Alec chuckled, and I turned to see him grinning at me. He had a nice smile that transformed his face from studious to boyish. “Aye, you’ve landed well. And to think you arrived in this new life on my machine. I’m honored to have been allowed to help.” His voice was soft and husky, and he gazed at me with the same intensity as before. For a moment, I felt like the two of us were alone in the park, but then I remembered Lizzie. They’d been walking in the park together—was he her beau? She didn’t appear to take offense at the way he focused so intently on me.

I smiled back at him, sure my cheeks must be flaming. “It’s better than any magical pumpkin coach.”

He winked. “Don’t remind the magpies of that story. Next thing you know, they’ll be turning pumpkins to coaches left and right, and I can’t compete with that.”

“Oh, but it was wonderful, better than magic,” I insisted. Then I remembered how the ride had ended and felt bad for not having asked sooner. “Did the police catch you?”

“No, they didn’t,” he said, beaming. “You don’t have to worry about us. We’ve got a number of hiding places. By the time they caught up with us beyond the magpie zone, Bessie was safe and an ordinary team of horses was pulling the bus. Everyone on Fifth Avenue must have imagined a speeding bus pulled by a steam engine.”

“It really is a wonderful machine,” I said.

“That’s merely a small one,” he said. He gestured animatedly as he spoke, his voice rising with fervor. “A larger one could pull a train. Or power a boat. A smaller one might drive a carriage. Steam power could run factories. I know a man who uses a steam engine to generate electrical power for light and to run machinery, even to send messages over long distances. With machines, we can do anything magic can do.” He was so passionate about the subject and so close to me that I found my breath quickening in response.

Lizzie leaned across me and patted him on the knee. “Now, Alec, I’m sure Verity doesn’t have all day.” To me, she added, “He can go on for hours about his machines. You should hear him when he gets together with his university friends.”

“My machines may win our freedom,” he insisted. “If we don’t need magic, then we don’t need magisters, and then we don’t need the aristocracy or Britain. They can cut off our power, like they did a century ago in the last rebellion, and it won’t affect us at all. The factories can still run and goods can be delivered without magisters.”

“See what I mean?” Lizzie said with a raised eyebrow.