AN IMPATIENT KNOCK came at the laboratory door before Hilda’s voice called through it. “Will you be wanting breakfast, milord?”
Ford blinked and then carefully, reverently, set aside his watch. Still in somewhat of a daze, he rose and went to admit her. “Is it morning already?”
His housekeeper’s hands went to her hips. “Have you not bothered to look out a window lately?”
He turned to the one right over where he’d been working. The sky was blue. Birds were chirping, the perfect accompaniment for a beautiful, sunny day.
“Did you stay up all night again?” Hilda demanded.
“What is it with the questions?” Ford shook his head, refusing to let her disapproval ruin his exuberant mood. “Come, I have something to show you.”
She followed him to his workbench, weaving around a water bath and flicking her dust rag as she went. “If you’d let me in here to clean once in a while, this wouldn’t be such a skimble-skamble mess.”
Accustomed to her lectures, he ignored this one and lifted his watch, dangling by its gold chain. “Here it is,” he said with a broad smile. “I’m finished.”
“It’s very nice.” She raised a glass funnel and wiped it off.
Nonplussed, he stared at her. “I know it’s not fancy, but do you see here? It’s different from other watches. It has a minute hand, like a clock. So you won’t have to guess how far into the hour it is by looking at only the single hand.”
“Well, that is very nice, my lord.” She smiled, but her faded blue eyes didn’t sparkle with the enthusiasm he was seeking. “Although you have clocks enough around here for me to tell the time, I expect many individuals will appreciate the convenience.” She set down the funnel and glanced around the attic, sighing at the clutter and dust. “Will you be wanting breakfast now, then?”
He was silent a minute before mutely ordering himself to shrug off the disappointment. “Breakfast would be nice. I’ll be down shortly.”
He watched her calico-clad back as she picked her way through the maze that was his sanctuary. Convenient. She’d called his watch convenient. Although he supposed it was, that hadn’t been the reaction he was hoping for.
After months and months of analysis and experimentation—not to mention years of schooling and an entire childhood’s worth of tinkering—he’d finally managed to create something that could benefit mankind. He wanted awe, excitement. Criminy, a bit of hero worship wouldn’t be amiss, either.
Suspecting Jewel would have expressed all those sentiments and more, he found himself missing her all over again.
Luckily, another enthusiastic girl lived not so far away.