Steampunk Shenanigans

Evie resisted the urge to shrink behind Damien as they walked through the grand house. She felt wildly out of place and his sister seemed so glamorous. The most glamorous person she’d dealt with was Olessa, but Evie very much doubted that Sylvia went around electrocuting people or tormenting small children. Evidenced by the cute little girl that Damien was holding. She clung to his neck and jabbered away happily and Evie couldn’t help but smile a little. They all sat down in a pretty dining room at a large table and two extra place settings were laid out for Evie and Damien.

“Your house is beautiful,” Evie said and Sylvia smiled at her.

“Thank you. So, Damien is helping you get into engineering. That’s so wonderful. How did you two meet?”

“It was sort of a chance meeting near campus,” Evie said, keeping her gaze focused on the potatoes on her plate. She didn’t know of any other way to soften, “I pointed a gun at him.”

“Evie is going to be helping me in my lab,” Damien added.

“Well I’d be happy to help in any way that I can. What did you need?” Sylvia asked.

“The admissions committee is reluctant to allow Evie in, because they feel she doesn’t have the right image for the University.”

Sylvia pursed her lips in annoyance, but Evie was sharply aware that she didn’t look like University material. The dress she was wearing had long sleeves but a neckline in the low side; it was in fact a hand me down from a woman who used to work at the gentlemen’s club near Evie’s apartment. She’d had to make a few adjustments to it to make it more presentable as something you’d wear in public.

“So I’m having her help in the lab but we kind of need some other clothes for her,” Damien went on. “I figured you might have-“

“Oh, of course she can have some clothes. It’s ridiculous that they’re worried about image over ability, but we can make Evie look so ‘university material’ that they can’t possibly ignore her.”

Evie smiled a little at Sylvia’s enthusiasm, though she had a hard time imagining herself looking anything close to “university material.”

“We can find some things after dinner, and I can have them sent to you tomorrow.”

“Oh, um. Maybe just have it sent to Damien and I’ll pick it up from him,” Evie said quickly. “I’m in the middle of a move.” And she was absolutely not giving Sylvia her real address, since it would give away the seedy neighborhood she lived in. And they didn’t need any extra attention or questions from Corbin and Olessa. Thankfully, Sylvia just nodded.

“Of course, that’s not a problem at all.”

Sylvia asked Evie some more questions about herself, which she tried to answer as tactfully as she could. When Sylvia asked about her hobbies she reluctantly admitted to playing the violin and Sylvia beamed at her.

“That’s amazing, I’m so envious of people with musical talent.”

“I really just do it for fun,” Evie said. “I don’t know that I’d say I’m all that talented.”

“I’m sure you’re being modest,” Sylvia laughed. She also peppered Damien with questions and chatter, and Fallon goaded him into a fork duel, giggling wildly. Evie watched them all with a sort of fascination. Even before her parents abandoned her, they hadn’t been affectionate people. Evie was generally left to her own devices, because they always told her to go outside and play. Evie’s very presence seemed to give her mother headaches. Watching the warm and easy way Damien interacted with his sister and niece was almost surreal. A hard knot of guilt formed in her chest for kidnapping him.

“Do you have any siblings?” Sylvia asked her suddenly.

“No, it’s just me.”

“Well, there are pros and cons to having annoying younger siblings,” Sylvia said teasingly.

“And annoying older ones,” Damien added.

“What about your parents, Evie? Do they support your ambition to become an engineer or did they take some convincing?”

“My parents are…gone,” Evie replied.

“Oh, you poor thing. I’m so sorry.”

Sylvia was looking at her with genuine sympathy and Evie quickly looked back down at her plate. After dinner the plates were cleared and as they rose to go search Sylvia’s wardrobe, Evie was surprised to find Fallon walking right next to her, gently playing with some of the pink lace on Evie’s skirt.

“Um. Hello,” Evie said slowly.

“You’re beautiful,” Fallon said, staring intently up at her.

“Oh. Thank you,” Evie said, feeling awkward.

“Are you a princess?”

Evie was so startled she couldn’t even think of an answer to that and Sylvia laughed lightly.

“She seems to have taken a shine to you. You look a lot like the fairy princess in her favorite story book.”

That shocked a laugh out of her. “Oh, well, that’s very sweet but I’m definitely not a princess,” Evie said.

“You look like a princess,” Fallon insisted. “You have pretty hair.”

Sylvia began rifling through a huge closet, telling Evie to just have a seat on the bed. Fallon climbed up beside her, gently playing with Evie’s hair. Damien leaned in the doorway and looked amused as Evie sat there looking bewildered. Sylvia muttered to herself as she chose some articles of clothing and discarded others.

“You may need to hem some of these a bit,” she remarked. She held a few things up in front of Evie, appraising them.

“Obviously green is a great color for you,” she said. “It really brings out your eyes. I don’t have a lot that’s green, though. Really, you’d look great in any of these clothes.”

She glanced over at the pile of clothes she’d set aside, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Well. What we have here should do for now, but at some point in the near future I should really just take you shopping.”

Evie’s face turned red. “Oh, no. That’s not necessary, I couldn’t impose-“

“Nonsense, it’s no imposition.”

“But you don’t even know me.” Evie scrunched her brow in confusion.

“Well, we’ll have to have lunch and fix that then, won’t we?” Sylvia gave her a warm smile and Evie felt a sudden irrational urge to cry. Sylvia helped sort out a couple more outfits and then walked them to the door, gushing about how nice it had been to have them visit.

“When is Evie coming back?” Fallon asked.

“Oh, what am I, chopped liver now?” Damien grinned, leaning down to tweak Fallon’s nose and making her giggle.

“Evie is pretty,” Fallon replied, like this served as an explanation. Evie nearly jumped out of her skin when Fallon tightly hugged her legs and Damien and Sylvia both laughed.

“Okay, she’s pretty. But you need to let her go now,” Damien said, gently prying Fallon off. Evie didn’t know why she blushed. Sylvia hugged them both and they headed down the drive to get a cab home.

“We can tell Olessa and Corbin that we need to stay closer to your lab because it’s easier for you to work and look for more notes on the spider. They should go for it as long as we still snow up regularly to give them updates and I complete whatever assignments they give me.”

Damien nodded. “It’ll be easier for me to work on the cuffs in secret that way, too. Did you have a nice time? You seemed a little nervous.”

“Your family is really nice,” Evie said quietly.

“Yeah, Sylvia’s great. And Fallon certainly likes you,” he chuckled. Then he glanced at her. “Uh, so do you…not have any family?”

“I’m technically an orphan, but my parents aren’t dead,” Evie explained. “We lived in a nice house once, when I was really little. My mom married my dad for his inheritance but he liked to gamble and she liked to live a little too extravagantly, so they burned through it. They owed a lot of money, to some shady people. So when I was about ten, they went to Corbin and Olessa to get help fleeing the city. But they didn’t have enough money to pay for that and still have enough to start over somewhere else, so they used me as payment instead.”

Damien momentarily halted in surprise. “They just…left you? With the Mycrofts?”

“Well it got them passage out of Arcelia and they never wanted me anyway, so I guess they saw it as a fair trade.” Evie shrugged. “Olessa and Corbin took the deal, gave me a shiny new cuff, and that was that. Listen, we should get that box of parts over to Corbin soon. If we get back too late he’ll be mad. I can grab my stuff while we’re there too.”

Damien nodded slowly. “Right. Uh, let’s go, then.”