A huge bouquet of flowers was set beneath the clock. She inhaled the exotic scents. Lilies, orchids, and bird-of-paradise delivered from the conservatory. A new bouquet greeted her every day since the night in the library. Her stomach fluttered. Anthony was a romantic.
But this was business now and they had experiments to perform before she returned to Boston, only days away. Her heart dipped at the thought and she shook it aside. “What are we working on today?”
Following Anthony’s instructions, Rachel soaked flannel discs in an acid solution. She compressed her lips, trying to concentrate. Anthony had conceded to her idea. “Each metal has a certain power, which is different from metal to metal, of setting the electrical fluid to motion.”
“You are so unlike the young women I know.”
“Really? Do tell.” Was he courting her? Hadn’t he accepted the dog, brought her flowers from the conservatory, gone on walks when she requested the exercise? Hadn’t he been by her side, attending balls and dinners in between working in the lab?Unpredictable.
He frowned. “We have work to do, and I’m not about to rain down further compliments on a head that is already full of confidence.”
“How disappointing. Where is Aunt Margaret?”
“She was feeling under the weather and bid us good luck on our experiments.” He took out the metal discs, the copper flashing a bright orange in the light. “I like the way you roll up your sleeves and get things done, taking pride in your work. Efficient.”
She twisted a lock of her hair.A compliment?“Go on.”
His notebook lay open. Drawn in the margin was a heart with Rachel and Anthony stenciled inside. Her toes curled. She would rip out that page and carry it home with her to treasure forever.
Anthony stacked the copper and zinc discs, tonging the acid drenched flannel between. “You are the antidote to my severe, demanding, pigheadedness. I like your observations and most important, your witty comebacks. You make me laugh.”
Regrets.The people she’d miss, Aunt Margaret, the Duke, Sebastian, the butler andAnthony. Her throat thickened. They had been more than family.Think forward to Abby, Jacob, Ethan and the baby. Leave. Don’t’ think about it, don’t look back.
But to whirl in a circle, to sample Anthony’s attention, this indulgenceeven for a short time? When she walked by, she heard him inhale her hair. “I really feel we are on the brink of something that will change all mankind. Have you thought of the possibilities?” she said.
He didn’t say anything, his shoulder muscles tightened, intent on finishing the stack. Rachel clutched her chest.One two three. Attached to the top and bottom of the pile, Anthony joined the two wires. A small charge emitted. Her shoulders sank. The experiment failed.
Anthony raked his fingers through his hair. “I told you it wouldn’t work.”
“It did work. We ruled out a possibility. What doyoupropose next?” She refused to let him sink to despair, the same despondency she drowned in every day, knowing she would be saying goodbye.
“It’s useless. Day after day, we try repeatedly, harvesting nothing.”
She scuffed a chair closer to the cabinet and looked him right in the eye. “One of the older and wiser carpenters in the Thorne Shipyard used to tell me theories are like stars. You never really succeed in touching them with your fingers, but like the ancient seafaring men on the desert of waters, used them as their guides and discovered their path.”
“Platitudes,” Anthony groaned. “No matter how small my successes you always cheer me on. Let’s stack a higher pile.”
“That’s my Anthony, back on his problem solving. Oh, the perils of being a genius.” She wagged a finger at him. “Have you ever experienced the threat of humility?”
He offered her a hopeless grin.
“Well, wisdom is knowing what to do next. Let’s try mixing a salt and acid solution.”
“Interesting.” He compromised and dumped the existing solution to start over again. Rachel joined him at the sink, pumping water and washing the jars, and when the task was completed carried the equipment to the counter and started the process again. Anthony poured the sulfuric acid and Rachel measured in a salt brine solution, soaking new flannel discs.
Copper, flannel, zinc, were alternated and supported by three glass rods. Anthony picked up the two wires, glanced at her. “Let’s hope.”
She clapped her hands together in a prayerful pose.Please. Please. Let it work this time.
He connected the two ends and she held her breath.
Electrical fire zinged around the room like shooting stars, hurling against the walls of the laboratory. The dog barked and leaped.
Rachel had almost forgotten to breathe, for her entire body steeped with the most powerful and intense sensation she’d ever known. It was something like frenzied hunger, and something like fulfillment. It was wonder and awe and yearning and fear captured in a bold new world. Her chest expanded with it until pressed against her lungs, emptying them of breath. There were no words other than to have Anthony at her side and sit on the edge of the heavens at the dawn of creation.
She threw her hands into the air and cried out. “Oh, Anthony, you are magnificent. Do you realize what you have discovered?”
“We,” he emphasized and she loved the ring of that, “We have discovered the first method for the generation of a sustained electrical current, and creating a high energy source.”
