“Lichen?” He raised an eyebrow. “I thought I told you to use the silver polish on that.”
The sun dipped below the edge of the world. The Viscount’s soul-clock gave one final, clear chime.
“I know,” she said again, softer.
She did not look back.
No answer.
Tina spun, duster raised like a sword. A small, spider-like automaton clung to the adjacent gear. Its single ruby eye flickered weakly. This was Pipsqueak, the Viscount’s long-forgotten clockwork valet, half-crushed in a wardrobe accident forty years ago.
“Pipsqueak! You’re alive?”
They spent the day doing nothing of importance. They ate breakfast in the greenhouse—moon-carrot omelets and starlight jam. They walked through the Hall of First Meetings, and he pretended not to remember the day she arrived, but she caught him smiling. In the afternoon, they sat on the roof, watching the impossible sun of the Estate’s pocket dimension bleed gold and rose across the sky.
“Lichen?” He raised an eyebrow. “I thought I told you to use the silver polish on that.”
The sun dipped below the edge of the world. The Viscount’s soul-clock gave one final, clear chime.
“I know,” she said again, softer.
She did not look back.
No answer.
Tina spun, duster raised like a sword. A small, spider-like automaton clung to the adjacent gear. Its single ruby eye flickered weakly. This was Pipsqueak, the Viscount’s long-forgotten clockwork valet, half-crushed in a wardrobe accident forty years ago.
“Pipsqueak! You’re alive?”
They spent the day doing nothing of importance. They ate breakfast in the greenhouse—moon-carrot omelets and starlight jam. They walked through the Hall of First Meetings, and he pretended not to remember the day she arrived, but she caught him smiling. In the afternoon, they sat on the roof, watching the impossible sun of the Estate’s pocket dimension bleed gold and rose across the sky.