A Clockwork Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

dinner.”

CHAPTER 4
    An almighty crash followed by a high-pitched scream greeted Elle as she came downstairs one morning, a week after her flight to Amsterdam. Edie, one of the maids, came tearing up the stairs. Elle caught her by the upper arms and brought her to an abrupt halt that almost made them both tumble back the way the poor girl had come.
    â€œEdie, what on earth is wrong?” Elle said.
    â€œBegging your pardon, my lady but it’s the fairy. She’s absolutely impossible!” Edie rubbed her tear-streaked face. “I cannot attend her anymore. I simply cannot.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    Edie started sobbing into her apron. “His lordship is downstairs,” she said between sobs. “I think you had better ask him, my lady.”
    Elle drew the girl’s face out of her apron. “Why don’t you take a few moments to calm yourself? And once you’ve washed your face, go and ask Mrs. Hinges for a sweet cup of tea. It is the best remedy after an upset. I know this from personal experience.”
    â€œYes, my lady.” Edie bobbed a quick curtsey and wiped her nose with the side of her hand. “Thank you, my lady.”
    Elle watched the maid hurry downstairs before continuing on her way.
    She stopped at the door to the breakfast room. The place was in a complete uproar. Chairs lay overturned. The tablecloth had been dragged off the table and lay in a heap on the floor amidst the broken breakfast crockery.
    In the conservatory the stacked terra cotta pots had toppled over. Shards of pot and soil were spilled all over the floor. Someone had treaded mud all over the black-and-white checkered marble floor of the breakfast room and the Turkish rug.
    On the table in the midst of all the chaos, stood Hugh, holding what looked like the extended ribs of an umbrella stripped of its canvas. The ribs were attached to a cascade of copper wires, which snaked all the way to the floor where they fed into what looked like a very poorly sealed tank of spark. Globs of the bright blue liquid had sloshed onto the carpet and were creating alarming sparks and acrid puffs of smoke.
    Adele hovered at the entrance of the conservatory with her arms crossed, blocking the way of anyone who dared enter her domain.
    And, if that wasn’t enough, someone had strewn enough sugar on the floor to sweeten the waters of the Thames.
    â€œHugh, what on earth is going on in here?” Elle said, surveying the whole muddy, sticky smoldering mess.
    â€œElle!” Hugh turned and smiled at her. “I think I’ve devised a machine that will allow humans to converse with fairies. Adele has been helping me. Look.”
    He put the umbrella down and dusted some sugar off a set of rough-drawn plans. A few scrunched-up balls of paper interspersed with the sugar rolled off the table and landed on the floor.
    â€œI see you have been busy,” she said drily. “You do know that Mrs. Hinges is going to have an apoplexy when she sees this.”
    The copper wires started buzzing from lying too near the spark and they set a bit of the tablecloth on fire.
    Marsh ran over and started putting out the flames with his foot.
    â€œDon’t you mind Mrs. Hinges. She will understand,” he said between pats.
    Elle crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe. “Good heavens, I think I’ve married my father,” she murmured. Since Marsh had given up his power and become an ordinary mortal, he was becoming more and more like the professor by the day.
    â€œAdele and I have invented a new game,” Marsh said, entirely unperturbed by Elle’s icy stare.
    He picked up one of the balls of paper and threw it into the air.
    â€œGo on, fairy, fetch!” he said.
    Adele dashed into the breakfast room and started zooming around the room at a speed faster than the eye could follow. Round and round the room she went in an attempt to create enough updraft to keep the paper afloat in