Rebel Magisters (2 page)

She was one of ours, so I said, “It’s more like I want to get rid of one.”

“He won’t dare come in here, so have a seat, and let me show you our latest range of silk stockings.”

I wasn’t sure how much time I spent looking at stockings I would never buy, but I thought that anyone waiting for me would be bored by the time I decided on a new pair of wool stockings. When I left the shop with a ribbon-wrapped parcel, the gray man was nowhere to be seen.

I made haste for the hat shop, where I slid the article out of my glove and passed it to the milliner. “I suppose I’d better buy something for show. I’ve been followed,” I said. “I think I lost him, but I’m not sure.”

“I’ll fix that right up for you,” she said, removing my hat. She put a new ribbon on it, with a curling bow to the side. “There, that should be an obvious enough difference that even a man will notice it.”

There were more soldiers outside when I left than there had been before, but they didn’t seem to pay any attention to me. I passed the gray man on the next corner. I was a little safer now that I had nothing incriminating on me, but I still preferred to get away without being questioned. If they got my identity, that would lead them to Henry, and his clandestine activities were far more dangerous than mine.

Then I noticed that there were a lot of other young women on the street, all dressed similarly to me. They came from every angle, shopping baskets like mine over their arms. There weren’t so many that it looked like an organized meeting, but as I moved toward a more crowded neighborhood, it became slightly more difficult for anyone to tell exactly which soberly dressed young woman was which.

I heard a loud, “Oh! Excuse me, sir! Oh dear, I seem to have spilled it on you. I’m so very, very sorry,” behind me and resisted the temptation to look back. A moment later, there was a shrill scream and a cry of, “Help! Police!” from a side street. Several soldiers went running.

I took advantage of the distraction to duck into a bookshop, where I told the yellow-haired man at the counter, “I need a getaway.”

A man lurking in the shop came forward and unlocked a door that led to steep stairs into a basement. This time, I wasn’t blindfolded. As many times as I’d used the secret subway, there was no longer any point in hiding its location from me. I felt my way through the darkness to the station.

The station was nearly empty, just a few people keeping the system running. A car waited at the platform. “Only a couple of stations uptown, please,” I said as the operator helped me board. “I need to look like I’m getting home a normal way.”

The car shot forward, and in no time at all it stopped. I felt my way through a dark passage from the station to a staircase, where I rapped on the door at the top in a certain pattern. The door opened, and I found myself in a florist shop. “It looks like it’s clear here,” the florist said, handing me a bouquet to add to my basket.

I strode confidently out of the shop and hailed a magical horseless cab. Only when I was inside and on my way home did I let myself relax at all. There was still a chance that the authorities could be waiting for me at home, but they would have no evidence against me unless that soldier at the laundry had confiscated the bundle I’d dropped off there. Otherwise, it appeared that my growing network had done its job.

Six weeks ago, I’d never have imagined I’d have so many friends who would jump into action to aid me. I’d had no one, not even family. My network of friends was rather odd in that I knew none of their names, and few of them knew mine. It was safer that way. But we could count on each other, and we all usually went unnoticed because we were the invisible people: the shopgirls, laundresses, governesses, maids, and others whom society relied upon but otherwise didn’t notice.

The cab stopped in front of the Lyndon mansion across from Central Park, and Mr. Chastain, the butler, was immediately there to pay the fare and help me down from the carriage. I barely made it into the house before Lord Henry Lyndon, my employer, accosted me in the foyer and pulled me into the drawing room.

“Where have you been?” he demanded, gripping my shoulders tightly. “I was expecting you an hour ago. Did something go wrong? I knew I shouldn’t have sent you.”

“I was a little worried about someone who might have been following me, but I seem to have successfully eluded him,” I said.

Henry went pale, and his grip on my shoulders tightened. “You were followed?”

“Briefly. But my behavior while he followed me was above reproach, and with some help I was able to get away. It would be impossible for him to have tailed me home, and by the time my friends were through with him, he would have no way of knowing which girl he was watching.” I was nearly as nondescript as my follower had been, so I was sure the other girls with baskets had thrown him off the trail.

