Shanghai Sparrow (23 page)

“If you say so,” she said. He was right, of course. There was far more satisfaction in ripping off someone who treated you like dirt. But although he knew her for a thief, she didn’t feel inclined to remind him of it.

“In China, women are not much valued, and their education very limited. To have to teach a woman, and a
gweilo
at that...”

“A what?”

“
Gweilo
. It is an insulting word for someone who is not Chinese. He must have needed the work very badly. Or perhaps the people who run things here knew something about him that he could not afford to get out.”

“Maybe
he
was a spy,” Eveline said.

“Possibly. But what does it matter? He is gone. As to the smell – yes. He was taking opium. It affects the bowels. That teacher of yours, the one who looks as though she were left in the sun too long? She too is taking opium.”

“Oh, Miss Prayne! She’s a miserable thing, I’d not be surprised if she drinks laudanum like it was tea.”

“Does she drink it because she is miserable, or is she miserable because she drinks it? I do not like opium. People go into dreams, and some of them never come out.”

“Don’t see that it’s worse than gin.”

“And you have seen what gin can do.”

“Oh, I seen that all right.”

His mobile, lively face saddened. “I have seen many, many people sicken and lose everything and die from opium. You know your Empire sells a great deal of opium to my country.”

“I seen plenty of people lose everything and sicken and die without needing opium, just out of being poor.” She shrugged. “And that or gin, it takes ’em out of themselves. If all you got is a clenching belly and grinding hard work when you can get it, you need something to get you through the day.”

Her mother had never drunk. Her mother had worked. But even that had been taken from her.

“What is it?” Liu said, searching her face.

“Nothing. You’d better be careful what you say about the Empire, round here, though. This place is all for the Empire, and Her Maj, and all.”

“Her Maj?”

“The Queen. The Empress.”

“
Her Maj
does not sound very respectful,” he said.

“And are you always respectful about your Empress?”

“When there is any chance she might hear of it, yes.”

“I see. So are you going to tell on me?”

“How could I possibly do that, when my English is certainly not good enough to know when you are being disrespectful?”

They grinned at each other.

E
VELINE CAME OUT
of the lesson and paused in the corridor, watching the darkening green sweep of the lawn as the trees laid long shadows over it.

The smile on her face felt strange. She hadn’t had so much fun since she’d left Ma Pether’s. There was something about Liu that put her dangerously at ease, but she couldn’t afford to trust him. She didn’t believe he’d come all this way and gone to the bother of getting himself hired just because he felt like it, or because he wanted to see her – it wasn’t as though they’d been sweethearts, or anything like that. She liked him well enough. She liked his sharp white grin and his sharper tongue, his long dark eyes, his glossy black hair and quick, neat movements...
You’re getting soft, Evvie Duchen. Can’t afford to get soft.

No, she didn’t believe it. Since Mama, there’d been no-one in her life who didn’t want something from her. He was working for someone: Ma Pether, perhaps, or Holmforth. Spying on her. He had to be. She remembered some of the things she’d said, and shivered suddenly. She was a fool. She’d have to be more careful. If it came back on her she’d say she was suspicious, and testing him out by saying disloyal things.

She didn’t like the thought of ratting on him. She kicked at the skirting, scowling. Well, if he ratted on her, she’d do likewise. What’d he have to come here for, anyway? She had troubles enough. She wondered, briefly, if he knew anything about Etheric science, if he was so all-fired clever... but she’d made herself vulnerable enough. She certainly wasn’t going to admit to him that she didn’t have the first idea how to make Mama’s precious mechanisms work.

But she had an idea about that.

“Y
OU’VE BEEN WORKING
on something, haven’t you?” Eveline said, pushing aside one of the mechanisms with a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Hastings said.

“You should be more careful, you keep sneaking off and then coming in stinking of oil. It don’t notice when we’ve been out here, but it does in lessons. You smell like Lazy Lou.”

