"And if it doesn't work?"
"You'll try on this watch too." He tossed me another. It was a simpler style than Matt's with no engraving on the silver case. It was dented on the edge but it kept time.
"And if that doesn't heal anyone?" Dr. Seaford asked. "Then what?"
"Then you try again and again and again until something does work. Is that understood?"
Dr. Seaford's face fell, his brow furrowed deeply. "You're serious, aren't you? My God, man, this is inhuman. You cannot keep us here!"
"I will see that your basic needs are met," Payne said. "I am not entirely without feeling. I'll make tea now. Prefer a bourbon myself, but you English do love tea. I'm sure you'll try and escape in my absence, but let me point out that we are one floor up and there are bars on the windows. I'll also be locking this door. Why not take the time to get to know one another better? You might be spending quite a bit of time together and it will be easier for you both if you are friends."
"You're a fiend," Dr. Seaford snapped.
Payne chuckled. "Fiend? You English are too polite for your own good." He marched up to me and snatched the reticule out of my hand before I realized what he intended. "Can't risk you having a small knife tucked away in there."
He backed out of the room and shut the door. The tumbling of the lock echoed in the near-empty room.
I sat on the sofa, both watches in my lap, feeling small and vulnerable without my own watch to save me. And now Payne had my reticule too. It contained no weapons, but it did contain the medical spell written on a piece of paper. The spell could no longer serve me any purpose, but Payne might realize what it was and demand Dr. Seaford speak it.
Dr. Seaford flung the curtains back, sending a cloud of dust billowing into the room. Coughing, he pulled on the bars covering the windows, but they wouldn't budge. He tried reaching between the bars to tap on the glass, but his hand wouldn't fit. Undeterred, he tried the door next, but it was firmly locked.
I watched as he searched the room for a weapon to use on Payne, but he predictably found nothing. There were no fire irons, no weighty objects, not even a rug to pull out from under Payne's feet. Our situation was hopeless. I could have told Dr. Seaford that, but he needed to learn for himself that Payne was no fool.
Finding no weapons, he stood in the middle of the room and bellowed, "Help! Can anyone hear me? Help us!" He listened. Then repeated his shout.
"No one will come," I said on a sigh. "Sheriff Payne will have seen to that."
"Come, Miss Steele, don't give up without trying."
"There is no point, Dr. Seaford." I dug my fingers into my throbbing forehead and squeezed my eyes shut. A tear leaked out and slipped down to my chin.
The sofa depressed beside me. "I can see that you're grieving," he said kindly, "and I am sorry for your loss, but if we are to escape, we have to work together."
I opened my eyes to see him looking earnestly at me. He had warm brown eyes, like Matt, and must have looked like his father because I saw nothing of Lady Buckland in him.
"You're a good man," I said. "I am so sorry to have brought Payne to your door. I shouldn't have, but I was desperate, and that desperation made me selfish."
"Desperate to save your friend, Mr. Glass."
I nodded and clutched Matt's watch to my chest. The magic in it pulsed lightly. It seemed strange that it should feel alive when he was surely dead.
"But you said yourself you don't know the medical spell, that the only one who did is dead." He cocked his head to the side. "Why seek me out if that's true?"
"Your father, Dr. Millroy, wrote it down in his diary. I brought it with me so that you could read it and help me fix Matt's watch. It's in my reticule."
Dr. Seaford dragged his hands through his hair. "Which he now has in his possession. Hell."
"Yes. Hell." That summed up the situation perfectly.
I buried my face in my hands and cried silently. Dr. Seaford's hand clasped my shoulder gently, but it did nothing to stem my tears. I couldn't stop them. They flowed out of me like a flooded river intent on its course.
"I would offer you a handkerchief but I don't have one," he said. "I didn't even have a chance to dress properly."
"I'm sorry," I said through my tears. "I am so sorry, Doctor."
"Call me Gabe. What is your first name, Miss Steele?"
"India." I drew in a breath and managed to quell further tears.
"What an interesting name."
I knew he was trying to lighten my mood so that we could put our heads together and think of a way out. Either that or he didn't want to be cooped up with a sobbing female.
"He'll be back soon," he said. "He will probably have found the spell in your reticule."
"But he cannot force you to speak it."
"Yes, India, he can. If he's as ruthless as you say, he can threaten my parents."
Oh God. He was right. Payne could do that. And to get me to speak my spell, he could threaten Willie, Miss Glass, Duke or Cyclops. I may have lost Matt, but I wouldn't let another die if I could save them.
"So we have to do what he wants," he said, indicating Matt's watch. "We have to speak the spells into it."
"We can, but it won't work. According to Dr. Parsons, the medical magician who saved Matt, the watch has to belong to the person being healed. We cannot simply use one of these watches to save another. Payne's will save him, but no one else."
He held up Payne's watch by its chain and studied it. "If we tell him that, he will keep us here and bring paying clients for us to put magic into their watches."
"Forever," I said heavily.
He jerked the chain and caught the watch. "Then we give him what he thinks he wants. We pretend it will work on any old watch, and on anyone."
"And when he discovers that it doesn't?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, but we will have bought ourselves some time." He gave me a flat smile. "Time is a friend to a horology magician, is it not?"
"Time is no one's friend. It's no one's enemy, either. It simply is, and it cannot be stopped or sped up. Not even by me."
The lock tumbled and the door opened. Payne balanced a tray on one hand and carried the gun in the other. The tray held two chipped cups that had probably once been white but were now stained brown, and a plate of sandwiches. He set the tray on the small table near the sofa and slipped a piece of paper out from beneath the plate. I recognized my own handwriting.
Payne handed it to Gabe. "This is for you, I reckon. I've made several copies, so don't bother destroying it."
Gabe attempted to read it, but stumbled over a few of the words. "What language is this?"
"Magic," I said.
"It's complicated." He tried again and again until he spoke the spell smoothly, without faltering.
Payne nodded with satisfaction. "Now both of you hold the watch and speak your spells into it."
Gabe picked up Payne's watch, but Payne shook his head.