."

"What was he doing so far away from home in a tiny backwater?"

"He was an alcoholic. He'd been given leave to dry out. Unfortunately for him, he didn't try very hard. Fortunately for me, I was shot at ten in the morning when the saloon hadn't yet opened. He was an excellent surgeon, even with a shaking hand."

"Was?"

"He's dead. I know that for certain because I went in search of him before I came here. I spoke to him just days before his death. Considering how much he drank, I was surprised he lived so long. I knew his name, you see, and I hoped he knew the real name of Chronos. They worked together on my surgery after the gunfight. I don't recall any of it, but Duke, Cyclops and Willie said it was both nightmarish and a dream come true. They told me Dr. Parsons worked on me on a table in the saloon. He'd removed the bullet but my life was slipping away and he hadn't sutured the wound yet. I was going to die unless a miracle could be produced."

"Or magic."

He nodded. "My friends told me that a small crowd gathered to watch Dr. Parsons work on me. Another man came forward. I'd seen him talking to Parsons some evenings in the saloon. He asked Parsons if he wanted to try his idea out, and Parsons replied that there was no chance of my survival using normal surgical methods. Duke told me that no one knew what the men meant, but Willie screamed at them to try whatever they wanted to make me live. They ordered everyone to leave, but Willie hid beneath a table in the shadows. According to her account, the man who called himself Chronos searched my person and found my watch." He patted his pocket again. "Willie almost revealed herself to accuse him of theft, but when she saw what he did with it, she remained hidden."

"What did he do?" I asked, breathless.

"Chronos held my watch in his hand, palm up, closed his eyes, and whispered some words. The watch began to glow, but neither man was alarmed. Willie thinks I stopped breathing at that point because Parsons shouted, "Now! It must be now!" Chronos took my hand and placed it over his, the watch between. As he chanted, Willie saw the purplish glow infuse itself into my skin and spread through my veins."