He released his hold on my shoulders, but he still stood very close. “Why would you be followed?”

“It’s the café,” I guessed. “It’s a known meeting place, and I was perhaps too familiar with the waitress. I’ll have to avoid it in the future.”

“The café?”

“I stopped to write an article. It seems that at least some of the troops quartered in that area will be leaving soon.”

For a moment, I was afraid that Henry’s worry would turn to anger. My errand had been to deliver the money for him. Everything else I’d done had been on my own. He knew about my other activities and generally endorsed them, but perhaps I shouldn’t have jeopardized his mission.

“You weren’t followed from the laundry?”

“If I was, there was no evidence whatsoever of any other ill-advised behavior,” I assured him.

“I’m going to quit using you as a courier like that,” he said as the color gradually returned to his face. “It’s too dangerous, and I can’t ask you to take that risk for me.”

“Well, since you’ve stopped pulling off armed robberies for the time being, you shouldn’t have much need of a courier for awhile,” I shot back.

He grinned. “Touché, Miss Newton. But really, Verity, we must be careful.”

“I’m always careful. And as I said, I have friends looking out for me.”

I thought for a moment that he might say something more—he always seemed to be on the verge of saying more to me when we talked like this—but a small figure flew into the room. “Miss Newton! Did you bring me anything?” Olive cried out as she threw her arms around me.

“Olive, Miss Newton is under no obligation to bring you anything when she runs errands,” Henry said, scolding his niece.

“No, I am not,” I said, unable to restrain a smile. “But on this one occasion, I did happen to pass a candy store.” I took the bag of candy out of my basket and handed it to her. “But you must share with your brother and sister.”

“Flora won’t want any. She’s watching her figure,” Olive said with all the disdain a six-year-old could muster for a teenage sister.

Before she could run off with her treasure, Henry cleared his throat. She stopped, her eyes widening in horror. “Oh! Miss Newton, I’m so sorry I forgot to thank you. Thank you so much. You are so kind.” She opened the bag and held it toward me. “Would you like one?”

“No, thank you, Olive. But it was very polite of you to offer, and you are quite welcome for the treat.”

She ran off, shouting, “Rollo! Miss Newton brought us candy!”

“I’m afraid some refresher lessons in deportment are in order,” I said.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Henry said. “I don’t expect you to purchase treats for the children.”

“I went into the candy shop to distract my follower,” I said. “It’s one that has no rebel ties that I know of, so I knew it wouldn’t be suspicious, and if I went into the shop, I had to purchase something. You give me more than enough money for these errands.”

“I couldn’t possibly pay you what these errands are worth to me. But this is the last one.”

“You know that won’t stop my actions for the cause,” I said, perhaps a bit too defiantly, considering he was my employer.

“Yes, but then it’s not on my head if something awful happens to you.”

“I know what I’m doing, and I know full well the danger I face.”

“You didn’t at first. I should never have sent you on those errands without warning you.”

“I already knew—or guessed.”

“But
I
didn’t know that, which means I sent a girl unknowingly into danger on my behalf.”

It was an argument we’d had a few times since all our secrets had come out. I’d suspected he was the leader of the Masked Bandits, but had learned it for certain at the same time he’d learned I was spying for the Rebel Mechanics. Later, he’d learned I wrote for the unauthorized rebel newspaper under the name Liberty Jones. As he’d joked, the foundation of our friendship was the fact that we had enough information to utterly destroy each other.

It was only later that evening at dinner that I realized I’d forgotten to tell him about my possible sighting of Colin, but since I wasn’t sure I’d actually seen Colin, I decided I didn’t need to tell him, and I didn’t get an opportunity to speak privately with him after dinner.

