Magnificent Devices 01 - Lady of Devices

Lady Julia finally noticed that Claire appeared to be surrounded by children. Claire took a firm grip on the Mopsies’ hands and braced herself.
    “Goodness, Claire. Are all these children with you?”
    “They are. Girls, make your curtsies to her ladyship. Mr. Tigg, Willie, a bow, if you please.”
    To her knowledge, Tigg had never bowed to anyone in his life. But having just observed Andrew, he replicated the courtesy exactly as he had seen it, and Willie imitated him so well one would think he had been born to it.
    Gloria’s eyebrows drew together in such a way that Claire was tempted to tell her she would have wrinkles before she was thirty if she kept it up. “Is that ... person ... with you, Claire?”
    “Of course. I would not be concerned with his manners if he were not.”
    “I should think you’d be concerned with his clothes. Wherever did you pick him up?”
    Tigg began to swell. Andrew said smoothly, “I believe Mr. Tigg is in training as a chauffeur at the children’s home. Lady Claire is encouraging his interest in engines.”
    Both Gloria and Julia dismissed Tigg from their universe, for which Claire could only be grateful. “And who might you be?” Gloria bent as far as her corset would allow and chucked Willie under the chin. The boy tipped his head down and moved closer to Lizzie. “Don’t be shy.” When he still didn’t respond, she straightened. “Where I come from, children speak when they are spoken to.”
    “Willie doesn’t speak to anyone, milady,” Lizzie told her. “Don’t take it personal.”
    “Is that so. And you are?”
    “Li ... Elizabeth. This is my sister Margaret.”
    “And how do you come to know Lady Claire, Elizabeth?”
    Lizzie, don’t—don’t say it — Claire squeezed her hand in inarticulate warning and opened her mouth to say something—anything—
    “The Lady is our governess,” Lizzie said blithely. “We’ve been skating. Do you skate?”
    Gloria did not answer. She and Julia exchanged a single incredulous look and then turned it on Claire as if they were two automatons built for a single task. “Governess?” Julia’s eyebrows rose so high they practically disappeared under the flowers on her hat. “Governess?”
    “For what family?” Gloria’s voice trembled with scandalous enjoyment. “Oh, do tell, Claire, so I can send your invitation to my next ball to the correct address.”
    “You—you would not know them.” Claire’s lips felt stiff, her skin cold. Why had she chosen today to come to the exhibition? It had held nothing but humiliation and disappointment. Even her pleasure in Mr. Malvern’s company had been spoiled backward by the last ten minutes.
    “So they do not move in our circles?” Julia inquired.
    “What I mean to say is, I am not precisely a governess.” Was her voice as wretched as her blotchy scarlet face? “I am more a ... teacher. For the time being, until I find more permanent employment.”
    “So you are not with a family of good name and fortune?” Julia pressed. “Then these children are ... ?”
    Lord, help me.
    Andrew Malvern hoisted Willie up into his arms, drawing the young ladies’ attention in his direction almost against their will. “As a matter of fact, I have been assisting Lady Claire in her educational efforts this very afternoon. We have a collection of fine young minds here.” He smiled at her, and even in the depths of her misery, his kindness made her smile back. It was a poor effort, but his eyes twinkled when he saw it. “I have been doing my best for weeks to convince her to assist me in my laboratory, but her loyalty to her charges has thus far prevented it. I still have hope, however.”
    She could not bear another moment of Julia’s and Gloria’s smiles at her expense, however cleverly hidden behind beaded pocketbooks and gloved hands. Behind them, Lord James skewered her with his gaze. He would offer her fifteen hundred pounds to tell Andrew “no” once and for all. With it, she could return to her life and pay for a full year at the university. No one need ever know what she had been doing since that dreadful night in Wilton Crescent.
    With fifteen hundred pounds, she could leave it all behind.
    Willie wriggled in Andrew’s arms and held his own out to her. Without thinking, she reached over and took the child, his familiar little body settling against her with the full weight of his trust.
    Trust.
    He had trusted her, right from the moment she had pulled herself up