A Spark Unseen

17

It was late when the hired carriage rolled to a stop before the red doors.

“We are arrived, Miss Tulman,” Henri Marchand said. I nodded and sat up straighter, trying to rouse myself enough to climb out of the carriage without his help. I’d made a scene in the morgue, given the crowd their money’s worth, I’d wager, until Henri Marchand found me and took me back to that hateful little office while we waited for the police. Mr. Babcock had been found in the Seine, in the “dead nets” as they called them, strung across the river to keep the city’s rubbish from flowing downstream. There were no signs of violence on his body, so his death was being considered an accident, but I knew better. Mr. Babcock had never done anything “by accident.” Someone had taken his life from him, and the noisy grief I had suffered in the shabby morgue office was as much about the utter wrongness of it as the pain of losing my dearly loved friend.

Obviously Henri had thought to send a note ahead because, before he had finished speaking to the driver, the red doors burst open and I was in Mary’s arms. Mary got me inside, locked the door behind us, and then took me up the stairs, her own eyes red and swollen. She turned to me on the landing, my hand still in hers.

“You’ve got to be going to the attic, Miss,” she said, holding her voice low. “Mr. Tully is —”

“Is he all right?” I was late. Horribly, horribly late. Again. I had been consumed with my own grief when I should have been worrying about my uncle. “Has he hurt —”

“No, Miss. He’s angry, but he ain’t hit his head or the like. It’s strange. It’s still playtime, been playtime ever since you was gone, Miss. He’s all out of sorts and can’t think of nothing else. But he does need you, Miss, and I’m sorry you can’t even be taking a moment, but first …” She drew a deep breath. “You have to be telling me. Do you know? Do you know who …” She couldn’t finish.

I shook my head. I was frightened almost out of my wits, and I still didn’t know exactly whom I should fear, other than everyone. I put a foot on the next stair, but Mary’s hand pulled me gently back.

“One more thing you ought to know, Miss. Mostly I’ve been with Mr. Tully today, you understand, but I’ve been keeping a sharp eye to the window, and that man, the one by the lamppost, well, he was leaving sometime in the afternoon, and then sometimes I was downstairs, Miss, and …”

“Of course, Mary.” I didn’t expect her to stay above stairs every hour of the day. She dropped her voice to a hoarse whisper.

“Well, I was in the kitchen, getting Mr. Tully some things to eat, and that little Marguerite was there, and Mr. DuPont, Lord love him — that little girl is a wonder with the man, Miss — and I told them I was that fond of toast, which is why I was making so much, and …”

“I understand.”

“And I noticed a young man, Miss, at the back door, talking real low with Mrs. DuPont, and …”

My body jerked. “What do you mean? What sort of young man, Mary? English or French?”

“I weren’t certain, Miss, and when I was asking the old bat when she came into the kitchen — she acts like I ain’t allowed in the place, Miss, which sets my teeth on edge, as you can —”

“What explanation did she give?”

“She said it were the boy delivering groceries, only I didn’t see no groceries, Miss, so when I was back upstairs again I just took a peek through that funny little window, you know, Miss, the round one that looks out over the back into that garden what belongs to all the houses, and there she was again, Miss, talking to a man, only this was a different one than the first time. And she gives him a little package and off he goes.”

“A package?”

“That’s right, Miss, and it happened again, only with the same man what didn’t have the groceries before. And again later in the day. I’m not knowing how many times I didn’t see, Miss. But I thought you was needing to know.” Mary’s lip trembled slightly. “Whatever are we going to do, Miss?”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her or myself that I just didn’t know.

“Late!” my uncle shouted. “You are late, late, late, and late!”

He was standing in the middle of his workshop, his fists clenched, all glare and shadow from the light of the gas lamps. I was struck suddenly with the impression of a nursery, only with hammers and files and pieces of metallic humans instead of tin horns and toy soldiers. I listened to Mary carefully locking the storeroom door behind me, and tried to pull myself together. It was amazing that Uncle Tully had not gone into a full-blown tantrum when I missed my appointed time that evening. He’d taken apart several of the room’s wooden chairs, but that appeared to be the worst of it. I could not let him see the terrible state I was in lest he decide to reverse his progress and have a tantrum now.

“I’m very sorry, Uncle,” I said, straining to find my normal voice. “Sometimes it is hard not to forget.”

He considered this as I pretended to straighten my skirt. “That is true, Simon’s baby,” he said. “Sometimes I forget. But I waited already. And the girl was unhappy.” I glanced at Mary, wiping her cheeks as she shut the bookshelf door and hurried away toward the little stove. “I waited for twenty, and then I waited more. …”

“I know you did, Uncle. You are so good at that now. I think it is splendid that you were able to wait so long. Marianna would be so pleased.”

He fidgeted while he thought about this, plucking at the jacket. I watched him waver, then all at once tip to the side of contentment. “That is just so, little niece. Just so. But come, come here quickly. Hurry up!”

