Magnificent Devices 01 - Lady of Devices

girls got their skates turned in and their new patent-leather shoes buckled on. And all the while Lord James did not leave. In fact, Claire had allowed the girls’ reluctance to go on far longer than she would have had he not been there, expecting his impatience to get the better of him and drive him away.
    What could he be playing at, tolerating the Mopsies with such a fixed smile?
    He must be up to something. And in her experience, it could not be good. She must get rid of him at once. For Andrew to find out her secrets would mean a personal loss. For Lord James to discover them would mean swift, certain, and irrevocable social disaster, to the point where she would be received by no one, not even her own mother.
    “Girls, come along. We will walk this promenade and keep an eye open for Mr. Tigg and Willie.”
    “And who might these charming young ladies be?” Lord James’s tone sounded so affable that it must be false.
    The girls seemed to realize all at once that this gentleman was not just passing by, but seemed to be trying to make himself one of their party. And for a wonder, they buttoned their lips and regarded him with silent suspicion.
    Snouts’s training had been thorough.
    “These are my charges,” Claire said with admirable economy. “Margaret, Elizabeth, make your curtsies to Lord James.”
    Maggie turned big eyes on her sister that plainly said, Cooooo, a real lordship , before both girls bobbed obediently.
    “Your charges?” Lord James repeated. “Do you mean to tell me you are their ... governess?”
    “I am.”
    “And a fine one,” Lizzie said without a trace of Bow’s bells in her voice.
    “We quite like her.” Maggie took her sister’s hand. “We’re ever so hard on governesses.”
    Claire struggled not to gape, and then struggled even more with the urge to box their ears for playacting when the moment was so serious. She reached down and took Lizzie’s other hand with rather more firmness than necessary.
    “So nice to see you, Lord James. Good day.”
    “Just one moment, Lady Cl—”
    “Come along, girls!”
    “Wait!” he boomed just as one of those silences peculiar to large crowds fell all at once. Reddening, he collected himself. “Please, just a moment.”
    If she did not listen to him, he would likely stalk her the length of the arcade. “Yes, my lord?”
    He glanced to either side, but people had gone about their business. “I would have hoped for a more solicitous environment to say what I must say, but you are an elusive quarry. It seems I must take my opportunities where I find them.”
    “You have something you wish to say to me?” She had quite a number of things she wished to say to him, but not in front of the girls. If one wanted models of good behavior, one must be a model of good behavior oneself.
    “Yes. I—well, I—” Flushing again, he chewed the lower edge of his moustache. Good heavens. He was as edgy as a man about to propose. Not that she had any experience along those lines except for what she’d seen in the flickers.
    “Cat got your tongue?” Lizzie enquired.
    “He’s got something stuck in his throat,” Maggie agreed. “Lozenge?” She held up a hard cherry drop, somewhat fuzzy from being carted about in her pocket all day.
    Lord James looked down at them like Zeus from Olympus. “Little girls should be seen and not heard.”
    If Claire had heard that once, she’d heard it a thousand times, and every time it irritated her more. Girls should certainly be heard. It was their voices that the world was missing.
    “Really, Lord James, I’ll thank you to leave the girls’ upbringing to me.” Her tone could have been chipped right out of the sheet of ice behind them. “As it happens, I’m a great believer in little girls being heard, if they have something to say. Miss Margaret was merely offering to help.”
    “I was, wasn’t I?” Maggie sounded very pleased.
    “You’re not a nice man,” Lizzie told him, eyes narrowed. “You made the Lady go all frosty. You really don’t want to do that.”
    “Great Caesar’s ghost.” Lord James had finally lost his patience. He glared at Claire. “You’re as poor a governess as you are a scientist. All right. I’ll say what I have to say, and that is this. I will offer you a thousand pounds not to take the position in Andrew’s laboratory.”
    She could not possibly have heard him correctly. “I beg your pardon?”
    “All right, then, if you will stoop to bargaining.