Read Online The Impossible Cube: A Novel of the Clockwork Empire by Steven Harper - Free Book Online

admonished. “That’s hardly appropriate.”
    “That is why my father asked you to bring me back to Peking,” Feng pointed out. “Unlike my father, when I see a pretty piece of… a pretty face, I become a
bad
diplomat.” His voice was muffled through the scarf. “But for your sake, my lady, I will try.”
    “Your Ladyship,” Alice corrected. “A baroness isn’t rightly addressed as
my lady.
”
    “You see? Bad diplomat.” He straightened the goggles. “Let us go now. I will be hungry soon.”
    “Feng,” Gavin said, “the jar?”
    Feng’s almond eyes widened. “How could I have forgotten?” He dashed for the ship.
    Alice, meanwhile, quickly changed into skirts in hertiny stateroom belowdecks and snatched up a cloth airman’s cap for Feng. She also took the book of figures. Gavin had changed out of his torn black clothes into a plain workman’s outfit, complete with a cloth cap of his own. He wore his fiddle case on his back, since he rarely went anywhere without it. Feng appeared with a rucksack that clinked. They bade Dr. Clef and the mechanicals good-bye and left.
    “Are you still a baroness?” Gavin asked as the trio set off down the dusty, hedge-lined road toward Luxembourg. “I mean, you left the country and abandoned your fiancé and became a traitor, so—”
    “Titles are for life,” Alice said. “My father was the last Lord Michaels, and I was his only child. His only relative, really. When he passed away, that left me Alice, Lady Michaels, and I will be until I die, no matter how scandalously I behave, though if I have a child, things become complicated.”
    “How?” Feng inquired. His feet kicked up small puffs of dust that hung on the still air. Birds called from the hedges and the trees that grew among them, and cows lowed from their pastures.
    “For the line to continue, any child I have must be legitimate,” Alice said, flushing a little. The subject still made her uncomfortable, even though England was hundreds of miles away. “If Gavin and I don’t marry in a Christian church, our children won’t be…”
    She trailed off in horror, realizing what she had just said. Gavin would never live to see children. Tears welled up, and she looked abruptly away.
    Gavin squeezed her hand. “I don’t care if they’re titled or not,” he said brightly. “We aren’t going back toEngland, and that’s the only place the title matters. You will be my wife on our airship and the whole world will be our estate!” He spread his arms wide, then swept her into a kiss. “There! Title that!”
    Alice had to laugh. “Thank you, Mr. Ennock.”
    “You’re welcome, Miss No-Longer-Lady-Alice-Michaels,” he said impishly.
    “I believe I will call you Miss A,” Feng said. “If you prefer.”
    “Actually, I would not,” she said. “The Third Ward uses Christian names among themselves to show comradeship and to emphasize the fact that they operate outside the usual boundaries of society. Since we are traveling together outside the boundaries of society, and I have little use for my title anymore, I think I would prefer my Christian name. Feng.”
    He put his fist into his hand and bowed to her in what Alice assumed was an Oriental fashion. “Then it will be so. Alice.”
    “You must be looking forward to going home,” Alice said as they continued to walk.
    Feng blinked at her. “What a strange thing to say.”
    “Is it? I would think you would miss your homeland, though I would imagine it’s difficult to leave your father. Your mother will certainly be glad to see you.”
    Feng was silent for a long moment. Then he said slowly, “I am not returning as any kind of hero, Alice. I thought you knew that.”
    “Sorry?”
    “I am returning in disgrace. The lowest disgrace you can imagine.”
    “I don’t understand,” Gavin put in. “You and yourfather don’t want you to be a diplomat, so you’re going home to—”
    “That is exactly the point, Gavin. I am a nephew to the emperor