Ultimate Nyssa Glass H. Burke (bookstand for reading .txt) 📖

things to worry about than my assessment of her figure … which is quite fine, by the way.” Ellis smiled.

Nyssa’s face warmed.

“What are we going to do today?” Theo asked between bites.

“Open shop and hopefully draw in some customers.” Nyssa shook off her discomfort at Ellis’s compliment. “Things have been slow lately, but the new sign should help.”

“We paid for a small advertisement in yesterday’s paper,” Ellis said. “Also, I researched this location. There are two other electrical repair shops on the island, both miles from here. It’s perfect.”

“Theo really should be in school. Can you read and write?” Nyssa asked.

“Some.” The boy shrugged.

Nyssa clicked her tongue. Yeah, I definitely need to get him some tutoring. When I was his age, I at least knew basic reading and math. Giving a kid food and board is good for the short term, but he’ll never be able to take care of himself without an education.

The hall clock chimed eight. Nyssa pushed back her chair. “I’m going to open up the shop. You two can join me when you’re done gorging yourselves.”

She trailed her hand across Ellis’s shoulder as she left the room. Today had to go better than yesterday.

There’s no conceivable way it could go worse, anyway.

Nyssa unlocked the door and flipped the sign to open. Pedestrians bustled up and down the sidewalks, heading to and from various shops. Hopefully some would be heading towards hers soon. Across the street, a policeman paced, nightstick swinging.

A pair of women approached the officer, perhaps asking for directions. They spoke for a moment, then the women turned and aimed a horrified glance straight at the shop.

Nyssa jolted. Were they talking about her? Why?

The women scurried away, still casting looks over their shoulders.

Nyssa melted back into the shop. “I’m paranoid, that’s all,” she whispered. “Not everyone is out to get me.”

Ellis and Theo entered, Ellis stationing himself at his workbench and Theo hopping onto the counter.

“Get off the counter.” Nyssa frowned.

Theo grimaced but slid down. “You two work? When I saw you at the boardwalk, I thought you were rich.”

“Rich is a relative term.” Ellis chuckled. “We do all right. Even if we were ‘idly rich,’ I think Nyssa would go batty if she didn’t have something to tinker with.”

“I don’t think it’s polite to talk about money like this,” Nyssa said. “Though I know more about circuits than etiquette.”

“At dinner parties, it’s probably taboo, but it’s just us here.” Ellis picked up his screwdriver. “I’m not hiding anything.”

Except the fact that you’re the heir to a massive unclaimed fortune. Just little details.

Nyssa glanced at the door. Shoppers seemed to be giving their shop a wide berth, and the policeman was still there.

“This crank generator you added to the fly zapper is brilliant,” Ellis said. “Mind if I take it apart and poke around?”

“Knock yourself out—not literally, please.”

He laughed.

Nyssa paced back and forth for a while, wiped down the glass, then paced some more.

Ellis looked up from his project. “You stalking about like a lion in a cage isn’t going to bring the customers in any quicker.”

“We should’ve had at least one customer by now, with the advertisement and this ‘perfect’ shop placement.” She huffed over to her cabinet of broken electronics and took out an old alarm clock. At least she could fix something.

Slipping her goggles over her head for a better view of the inner workings, she poked about inside the clock. It wasn’t quite electronics, but machinery was machinery. Yep, some of the gear teeth were broken. She took out her tweezers and removed the faulty piece.

“What’s that piece do?”

Nyssa started, and the clock skittered across the counter top. She pushed the goggles to her forehead, ready to snap at Theo. The boy flinched, covering his face with both arms. Nyssa’s stomach clenched. She used to cringe the exact same way when Uncle Al was in a rage.

She softened her voice and expression. “Sorry, you startled me. It’s okay. Could you hand me the clock?”

Eyes still downcast, Theo picked up the clock and handed it to her.

“See, it’s fine,” she assured him. “Pull up a stool, and I’ll show you how to fix it.”

Theo obeyed.

Nyssa pointed into the clock. “This is the mainspring. When you wind the clock, the tension keeps the other parts moving. The interlocking ‘teeth’ of the gears push on each other and move the hands around the face. Can you see why this one doesn’t work?”

He nodded. “These teeth are missing … and these ones too.” He pointed to a second gear Nyssa hadn’t even noticed yet.

“Sharp eyes. I didn’t buy clockworks, but there was another clock in there with a broken face … we’ll see if the pieces are interchangeable. Between the two, we may actually have one good clock.”

Theo dashed to the cabinet and came back holding the desired clock. The fear had left his eyes, replaced with a twitchy eagerness.

Nyssa smiled and held out her screwdriver. “Here, why don’t you open her up?”

He took the screwdriver but hesitated when he fitted it into the head.

“Lefty loosy, righty tighty,” Nyssa prompted.

A look of understanding passed across his face, and he turned the first screw. “Who taught you to fix clocks?”

“No one, really. I was always fascinated with taking things apart and putting them back together. Then when I learned to pick locks …” She stopped and flushed.

Theo tilted his head, his eyes opened slightly wider. “You learned to pick locks?”

She cleared her throat. Ellis paused in his work and raised his eyebrows.

Well, might as well be honest with the kid.

“Yes. When my parents died, I was left in the care of someone who only cared for himself. He started me out picking pockets, like you used to do, then trained me how to break into homes. He taught me lockpicking and safe-cracking and how to get around alarms. It wasn’t a business I wanted to be in, but it did help me learn the basics of machinery. Sometimes I’d get a hold of watches