Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1)(42)

“All right, Danny?” Lucas asked. His brown hair had been slicked back, and his eyes were bright. He sounded friendly enough, but made no attempt to hide a smug smile.

Danny recognized this group. They weren’t exactly the kindest crowd in the Mechanics Union. A blonde apprentice clung to Lucas’s arm, eyeing Cassie. The girl’s upper lip curled.

“All right,” Danny replied cautiously. “Didn’t know you’d be here, Lucas.”

“Sure. Smart thing to do, isn’t it? Socialize, meet other successful young people like ourselves. Well, nearly all of us, anyway.”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “Are you suggesting something?”

“Oh, not at all. You’re a young mechanic, Danny, and plenty successful. Bar that one minor incident, of course.” He tapped his chin, and Danny wished he could cover his own. “Some of the others, though …” Lucas followed his companion’s gaze to Cassie, who tightened her hand on Danny’s elbow. “What’s this? I thought you weren’t for the ladies, Danny.”

“I’m his friend,” Cassie said, her voice cold enough to ice over the punch bowls. “We’ve known each other since we were children.”

“How sweet,” Lucas said. “Now I see why you don’t like ladies.”

Danny shook off Cassie’s hand and stepped forward. He was as tall as Lucas, but that’s where their similarities ended. Lucas boasted a broad chest and thick arms. Danny wouldn’t last long against him.

“Don’t!” Cassie whispered. “It’s not worth it.”

“What did you mean by that, Lucas?” Danny growled.

Lucas held up his hands. “Only that with such a fine lady in your sights for so long, all other women must have been spoiled for you.” The others grinned.

Damn Lucas. Damn him and his stupid, long eyelashes.

“How have the assignments been?” Lucas asked. “You were in Enfield, weren’t you?”

The town’s name made Danny’s heart stutter.

“I was in Guildford, myself. Rather nice clock tower there, if you haven’t been. But that’s beans compared to the new assignment they’ve put me on.”

“And where might that be?”

“The new Maldon tower.”

The room came to a standstill. Though others danced and talked and laughed all around them, Danny stood in a pocket of stillness, deprived of his senses except for the ring of one crucial question: Why?

“He’s chosen you?” The words strangled his throat. “You?”

“Why, Danny, I thought you’d be happy for me.” Lucas’s smile turned cruel. “Maybe if you’re extra good, I’ll tell the Lead you ought to assist me there. Teach you a thing or two. After all, you need more friends.”

“You must be his only one,” an older apprentice said to Cassie. Danny remembered him from his classes. “He never visits anyone else except that old washed-out mechanic.”

“And an unknown chap in Rotherfield,” Lucas added with amusement.

“Stop it!”

“There was that one fellow,” Lucas drawled. “Barnaby, was it? You two were rather close, weren’t you? Until they relocated him, anyway. Such a sweet little couple, we always said.”

Danny flushed, then turned pale. The sudden shift was so similar to the heat and chill of a fever that his body began to tremble. Lucas had been walking down the hall when Barnaby had given Danny his second-ever kiss. Lucas had looked into the empty classroom just in time to see it.

That had been before Danny had felt comfortable with others knowing his secret. They’d begged Lucas not to tell.

Danny should have known better.

“Bit brave of you, doing that in a classroom,” Lucas went on. “We all thought you and Barnaby were such shy little things. Imagine my surprise when I saw him pawing at you like an animal!”

They laughed at Danny’s stunned face.

“Darling, I think he’s about to burst into tears,” Lucas’s companion loudly whispered into his ear.

Danny did nothing of the sort. Instead, he grabbed Lucas by the shirt and punched him in the eye.

The people around them screamed. Lucas staggered and nearly fell, but Danny caught him and clouted the side of his head. Lucas regained his senses and sank a fist into Danny’s stomach, winding him. Cassie wrenched Danny back as a whistle sounded. Two chaperones elbowed the crowd out of the way.

“He hit me!” Lucas whined. He had dropped dramatically to the floor upon their arrival, one hand covering his eye, hair in disarray, companion fretting at his side.

“Explain yourself,” a chaperone demanded.

“It’s not his fault,” Cassie pleaded when Danny remained silent. “This lot was provoking him!”

“That’s no reason to come to blows. Come along, then.”

“But he hit back!” Cassie pointed at Lucas, who had somehow managed to work up tears. He should have been a bloody actor.

“Did anyone else see this young man fight back?” Of course, Lucas’s friends shook their heads, even though Danny was doubled up clutching his stomach. “There we have it.”

The chaperones escorted Danny out of the building. It seemed he’d found an escape route after all. His head spun, and the dark, narrow streets of London blurred together. He shrugged their hands off his shoulders.