Something Strange and Deadly (Something Strange and Deadly #1)(38)

“So tomorrow morning, then?” I twined my fingers around my earring.

“Wi.” Joseph bowed his head. “Though I beg you to come quite early. We lose valuable time as each day passes.”

After a soft good-bye, I shambled into Machinery Hall and struggled to conquer my resisting heart.

Daniel’s words would not stop repeating in my mind: I’m almighty scared of Clarence Wilcox. But I had no reason to fear Clarence, right? Whatever Daniel’s reasons, they were his and his alone.

I tipped my chin up and drew my shoulders back. I merely visited the water closet—I must pretend that. Easy as pie.

Soon I saw the mist from the Hydraulic Annex, and the crashing of its waterfalls grew louder with each step. When I reached the rows of benches surrounding the pool, I scanned about for Clarence.

Then I saw Willis. He slouched against the pool’s rail, but his attention was focused elsewhere. I followed his gaze, and what I saw made me stop.

Clarence was talking to Nicholas Peger, and judging by their dark expressions, animated movements, and close proximity, the men knew each other—very well.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

By the time I reached Clarence’s side, Peger had slithered off into the crowds. It was probably best, for I didn’t want the blond reporter to recognize me. I prodded Clarence with casual questions about Peger, but Clarence insisted the man had only stopped to ask for the time.

Funny, because now jutting from Willis’s pocket was a rolled newspaper—the same sort of newspaper Clarence had acquired during his mysterious rendezvous on my front porch.

I let the subject drop, though, and I drifted into my thoughts. Clarence seemed focused on his own sad musings, and we spent the remainder of the hour wandering the rows of Machinery Hall in somewhat companionable silence.

When I arrived home later that afternoon, Mama cornered me, her mouth spewing questions. They weren’t angry questions, though. She wouldn’t stop clapping her hands and demanding specifics on my conversations with Clarence. It seemed it was all right for me to misbehave and run off with no warning so long as I did so with a wealthy bachelor.

The next morning I woke early and rushed to the Exhibition. As Joseph had said, there was no time to waste.

The three Spirit-Hunters awaited me at the Exhibition turnstiles. They’d been forced to abandon their lab when Peger had arrived demanding interviews.

Joseph pointed to the horse-drawn streetcars that clattered to and from the Exhibition. We clambered through the throngs to reach the concourse.

“I do not like leaving the lab.” Joseph fidgeted with the rim of his top hat. He held a black leather case in one hand much like a doctor’s bag, and it swung with each of his gliding steps. “Peger is like a spider who spins my words against me.”

“Aw, it’s good we’re all going,” Daniel said. “Three can work faster than one, and when we get back, the spider will be gone.”

“Four,” I corrected. I had to pump my legs to keep up with the team’s trotting gait.

“Huh?” Daniel glanced over his shoulder at me.

“There are four of us,” I said.

His stride slowed until he walked beside me. “I’m not sure you count, Empress.”

“Why not? I can scour the library as well as any of you! I have a brain and am perfectly...”

He was grinning wide. The rascal was teasing me! And before I could summon a worthy retort, he whistled brightly and sauntered ahead of me.

Blazes, he was cocky. And entirely too dashing for his own good—or for my own good, rather.

Moments later, and with no time to dwell on Daniel’s easy smile, I clambered onto the streetcar.

“Fare?” the mustached driver demanded.

“Oh, what is the—” I shut my mouth as he plucked a coin from my gloved hand. It was like magic! I had no idea how it had appeared there.

Jie gripped my now-empty hand and towed me to an open-air window. I was squashed by the other passengers, but at least I could breathe.

“Two for the price of one.” She snickered. “I gave you my quarter. The driver didn’t even see me get on.”

“Really?” So it wasn’t magic, then. Just Jie’s unnatural dexterity. I huffed out a jealous sigh. “So you managed to sneak on and slip money into my hand? How do you do it—move like that, I mean? Where’d you learn it?”

Her dark eyes crinkled with pleasure, but she didn’t reply. I inhaled for a dejected sigh, but gagged on the stench of people and horse. I thrust my head out the open window and sucked in air.

The horses heaved, and the streetcar rattled to a start down Elm Avenue, east toward downtown. Jie swung out the window beside me. Over the trotting hooves, squeaking wheels, and crunching gravel, I shouted, “You’re nothing like any girl I’ve ever met.” I couldn’t keep the envy from my voice, and my face was likely as green as my words.

But honestly, I hadn’t ever met anyone like her. She could go where she pleased, do whatever she wanted, and no one was scandalized by it. And most impressive of all, she could fight.

She rubbed the bald half of her head. “It’s because I have no hair. In China we say, ‘The girl with the full hair is not as free as the girl with the bare head.’“

“What?” I tried to ask, but the dust plumes from the road flew into my mouth. All I could manage was a wispy choke. I pulled back into the streetcar and coughed my throat empty. I tried again. “What does that saying mean?”