I followed him over to the box that had made the blue “lightning,” created from the parts that Mr. Babcock had brought him. I turned my face just slightly away, so my uncle would not see the fresh pang of grief the thought had brought me. Uncle Tully was bouncing on his toes.

“It is a new toy! A new toy, Simon’s baby! Now watch,” he demanded. “It is new. Watch!”

I stood obediently while he pushed his little clock-key lever; the blue fire shot between the poles as before, and then, suddenly, a bell began to ring on the other side of the room. I spun, startled, thinking Mary was behind us, but there was no one. Mary was still at the stove, kettle in hand, her mouth slightly open, staring at a little bell that hung from a panel on the workbench. Its clapper was going back and forth, as if a hand were shaking it. Only there was no hand. There was nothing at all. My uncle let go of his lever, and the bell went still. I turned to look at him, my mouth a similar shape to Mary’s. Uncle Tully clapped his hands.

“Is it not just so, little niece? Is it not just right?”

I did not understand. Down the lever went again, and tendrils of blue electricity snaked between the poles, buzzing and crackling, oddly mesmerizing. I reached out a finger.

“No!” my uncle bellowed. “No, no!”

I jerked my finger back, again wracked with guilt. I really was not myself. I knew better than to touch one of Uncle Tully’s things. He was panting, his eyes very bright, but all he said was, “No, Simon’s baby. The lightning will hurt. You do not touch the lightning. Never, never touch the lightning.”

I put my hands behind my back while he made some minute adjustment to the wires and pushed down his lever. The bell rang instantly, and this time I hurried over to examine it while it rang, waving my hand in the air in front of it, looking for some kind of tiny string. But all I could find was a small wire, attached to one of the clear fluid-filled jars, the same sort of jar that was attached by wires to the lightning machine. And there was nothing else; the bell was ringing alone.

“How …” I stopped myself. Uncle Tully did not tolerate questions on “how” any better than he did touching. But somehow he was making that bell ring, making that blue spark fly through the air unseen. I wished Lane was here, seeing this. I wished I could have described it to Mr. Babcock. Once again, Uncle Tully had created something unbelievable, almost magical in its proportions. And this, I thought, was why Mr. Babcock had died. Because of Uncle Tully’s wonderful and astonishing mind. I held an arm across the ache in my stomach, and then I realized that the bell had gone quiet. Uncle Tully spoke from just behind me.

“You are not splendid, Simon’s baby, and neither is the girl. Did I do it wrong?”

I glanced back at Mary, who had been watching the bell with a handkerchief pressed to her mouth. I tried to smile, and then on second thought turned my face away. “You did it just right, Uncle Tully. The new toy is so very splendid. Where did you get the bell?”

“From the boat in the box with the other things.”

I remembered seeing that now, the box of tin toys in the corner. There had been several boats with bells, much like the one we’d found in my grandmother’s library at Stranwyne, the one Uncle Tully had made balance on its keel. Having the boats must have been important to him at one time, if Marianna had made sure to have them in Paris. But she was gone, just as Mr. Babcock was gone, and Lane was not here to help me either. How could I protect my uncle? How could I take care of everyone? So far I had taken care of no one at all. The knot in my insides was now an agonizing weight, the tears I could not prevent rolling freely down my cheeks. The clocks in the room struck a multi-note clang, marking the half hour. I felt a feather-light touch on my sleeve.

“Here, Simon’s baby,” said Uncle Tully. I looked down to see the brass flower sitting in his palm. When I waited, he pushed it into my hand. “Here. You like the flower.”

I took the intricate, shining thing, amazed at this freedom, feeling its weight like a bloom of pure gold in my hands. And Uncle Tully had given it to me to hold. He might as well have told me he loved me.

I woke once in the night, the moon shining down, making strange shadows in the workshop. A light shone from my uncle’s bedchamber, dim, and I could hear him puttering around inside the room with soft, metallic clinks. Mary had made a sojourn downstairs for nightgowns and spread us a pallet of blankets on the carpeted floor — we’d both deemed it safer in the hidden workshop than on the lower floors — and I could hear her heavy breathing from just beside me, feel her warmth on my back, immeasurably grateful that she was with me. I lay awake a long time, staring at everything and nothing, tears wetting my loose hair and the pillow. Never had I felt so alone.

A touch on my shoulder and I sat straight up from the pallet on the floor, clutching hard at the blanket, the sun streaming in from the high windows making me blink.

“I’m that sorry to wake you, Miss, but you’d best be coming downstairs right away. There’s a sight to be seen, Miss.”

I stumbled upright, a bit stupid with sleep, feeling a heavy ache behind my eyes. I pulled the blanket around my nightgown, running a hand over my wild hair, which I’d neglected to braid, and forced myself to keep up with Mary’s pace. She was fully dressed and in a hurry.

“Tell me what’s the matter,” I said, waking up enough to be frightened. But Mary only shook her head.

