The Earl of Brass (The Ingenious Mechanical Devices Book 1) (19 page)

Ill-Mannered Guests

From the long table at the front of the hall, Eilian looked out at the crowd of ivory faces as the Englishmen and the Billawrati regarded the other with curiosity. He estimated there were about seven hundred people living in the city, and everyone, young and old alike, had come to the banquet. The stone tables ran the length of the room with four arranged lengthwise and a much smaller one sat at the front like an altar. Each table had been laid out with motley platters filled with what the archaeologist assumed were chutneys, bread, fish, crustaceans, along with fresh fruit and vegetables. His mouth watered as his grey eyes travelled across the plates on their table. After weeks of eating out of jars and cans with the occasional goat or deer, the succulent fish and vibrant fruit was more than he could have wished for. When away from home, he missed Patrick’s cooking more than he missed his own father.

Eilian sat beside Neuk while Hadley was on his left next to Uta, who appeared as equally aloof as she did during their first visit. Sitting farther down the table between Auk and Skean were Sir Joshua and Mr. Barrister. Once the room grew quiet, Neuk stood and addressed the congregation. Barely raising his strong voice, the chamber amplified the sound and allowed it to easily travel the entire length of the space without becoming muddled in the subsequent echo.

“People of Billawra, today is a special day in our history. For the first time in two centuries, we have been graced with the presence of those from the surface. While they are here, we will treat them as our own, and with an exchange of cultures, we will learn from them and continue our path toward happiness and knowledge. I would like you to welcome Eilian, Henry, Edmund, and Joshua to our fair city. My greatest hope is that these intrepid travelers will share with us all that the world has learned and teach us the ways of their people. Before we amass two hundred years of missing history, let us enjoy our feast and entertainment.”

Cheers of assent erupted from the crowd as Neuk sat back on the carved bench that seemingly grew out of the floor. As the scholar turned to Eilian, he found the archaeologist translating his welcome speech to the other men. He reached into his cloak and drew out the old, scratched crystal, gently pulling its antique chain over his naked head. Inside the off-white quartz were dark, dendritic veins with flared fingers that reached out toward the apex. Neuk drew closer to the massive man and his bronzed companion, handing the smaller man the gem while pantomiming for him to put it against his temple. Eilian explained it to them in their language, but when the tanned man put the tip to his temple, the scholar could tell it would not work. Neuk could see the hesitation and disbelief in his eyes as he awkwardly held the point to his head as if it was a gun. After a moment, he shrugged and handed it to the bulky brute, who turned it over in his hands, looked through its core, and moved to put it in his pocket. Before the scholar could react, Eilian stuck out his hand to retrieve it. His metal fingers closed around it as he handed it back to Neuk with downcast eyes.

“I would like to apologize for them,” he muttered, his cheeks reddening from their rudeness.

“It’s quite all right,” he replied with a sigh as he slipped the pendant back on. “Not everyone can accept knowledge this way. You need a very open mind.”

Uta leaned closer to Hadley and whispered into her ear, “It really isn’t.” The red-haired woman looked at her as if she didn’t understand, so she continued, “It’s a grievous breach of manners. To not take knowledge that is freely given to them not only shows arrogance but ignorance on their part. If they weren’t guests, they would be severely chastised for it.”

“Truth be told, I’m glad they did not learn your language. I like being able to speak freely without worrying about
them
overhearing.”

“Does this have something to do with your suddenly gruff voice?” Uta asked off-handedly as she passed her a plate of blue shrimp.

She nodded as she happily filled her plate. “They don’t know I am a woman. Back in England, women and men are not equals. Women stay home all day and clean or take care of the children. Most of the time, they are not allowed to have jobs or go anywhere by themselves.”

“Why?”

Hadley paused as she thought of the Harbuckles again. “I honestly don’t know. It’s in the Bible, I guess. They don’t think women are as capable as men, and that is how it has been for… forever. I pretend to be a man because I want to be able to do things and experience things for myself.”

“If your friend knows you are a woman and doesn’t mind, then why not tell the others? Prove yourself by doing as much as them, and then you can show them that women are just as competent. All they need to do is look next to them to see women like that.”

“Those two will never believe it. They like women being helpless and want to keep them in servitude. For each shred of evidence we have, they will find a way to dispute it,” Hadley sighed but ended up smiling as she watched Eilian discuss history with Neuk between voracious bites of fruit and fish.

