new life on my machine. I’m honored to have been allowed to help.” His voice was soft and husky, and he gazed at me with the same intensity as before. For a moment, I felt like the two of us were alone in the park, but then I remembered Lizzie. They’d been walking in the park together—was he her beau? She didn’t appear to take offense at the way he focused so intently on me.
I smiled back at him, sure my cheeks must be flaming. “It’s better than any magical pumpkin coach.”
He winked. “Don’t remind the magpies of that story. Next thing you know, they’ll be turning pumpkins to coaches left and right, and I can’t compete with that.”
“Oh, but it was wonderful, better than magic,” I insisted. Then I remembered how the ride had ended and felt bad for not having asked sooner. “Did the police catch you?”
“No, they didn’t,” he said, beaming. “You don’t have to worry about us. We’ve got a number of hiding places. By the time they caught up with us beyond the magpie zone, Bessie was safe and an ordinary team of horses was pulling the bus. Everyone on Fifth Avenue must have imagined a speeding bus pulled by a steam engine.”
“It really is a wonderful machine,” I said.
“That’s merely a small one,” he said. He gestured animatedly as he spoke, his voice rising with fervor. “A larger one could pull a train. Or power a boat. A smaller one might drive a carriage. Steam power could run factories. I know a man who uses a steam engine to generate electrical power for light or to run machinery, even to send messages over long distances. With machines, we can do anything magic can do.” He was so passionate about the subject and so close to me that I found my breath quickening in response.
Lizzie leaned across me and patted him on the knee. “Now, Alec, I’m sure Verity doesn’t have all day.” To me, she added, “He can go on for hours about his machines. You should hear him when he gets together with his university friends.”
“My machines may win our freedom,” he insisted. “If we don’t need magic, then we don’t need magisters, and then we don’t need the aristocracy or Britain. They can cut off our power, like they did a century ago in the last rebellion, and it won’t affect us at all. The factories can still run and goods can be delivered without magisters.”
“See what I mean?” Lizzie said with a raised eyebrow.
I smiled at her, but it felt strained. These could be very dangerous people to know. Lord Henry might have had Ideas, but I doubted he’d want someone associated with the rebels teaching his wards, and it was entirely possible that he was within earshot, crawling through the bushes on a search for insect specimens.
Suddenly uncomfortable with my companions and the conversation, I checked my watch without really looking at it and said, “I should get back to the house. It was a pleasure meeting you properly, Mr. Emfinger.”
Lizzie shot him a glare, to which he responded with a slight shrug. He turned to me and touched the brim of his hat. “Likewise. I’m sure I’ll see you again, Verity.”
“Thank you again for saving my life. And for the lemonade.”
“Don’t mention it at all,” Alec said, standing and offering me a hand up. He gave my hand a lingering squeeze, adding with a smile, “On second thought, feel free to mention my heroics as often as you like.”
Lizzie shook her head and sighed with long-suffering patience as she stood and took my glass from me. “Don’t encourage him, or he’ll be quite impossible.”
“Have you ever considered that she might like impossible?” he asked her, smiling and winking at me. He was almost as dashing as the masked bandit had been—and possibly even more dangerous.
Before I could do anything impulsive and improper, I stammered another goodbye and hurried away. Despite wanting to, I forced myself not to look over my shoulder at Alec. If I had been the sort of girl who kept a diary other than a list of books I’d read and my thoughts on them, I’d have run home to record this encounter. I was crossing the street to the Lyndon home when I realized I still clutched Alec’s handkerchief. I tucked it carefully into my pocket before climbing the front steps.
I entered the house to the sound of a piano. Flora must have been having