Salvage ~ V1: Nuts and Bolts (Steampunk/ Gaslamp Romantasy ~ FxM, MxM)

Chapter 4: Lord Meratha

In the hallway outside the drawing room, a man stood peering attentively at Mistress Amelys, waiting for her to invite him into the room.

One to stand on propriety, Kazia noted.

He was roughly her own age or perhaps slightly older and very handsome, with glowering, dark eyes and pale, sharply defined features set in a hard expression.

Beneath a low top hat, dark hair fell in waves to curl below his shoulders. He was dressed in the most formal traveling attire one could manage. His linen frock coat, waistcoat, and trousers were all of the Alchemists' favorite black, forming a tall and thin severe line broken only with a gray silk cravat and the white of a shirt collar above it.

He removed his hat as she watched and handed it off to a man standing behind him.

Kazia realized that she was staring, intrigued by both his comely appearance and that curious air of deep mourning that pulled at her heart.

As she tried to avert her gaze in sudden embarrassment, his dark eyes fell upon her, and through his whirlpool of grief came a sense of animosity and contempt unmistakably meant for her.

Kazia sat back quickly in shock as this assortment of distressing feelings became painful and overwhelming. Her head began to spin a bit and she felt as if a weight were pushing her down into her chair. Her skin felt cold.

"Kazia, my darling, are you quite well?" Brandra's voice came like an echo through the fog.

"Kazia."

From Amelys, her own name cut through sharply, and Kazia turned to her mentor. Amelys held a palm toward the door, signaling the man to wait. In her other hand she held a vial toward Kazia, retrieved from a satchel slung on the back of her chair.

"Take this," Amelys said quietly. "Just one drop though."

As Kazia opened the vial and squeezed a drop of its contents under her tongue, Amelys waved the man in.

He strode to the table and sat stiffly. His eyes made a round of the parts of Kazia visible above the table, surely taking in her workday state, her gray homespun dress stained with machine oil, and he sniffed derisively.

Kazia did feel a bit of embarrassment from him then, as if he hadn't meant to do that so obviously, and she almost laughed. Her mood eased slightly as the tincture Amelys had given her began to take effect.

"Kazia, I am sure you remember Lord Kelvaran Meratha?" Amelys asked.

Kazia leaned forward in surprise.

Another member of Valeskan nobility, here in Caedra.

She studied his face, the statuesque features, deep Valeskan eyes of variegated green and brown, straight brows, but found no memory of him.

"I am sorry, Lord Meratha," she said. "I know your name of course, but I don't remember if we've ever met."

"We were children," he said tersely.

His voice was low and rich, and laden with the melancholy that surrounded him, although edged with steel - to hide the vulnerability of that sadness Kazia was sure. Now much became clear to her.

In Valesk, the succession of the Monarchy did not pass from parent to child, but rotated among the household heads of six noble families. When the last King of Valesk died, Kelvaran Meratha's father stood next in line to the throne, but both of his parents and his older sister perished when their manor house burned.

Kelvaran had already committed to Alchemy, and an Alchemist could not take the throne, and so the Kingship passed to another noble family, and the Principality of Meratha to a trust until a young cousin would come of age.