Uta looked past Eilian and shook her head. “Ugh, look at them! They have no manners.”

Hadley frowned as she watched Sir Joshua dissect his food like it was laced with poison while Edmund just sat with his arms folded, not even touching his plate. She opened her mouth to chastise Joshua and remind him that it was the same prawn they would find in England only a different color when music erupted from the rear of the hall. While she couldn’t see the instruments because one of the long tables obscured her view, she could hear drums and something between a flute and a clarinet. Upon listening closer, she realized what she had first thought was a violin was actually several people singing. For the first time, a wide, bright grin spread across Uta’s face, dissolving her hard exterior.

A troop of nine dancers silently strutted into the open space between the pairs of tables with long, confident strides. Both the men and women wore only their skin-tight under-silks, but covering the black and white striped fabric were necklaces and earrings of luminous shells. The woman who stood in the front wore several strings of shells that wrapped around her legs and arms like tiny pearls. She was petite compared to Uta, but her body was powerful. Her taut muscles rippled beneath the tight fabric. As the music picked up, they began their dance, starting slowly and gracefully with outstretched arms and legs. The fair young woman’s face was painted with passion and longing as she leapt and spun to the music, moving in time with her fellow dancers but possessing a mysterious charisma the others lacked. She pulled them in with her fluid movements and expressive blue eyes.

It was unlike any dance Hadley had ever seen in England. The dancers she had seen in operas or ballets were stiff and mechanical by nature with clenched muscles and at times blank faces, but with unbridled emotion, the dance connected to her on a level she had never experienced before. She longed to reach out to them and be pulled into their dance until she heard male voices. Glancing over, she found that Eilian was as enraptured as she was, but Sir Joshua and Edmund were brazenly talking to each other. Hadley could barely hear them over the music, but her eyes widened with disgust as she suddenly understood they were discussing the lead dancer’s body. When she turned back to Uta, Hadley saw that she, too, was glaring at them menacingly. Finally, the music reached a crescendo, and the dancers dramatically dropped to the floor.

As the crowd applauded, the dancers helped each other up, panting and wiping the perspiration from their brows. The lead dancer pranced over gleefully and embraced Uta. The Amazon kissed her dancer’s flushed lips and hugged her close again before moving down to allow her to sit on the bench beside her.

“You danced beautifully,” Hadley complimented with a smile as she looked past Uta to the shorter woman.

“Thank you,” she panted as she loaded her plate with a colorful chutney while Uta added a portion of fish. “My name is Kae. Uta told me yesterday that your name is Hadley. Your hair is an even lovelier shade of red than Uta said.”

“Thank you. Are you two sisters?”

The women laughed softly. “No, Uta’s my wife.”

Hadley paused for a moment, she had never heard of such a thing. “Women can marry other women?”

“Of course, and men can marry other men.”

As the craftswoman listened to the others speaking around her, she faded back into her own thoughts. England was nothing like this. In London, others had mentioned women who loved other women, but it was said with a vulgar phrase as if their feelings were something repulsive. Uta and Kae’s kiss didn’t seem any less chaste than one between a man and a woman. Men who loved men lived on the fringes of society and were taken to trial if caught, but she never understood why it mattered to the police if biblical morality was enforced behind closed doors when murderers and rapists were on the loose. Her eyes ran from each table, taking in the happy, animated faces. No one was destitute, no one’s mind was left to rot on the vine, and no one was told that love was impossible. While it depressed her to know that she had to go home to a place where no one would ever be appreciated for who they really were, it gave her hope that one day it would be possible. A voice down the table broke through her thoughts.

“Eilian, could you ask them if they would show us how they make their fabric?” Sir Joshua asked slowly as he pushed his food around on his plate and eyed the black and white silk draped around Kae.

***

After dinner was over and the other Billawrati had gone back to their homes, Neuk and Uta guided the archaeologists through the helical caverns to a room guarded by a stone door with a carved relief of what looked like a butterfly. The two lanky chaperones pushed back a thick net before allowing the Englishmen into the muggy, steamy room. Slouching mulberry trees lined the walls, like the orchard they had visited before, but out of the corner of her eye, Hadley spotted a white blur flying toward her head. She stifled a shriek as the massive moth buzzed her head before disappearing into the copse. Eilian laughed under his breath as Hadley glared at him from the corner of her eye with an abashed smile. As Lord Sorrell stared at the moths fluttering through the canopy and the long, albino larva inching up the oversized trunks, he realized they must have been some sort of mutant silkworm. They were identical to the ones he had seen in Asia, but the mature moths were nearly the size of his head.

