Sir Marley Turlock doesn't normally bother with flirtation. He's an inventor, a scientist, not a gadabout. And the floor of the inaugural London Aeronautical Exhibition, just before he presents his groundbreaking new device to the Queen herself, is not the place to change his habits toward the fairer sex.
But Lady Persephone Hargrieve has her delicate fingers engaged in the innards of his device before Marley can catch his breath at her beauty. He's never met a woman like her--a fiery intelligence to match his own, a genius for mechanics, and more secrets than he can guess.
Of course, Sephie's secrets aren't all innocuous tricks to make the gears spin smoother. It's no coincidence that she's turned up to investigate Marley's machines--if they're good enough, if he can be trusted enough, they might save the country. Even if along the way she ends up losing her heart. . .
"Meyers is a genuine, fresh voice in the paranormal romance genre." --RT BookReviews on The Slayer
"Meyers puts the steam in steampunk." --Cherry Adair
The progeny of a slightly mad (NASA) scientist and a tea-drinking bibliophile who turned the family dining room into a library, Theresa Meyers learned early the value of a questioning mind, books, and a good china teapot. A former journalist and public relations officer, she found far more enjoyment using her writing skills to pen paranormal novels in the turret office of her Victorian home. She's spent nearly a quarter of a century with the boy who took her to the Prom, drinks tea with milk and sugar, is an adamant fan of the television show Supernatural, and has an indecent love of hats.
Release date:
January 1, 2013
Publisher:
Zebra Books
Print pages:
91
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Marley Turlock fisted the missive into a ball in his pocket. Her Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria informed him that she was looking forward to seeing his work on the Sound Transmission Auditory Ranger device.
A prestigious honor to be sure.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t make the damned thing work.
He flipped another lens down on his specially designed goggles to peer more closely at the complex maze of tubes, wires, gears, and pistons within his machine. The buzz and hum of voices in low, excited conversation reverberated throughout the expansive space of the Crystal Palace. The sound bounced back from the translucent panes of glass making up not just the walls, but the ceilings of the exhibition hall. Everyone was excited about the world’s first Aeronautical Exhibition and the possibility of manned flight. He would be thrilled as well, if he could get the damned device to work as it should. He’d been working so hard on his airborne electrical transmission enhancer that he’d not spent quite enough time on the STAR.
Early morning sunlight, buttery and soft, illuminated his display area and the walkways at the southern end of the great building. The odors of grease and new paint mingled with expensive cigar smoke and heavily perfumed humanity. But none of it sank in. Marley was too focused on getting his invention up and running before they opened the doors to the mass of people waiting outside, tickets in hand.
Clearly in between disassembling the complex device in the laboratory and transporting it to the Crystal Palace, either something had gone missing or been damaged. Marley pulled back the spectro-photometric oglifiers from over his eyes and stared at one of his recent inventions, the one that was supposed to launch his career to a whole new level. The extended brass goggles with their various additions and multiple lenses made him feel a bit like a demented horned beast.
“Damned and blast. Just wait until Her Majesty sees this. I can wave fare-thee-well to becoming the top candidate for her lead royal scientific advisor for certain,” he murmured to himself as he wiped the thick, dark grease from his fingers.
“Is that so?”
Marley cringed, knowing from the tenor of the voice alone that he’d sworn in front of a woman, a most ungentlemanly thing to do. He whipped around. No one who wasn’t an exhibitor at the great inaugural Aeronautical Exhibition was supposed to be within the inner sanctum of the Crystal Palace yet, and he sincerely doubted there were any females displaying inventions at the event.
Burnished copper curls framed a heart-shaped face and made the young woman’s eyes turn an intriguing shade of cornflower blue. Her chin was stubborn, but her features aristocratic. The smell of flowers—hyacinth, he thought—perfumed the air around her. While he could create mechanical marvels, he could not manage to link two cognitive words together in response to her comment.
The sensation taking over his body was not unlike being woken from a particularly vivid dream. He’d heard his cousin talk of women who stole one’s ability to breathe, but until this moment he’d never met such a paragon. He managed to gather enough moisture in his mouth to respond finally. “Sir Marley Turlock, at your service, and whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?” His pulse roared so loudly in his ears, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hear her.
She glanced quickly over her shoulder and held up her pristine white-gloved hand to partially cover her mouth, as if she spoke a most important secret to him. “Lady Persephone Hargrieve. I really shouldn’t be here as yet. My father is currently putting the finishing touches on his own display, but your machine looks utterly fascinating. I couldn’t resist finding out more about it. What is it?”
Marley wasn’t the only inventor showcasing new ideas or even plans for ideas not yet built. “It’s a Sound Transmission Auditory Ranger device.”
“And what does it do?”
“The STAR functions as a sonic tracking and wind measurement device for guiding air flight carriages.”
“Air flight carriages?”
“Yes, well, gazing about it’s not hard to see there will be scads of them flying groups of people about in the not too distant future. What we lack, however, is the means to prevent them from colliding with one another while in flight and the means to determine the wind strength and flow while they are airborne. Now, this device, based on the internal ear of a bat, reconfigured mechanically to—” Marley stopped himself mid-explanation.
By the look in her wide blue eyes, he could tell she was interested, but that vivid sparkle in her eyes indicated far more. Inventor’s heat they called it, that unique quality among those so dispensed to invention that their brains became fevered by the rush of ideas.
“Is there something you noticed?” He glanced back at his machine and readjusted the audio projection tube that looked as if it might have tilted out of place.
“If this is bat-like, then does it emit high-pitched sounds?”
“It both emits and receives them, my lady.”
“And that bit, there.” She lifted her pale blue skirt in a thoroughly unladylike . . .
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