Free Supernatural Devices by Kailin Gow Page B

East Indies and Malaya.”
    Cruces bustled off into another room, while Scarlett busied herself looking at his various books. Who was this fascinating young man? He used to own a tea plantation or two, had his own residence, paint, made scientific inventions, and collected artifacts. Yet he looked barely a few years older than her.
    There walls of books covering all the usual sciences, plus there seemed to be a few volumes that were written by hand, in a mixture of languages. They seemed to record experiments, with detailed drawings of devices that seemed impressive in their complexity. There were designs for automata intended to help around the home, for something that appeared to be some kind of counting machine, and which had the note ‘improvement on Babbage’s design?’ beside it, and even for a kind of spherical diving bell with small clockwork engines to allow it to maneuver beneath the waves.
    “Would this work?” Scarlett asked as Cruces came back with the tea.
    “Undoubtedly, with the right materials. The design would spread the pressure of the water evenly, so it is merely a question of coming up with a sufficiently strong yet clear substance. I have tried a few things. And now you must try your tea.”
    Scarlett did. It was better than she had imagined it would be. It was warm, strong, and smooth…the flavor evenly dispersed. “You said that we would talk about the case,” she said after she had sipped it. “Or was that simply a ruse to get me here?”
    “Not at all,” Cruces said. “From what you said back in the station, you found both Cecilia and the ring immediately before the Order acted.”
    Scarlett nodded. “I did. I also listened to what Cecilia had to say on the subject. You know that she considers you to be a thief?”
    “ I am meant to be a thief?” Cruces asked incredulously, but his expression grew thoughtful. “Yes, it is possible that she would believe that.”
    “She said that the ring was rightfully the property of Romanian royalty, and that merely buying it for a collection did not make it yours.”
    Cruces laughed. “I suspect that the city’s auction houses would argue with that view. In any case, it is rightfully mine.”
    “Really, you are Romanian?” Scarlett looked at him closely.
    “That is perhaps not a helpful term. The country is a young one, after all. Barely ten years old.”
    “But you are from that region?” Scarlett pressed.
    Cruces cocked his head to one side. “I notice that you do not question whether I am royalty or not.”
    It was Scarlett’s turn to laugh. “Ah, but you have to be. It explains so much about you. Your insufferable arrogance for one thing.”
    Cruces sat there and sipped his tea for a moment, then put it down abruptly. “There are more things I should show you,” he said. “Will you come with me?”
    Scarlett followed Cruces as he led the way back through the house, and then upstairs. That made her a little apprehensive, because a small part of her suspected that they were heading for Cruces’ chambers, where a young woman of good breeding should never be alone with a man. Particularly a young man known to be a rake. Scarlett was willing to go along with him for now though, partly because whatever he wanted her to see was obviously important, and partly because she suspected that Cruces was not quite the mannerless man he pretended. Indeed, once she pieced together what she knew of him, she had to wonder if he was a man at all.
    Cruces led the way up to a long room at the front of the house, which seemed to serve as a kind of gallery, housing a collection of artifacts of a much less mechanical bent than those below. There were portraits on the walls of individuals who seemed to share Cruces’ beauty, along with flags taken from lands Scarlett did not recognize, and which might well no longer exist. A couple of ancient swords were crossed on the walls, while a series of glass cases held objects of worked gold and precious stones,