Brilliant Devices (12 page)
“I think you have spoken very well,” Davina said. “Can every household afford one?”
“It depends. All the rich folks seem to have ’em.”
“And what of families that do not have the resources?” Andrew asked. “Are they a status [heyan>
“Maybe,” Alice allowed. “But mine are just useful. I build ’em with what I have on hand, so that often determines what they’ll be used for.”
“Nine, for instance, has magnetic feet for locating items buried underground,” Claire put in helpfully.
“Six and Seven work in the engine room, Eight has his hoses, and Four—”
“We used him for an engine housing, I’m afraid,” Andrew said with a laugh. “We were stranded in the Idaho Territory and he sacrificed himself to get us back in the air.”
The governor appeared behind John’s shoulder. “Earl Dunsmuir, Count von Zeppelin, I hate to tear you from your lovely companions, but we are meeting in the library. May I show you the way?”
Claire and Alice smiled at the reluctance with which the count allowed himself to be led away from a discussion that clearly interested him. Claire was rather
more interested in what the meeting might be about.
“Men,” Davina said. “How can they think about business when the orchestra plays so divinely?”
Andrew gave her an odd look before he said, “Perhaps you would honor me with another dance?”
And then Claire and Alice were claimed, and it was not until the evening ended that they saw the count again. They were putting on their wraps in the great entry hall with its black-and-white marble parquet when he came out of another door swinging his driving coat on.
“Lady Dunsmuir,” he said, “might I offer your protegees a ride to the airfield? I am most interested in continuing our discussions about automata. You too, Mr. Malvern. I am a great reader of your monographs and would be honored if you would accompany us.”
“You—you drive yourself, sir?” Andrew said.
“Certainly. My captains will follow in their own landau. They think I drive
zu schnell
—how do you say? Too fast.”
Claire
bit back an eager acceptance, and turned to Davina. “May we?” After all, they had come with the earl’s party and were his responsibility.
“
You will be careful with them, Ferdinand,” Davina said, half teasing, half stern. “They are precious to us.”
The count bowed, sweeping his beaver topper from his head. “As my own daughters, my
dear lady.”
“Then you must enjoy the ride, girls. We will see you
later at the
Lady Lucy
.”
Andrew
handed Alice down the steps and into the rear compartment, and Claire seated herself in the front next to the count.
“This is a
Daimler
,” Alice breathed, looking about her as if she were in a palace.
“Eight pistons,” the count said proudly, flicking levers and spinning a great wheel next [t wnt>
to his knee. “She’ll do nearly sixty miles in an hour, if the roads are good.”
“Sixty…! Oh sir, when we get to the airfield, may we please look in the engine compartment?” Claire begged, and was thrown back against the seat cushions when the Daimler took off like a horse from the starting gate.
“I will give you a personal tour of it tomorrow,” the count assured her. “Now,
Fraulein
Alice, I beg you to tell me more about these automata of yours. You say the one has magnetic feet?”
Claire relaxed in the seat next to him as the count kept one eye on their route over the prairie and the other on Alice as he peppered her with questions. When he had extracted her promise of a demonstration in exchange for a good look at the engine in daylight, he s
aid, “It is my belief that man was not created for drudgery, but for genius, and craft, and good, profitable work. Why should the factories not be run by automata? Why should machines not be operated by machines?”
Claire had never devoted much thought to the subject of mechanized labor, but clearly, the great man had. On the other hand—
“But, Count, machines cannot solve problems, or take a line of action to a logical conclusion. They can only obey.”
Andrew chuckled. “I could say the same about many a fellow student in school.”
“Yes, but those students are likely not inventing great devices in manufactories.”
“God has given us many gifts,” the count said, “among them creativity, logic, and consideration for the needs of others. But I am not speaking of these. I am speaking of rote tasks on the manufactory floor. Why encumber a man with such when he could be in the laboratory, conducting experiments?”
Something about this argument bothered Claire, but she could not put her finger upon it. She gazed into the darkness, thinking, as the landau’s lanterns illuminated the road ahead.
Road
was a generous term. The landau took its bumps and potholes in stride, its great wheels floating over them as if they were nothing. The moon had moved across the sky to the point where Claire could tell it was very late. Past midnight, at least. She hoped the Mopsies had not waited up to hear about the ball.
“Count, do you not think that—
”
He cursed as a deer or an antelope of some kind bounded
into the lamp light and across the road, and hauled back on the bar that controlled the rate of steam. Simultaneously, the sheet of isinglass next to her ear exploded inward, showering her with glittering fragments. She screamed and leaped to her left as the landau swerved and hit the bank on the driver’s side. The heavy Daimler’s nose lunged at the sky and then dropped them half on top of the bank, the engine laboring at nearly full throttle as its wheels thrust them up and over the other side.
The deer bounded right, then left, and then disappeared into the darkness.
“Count!” Andrew cried. “What are you doing?”
And then Claire saw the blood.
