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Want to know how Ruth’s journey continues?
Here, have a sneak peek of Book Two.
“There, I believe it’s finished,” Ruth said as she stood back from her workbench.
Michel and Ivy stepped forward to get a better look.
“It’s so... small,” Ivy commented.
“I believe that is the point,” Michel replied.
“But does it work?”
Ruth rolled her eyes. “Oh ye of little faith,” she said before pressing the button atop the mechanical spider.
It immediately started scuttling around the table, taking stock of its environment.
“Well, I suppose now we know that the smaller aether core prototype works,” Michel commented.
“Yes,” Ruth agreed. “Though now it’s a case of scaling up my projects to see how powerful the smaller one truly is.”
“So, what does this contraption actually do?” Ivy asked, folding her arms. “Besides look disconcertingly like a real spider?”
Ruth sighed. “It can do anything you need it to.”
“Which will probably be espionage,” Michel ventured.
Ivy frowned. “I thought you didn’t want any of your inventions being used by the military.”
Ruth shrugged. “I’m not particularly fond of the idea, but I can live with them being used for information gathering. Though, I had thought of them as more of a tool. You know, to get into those difficult to reach spots in engines and the like.”
“Well, I suppose the strength of your inventions is their versatility.”
“Is that a compliment for you or me?” Michel joked, his ceramic face plates quirking up into a little smirk.
“Both, I think,” Ruth told him with a smile before turning back to Ivy. “And what about you? How is your navigational system coming along?”
“Nothing is currently on fire, so that’s a good thing. Probably.”
They heard a knock on the door downstairs.
“That will be your ride,” Ivy said. “I’ll let them in while you clean up.”
Ruth nodded as Ivy left the room, quickly looking over herself in the mirror she had taken to keeping there so that Michel could practice facial expressions.
Her dark hair was falling out of its clip into a ruffled mess over her pale skin, framing her dark eyes as much as the red marks from her goggles. She had taken to wearing fewer skirts through necessity. With the three of them in the workshop at all times, they mostly just got in the way, not to mention the fire hazard. Her dress that day was a sky blue colour, which was only saved from stains by her leather apron. She had been careful, knowing that the Queen would most likely send for her. She hadn’t wanted to change before seeing her.
Once Ruth had made sure that she looked at least vaguely presentable, she lowered her hand to the workbench, allowing the mechanical spider to climb up her arm.
“My Lady,” the young man at the door - Peter, she remembered - greeted as she made her way downstairs. “Queen Victoria wishes to see you.”
“I thought she would,” Ruth said. Her meetings with the Queen, to go over how Ruth was faring as the Crown’s Inventor and to see what uses her newest inventions might have, had never been explicitly scheduled, but it had quickly become clear that the meetings were always on the first of the month. “Let’s head off then.”
Ruth spent the carriage ride over to the palace looking over the little mechanical spider in her hands, considering different ways in which she could improve upon the design. It helped her to forget the bumpy road beneath her, though she found a headache forming as the carriage stopped.
She had never been good with travel.
Peter jumped out to open the door for her, as he always did. She waited patiently, knowing that it was polite, even if it would have quicker for her to open the door herself.
“Thank you, Peter,” she said as she climbed down, the little spider climbing up to her shoulder to free up her hands.
Peter walked with her to where Queen Victoria was waiting. Ruth was used to the Queen’s cold glares at this point, but the one she found herself under as she entered the room was particularly frosty.
“Ma’am?” Ruth asked, feeling a little on edge.
“I have just received word from our French ambassador.”
Ruth blinked at the pregnant pause. “About?” she eventually asked, wondering what was going on.
“Mechanical men, apparently. Much like your Michel. The word around Paris is that they have been wandering the streets.” The Queen gave her a measuring look. “No one else has even been close to developing mechanical men, as far as my intelligence tells me. Now, I will only ask you this once: have you sold or given the plans for Michel to anyone else?”
“No-” Ruth started, but cut herself off. “James got a look at the plans before I locked them away. But he can’t have had that good of a look at them. And he was never the most mechanically minded individual.”
“Locked away?”
“In Thomas’ safe. He always kept my plans there until he could sell them. Not that he had any intention of selling the plans for Michel to anyone but James, but that was the first time he didn’t intend to sell them.”
“And the plans are definitely still there?”
“I... I don’t know. We haven’t had the need to put anything in the safe since I started working for you.”
“You went home to Newcastle for a week two months ago. Have you checked the safe since then?”
“I don’t know. Thomas might have.”
“Then Peter will return to your home and check.”
The wait for Peter to check the safe was excruciating. The Queen mostly ignored Ruth, focusing on her other work instead, but Ruth still felt as if she was taking up far too much space. Her discomfort certainly wasn’t helped by her feeling the guards’ eyes on her .
When Peter finally returned, it was with Michel in tow.
“Ruth?” he asked as he approached. “What’s going on? Peter said that someone was building more mechanical men like me.”
She nodded, feeling much better now that he was here, but didn’t have a chance to answer before Peter spoke.
“Your Majesty, the safe was empty when we got there. It showed signs of tampering.”
The Queen nodded before turning to face Ruth. “I want to believe that you were not involved in this, but what I believe isn’t quite relevant right now. It is important that we shut down this operation, whatever it is, as quickly as possible and retrieve your plans. I can’t send an occupation force to France, only a few of my best people. They will be most likely to succeed if you are with them. If you can help them to retrieve the plans and stop the production of these mechanical men, then we shall forget that this incident ever occurred.”
“You would let her leave the country?” Michel asked, a little disbelieving.
“Under the watch of Captain Hall, yes. I trust him not to let her out of his sight.”
“Then I’ll do it,” Ruth agreed. “I’ll find the plans and stop whoever is creating more mechanical men.”
Look out for Lady Ruth and the Parisian Thief, available now!