“Who’s Lazy Lou?”

“A mechanical woman someone I knew had.”

“An automaton! Oh, I’d give anything to get hold of a good one...”

“Never mind that. You hear what I said?”

“Of course I did!” Hastings looked her up and down, wonderingly, and shook her head. “You’re
clever
,” she said. “Why are you so awful with Navigation?”

“Because it’s boring and stupid and Miss Prayne makes me want to scream and throw eggs.”

Hastings giggled. “It’s a shame. If she wasn’t so
mopey
even you might get interested.”

“Can I borrow your notes?”

“Much good they’ll do you.”

“I know.” Eveline sighed. “All them lines and circles don’t make the least bit of sense to me. I’m good at
people,
not stupid lines.”

“The lines are only a way of talking about real things,” Hastings said. “You’ll need them if you ever have to travel by yourself. What if you’re in a boat and something happens to the person you’re with and you have to find your way home?”

“Don’t.” Eveline hugged her arms around herself.

“Don’t you want to travel?” Hastings said.

“Not me. I want a nice warm house and enough to eat, right here in England, thank you.”

“You’ll have to if they make you.”

“I s’pose. But fat lot of use I’ll be to the Empire if I get lost.”

“I can’t wait,” Hastings said. “I’ve never even been on an airship. Oh, can you imagine? Up there, away from everything... you could go anywhere in the world, in an airship.” She thought for a moment. “Well, you could with enough fuel, anyway.”

“That great noisy thing’s bad enough,” Eveline said, glowering across the barn.

“That
thing
is a variant of the steam car. Mr Jackson wants to patent the engine. It’s revolutionary.” Hastings pushed her hair back with a wet hand and said, “At least it
would
be, if he wasn’t... he just won’t
listen
.”

“Well, of course he won’t. Never knew a man yet who’d listen when he’s got his teeth in something – like terriers, they are. You gotta distract them with something else. How far could you get on that?”

“That? About half a mile before the engine overheats,” Hastings said. “Honestly, he keeps trying to push more power through it and he won’t compensate properly. I haven’t been doing anything to it but what I’m told. What would be the point? If I change anything, he’ll only change it back.”

“So where is it?”

“Where’s what?” Hastings said, her eyes going wide and round like a nervy horse’s.

“Come on, I know you been working on something. You been making your own, ain’tcher?”

“You mustn’t tell!”

Eveline shook her head. “See? You just give yourself away, saying that. You gotta be more careful. I’d not have known for certain if you hadn’t
said
.”

Hastings shot a glance at the Velocitator, where Mr Jackson was yet again banging something and muttering, then grabbed Eveline’s hand. “Oh, but now you know, and I can show you, I’ve been wanting so much to show someone, come tonight, please. You’re so clever, maybe you can show me how to get some of the things I need....”

“Whoa up, girl!” Eveline tugged her hand away, grinning. “All right. You need stuff, I’ll try and help – I need something too, so maybe you can help me.”

“Yes, yes, of course, it’s just I need more steel, and some India-rubber, and copper wire, and...”

“How close is yours to being ready?”

“Ready to do what?” Hastings said. “It’ll run, and it’ll stop. I haven’t had a chance to test the engine at full stretch – it’s a lot quieter than the Velocitator, but if I take it through the grounds the tracks will be so obvious... besides, I haven’t been able to get enough copper wire to finish the connections and there’s no cover over the differential mass accelerator... why? Are you finally getting interested?”

“Oh, I’m interested, all right.”

“Why?”

“If I can get you the materials you need, how d’you fancy taking it for a spin?”

“You mean through more of the grounds? But what about the dogs?”

“Surely it can outrun a couple of dogs.”

“Easily, but what’s to stop them barking?”

“Oh, you leave that to me,” Eveline said, grinning. She had tricks aplenty to stop a dog from barking – geese were a lot worse.

“And the tracks it’ll leave?”

