“I didn’t know anything about the Mechanics then, nothing more than was in the newspaper,” I said, rolling up a map. “But you may have noticed that I didn’t snub you when I saw you again, and I accepted your invitations. You could have told me the truth at any time.”

She gathered several rolled charts into a bundle. “I suspect that what you’re really angry about is Alec. That might have been going too far. That’s my fault. I thought that would be the best way to reach you, and I pushed him into it.”

“So he wasn’t interested,” I said with a grim nod.

“That’s not what I meant. He didn’t want to recruit you by seducing you.”

“And yet he did.” I had an armload of papers and maps, so I left the balcony.

She came behind me. “You’re a good writer. That wasn’t part of the recruitment plan—well, asking you to help was, but keeping you doing it wasn’t. I hope you’ll keep writing for the paper. I’ll find you a new contact if you don’t want to talk to me. But I hope you’ll want to talk to me.”

“Can we discuss it later?” I asked. “We have other priorities right now—such as the British troops who’ll be here at any moment.”

When we returned to the station, the others had sent several more loads and were working with the calliope, which required some tricky maneuvering. It wouldn’t fit through the tunnel to the rail station, so it had to be partially dismantled. While the Mechanics were frantically separating the largest pipes from the machine, Nat ran into the tunnel, shouting, “The soldiers are coming! They’re almost at the theater!”

“This will have to be the last load, then,” Henry said.

“This is almost everything. Our other big machines are stored out of town,” Alec said.

“We can buy some time,” Henry said, gesturing to one of his friends. They ran to the door, and I wasn’t sure what they did, but I felt the magic. The Mechanics doubled their efforts on the calliope, while Lizzie and I made one more pass around the theater to make sure we had removed every last trace of the Mechanics’ presence.

The soldiers were pounding on the theater’s front doors when the calliope at last made it through the tunnel into the station. “It will take them a while to get past those seals,” Henry said when he rejoined us.

Alec and the Mechanics closed the door that led into the tunnels and bolted it from the inside. “With any luck, they won’t find the passage,” Alec said. “I’d hate to lose the railway.”