“How do they get so big?” Eilian asked as he ducked to avoid another renegade insect.

“Our people have selectively bred them for centuries. With the artificial warmth, they breed all year long, so we have enough thread for our weavers to make fabric consistently. I would show you where the weavers loom the fabric, but everyone has returned home for the night. You should return to your camp as well before it is too dark to see.”

As they were led back to the door, Eilian watched Sir Joshua slip something white into his pocket when Neuk’s back was turned. Lord Sorrell followed close behind the scholar, trying to pretend that he hadn’t seen anything to keep from having to shame his friend in front of the tribunal members. On the long, winding walk back to the surface, he couldn’t help but dwell on how poorly they behaved and how they embarrassed him at dinner. He had watched Joshua be pulled into Edmund’s antics, copying him instead of acting like a gentleman and giving the Billawrati the respect they deserved.
They don’t respect these people. They didn’t even want to get to know them at all,
he thought sullenly as his excitement finally dissolved into emptiness. Edmund and Joshua were indifferent to all he loved and marveled. It hurt to know that he had come all the way to Palestine to do something he enjoyed with someone he thought was his friend only to find out that he was not the person he seemed.

Neuk meandered through the tunnels until the cool night air began to stream through the shaft, gently ruffling his hair and tunic. Using a match and a makeshift torch of wood and cloth he had left behind when they arrived, Sir Joshua prepared to lead them back to their camp when Eilian and Hadley were pulled aside by Neuk’s spidery grasp. The older man knit his brows and glanced back at the other men at the mouth of the cave.

“I wanted to let you know that you two are welcome to come back whenever you would like, but we would prefer it if your friends didn’t come without you. We have reason not to trust them after the way they have acted, and until they can exhibit self-control, they can’t be permitted into Billawra unsupervised.”

Eilian nodded. As much as he hated to admit it, he wholeheartedly agreed. “I understand and respect your decision. I will tell them when we get back to camp. Take care of yourself, Neuk, and thank you once again for your hospitality.”

Understanding Women

The men were all asleep by the time they arrived back at camp, and although it was very late, Eilian could not yet go to sleep. He lingered at the flap of his tent, watching as the lamp illuminated Sir Joshua’s tent, silhouetting his form as he busied himself at his desk. By the loud snoring, he could tell Edmund was already asleep.

“I will be right back. I need to speak to Joshua,” he whispered to Hadley as she began to disrobe behind her screen.

Hadley nodded as she slipped her pajamas and robe on, but she wished he would have stayed until she was asleep. His presence during this daily period of vulnerability always gave her some semblance of protection from the others, who might intrude and discover her secret at any moment. Without looking back, Eilian slipped out and knocked on the support pole before entering the neighboring tent. Joshua glanced up from his desk with wide eyes as he quickly slipped something into his coat.

Eilian crossed his arms while the other man fidgeted and tried not to appear startled by his sudden appearance. “Is that the cocoon you pilfered? Did Mr. Barrister tell you to take it?”

He pulled out the large wad of silk and fiddled with it on his desk. “If you knew, then why did you ask?”

“Because I wanted you to know that I knew what you did. Now, I want to know why.”

“I needed something to prove that Billawra exists. This may be enough to convince people that they exist.” Joshua smiled to himself as he turned the fuzzy shell over in his hands. “This could be my big break, Eilian. This is the kind of discovery that puts your name in the history books. Just imagine what the officials will say when they go down into those caves and see what has been under the Negev for centuries, and the best part is no one noticed but us.” His voice rose with excitement as his eyes trailed off to some unseen panel of officials. “The first thing they will say is that I’m lying, but no one will be able to call
me
a fraud when they see all those buildings down there. There is no way I could have dressed all those people up or forced them to build those structures. We could lead tours from Jerusalem to their city. We will make a fortune off journeys to the Lost City of Billawra.” When he saw Eilian’s brows still knit in disapproval, he continued, “Of course we would give them a share of the profit to boost their economy and pay them for their troubles.”