“I’ll think of something. Once we’re on the road, it won’t matter.”

“The
road?
Duchen, what are you thinking?”

“Fancy a trip to Watford?”

“
Where?
” Hastings shook her head so violently her hair tumbled out of its pins. “No. No, no. Take her outside the school? You’re mad. I’d be expelled. I’d go to Bedlam. She’d be stolen, or broken up. No.”

“She?”

“She’s called the
Sacagawea
,”Hastingssaid.

“What’s that when it’s at home?”

“A woman who guided Lewis and Clarke on their expedition in America. An explorer.”

“I thought explorers
went
somewhere. That’s the point of exploring, ain’t it?”

“I can’t,” Hastings said. “Duchen...”

“Oh, call me Eveline, for the love of... ain’t no-one else around to hear you bark out my name like I was a soldier.”

“All right, Eveline.”

“And you’re Beth?”

“Yes. But don’t let Miss Grim hear you use it. We’re supposed to maintain a proper distance. Oh!” She covered her mouth with an oily hand. “Listen to me, you’ve got me calling her that now,” she wailed. “I’ll forget and do it to her face and
then
what? And if I try and take
Sacagawea
out... I won’t do it. She has to be finished. She isn’t finished.”

“How long have you been working on it, then?”

“Since just after I got here. About two years, I suppose.”

“Can I see it, at least?”

E
VELINE LOOKED AT
the machine and sighed. “I think maybe I’d just better try and borrow a horse.”

“I thought you couldn’t ride.”

“Well, I stuck on, once. For a bit. I’ll have to manage. ’Cos
that
ain’t going anywhere, is it?”

It was not a beautiful machine. Its origins in scraps and scavenging were pitifully obvious. Its wheels didn’t match, its inner workings were a mass of dull coils and ancient gears, and its seat appeared to have begun life as a church pew, before an unfortunate and extended encounter with a savage woodworm. If she hadn’t known better, she might think it was just a pile of old bits and pieces that had somehow fallen together into a vaguely cart-like shape.

“She’s not
finished
,” Beth Hastings said. “I can’t get the materials. But she goes.”

“Yeah? How far, before it falls apart or blows up?”

“She won’t do either!”

“No. Sorry. I like my skin whole, and I’d rather not be sitting in a pile of scrap covered in burns waiting to see if Miss Grim or the ruddy dogs find me first. Never mind, eh?”

“But she works!”

“But you said yourself, it isn’t finished. Anyway, you don’t want to risk it, I understand that. What do you plan to do with her when she’s finished?”

“I...” Beth’s mouth drooped. “I don’t know.”

“I gotta get to class. I’ll see you later. Don’t forget and stay back here half the afternoon – they’ll come looking for you.”

She left Beth standing in the fading light, one hand resting on her machine, both of them looking rather dusty and forlorn.

Am I bad?
Eveline stopped, halfway back to the school, and frowned at the trees. Was she? It wasn’t a thought she troubled herself with that often.

But she’d said things to Beth that were as calculated as she’d ever laid on a mark. And Beth wasn’t a mark. Beth was the only friend she’d made in this place.

She shrugged irritably in the deepening afternoon gloom and headed for Retention, where she performed less well than usual.

Beth avoided speaking to her for days.

Eveline spent every spare minute in the barn. Beth always managed to be busy elsewhere when Jackson left them alone, but Eveline knew better than to push. Instead she poked about at her mother’s mechanisms, turning levers, studying dials, placing ball-bearings in the grooves carved for them, without having the slightest idea what she was about. Sometimes she succeeded in getting a noise out of something – a string of faint
ping
s, or a soft wail, or, once, a teeth-jarring shriek that brought Mr Jackson shooting out of the cab of the Velocitator like a jack-in-the-box. He banged his head on the way out and went bright scarlet. Eveline apologised, but felt his glare on her neck for the rest of the afternoon.