All of which made for much enjoyment but very little actual progress toward Sheffield.
Finally, they noticed the sun’s lowering and agreed they’d have to give up their trek for the day and find an inn before darkness fell. (Granted, sunset wasn’t due for another four hours, allowing plenty of time to travel the remaining eight miles to Sheffield—but an ability to do basic math disappears surprisingly quickly when one’s brain is being so flooded by the oxytocin hormone that one can barely walk at all.)
Beth sighed. “I wish the train had stopped in Hathersage,” she lied. In fact, she’d never felt more blissful than she had this afternoon, strolling the woodland road with Devon. It was even superior to the time she’d been about to join a faculty Christmas party when the fire alarm had gone off, forcing everyone to leave the building.
“At least the caladrius is happier,” Devon said, holding up the birdcage to watch its little white inhabitant hop from perch to water bottle to perch again, peeping excitedly at all the sights of the woodlands around it. After leaving the village they had removed the cage cover and pressed a chunk of pear between two bars, and the caladrius had perked up considerably. Its pretty white wings and its delight with the world made Beth smile every time she looked at it.
“Come on,” Devon told her, lowering the cage again, his own smile rather sappy. “We should keep going.”
Beth sighed. “Can’t we just wait here until someone imports one of those newfangled motorcars into England and happens to drive past so we can hijack them?”
Devon laughed. Hooking a finger around two of hers, he lifted her hand and turned it so she found herself spinning beneath their raised arms like in a dance. Then he began walking backward, cajoling her, gently tugging her, until she was laughing and walking, with all her heart willing to go anywhere in the world he might lead.
—
A few minutes later they came to the edge of the woods and discovered before them moorlands spreading to a far horizon, bare, brown, and swept with cool wind. Not a single building was in sight. Devon stopped, his heart swooping.
But Beth slipped away from him and drifted forward, becoming illuminated by the clear light from a vast, pallid sky. Tipping her face up to the wind, she closed her eyes, and long strands of hair swept across their lids, brushed her smile, and draped over the arms she stretched out as if she’d take flight.
Devon could not move, not even to glance away from her. The weight of attraction he felt for this woman had become almost unbearable. He’d dawdled all afternoon, taking any excuse to stop along the way, reveling in her company. He found her so endlessly beautiful, decent, fun, and interesting, and he liked her equally as much as he felt in love with her. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet. In fact, he wished he never had to at all. But his whole life had been a series of farewells: from his mother when she died, from his family when he was sent to Yale, from casual lovers and temporary friends…He could not trust in wishes.
“It doesn’t look hopeful,” he said.
Beth turned to smile at him. “Oh, you never know your—”
She stopped abruptly as the clatter of traffic sounded in the distance. There was just enough time for Devon to utter a curse (and Beth to give him a chastising frown) before a hansom cab appeared around a bend some hundred yards back, dust clouds rising from beneath its wheels and shouts from within its body.
“Tyrannical woman!”
“Idiot! I told you going west was a stupid idea!”
“Will you both stop shouting?!”
“Don’t shove me!”
Devon reached for Beth to pull her off the road, but she was already running. They sprinted down a mild slope to crouch behind the nearest clump of dusty, dried-up gorse, and seconds later the cab emerged from the woodland. It drew to a halt where they had been standing, almost causing a collision between the several vehicles behind it.
“I swear I saw people on the road here!” the driver called from his high seat.
Peep! the caladrius sang, and Devon hastily swept one half of his coat around its cage. Hippolyta rose to stand on the cab’s footrest with her hands on her hips, ringlets stirring in the wind as she examined the view.
A yellow gorse flower blossomed in front of Devon, glimmering slightly with avian magic.
“I see no one!” Hippolyta declared.
“The driver’s telling the truth,” a Miss Fotheringham said from her perch on the cab’s left step. “It was two people, a man and a woman.”
“Yes, and the woman wasn’t wearing a hat,” the other Miss Fotheringham said disapprovingly from the cab’s right step.
“And the man had a magnificent golden mustache,” the first added.
Suddenly a score of flowers burst forth at the uppermost tips of the gorse bush. Beth gasped. Devon drew the birdcage closer and wrapped the other half of his coat around it. Peep came from beneath the cotton drapery.
“That’s strange,” Hippolyta boomed, peering in their direction. Devon suppressed a curse; beside him, Beth tensed in preparation for running.
“Those weren’t there a minute ago, by Jove!” Flinging out her arm dramatically, Hippolyta pointed a pink-gloved finger toward the bush behind which they hid.
“What is it?” Herr Obherhufter and the Fotheringham sisters all asked at once.
“Two albino hawks in that tree over there!”
“Verdammt!” Oberhufter shouted. “We have no time for hawks and shadows! Lockley will be in Sheffield by now! Drive on!”
With a loud, aggrieved sigh, Hippolyta sat down and the driver urged the horse into a trot once more. Within moments, the cab and its attendant vehicles had disappeared beyond the eastern horizon.
Devon and Beth let out simultaneous breaths of relief. Unwrapping the birdcage, Devon gave the caladrius a mock frown. “Rascal,” he chided.
“How did it make these flowers bloom?” Beth asked, gently touching a yellow petal. “Rejuvenation is never mentioned as one of its powers.”
“Perhaps it has naturally evolved since last observed,” Devon suggested. “Or perhaps Gladstone’s attempts to manipulate it have triggered a change to its thaumaturgic energy profile.”
Beth frowned. “If it can regenerate things in this way on a consistent basis, and not just as an expression of stress, then everyone will want a piece of it.”
“Well, we have it now,” Devon said, “and we will ensure its safety.” He rose and held out his hand; Beth took it, and he helped her up. They gazed out at the scruffy landscape.
“Not a building anywhere in sight,” Beth said with a weary sigh.
“I could have sworn there was an inn nearby,” Devon murmured. “Mind you, it’s been a while since I was last here.”
