Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3) Angeline Fortin (pride and prejudice read txt) 📖

“Ye thought of something?”

She grinned. “I thought of something.”

Chapter 31

“I cannot begin to understand what you’re about.”

“Go tae yer room, Mathilde.”

“I will not,” she said firmly. “There is something intriguing going on here. I don’t plan to miss a minute of it.”

“Then just shut it.”

Silence fell as they hurried through the halls of Rosebraugh to the bedchamber Al had been given for her use. She hadn’t spent much time there, as he’d kept her pleasantly occupied the last few days. But her clothes were kept there and among them, the scant personal items she’d carried with her from the future.

The knowledge of which was going to save more than one life. Soon.

His cousin retained her silence for all of five seconds.

“Ceana told me there was something different about you, Miss Maines,” she went on. “I can see now she wasn’t wrong.”

Al, smart lass, ignored his cousin and dug through the small trunk Peigi had brought from Dingwall. Inside was a bundle of the green silk she’d been wearing when he first found her at Culloden.

“I told Peigi when she first asked about it that it was very important to me but not to touch it. Ever. I’m glad she remembered half of that at least and thought to bring it along.”

She untied what turned out to be sleeves of the bodice she’d worn that day. Inside it were the miniscule excuse for a skirt, the flat, rectangular badge that had adorned her white jacket—which was not among the items—and a shiny black item, nearly flat and also rectangular but with no markings upon it at all.

That was what she pulled out, setting the rest aside.

“What is it?”

Al glanced at his cousin uncertainly.

“Have no fear, Miss Maines. My lips are forever sealed, but I beg you, don’t deny me the first bit of intrigue I’ve had in an age.”

Al had been right. His whole family was half-cracked. There was no denying it. But since he’d never known Mathilde to lie and because he didn’t want to waste the time carrying her bodily from the room, Keir only shrugged.

“Yer solemn oath, Mathilde.”

“Oh, you have it. Now what is it?”

Good bloody question.

But Al didn’t seem to want to be as forthcoming as he hoped. As she had the previous night she refused him an explanation. Why? What could she say now that would serve him ill? He’d been oddly hurt by her reticence the night before, but he knew his lady well. If she were keeping something from him, she wasn’t doing so to harm him, but perhaps to spare him harm.

Though he intended to delve more deeply into her reasons at a better time, he let the matter lie now and watched as she cracked the object in half to reveal the interior. Dominating it was a block of black surrounded by a geometric maze of green squares with wires and dots of finely crafted silver.

He couldn’t imagine what purpose it was meant to serve. Yet he knew it must be of some importance as it had been on her person when she’d come to him through the portal. Questions hovered on the tip of his tongue but he put them aside. Not only because of their company but because there were matters of more import to focus on now.

She pried out the black piece, holding it up triumphantly. “This is what’s going to set your father free, Keir.”

“That?” That innocuous piece of nothing? Surely she was jesting? “How? Is it an explosive?”

“No, it’s a battery,” she said as if that explained it all. Obviously she knew it wouldn’t because she carried on immediately. “It’s a power source. Do you know what electricity is?”

“No.”

“Aye,” he answered at the same time as his cousin. “Charles Francois du Fay has presented on his experiments in Paris following Stephen Gray's discovery of the conduction of electricity some years ago.”

“Okay, so a battery is a container to hold an electrical charge.”

“Why?” Mathilde asked. “How? For what purpose?”

“I said shut it, Mathilde, or I will hae ye removed.”

Had Al found his constant questions as annoying as he found Mathilde in that moment? If she had yet continued to display such boundless patience and enthusiasm all that time, his admiration would grow tenfold.

“But electricity is nae explosive,” he said to Al after Mathilde moved aside to pout near the foot of the bed.

“No, but what this battery is made out of is. The biggest problem with lithium ion batteries is that they react badly… explosively to heat. All we need to do is superheat it until the cell goes thermal. It should be enough to blow the lock.”

“How does it do that?” He winced even as the question left his mouth.

“The battery should begin to break down at about two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. That will spark a chemical and thermal reaction inside the battery. The gases will expand, leading to higher temperatures and more gas. It will have nowhere to go but out, spewing hot gas and molten material of what’s left at about two thousand degrees. I’ve seen video. It’s very cool.”

Despite the seriousness of their endeavor, he could see the excitement coiled within her, the tension radiating from her. She loved all of this.

God, how he loved her.

His heart tripped over a beat.

Keir cleared his throat and took the simple block from her, turning it over in his palm. “So how do we superheat it?” he asked, wondering if the answer were one he should already know.

“That’s no problem at all. Any continuous heat source would do it. A flame or some such. Really, the easiest way will be to just short it across the leads. That will allow us time enough to get away. But…” She peered out the window and his eyes followed, watching the rain slap the panes. “But the burning question,” she started, then pursed her lips, “no pun intended. But the problem is we need to charge the battery.