The following day was more routine for me: Olive and I walked Rollo to school, then spent the morning doing lessons. In the afternoon, Flora joined us for some supervised reading mandated by Henry, who wasn’t content with letting his oldest niece be little more than a pretty face. Olive and I retrieved Rollo from school, and after going over his homework with him, I got a free hour while the children had art and music lessons.

As I usually did, I headed into the park across the street. It was a fine, crisp autumn day, and I reveled in my momentary freedom. My job was so much easier and more pleasant than those worked by most of the other members of my network, and I got to live in a mansion, but there were times when working with the children strained my patience. I knew I was a good teacher, and I was qualified, but it wasn’t quite the profession I would have chosen if I’d had any options.

Not that I had any intention of leaving. I loved the children and felt like a part of the family. And then there was Henry…

I was lost in thought, musing over my employer and his unique temperament, his lovely blue eyes, and the way he was so different when he was alone with me, when I heard a familiar voice call out in a hiss just above a whisper, “Verity!”

I whirled and saw a man lurking under a tree a few feet from the footpath. He wore a somber dark suit and a bowler hat, but I recognized Alec Emfinger, the man who’d recruited me into the Rebel Mechanics under the guise of a suitor.

So, the rebels really were back in town. But why?

In Which

I Am Asked

and Ask a Favor

So many emotions surged through me that I wasn’t sure which one to express. I was glad to see him, even if just to know he was safe. But I also remembered my anger at him for letting me act like a lovesick schoolgirl when he was merely reeling me in to his cause. And I was curious as to what he was doing back in the city after he’d made such a narrow escape, thanks to Henry and me.

I decided it was best not to express anything at all, especially while we were in public. That required me to steady my breathing and release the fists I’d formed. “Why, Mr. Emfinger, what a surprise to see you here,” I said, acting like he was any acquaintance I’d happened to encounter in the park. “I didn’t realize you were back in the city.”

He moved closer to me and said in a voice too low for passersby to make out his words, “It’s the machines and the group they wanted. They hardly notice the individuals.”

“So you’ve come back? I thought I saw Colin yesterday.”

He smiled. “Yes, and he’s rather put out that you snubbed him.”

“I was in a situation in which I thought it best not to draw attention to him—or to myself.”

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. “So he gathered. Otherwise, you know him. He’d have made a scene.”

I couldn’t help but smile in response at the mental image, but then I remembered what I’d asked. “You didn’t answer my question about being back in town.”

“I make frequent visits.”

I gave my best impression of the kind of trilling, lighthearted laugh Flora and her friends used when they attempted to sound witty at parties. “And you just
happened
to run into me in the park when I was taking an afternoon walk. What an extraordinary coincidence!” More seriously, and with an edge to my voice, I said, “What is it you need, Alec? I thought you’d learned that it’s best to be straightforward with me. We’re long past the point of playing coy games with each other.”

He offered his arm to me. “Would you care to join me for a turn around the park, Miss Newton?” In a whisper, he added, “For appearances.”

I stared at his arm for a long moment, as one might contemplate a potentially venomous snake, before I took it, and we began strolling. “We’re doing quite well,” he said, speaking softly and tilting his head toward mine in the manner of a young man courting his girl. “I won’t tell you exactly where we are, but we’re out of reach of the British government. We’re still working on our machines, and we believe we’ve proved that they might help equalize us against the magisters, so the revolution stands a chance of succeeding, but it will take far more than one or two steam engines and an airship. What we have are merely prototypes. We need to produce dozens—even hundreds—of them in order to make a difference.”

“You’d need a factory,” I said.

“Yes, and raw materials. Lots of steel. Coal for furnaces. People to do the work. All that requires funding. Since we’re doing this in secret as part of a revolution, we can hardly go to the bank for a loan, and we won’t be selling anything we make, so there will be no profits for investors, until perhaps after we win and we turn these machines to civilian uses. We’ll need them then for power other than magic once we kick the magisters out.”

“Wars are rather expensive. That’s part of why taxes are so high. Just maintaining a military presence throughout the Empire must take tremendous amounts of money.”