Read Online A Clockwork Heart by Liesel Schwarz - Free Book Online Page B

She also believed that dousing oneself with hot and cold water was a practice that was extremely Scottish.
    â€œStay with me,” he said. “Forget about the new ship. We can take the day and do something fun,” Marsh said from where he was leaning against the doorframe.
    â€œI can’t. I promised Ducky I would oversee the estimates for the repairs. The engineers are coming out specially to see the Phoenix. You know I need to be there.” She turned on the taps of the Huber.
    He looked disappointed and Elle felt her resolve falter. Marsh had sacrificed so much to marry her and suddenly the thought of abandoning him made her feel churlish.
    She steeled herself and shrugged off the thought. Marsh could be very persuasive when he put his mind to it and if she gave in now, today would become tomorrow and the next and before she knew it, flying would be something of the past. And as much as she adored her husband, Elle needed to fly more than anything in the world. Her passion for taking to the air was so intrinsically part of her that to prevent her from flying would be like preventing her from breathing.
    Besides, she thought with just that tiny bit of resentment that never quite seemed to go away, she had to make sacrifices too. She certainly did not volunteer for the cursed position of Oracle.
    Marsh sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Very well then, you win. But get Neville to collect you from the airfield in the motor. I don’t want you out in the dark hours of the morning all by yourself. It’s not safe.”
    Elle sighed from behind the lacquered screen where she was busy slipping out of her nightdress. “Oh for goodness’ sake, Hugh. When are you going to stop acting like I’m some delicate flower? I am perfectly capable of looking after myself.”
    His gaze darkened. “You are my wife. And you are the Oracle. And that makes you vulnerable to all manner of threats. I will never stop worrying about you, as long as I live.”
    â€œBut don’t you see? Those are exactly the reasons why I must carry on as before. If I allow myself to become a shrinking violet, then they will have won. And I absolutely refuse to do that. Ever,” she said as she tied the belt of her silk bathing kimono and tied her hair up.
    The room was filling up with delicious billows of steam from the shower water. She stepped out from behind the screen and closed the tap. Her ablutions would have to wait until after this discussion. She did not like to think about the Alchemists and their vortex of evil or the fact that she had been chained to a wall in that dark dungeon in Constantinople just months before. She still woke up in a cold sweat some nights, dreaming about it.
    Marsh pressed his lips together and she could see the little muscles in his cheek flicker as he clenched his teeth. This was an argument that neither of them ever seemed to win, because neither of them was entirely wrong about the matter.
    And she hated to admit it, but had Hugh and her father not arrived in that underground amphitheater when they did she probably would have died there.
    She turned away from the shower put her arms around her husband. “I will be careful. I promise.”
    â€œYou know as well as I do that they are still out there, Elle,” he said in a low voice.
    Elle sighed again. Her husband had the most annoying habit of being completely and utterly right at the most inconvenient points in her argument. “We haven’t heard a word from the Council since you saw them in Venice. And that was months ago. They have no reason to come after us as long as we keep our side of the bargain.”
    He put his arms around her and kissed her hair, but she could feel the tension in his body. “I do not like it. And I definitely do not trust the silence. We cannot let our guard down Elle, not for a single moment.”
    â€œGood morning, Adele,” Elle said as she sat down opposite