Read Online Immortal Earth (Vampires For Earth Book 1) by Sarah Warden - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sarah Warden
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to linger, much as she would have liked to. Strange that such a simple technology, something over two hundred years in Isi’s past, could have such an impact on her, but the atmosphere in the room was contagious. To the people of this time, light that did not carry the risk of fire, light that you could even attach to highly flammable material, like a tent, was quite the miracle, and the crowd’s enthusiasm had Isi looking up in wonder like a child.
A slender dark haired man in a tuxedo was watching Isi watch the artificial stars. When she tilted her head back down and reined herself in, clutching her purse and scanning the crowd nervously, looking for Henry Ford, the dark haired man approached her from behind.
He cleared his throat to get her attention, and said, “Pardon me, madam, are you in need of some assistance?”
Isi started to respond before she turned to face him, “Yes, if you could help me to find …”
Her voice trailed off as Isi came face-to-face with the man.
His dark hair was not waxen and still, as it had been in the photographs that Isi had studied. Wavy and alive, strands of mahogany and chestnut gave a sturdy frame for the sharp grey eyes below. His brow and nose were pinched together in concentration, making him look quite like a hawk, but a hawk with the most full and questioning lips that Isi had ever seen. Such a force of life flowed out of this man; the very air around him was pregnant with invention.
Isi finished her thought, “If you could help me to find a decent glass of champagne, I shall be very grateful.”
The young dark haired man laughed, “That should not be too hard, Mrs. …”
Isi nodded and extended her gloved hand to him, “I am Countess Isidora Solovyov.”
The young man bowed to her, while he clasped her offered hand in his own, and held her fingertips a breaths distance from his lips. “Henry Ford, at your service, Countess. Let us go and see about your champagne, shall we? And then, promise me that you’ll take another moment to look at the constellations we’ve brought inside for the night. Tom’s invention lets us hold the stars, and fire, and all of light, in our own two hands.”
Isi teased him a bit to establish a rapport.
“You speak of Mr. Edison … Tom … as if you know him? Surely, a man your age may long for an association with a man of such historic importance as Mr. Edison … you may long for it, Mr. Ford, but I highly doubt that you have achieved it.”
Henry laughed again, that wonderful deflection of the very confident. All of life was not a joke to Henry Ford, but the idea that he was reaching above his station – indeed, the very idea that there were stations in life unattainable to those with originality, intelligence, and drive … that idea was so absurd as to be laughable to him. Nevertheless, in front of a beautiful woman, Henry was always polite.
“I am sorry Countess, I do not mean to laugh, but I not only know Thomas Edison, I’ve worked for him in his laboratory and, most recently, he has been consulting with me on an invention of mine that I hope to bring forth soon. I may be only twenty-four years of age, and I was not born into a family with as illustrious a lineage as, I’m sure, you have come from, but, on this continent, we regard the individual achievement above the family bloodline.”
Henry winked at her, to take the sting from his words. “But, what we value most highly is only produced by your end of the ocean, Countess … a good champagne! Let us go and find you one, shall we?”
Delicately, but firmly, with the exquisite hands of the engineer he was, Henry Ford took Isi by the elbow, and guided her through the dancing couples, around a number of flowering trees, and under an archway built of flowers that was strung with more of the Edison lights, where they entered a room that served as a bar for the Illumination Ball.
After he saw Isi safely seated in a high-backed booth table, in the corner of the room,
A slender dark haired man in a tuxedo was watching Isi watch the artificial stars. When she tilted her head back down and reined herself in, clutching her purse and scanning the crowd nervously, looking for Henry Ford, the dark haired man approached her from behind.
He cleared his throat to get her attention, and said, “Pardon me, madam, are you in need of some assistance?”
Isi started to respond before she turned to face him, “Yes, if you could help me to find …”
Her voice trailed off as Isi came face-to-face with the man.
His dark hair was not waxen and still, as it had been in the photographs that Isi had studied. Wavy and alive, strands of mahogany and chestnut gave a sturdy frame for the sharp grey eyes below. His brow and nose were pinched together in concentration, making him look quite like a hawk, but a hawk with the most full and questioning lips that Isi had ever seen. Such a force of life flowed out of this man; the very air around him was pregnant with invention.
Isi finished her thought, “If you could help me to find a decent glass of champagne, I shall be very grateful.”
The young dark haired man laughed, “That should not be too hard, Mrs. …”
Isi nodded and extended her gloved hand to him, “I am Countess Isidora Solovyov.”
The young man bowed to her, while he clasped her offered hand in his own, and held her fingertips a breaths distance from his lips. “Henry Ford, at your service, Countess. Let us go and see about your champagne, shall we? And then, promise me that you’ll take another moment to look at the constellations we’ve brought inside for the night. Tom’s invention lets us hold the stars, and fire, and all of light, in our own two hands.”
Isi teased him a bit to establish a rapport.
“You speak of Mr. Edison … Tom … as if you know him? Surely, a man your age may long for an association with a man of such historic importance as Mr. Edison … you may long for it, Mr. Ford, but I highly doubt that you have achieved it.”
Henry laughed again, that wonderful deflection of the very confident. All of life was not a joke to Henry Ford, but the idea that he was reaching above his station – indeed, the very idea that there were stations in life unattainable to those with originality, intelligence, and drive … that idea was so absurd as to be laughable to him. Nevertheless, in front of a beautiful woman, Henry was always polite.
“I am sorry Countess, I do not mean to laugh, but I not only know Thomas Edison, I’ve worked for him in his laboratory and, most recently, he has been consulting with me on an invention of mine that I hope to bring forth soon. I may be only twenty-four years of age, and I was not born into a family with as illustrious a lineage as, I’m sure, you have come from, but, on this continent, we regard the individual achievement above the family bloodline.”
Henry winked at her, to take the sting from his words. “But, what we value most highly is only produced by your end of the ocean, Countess … a good champagne! Let us go and find you one, shall we?”
Delicately, but firmly, with the exquisite hands of the engineer he was, Henry Ford took Isi by the elbow, and guided her through the dancing couples, around a number of flowering trees, and under an archway built of flowers that was strung with more of the Edison lights, where they entered a room that served as a bar for the Illumination Ball.
After he saw Isi safely seated in a high-backed booth table, in the corner of the room,
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