“Joshua, they don’t
want
an economy like that. These people want to live in peace and prosperity without our interference. Do you know what a boat-load of foreigners traipsing in and out of their city would do to them? They are people, Joshua, not a sideshow,” he hissed, keeping his voice low as not to rouse the brute across the aisle from his slumber. “They aren’t pyramids, they aren’t ruins, they are
people
.”

He shoved away from his desk and glared up at him. “Why do you care so much about these creatures, Eilian? You know that your name would go down in history as well.”

“I don’t want my name tied to ruining a people whose society I admire.”

“Admire?” Sir Joshua scoffed. “Eilian, they are natives who live underground like moles and are too good to associate with the outside world. Look at how immodestly they dress in those tight clothes. Natives in Africa wear more. Some of them are even in unnatural relationships. They have no morals, and on top of it all, they are practically Marxists. I fail to see what you find so redeeming about them.”

“How can you judge them after being there for only two hours?” Eilian yelled but quickly lowered his voice again. “Those people are, for the most part, happy with their lives. They can do any job they want, and no one’s life is wasted. There are no classes to hold them back, no restraints on their potential.”

“You do realize that if you lived there, you would be the same as everyone else?”

“In the eight years you have known me, have I ever expressed that I would refuse to be anything but upper class? Have I ever said that I wanted my father’s title?”

“If your father didn’t have money, would you be here right now?” He locked his green eyes onto Eilian’s, holding them until finally the young man faltered. “No, you would be some working class drudge like everyone else, and being an archaeologist wouldn’t even occur to you. If you weren’t upper class, you most certainly couldn’t afford
that
,” he retorted, pointing to the clenched titanium hand, “so don’t act like you are an advocate for the poor.”

Eilian took a deep breath, desperately trying to squelch his anger. “I never said I was, but I think everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves, regardless of class or sex. Did you notice the women have jobs too? If you had actually tried, you could have spoken to them, and I know you would have seen how good it is for them to do something for themselves and actually use their minds.”

“I pity those poor creatures, forced to work like slaves without even getting paid. Do you honestly think women want to work?”

“Some do. I know a very brilliant woman who would love to work like her brother does. She is intelligent and talented, but in London, her gifts are wasted. In a society like this, she could flourish.”

“You obviously know nothing about women. Women want to stay home and live a life of leisure while we work to provide that for them. That is the natural order of things. Their minds aren’t made for taxing work, and I’m sure those women down there would give up their employment in a heartbeat if some man offered to pay their way. Personally, I have never met a woman who wanted to work.”

“The woman I’m courting would give anything to be allowed to work and prove herself.”

Sir Joshua scoffed and turned back to the papers on his desk. “She probably just said that to make you think that she was not after your money.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but the sharp pain radiating down his arm stifled his rage. “I wish I had never told you about the Billawrati.” Snatching the cocoon from Joshua’s hand, he flung it to the other side of the room where it hit the canvas and slid to the dust. “Neuk wanted me to tell you they don’t want you or Edmund to come back without me or Henry supervising you.”

“Honestly, Eilian, I couldn’t give a damn what the Bill-whatevers have to say about me.” Joshua smiled bitterly between jotting down notes. “When is your return flight to England?”

“The ticket is good until the end of the year.”

“You may want to use it sooner than later.”

Lord Sorrell stepped back toward the tent’s flap but snapped, “I’m glad that I told you about the Billawrati because now I have seen who the true Sir Joshua Peregrine is. Do not think you or your goon will be able to scare me off. I will
not
let you ruin these people.”

Without waiting for a reply, he stormed back to the larger tent. As he entered, Hadley’s sympathetic gaze peered up at him from the covers of her cot as she sat with her hands folded. His anger was spent, but the fatigue of battle sent bolts of lightning down his titanium arm and caught his breath.

“I’m so sorry, Eilian. I heard the whole thing. Are you all right?”

With a sigh, he ran a trembling hand through his hair before dropping onto the bed beside her. “I don’t know. He made me so mad that my arm started to act up again.”

