Felicia knew that William John and Rand would lodge registrations of the improvements made in assembling the Throgmorton engine, and a pictorial record of the work would certainly not go amiss. Slowly, she nodded. “That sounds like an excellent idea. We’ll need to consult with my brother and his lordship, but once the steam carriage is back at the Hall, I’m sure we can arrange a viewing for you.”
As the words left her lips—to be greeted with eager acceptance by Mayhew—Felicia was thinking of the quality of Mayhew’s sketching and how that would translate if his subjects were inventions... All in all, she thought sketches of that sort might be a unique and valuable resource and getting first call on Mayhew’s skill might prove to be a very good thing.
Mayhew’s face had lit with enthusiasm. “If we can get the light just so—”
She let him ramble. From the other side of the carriage, she could hear William John talking, and Rand was still fielding questions from newspapermen and investors.
Ryder and Mary returned, joining her and Mayhew in the relatively uncrowded space behind the exhibit.
As she exchanged a smile with Mary, Felicia felt a sense of peaceful calm—a recognition of pending contentment—steal over her. They had done it—they’d succeeded in all they had come there hoping to achieve. After all the ups and downs, the near-disasters, and after staring down looming failure, they’d made their mark in a way none of them had even dared to dream.
Despite Winthrop’s attempts at sabotage, everything had turned out resoundingly, amazingly, astonishingly well.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, the urgent interest in the Throgmorton steam carriage had abated to a level such that Rand felt able to leave William John to handle the inquiries on his own.
After asking Shields for her direction, Rand found Felicia with Ryder, Mary, and Mayhew behind the steam carriage. When he insisted he needed to spend some time examining the other exhibits with Felicia, the other three waved them on, then fell in behind them, ambling and chatting in their wake.
They avoided the knot of people still gathered about the Prince, who had almost completed his circuit of the hall. As Rand steered Felicia toward the inventions Albert had examined before reaching the Throgmorton display, he heard Mary quizzing Mayhew. It appeared that, having understood that Mayhew was talented—both Felicia and Rand had mentioned the quality of his work—Mary had also realized that Mayhew was in need of a patron.
Rand glanced over his shoulder and met Ryder’s gaze and was allowed to briefly glimpse an expression of long-suffering resignation. Grinning, Rand faced forward. Both he and Ryder knew where Mary was heading, but, all in all, there was no reason to rein her back.
Rand had his own female brain to pick; he guided Felicia to an invention he’d glimpsed earlier—a novel alteration to a printing press. “What do you think?” he asked.
She moved forward to examine the exhibit.
The inventor recognized Rand, but was quick enough to sense that Rand was waiting on Felicia’s opinion; despite her being a lady, the inventor sidled closer and, when she pointed and asked questions, gave her his undivided attention.
Eventually, Felicia smiled and thanked the older man, then rejoined Rand.
She took his arm and surreptitiously pushed; he nodded to the inventor and led her on. Once they’d left the exhibit behind, he dipped his head and asked, “No?”
She shook her head. “I’m fairly certain the weight of the upper panel will very soon wear out the gears—there simply isn’t enough support for moving that much weight. Ten passes—maybe as many as a hundred—then the gears will give and the upper plate will collapse onto the lower. That’s not a commercial proposition.”
Looking ahead, Rand smiled to himself, murmured in agreement, and led her on.
Somewhat to his surprise, she diverted to look at an invention he hadn’t thought warranted their attention. It was still in the early stage of development and seemed to be a different sort of loom. He stuck to Felicia’s side and, by listening to her questions and the inventor’s eager answers, realized it was a knitting machine.
Felicia and the inventor went back and forth for some time. Eventually, Felicia thanked the man.
Rand nodded a farewell as Felicia retook his arm. Once they were strolling again, he asked, “Is that a project in which we should consider investing?”
Faintly puzzled, she glanced at him. “We?”
He met her gaze, but they’d drawn level with the crowd around the Prince and now was not the time. “I’ll explain later, but there’s a proposition I would like to put to you, one I hope you’ll find attractive.” He smiled. “A proposition other than marriage—or rather”—he hurriedly amended—“in addition to marriage.”
“Oh?” She was intrigued.
Before she asked for more details, he waved at the displays across the hall. “At the moment, we’re here, and so are all these inventors and inventions—we need to learn what we can, while we can.”
She dipped her head in acknowledgment, despite her curiosity—or perhaps because of that—ready enough to fall in with that suggestion. As they wended their way across the aisle to the other side of the hall, she murmured, “To return to your earlier question, I do think the knitting machine is worth a closer look. He’ll need to make changes to that assembly of pins, and the gears need a better degree of control, but I definitely believe it holds promise.”
“If the results are what he claims, then there should be a market for both the invention and its product here and in other countries, too.”
She inclined her head. “One would imagine so.”
He’d already noted that she tended to evaluate inventions on the basis of whether they could be made to perform properly, rather than in terms of financial return. Luckily, the latter was something for which he possessed a knack. He steered her on to the next exhibit. “What about this one?”