Copper Visions Read Online Free

Copper Visions
Book: Copper Visions Read Online Free
Author: Elizabeth Bruner
Tags: Steampunk
Pages:
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pulled out of the mine. I didn’t even ask for them, they put them on me before I could wake up after I was sure I was dead.”
    “ Were the doctor’s who operated on you employed by the company that owns the mine or are they separate?”
    “ There’s doctor’s at the mine to patch people up if they get hurt working there, everybody sees them every now and then. If you get hurt real bad, you’re sent off to hospital but it’s the doctor at the mine who helps you out after you get fixed at hospital. The doctor I met when I woke up wasn’t one I’d ever met at the mine or at the hospital. But, that would make sense, because I’d never been to the place they sent me home from. Maybe it’s a new one? Some kind of private place, maybe, that’s just for the people who can afford it?
    “ Why would they take you there?” David asked. “You are common as clay, by your own admission there’s nothing special about you, so why would they take you to a hospital to have a very rare, very expensive surgery performed on you after a cave in that should have killed you?”
    That stumped her. “Maybe there was somebody visiting? Somebody with money? So’s when they saw I was the only one what survived they took pity on me?”
    “ Did you ever meet this mysterious benefactor?”
    “ Well, no,” Sophie admitted. “But maybe they didn’t want anybody to know? Maybe they’re like one of those folks in the stories, that do nice things for strangers and don’t want anything in return?”
    “ Do you think the prince was there visiting and fell in love with you?” David said, his voice doing a very good imitation of a scoff. “Or some rich lord’s son?”
    “ Course not,” Sophie said. “But maybe the tenderhearted daughter of -”
    “ That’s even less likely. For someone who’s seen as much of life as you have, Sophie, you sure do have some odd notions of human nature.”
    Her cheeks colored and she stared down at her hands, examining them again in the perpetual twilight of the cabs interior. They seemed new to her, as though she’d just gotten them and was trying to figure out how they worked. She could feel the gears moving with the muscles in her back and shoulders and wondered suddenly what they looked like, if somebody could see them moving under her skin.
    “ You’re right,” she said softly. “You’re right, David, it was silly. I know that. But, why else? Why me? If they weren’t saving me to be kind, why not just let me die in the cave?”
    “ If all that was at stake here was your life, Sophie, I would agree with you. Unfortunately, it would seem that you have been caught up in something much larger than yourself. And, to that, I’m not sure it was ‘you’ that was saved. I suspect, though I hope I’m wrong, that you were merely an appropriate specimen and not a girl who was saved at all.”
    The cab stopped and the driver opened a hatch on the roof. “We’re here,” he said and snapped it shut again.
    Sophie made a show of gathering her few things as David got out. With her back turned, she dabbed at the corner of her eyes with her skirt, determined not to show that David’s revelation had wounded her. She knew he was trying to act human but he was so cold, she wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to do it. When she emerged blinking into the sunlight, she listened to the driver telling David what direction he’d seen the men go in.
    “ The three of them got out and went down that way, between the backs of the buildings over there.”
    “ All three men were on their feet?” David asked. “The two weren’t carrying the one?”
    “ Naw, they was all three moving on their own, though the one they carried to the cab was walking hunched over, like he wasn’t moving good. I figured he was steady enough to walk but they were going the back way so he wouldn’t be sick on the street.”
    “ Thank you, sir, for your information,” David said and looked at Sophie.
    She fumbled for her
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