Steampunk Fairy Tales by Angela Castillo

Author:Angela Castillo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: retold fairy tale, anthology, steampunk, collection, fantasy, fairy tales, anthology short stories, retold

II.

The pink liquid in the flask bubbled and churned over the burner as Wolfe delicately pieced more glass tubes to the distillery. Just a little bit more ....

The door opened, slamming into the wall with a sharp crack, and the tube shattered in his paw. He yelped in pain.

“Oh dear, I’m sorry, did I startle you?” Miss Eliza asked in a breathy voice, rushing over to grab his paw. “That’s my fault, isn’t it?”

Wolfe breathed in deeply, as much from her touching his wound as to take in her delightful scent. Though it had only been a short while since her arrival, he had decided that strawberries were most heavenly. “It’s nothing, Miss Eliza. It will heal itself in a moment.”

He gently removed his paw from her hand and placed the other on her upper back, guiding her to a plush high back chair. Books were piled around it: Fermin’s notebooks, his own, and books for Miss Eliza’s own amusement. The books on perfumes he could understand her reading, but why she found Whitaker’s Hormones, Pheromones, and the Senses a fascinating read, Wolfe couldn’t comprehend. Whitaker was barely literate! And his theories nonsense. As if any rational being would fall for such bestial trickery.

He turned his attention back to her. “You seem agitated though. What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s Inspector Grant again. He seems to think we’re hiding evidence of my father’s wrongdoing or some such. He’s threatening to condemn the house!” Miss Eliza flung herself into the chair, taking a moment to arrange her skirts. Wolfe kept his mouth shut, lest his tongue loll out like a common dog and betray his amusement. “I’ve only been here a few weeks and he says the payments aren’t up to date! You have been keeping the payments up, haven’t you? I don’t want to be out on the streets and have another of my father’s partners locked away!”

Had he? He seemed to recall putting the payments in the post, but the days were a blur of experiments. He was the verge of the solution!

Miss Eliza hadn’t noticed his distraction. “... and he wants to court me! How could I when—?”

“Court you? Who?” Who would dare to take his Eliza away from him?

Wait. His Eliza?

“Inspector Grant. Do try to keep up. But I shan’t see him as long as the work remains unfinished.” She laid a hand on his arm.

Wolfe growled. “Would you like me to take care of him?” He blinked and straightened. Take care of him? That wasn’t what he should do. But now that he thought of it, it would be easy to do and an easy solution.

She gasped. “Oh no, you musn’t, Doctor Wolfe! But … would you really be able to take care of him? Just for me?”

He stiffened. “As your father is currently ... incapacitated, it falls to me to protect you in his absence.”

“Even if I said I could protect myself?”

“I … I would insist, Miss Eliza.” And he would. It was the proper thing to do, after all.

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