Free The Spellbinder (Tom & Laura Series) by John Booth

Mother.”
    Before her Mother could react, she climbed up to sit behind the driver and shook the reins the driver was holding loosely. His horse obediently trotted down the road.
    “I don’t remember inviting you to drive,” Drake murmured.
    “Would you rather we stayed and listed to my Mother’s blubbing?”
    “Taking your point, Miss,” Drake said and he urged his horse to go a little faster as a loud wail started up behind them.
    Laura found to her surprise that the streets looked different from her higher vantage point, somehow brighter and cleaner. She began to relax, enjoying the sights and sounds of early morning London .
    “I’m taking you to Paddington Station, Miss. I understand the young man you’re travelling with has been given your tickets and travel instructions. We will meet him there.”
    “Please call me Laura, Mister Drake. Are you an agent too?”
    Drake laughed. “I’m a bit too old for that sort of thing, but in my prime I spied on the USA . Got out shortly after 1850. A lot of them couldn’t forgive us for what we did to them.”
    “Something happened in 1850?” History was not one of Laura’s best subjects and she had been only six that year.
    Drake snorted. “You could say that. They went to war to try and take the northern territories from us, places like New York and Boston that they’d lost in 1812. We had Albert Jones on our side and he destroyed them.”
    “Jones was a Class A,” Laura said quietly. It wasn’t the man’s real name, she knew, but his classification reminded her of her fate.
    “Something you’d know all about,” Drake said equally quietly.
    Laura looked at him in surprise. “I think that’s supposed to be a secret.”
    “Which is why everyone knows. You’ll be safe at Hobsgate. As safe as anywhere else, that is.”
    “Hobsgate is the name of the training school we are going to?”
    Drake laughed. “Typical of Trelawney not to tell you its name. I have no doubt the man collects his piss in bottles. Pardon my language, Miss…err, Laura.”
    “Where is Hobsgate, do you know?”
    “Nobody knows. At least nobody is supposed to know. Maybe you’ll find out when get there.”
    There were electric trams on the street when they entered the city proper. They had replaced similar horse drawn vehicles a few years earlier. Laura felt a sense of urgency about the city as people rushed to make their way to work. Street sellers called out their wares and the first edition of the morning paper was being sold by shouting boys.
    Whatever the boys were shouting was incomprehensible to Laura. She looked down as a motor car tried to pass them. Cars were ugly dirty devices and she hoped they would never catch on, but in her heart, she knew it was already too late and soon they would be a common sight. Judging by the words Drake shouted as his horse shied, she was not the only one who had a low opinion of them.
    When they reached Paddington, Laura was bustled out of the cab and into the station. Her trunk was loaded onto a trolley and Drake took her to a train where Tom stood waiting for her. He waved as soon as she came into sight.
    Paddington station was the height of modernity having been built by the world famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel only a few years before. There was even an underground railroad just outside to take people into the center of the city.
    Laura was fascinated by the energy in the station, only a couple of years ago the steam and smoke from the engines would have been unbearable. However, Prince Albert had decided that something should be done to stop London ’s black smog’s. In a move that was unpopular with businesses he had encouraged Parliament to pass laws to decrease pollution and the effects had been dramatic. The opposition was pledged to repeal the laws on claims they made the country uncompetitive, but Laura found herself siding with the Prince.
    Tom had been given a large envelope containing their travel warrants, which gave