The right side of his head was awash w [d wg of rotith it, dripping black into his pristine collar and soaking the gray wool of his driving coat.
“Count!” she shrieked. “Andrew, he’s hurt!”
Without a second thought, she grabbed the acceleration bar from hands that had convulsed around it. Between her position and her inability to move the unconscious man, it was awkward, but she pulled back on it with all her strength.
The Daimler had been moving at a speed of at least forty miles to the hour. The bar fought her, bucking and shuddering, but she did not release it. Instead, she threw her weight against it, wedging herself against the instrument panel and trying to gain purchase on the floor.
“Claire, the wheel!” Alice shouted. “You must turn the wheel to reduce the steam pressure!”
“I don’t have another hand,” she
managed on a gasp.
Alice flung herself over the back of the seat and, hanging bent in half, feet in their delicate dancing slippers braced against the bench, reached for the wheel
and spun it with both hands.
Something groaned deep in the belly of the landau and dual clouds of steam hissed out of both sides of the bonnet.
It seemed like an hour before the great landau came to a reluctant, canted stop against a small rise crowned by a stubby tree that had seen one too many winters. With a sigh, the vehicle settled onto its wheels, as blown as a horse.
Andrew gripped Alice’s waist and assisted her to slide back against him, and all three of them pushed open the
wings and scrambled outside.
“Alice, grab one of the lanterns,” Claire
said. “Andrew, help me get the count out where we can see him. Oh, please don’t let him be dead!”
Andrew slipped his arms under those of the unconscious man, and they pulled him from the Daimler. Once he was laid
out on the long grass of the prairie, Andrew laid an ear upon his chest.
“Alive,” he said, and Claire’s knees went weak.
Alice bent down with the lantern. “This don’t make a lick of sense,” she said, “but it looks like he got creased by a bullet.”
“A bullet!”
“You’re right, that doesn’t make any sense,” Andrew agreed. “But only because we don’t have all the facts. But they must wait for another time. At the moment we must act, and quickly.”
“We have to get him back to Government House,” Alice told him in a tone that said there was no other option. “It’s a good
couple of miles, but he needs a doctor, pronto.”
“Where are his captains?” Claire said suddenly. “They can help us. They may even have medical training.”
“I’ll fetch them.” Andrew leaped up. “See if you can stop that bleeding.”
The sound of his dress shoes thudding on the ground faded into the dark. Claire scrabbled under her skirts. “At last. A sensible use for
froufrou
“Nothing,” Alice said in despair
, waving her hands at the frothing pool of skirts. “This is the most useless outfit in the world.”
“My kingdom for my corselet and all its pouches. Never mind. If you would be so kind as to remove the ivory pick from my hair, I shall thread it through these holes. At least
this fine cotton will provide some protection and absorb the blood.”
Alice pulled the pick from her chignon and
sucked in a horrified breath. “Claire, you’re bleeding yourself!”
Claire
secured the count’s makeshift bandage before she lifted a hand to her cheek and brought it away smeared with blood. “It doesn’t hurt, and I am fully conscious,” she said in a wondering tone. Would she collapse without warning at any moment? “It must have been the isinglass window. Is it very bad?”
“Head wounds bleed like a son of a gun,” Alice said quietly
, her fingers gentle as she investigated. “There’s a lot of glass in your hair, and a bunch of tiny cuts, but nothing big. The count’s in much worse shape. If it was a bullet, and even if it did just graze him, we have to act fast.”
“Alice, the ground is freezing. We must get him into the back of the landau and cover him up.”
“You’re right. Come on. Lucky job he ain’t built like that Lord Arundel. We’d never manage it.”
Claire dropped the poor man’s feet once, but together, with much huffing and a few whispered curse words from Alice, they got Count von Zeppelin into the rear
compartment of the landau. Claire activated the storage door in the side, and there, like a miracle, was a heavy traveling blanket and a can of kerosene for the lanterns.
“At least we won’t be left in the dark.” Alice
refilled the Daimler’s lantern carefully while Claire tucked the blanket around the count’s unresisting form. “Where is Andrew, for gosh sakes? This man doesn’t have any time to waste.”
They could hear nothing but the sound of the wind, whistling through the dead branches of the tree.
“He should have been back by now.” Claire closed the compartment door with a thunk.
Alice gazed at her, eyes huge and becoming increasingly frightened in the lamplight. “I didn’t hear a shot.”
“We didn’t before, either. The window simply blew inward with the force of the projectile.”
“It would’ve got you and him both if he hadn’t swerved for that antelope.”
“Alice?”
“Yes?”
“Perhaps they’re still out there. Perhaps you should put out all the lamps. We are not, after all, so far from where it hit us.”
“I’ve got a better idea. Let’s
go get Andrew and get out [ an
If only she’d watched more closely as the count had initiated the ignition sequence! But no, she had been too bothered by the thought of Andrew and Alice alone in the rear compartment to pay much attention.