Foster lifted his huge hand and wiped at the side of his face.
“Right.” Welton turned back to me. “The galvanized were brought in, reawakened sometimes decades apart, since there was some shuffling of who really had the claims to the brains and bodies, who had power to do certain procedures, a rise and fall of medical and technological advances, and, of course, the Restructure that set the world under House rule, kicked off the downfall, the Uprising. History—blah, blah, blah.
“But the machine that created the galvanized, if there ever was a machine that altered time, was never found. It has long been assumed the records were destroyed, lost. They’ve certainly never turned up. And once certain people saw the value in having such powerful creatures on their side”—he lifted his hands to indicate all of us in the room—“everything that could be done to figure out how they were made or how to re-create them was done.”
He tipped his head down. “Unsuccessfully. No one has been able to immortalize a brain, nor come up with a fully repairable body. No one. Or so we’ve thought for many, many years.”
He glanced around. “Did I cover it pretty well?”
Dotty tapped the edge of a deck of cards on the table. “Not bad for a kid.”
He slid her a grin. “Now do you understand why you are so sought after, Matilda? No one has made a galvanized or discovered a galvanized in a couple hundred years. And if Abraham hadn’t pulled you in when he did, you would have had more than one House at your door, claiming you as their own.”
“Including you,” Loy muttered, as he walked over and took a seat at the table.
“Of course including me,” Welton said, his eyes half-closed like a sleeping cat’s. “But it only made sense that a galvanized who enjoys conversation and doesn’t frighten small children be the one sent to talk to her about her choices. Which ruled me out.”
I glanced up at Foster. That stony, almost inhuman expression hardened his face again. I thought he might not really be angry; he just looked that way. All the time.
“Since House Gray and I work very well together . . .” He shrugged. “So little energy and resources from me, and I still get a chance to talk to you. How is that not a brilliant outcome?
“But that thread,” he said, staring at the stitches on my wrist. “It isn’t anything I’ve seen in biomodification. Do you have more of it?”
“Yes. On the farm.”
I still didn’t want to reveal any secret I didn’t have to. Like the laboratory beneath the pump house out on my property.
The only reason Neds knew about the lab was because I’d been skewered pretty badly by the pony, and had to have him fetch me the threads since I was losing blood too quickly to do much good for myself.
“What would I have to do to get a length of it from you?”
“Well, you’d have to let me go home.”
“I can arrange that.”
“Can you?” I glanced at Abraham, who rolled his eyes.
“You rule HouseYellow, Welton,” Abraham said. “Not every House in the world.”
“I don’t have to rule every House to get what I want,” he said.
“What about what we want?” Dotty asked. “We’ve been waiting for a game of five-card stud for an hour now. Close your mouth and open your wallet, Welly. Who’s in?”
Loy, Buck, and Abraham all took to the table. Along with Dotty and Welton, it was a pretty full game.
Helen stood from the couch. “I’m going out for a walk,” she announced.
“Want company?” Wila offered.
“No. I just need some fresh air.” She threw a look my way, like I was the one stinking up the place.
I did not know what I’d done to get under that woman’s hide. We’d barely spoken.
She closed the door behind her, and I headed over to the kitchen to get some tea.
So far, I thought I’d handled myself well, or at least well enough I didn’t think I’d be removed from House Gray. If I could just stay out of January’s judgmental gaze and not do something stupid like pick a fight with Helen, I might even make it through the night.
I stayed in the kitchen while my tea steeped.
