“Would you care to take some tea, Mr Fotherscue?” asked Alice, sweetly.
“Tea?” Henry remarked abruptly, as if being jolted back from more portentous considerations. “Oh yes, if you wish.”
“Darjeeling or Earl Grey?” she persisted.
“Uh, the second one,” he responded as he unstrapped the heavy contraption from his back, placed it carefully on the floor and slumped into the richly upholstered chair she indicated.
Delicately – Alice performed every act with delicacy – she poured the beverage and handed him his cup.
“Uncle Ambrose will be here shortly,” she smiled. “He had a few errands to run.”
“Right you are,” said Henry. Then he stopped and looked at Alice with a degree of interest which had hitherto been lacking. “So you are Ambrose’s niece? Do you live with him here?”
“I lost all I had, including my parents, in the Resplendian Uprising when I was just fourteen. Uncle Ambrose was kind enough to take me in. I act as his housekeeper, and his workshop assistant, when required.”
She didn’t add that this service had only been required on a single occasion, and then only for approximately six minutes, when her uncle had needed someone to turn a wheel while he checked a mechanism from beneath. Normally he allowed no one near his workshop – not even to dust.
Henry Fotherscue looked duly impressed.
“You are indeed fortunate to live with such a brilliant inventor. Are you, then, familiar with this device?”
“It’s the Temporal Transformer,” Alice replied, in as casual a tone as she could manage. As luck would have it, she had been eavesdropping from the drawing room on the day Henry had first collected it from her uncle, and had overheard a good part of their conversation.
Henry nodded. “It’s been playing up,” he stated. “I think maybe the elephant was a mistake – in more ways than one.”
“Elephant?” Alice enquired, with a slight gasp.
“Hmm. Ambrose warned me not to attempt a transformation with anything too large. But, I mean to say, how large is large? I’d avoided bridges, airships, buildings and so forth, but the locomotive had worked just fine. You should have seen the people’s faces when it appeared in the middle of a market in 1542! The elephant, though – well – not so easy to control.”
“I’m sure,” murmured Alice, weakly. “So – forgive my ignorance, Mr Fotherscue – but when you make a temporal transformation, do you then travel with the object?”
“Well obviously,” Henry replied. “How else could I bring them back?”
“Oh yes, I see,” lied Alice, flushing slightly. “More tea?”
“Perhaps,” he said, absentmindedly. “The thing with an elephant is, you can’t tell what it’s going to do from one moment to the next. Not at all like a machine. And the transformer hasn’t been the same since. I do hope Ambrose can fix it.”
‘So do I,’ thought Alice, grimly. She wouldn’t have wanted to be in young Henry’s shoes if her uncle’s prize invention had been ruined.
If you would like to become better acquainted with Henry and the Temporal Transformer, they are on view at the Steampunk Dolls House Shop.
Click this link to visit him: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/480727524/steampunk-explorer-henry-dollshouse?ref=shop_home_active_13
The lovely Alice can be found at this link: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/494223091/steampunk-lady-alice-dollshouse-scale?ref=shop_home_active_11
As for Ambrose – the inventor of the machine – he, too, is available there to admire, or purchase.
We hope you will enjoy discovering the remaining delights at the Steampunk Dolls House here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SteampunkDollsHouse
“Mongolia?” repeated Mercurius, his eyebrows almost vanishing beneath his flying helmet.
“There’s no need to squawk in that manner, young man,” Algy responded. “Your advertisement in the Gentleman’s Weekly stated that you would carry any cargo to any destination with no questions asked. Yet you pester me with questions!”
Somewhat unwillingly, Mercurius picked up the casket and attached it to the lanyard beneath his greatcoat. He hung the key beside it. Algernon handed him the envelope stuffed with banknotes.
As the door closed behind Mercurius, Algy picked up his Device and cradled it fondly in his arms.
Lucy Etherington was a legend at the Academy. Her classes were always full; her lessons were endlessly surprising and – while her teachings were sometimes frowned upon by the more conservative members of the college’s governing body – her successes were indisputable. Many of her former students were now world renowned explorers, inventors and scientists.
The visitor gave a tinkling laugh, not unlike the sound of tiny metal bells.
Eve nodded and gave her tinkling, slightly mechanical laugh once more.
“I was impressed – and intrigued – by this hat you sent me, Mr – Lars?”
“I am wearing my invention upon my head,” Lars said, almost casually. “Far from wasting your time, Mr Robertson, I have the means here to free you from it altogether and to give you complete control over it.”
“It works through steam power,” Lars continued. “Steam, as of course you are aware, has great power. It is composed of water. And water, you may also be aware, has – memory.”
William’s eyes bulged. He tried to take in this information, to sort it in his mind, to work out the implications and possibilities of using such a machine. Quite suddenly he wheeled round and faced Lars, his eyes blazing.
“You are NOT to pay for the device,” Lars cut in. “You are to pay for the information it provides. I can tell you all you wish to know of any event, at any place or time where the smallest amount of water is, was, or will be present. You will be able to foretell the future! You will be able to make a fortune based on knowing how future events will fall out. You will be able to solve riddles of the past. But you will not own the device. I alone know how to use it and no instructions are written down.” He paused and added, “If you tried, you would merely scald yourself a little.”
Perhaps you recall the airship traveller who accosted Alex, asking to know about the device he carried. Perhaps you formed an opinion of her – saw her as an interfering busybody? Nothing could be further from the truth.
For Katherine, too, is an inventor – and an adventurer. As yet, she lacks her friend’s courage and tenacity and her tutor’s assured and confident manner. Yet she is their equal in brilliance of mind and innovation.
As he boards the airship, though, there is many a raised eyebrow. His backpack – is it steam powered? What do the dials measure? And that metal tube protruding from the top – what is its purpose? Most of all, though, his fellow travellers’ attention is drawn to the device he cradles in his hands.
“The astrolade, I believe it’s called,” a sandy-haired man in a bowler hat ventures.
Steampunk - Shrunk! 