Read Online A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones by Claire Robyns - Free Book Online Page A

enough to restrain all of the wild beast.
    His other hand closed over hers on the handle bar and the intimate
warmth spread straight through her glove. Lily needed no further persuasion to
step back, relinquishing the air paddler into his keeping.
    “Did you follow me?” She scowled into his half-grin. “Have you being
spying on me again?”
    He had the audacity to look offended. “I called for you at Harchings
House and was informed of your whereabouts.”
    “You’re lying. We told no one we’d be here.”
    “Now you’re the one being less than honest, unless Ana has been
spying.”
    “You asked Ana? Who would ever think to do that?” She shared
everything with Ana, always had. “She’s a celludrone.”
    Lord Adair raised a brow. His grin was still in place. “Are we having
this conversation again?”
    Again? That other conversation, the one that had ended with
Lord Adair throwing a dagger at her, had happened inside her head. How much
exactly had their minds shared? And how did he know Ana was unique? As
different from other celludrones, perhaps, as his own man, Neco?
    As much as Lily wished to blot the entire memory from her
consciousness, there were too many questions piling up. “We need to talk.”
    “For once, we’re in agreement.” Lord Adair chuckled. “But later. I
can’t wait to see you take to the skies.”
    “Then you’re doomed to disappointment.”
    “Ah, so this contraption belongs to the vivacious Lady Harchings,” he
said, his tone tagging a distinct I should have known onto the end.
    “Some of us consider life too precious to waste on frivolous risks,”
she informed him frostily. “Not that I’d expect you to understand.”
    He lost the grin, looking at her for an endless moment. When he spoke,
his voice was oddly tender on the rumble of his Scottish burr. “I understand.
Your mother died at a young age and under tragic circumstances. You have an
unnatural fear of death.”
    Her spine stiffened as she recalled his previous impertinence on this
very topic. It no longer mattered how much had happened inside or outside the
bubble of this one peculiar spell. Apparently either was just as real to both
of them. “There’s nothing unnatural about fearing death.”
    “Except when it becomes about fearing life.”
    Lily was certain she’d win this argument, but just then she caught
sight of William dragging a wooden block by a rope and a horrendous thought
took precedence. “You didn’t tell anyone else we’d come to Battersea Park, did you?”
    “No?” Lord Adair replied.
    She felt suddenly light-headed at his hesitancy. Dear Lord, she’d
promised Evelyn. Sharing confidences with Ana had never been a problem before.
No one except for Aunt Beatrice, not even Evelyn, so much as suspected Ana was anything
other than an average piece of mechanical equipment. Until Lord Adair. But as
much as she wanted to blame him, she’d never forgive herself if she were
responsible for an irreparable breach in Evelyn’s marriage.
    “Neither Ana nor I told anyone,” Lord Adair said with such conviction,
she believed him.
    In spite of her earlier accusation, she doubted he’d be bothered to
tell a direct lie. He didn’t care enough about decorum, or sparing a lady’s
sensibilities, and in her experience, those were generally the reasons people
fibbed.
    Once Lord Adair had helped William mount the air paddler, they left
instructions for him to inform Lady Evelyn they’d gone for a walk and would be
back shortly.
    “Your man, Neco, he’s an enhanced celludrone like Ana, isn’t he?” Lily
asked as they set off down a narrow path winding through the ridge of tall Elms
that ringed the field. “Does he come from France, too? I thought Ana was one of
a kind, but it’s possible my father made another.”
    “Your father made Ana?” Lord Adair held a low branch aside for Lily to
pass through, onto an open field of sweet grass and wildflowers. “Maybe you
should first tell me what else you