Ada nodded to her hands. ‘That must come in useful.’
Olympe blushed purple and quickly pulled her gloves back on.
‘Can you only do that with your hands?’
‘No. But it’s the easiest to control there.’
‘Do you mean if I touch another part of your body, I might get a shock?’
Olympe’s expression tightened, and she nodded. ‘Docteur Comtois always wore special gloves to protect himself.’
Ada rolled that sentence around in her mind for a minute. She imagined this so-called doctor fumbling with thick gloves lined in sheepskin as he sewed Olympe’s gloves to her dress, pricking her delicate skin so tiny red beads of blood blossomed along her wrist.
She shivered. Poor girl.
‘Do you remember the first time you were able to use electricity?’
‘No – I mean, I think I was born this way. When I was young I didn’t have so much control. I’d shock people that I didn’t like. It wasn’t on purpose, but when I got angry or upset it felt as though all of my insides were moving too fast, rubbing against each other, and then before I could control it, someone got hurt.’ She tucked her hands under her arms. ‘My mother always told me it was natural. A cat will scratch someone who steps on its tail. Maybe I am beastly like that.’
Olympe looked away for a moment, a flush of grey and purple across her cheeks. Then she seemed to gather herself again and turned back to Ada.
‘I’d like to sleep now. Please give my apologies to the others.’ On the threshold of the bedroom, she paused. ‘And thank you. I think I should have said that earlier.’
Ada’s expression clouded over. ‘There’s nothing to thank us for. Yet.’
5
The Restaurant Downstairs
Back at the Au Petit Suisse, Camille found Ada had returned already, leaving Olympe to sleep in their rooms above. The short summer night had finally fallen and the bells pealed out the small hours of the morning, but the battalion were still riding high on the rush of their close escape. Leaning over the table, eyes bright, Ada was explaining her hot air balloon flight with tiny twists of the ultra-fine paper the biscuits came wrapped in. First lighting them at one end, then sending them floating over the scattered dishes and glasses to land in their hair and on their plates. It seemed impossible that they had only launched the balloon that morning. Now something warm spread inside Camille as she slid into the chair beside Ada. She didn’t know how she’d been so lucky to find her. Ada had stuck with her long after it had all gone wrong, long after she had any right to expect. Being with her was like finding a tiny gap in the universe that was calm and warm and loving.
Al plucked one of the burning twists of paper out of the air and used it to light a pipe. He pointed the end at Camille, bowl aglow.
‘What are we doing about the science project upstairs? She’s gone to bed but I’m not sleeping in the same place as someone who could kill me as soon as I close my eyes.’
Guil took off his hat and balanced it on his knee. ‘We could all kill you in your sleep, Al. It would not be a difficult task.’
‘My god, was that a joke?’
Guil didn’t rise to the bait so Al turned to Camille.
‘The girl is too dangerous to keep around. Someone needs to take her off our hands sharpish.’
Camille glared at him. She was too tired for this.
‘We move her somewhere else as soon as we can. The Cordeliers looked clear when I checked it with Guil earlier. We’d have been saved a lot of bother if you’d taken the time to find out if the Duc de l’Aubespine actually had a daughter before we went crashing in there.’
‘Are you saying it’s my fault we’ve ended up with a hell beast in the parlour?’
‘I’m saying you have a role to play and you didn’t play it. Now we’re in over our heads.’
He knocked back his drink and slouched in his chair. ‘What do you want from me, an apology?’
‘No, I want you to do your damn job.’
‘So let’s do our job. Give Olympe to the duc and then this whole mess can be behind us.’
Camille pinched the bridge of her nose. She’d gone about this all wrong.