“Down here, Miss,” she said, leading me down sixty-six stairs and into the salon, where she went to the hearth and stood, arms crossed over her apron. I could not understand what was upsetting her until I saw that there was something new on the wall, a piece of wood, screwed firmly into the plaster on one side of the chimneypiece, little white shavings all over the floor. I touched the wooden plank. It was part of a chair. A small box was attached to the wood, and from the bottom of this box hung a brass bell, just like I had seen last night on Uncle Tully’s workbench. I turned to Mary in horror. Surely not. Surely Uncle Tully had not put that bell here? Mary’s face was grim.

“Did you go out of the storeroom last night, Miss? ’Cause I know I was locking the door.”

“I didn’t, Mary, I swear it. And I remember that you locked it.” I looked again at the innocent little bell. If Uncle Tully could make bells ring by themselves, I don’t know what made me think a simple lock and key could keep him in. I looked down into the open top of the box and found the clear jar and the wire, just like last night. But Uncle Tully couldn’t make this bell ring, not all the way downstairs? Could he? I looked to Mary, and her large eyes confirmed that he had, and he could.

“There’s another one in my room, Miss, and in yours, one in the dining room, and one next to the convenience.”

I dropped onto the settee. “Is he …”

“Sleeping like a lamb, Miss.”

“But have you …” I ran a finger over my temple and lowered my voice. “Have you seen the DuPonts?”

Mary’s voice followed suit. “That Mr. DuPont was creeping about early this morning, Miss, as soon as I came down the stairs.”

“Do you think he could have seen Uncle Tully? Was he acting normally, Mary?”

Mary rolled her eyes, and I acknowledged the idiocy of the question with a shrug. “Well, if he was, Miss, then Mr. Tully will be all caught up good and proper on the state of that first Napoléon’s health, that’s all I’ve got to be saying about it. We …”

Mary fell silent as Mrs. DuPont came into the salon, her expression unaffected by the sight of me sitting downstairs in my nighttime dishevelment. “Your breakfast is in the dining room, Mademoiselle.”

“Miss Tulman!” I said sharply, in no mood for niceties. Her mask of a face did not change as she held out a letter. I came to take it, she curtsied, and shut the salon door.

“Bat!” Mary blurted. “If it wasn’t for the girl I’d say toss her on her backside, that’s what.”

I ripped open the letter and began to read.

“And what are we going to be doing about them DuPonts, Miss? Mr. Babcock was the one that had all that in hand, and you know that man is about by his lamppost this morning, Miss, watching our doors as bold as brass, shiftless as you please. How to even be taking a bit of air without … What is it, Miss?”

I looked up from the letter. “Mrs. Cooper says someone has dug up Uncle Tully’s grave. She is quite upset about it. It happened during the night, two … no three days since. They’ve filled it back in again.”

“Lord!” said Mary.

I dropped back into my spot on the settee. We thought this would happen, but now that it had, what did it mean? Did Wickersham know my uncle lived, or no? I pushed a finger against my throbbing temple. Seeing Mrs. Cooper’s writing, like a little piece of Stranwyne in Paris, had left me shaken for other reasons as well. Mr. Babcock was to have been steward of the estate while I was away. How was I to safeguard my uncle and Mrs. Cooper, and manage the entire village as well, now that he was gone?

A noise interrupted my thoughts. The front door was opening, and I could hear Mrs. DuPont’s French, and a deep male answer. I jumped up from the settee.

“She knows you ain’t dressed, Miss, even she wouldn’t …”

But Henri Marchand was through the salon door before Mary could even finish her thought, hat in hand, preened as always, stopping mid-stride at the sight of me. He did not smile, though his brows went up slightly, and he took me in from head to toe for a trifle longer than was strictly needful. I snatched up the blanket I’d left on the settee, wrapping it about myself like a shawl while Mary’s hands went to her hips. She was bristling like an angry cat.

“A gentleman,” she said loudly, “would turn himself about and be going out the way he came!”

If she had hissed and spat at the man, I would not have been surprised. Henri opened his mouth, undecided, took one step backward and that was when the bell beside the hearth rang, sudden and shrill. I jumped, but Mary merely scrunched her freckles, her face a picture of pained resignation. Bells were ringing all over the house. I straightened my back.

“Mr. Marchand,” I said over the noise. He pulled his gaze from the bell to my face. “I’m very glad you came. I wonder if you would mind escorting me next door?”

He opened his mouth, as if to ask a question, only to shut it once more. I could see him trying not to let his eyes wander.

“If you would be so good as to wait while I make myself decent? I shall take care of those bells and won’t be a moment. Marguerite is having a bit of a joke with the bellpull, I suppose. I promise not to take more than a few minutes of your time.”

I held the blanket ends together as I passed by his gaping face, Mary flanking me like the palace guard. I paused and turned around in the doorway. “Or wait in the dining room, if you’d like. I’d bet ten francs there’s a breakfast in there fit to feed the emperor.”