After they'd sent her off to bed, Macy used to creep back down the creaking staircase and sit in the shadows as her father and his friends drank and played cards on the rickety table in the back of the shop. She'd sit in the shadows, hugging her knees to her chest, and listen to them talk. They moaned a lot, griping about the changing fortunes of ( Read more... )

The bell above the door clonks, and Macy leans back from the mixing counter far enough to yell "Just a second!"

Dusting off her hands on her apron, she pushes past the curtain, smiling fondly at the dark-haired man standing there. "Gerard!"

He opened his arms as she came around the counter and gave him a fast, fierce hug. "Hello Miss Macy," he said ( Read more... )

Macy hurried from shadow to shadow, her thin shawl drawn low over her arms and the package she was cradling. She crept up the stairs, and tapped on the door. It opened a crack, then wider when Nick saw it was her. "Come in, quick."

Macy licked dry lips. "How bad?"

Nick's features were pale and drawn. Instead of answering, he pointed to the bed drawn ( Read more... )

"Maaaaacy..."

"You can tell Gerard that the southern blend won't be in for another two weeks, Joe--if he wants it faster he can go and harangue the zepplin captain himself--oh wait, no he can't, they're not in the country."

"No need to get testy, Mace, we're important men doing important work--sometimes the trivialities of the mundane slip our minds ( Read more... )

"And then, the powder you created? It flows through this chamber, pressurizes instantly, and is expelled as a fine spray at the end of this nozzle."

Macy studied the contraption. "Ingenious!" she said delightedly. She loved visiting Greta's lab, hidden behind mops and buckets in a corner of the building that none of the official engineers ever ( Read more... )

Joe gasped, cutting Frankie off mid-sentence. and accelerated. Kevin scowled in confusion before he saw the plumes of smoke billowing out down the street.

"That's Macy's!" Frankie shrieked, tugging on Kevin's hand. Together they ran down towards it.

The door was open, and the thick clouds of roiling black smoke were billowing out into the street. " ( Read more... )

Macy's just as good as Gerard says she is; she still blushes at the praise, but that's not because she doesn't think she deserves it, she's just unaccustomed to the acknowledgement.

So Macy is good at what she does, and the way she stays good is by trying new things, perfecting new recipes. It is not her fault that the new fever-reducer she's been ( Read more... )

Joe sat on the edge of the counter, his feet swinging freely in the air. The tip of his tongue was peeking out the corner of his mouth as he stared in intense concentration at the thin pasteboard book in his hands.

Macy ground willowbark with a pestle. "I can almost hear you thinking."

"Shut up," Joe said grumpily. She turned just in time to see him ( Read more... )

Gerard never thought he was the fatherly type, but watching Macy mope around her apothecary, heart obviously broken into a million pieces, Gerard felt what could only be called a swell of paternal concern.

Macy sniffed, and Gerard clutched his fingers, unsure whether to go to her, whether she would care for his attentions, or whether they would make ( Read more... )

The thing is, when Macy first meets him, Kevin seems like some hero out of a story, shadowy and dashing and charming and noble. Even Macy, who has rarely if ever taken an interest in guessing games about her future wedding or peeling an apple all in one piece so that when the peel falls to the floor it reveals the first initial of her true love, is ( Read more... )