On a Night Black by Cherie Mitchell

Author:Cherie Mitchell [Mitchell, Cherie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-10-03T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

“Do you remember dying?”

Hortense blinked her surprise at him. She was faintly bleary-eyed this morning but immaculately dressed, with her hair piled high and her locks looking as smart and unruffled as they had done last evening. “My goodness Elliot, that’s a big question for so early in the day.”

“I’m curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” she said lightly as she reached out a delicate hand for the jar of marmalade. “I didn’t die. Darcy came back to get me before the fateful dinner party.” She smiled her thanks to the manically grinning Darcy. The inventor’s white whiskers were doing odd things this morning, standing out from his jaw as if rising to attention. Perhaps he’d forgotten to comb them or overlooked the need to apply a brisk rub of hair oil. Elliot wondered with absentminded distraction where each of his table companions had spent the night.

“But you did die once. Don’t you remember the first time?”

“No, I don’t remember dying because the previous version of my reality was erased when Darcy came back to get me. I skipped that period of my life, rather than living through it.”

“That makes sense, I suppose.”

“Well now, what’s everyone’s plans for the day?” Darcy asked with jovial cheerfulness, although his eyes were on Hortense alone.

“The Knave.” Elliot didn’t need time to consider his response. After his earlier conversation with Ramona, he was invested in completing his assignment and returning to his own future as soon as he could. “Where do I go to find him? Will you give me an assignment brief, just as Ramona did in 2020?”

Darcy grimaced. “You’re in 1889 now. We don’t have the benefit of emails here. You must remember that we have nothing close to that sort of tidy and efficient automation in these vintage days.”

“I have the tablet. I used it to contact Ramona this morning.”

“You did?” Darcy was suddenly alert. “Is there something wrong?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong. I just wanted to talk to her.”

“Ah.” Darcy shared another long and complicit look with Hortense and Elliot felt a vague stirring of irritation. He was the odd one out at the breakfast table today, a spare wheel for a carriage that didn’t require one. He finished his tea and pushed himself back in his chair. “Please excuse me. I’m going for a walk to clear my head and reacquaint myself with the area the Knave frequents.”

“Not so fast, not so fast.” Darcy dropped his napkin and rose from his chair with surprising speed. He smiled at Hortense. “Do excuse us, my dear. I’ll run through the program with the lad and then I’ll be back for another cup of tea.” He laid a hand on Elliot’s shoulder and steered him out of the room without a pause. “By the way, you can only use the tablet for the Com-Dec app. There’s no chance of accessing your emails or the internet. How was the line this morning? Was the connection viable?”

“We didn’t get cut off, although Ramona asked me to pass on her request for you to take another look at the quality of communications.

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