Angel of Brass Read Online Free

wouldn’t want to miss out on such
an opportunity.”
    Molly closed the doors to her wardrobe and
leaned back against them, folding her arms across her chest.
“Opportunity for what?” she asked. “To suddenly come to my senses
and turn into a shorter version of her? To fall wildly in love in
some idiot who doesn’t know a differential gear from a drive shaft,
give up everything to marry him, and start popping out babies?”
    Winifred’s face settled into an
expressionless mask at the last. Despite five years of marriage,
she’d yet to conceive. Though she never spoke of it, Molly knew she
longed for a child.
    Cursing her own thoughtlessness, Molly said,
“Saints’ blood, I’m sorry. I’m an idiot. I didn’t mean to be so
stupid.”
    Winifred managed a smile. “Of course not,
Molly. Don’t let it trouble you. Just say that you’ll come to the
ball.”
    That’s a dirty, underhanded trick, Molly thought sourly. But she deserved it after her insensitive
comment. “All right. I’ll do it for you.”
    “Wonderful!” Winifred sprang to her feet and
clapped her hands. “We’ll go dress shopping in Brasstown.”
    “That sounds...” slightly less enjoyable
than having my eyeballs poked out “...like fun.”
    The sisters visited for another hour or so,
their conversation moving onto safer topics. When Winifred left,
Molly walked her to the carriage, so that Winifred could brag about
the clockwork horse. Although Molly had to admit that it was a fine
example, it was nothing extraordinary, and she critically noted
that its gait was uneven as it pulled the carriage away.
    Feeling even more exhausted than before,
Molly turned back to the house. Something—a small noise,
perhaps—attracted her attention, and she glanced over her shoulder.
A small park sat across the street from the boarding house, and the
sight of squirrels or birds moving in the foliage was commonplace.
For a moment, though, she thought she caught a faint gleam, as of
sunlight on metal teeth.
    An icy hand seemed to brush her back, and she
hurried to the safety of the boardinghouse door. It had just been
her imagination, combined with exhaustion and the odd events from
the night before.
    Unless they think I’m still helping that
boy.
    No—they didn’t know she’d helped him in the
first place, and certainly had no reason to follow her around the
city. She must have imagined it.
    Even so, she slid the bolts on both her door
and her window once she was safely in her room.
    * * *
    Jin crouched on the edge of a roof, watching
the evening crowds mill around in the gas-lit streets below. The
noise of so many people grated against his ears like notes from an
untuned violin, and the twisting streets of the city confused him
so that he’d spent half the day wandering lost. At least he’d been
able to take to the roofs once night had fallen.
    Far below, a child tripped on the uneven
cobbles of the street and immediately began to cry. His father
scooped him up, while his mother crowded close, examining his
skinned knee and wiping away his tears. Jin tried to imagine the
little boy’s life, what it must be like to have two normal parents,
with a normal house and normal friends.
    He remembered sitting in front of the fire,
on a dull, dreary day much like this one. Dr. Malachi had been in
his favorite chair, near the flames. Unlike Del and Jin, he felt
the cold keenly. Del had put her metal fingers against Malachi’s
arm, aware of their difference for the first time.
    “Why don’t we look like you, Father?” she’d
asked.
    Malachi had smiled and touched her shining
black hair. “Because even though you’re my daughter, you didn’t
come from my blood. Nor did your brother.”
    “Then how can you be our father?”
    “Because I created you. Now come, both of
you, and give me a hug.”
    Jin shifted as the wind blew strands of his
hair back from his face. The Saint Cygnus medal around his neck was
warm from the heat of his body. He touched it lightly