Her eyes sagged as she reached out and gently tugged his Norfolk jacket off his back and over his arms. “Your nerves haven’t acted up since we were on the dirigible.” She sighed as she hesitated upon seeing him in his shirt sleeves, which clung to the muscles and scars of his breast even in the cool midnight air. “Don’t let him get to you. Joshua is just hoping he can make you back off, so he can get his way. You’re doing the right thing by standing up for these people.”

Eilian stood up to change behind the screen, but when he looked back into her bright blue eyes, he couldn’t help but feel a little better. Never had he thought he would ever find someone who would not only be his friend but wholly command his respect. The more he knew about her, the more he admired her intelligence and boldness, which, in a woman, only made her more attractive in his eyes. The archaeologist loved seeing her at night when she finally was able to let her guard down just enough to transform back into the woman he remembered spending time with in his library during his recovery. Even with her cropped hair and men’s wear, she was a striking figure, especially because her red hair contrasted so heavily with the desert’s dusty complexion.

As he came around the partition, he began untying the outer corset of his prosthesis but left the sleeve and springs to Hadley. Eilian perched on her cot and laid his prosthetic arm across her lap. Holding the warm, mottled flesh of his shoulder, she gingerly rolled the stocking down to reveal the inner workings of his arm. Something about their nightly ritual made the blood flush Hadley’s cheeks and breasts more than when he stood behind the screen between frocks. The most vulnerable part of his being was exposed with each piece of leather that was neatly untied or spring that was freed from its eye. She gazed down at the union of man and metal and traced the circumference of the bone with the tip of her ring finger. The breath hitched in his throat as the light tickle was crushed beneath the cramping in his unseen fingers. Taking the jar of petroleum from the nightstand between their beds, she massaged the ointment into every inch of scarred skin. When his muscles tightened and his inhalations sharpened, she pushed harder, kneading him until all thoughts of Joshua Peregrine and Billawra melted away.

“I hope you know I genuinely like you. I’m not sticking around to improve my station. My business has brought in plenty of money,” she whispered as she rested her head on his shoulder and placed her hand in the palm of his prosthesis.

“I know that, Had. He was only saying that to goad me into leaving. If he knew you, he would never say such horrid things.” He paused, unsure if he should say what popped into his mind or just let her go to bed. “How much do you like me?”

“I like you very much. You are very kind and obviously generous. Not many people would pay for a stranger’s trip to Palestine.”

“You aren’t a stranger to me.” Eilian stroked her hand, before taking it wholly in his left. “Would— would you ever be willing to spend a lot of time with me?”

Hadley chuckled. “I thought I already was.”

“I mean permanently,” he murmured finally looking into her eyes.

“Do you really mean that?” She searched his face for some hint of dishonesty or mockery but found only his usual sincerity. “Why me? You could have any high society woman you want.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want a noblewoman. I want someone who will get her hands dirty when necessary and travel with me. I want someone who is an equal, who will listen to me and see the flaws in my plans and be willing to telling me so. Someone who uses her head for more than displaying hats, someone who likes me for who I am and not what I am.”

The young woman sat beside him stunned, feeling her heartbeat echo through his flesh before pulsing back through her own. Her eyes burned. How could he ask the impossible? “Will you still feel this way when we get back to England and see all those people your parents are friends with? What would your mother and father say about this? They won’t approve of someone like me. Women like me aren’t the wives of earls.”

“You know I don’t care about what they have to say about us.” Eilian’s cloudy eyes widened as he wordlessly pleaded with her and held her hand tighter. “From the day I came to your workshop, I have worried that you would one day be married off to some tyrant who would squash your dreams and make you give up everything under the guise of love or motherhood. I promise I will never keep you from your work, and I will never stake any claim on your money or property. If need be, I will draw up contracts.” His face fell and his eyes stung when he thought of her hypothetical future. He knew better than anyone what it is like to have others desire you to give up everything you love to be the person they expect. “I can’t stand the thought of someone making you miserable for the rest of your life. Hadley, if I make you miserable, please tell me, and I will never mention any of this again.”

“Eilian,” she comforted as she cupped the faint scar that trailed up to the end of his jaw and turned his face to meet her gaze, “you have never made me miserable. I don’t want you to make a mistake. Your intentions are very noble, but is it really what you want? If you are trying to protect me, I want you to know that I can hold my own against pressure from other men. The bottom line is, I know what my feelings are, but I have to know if you are being practical or if you really love me.”

“I really love you.”