Deryn

I walk through the gondola, muttering curses against the Germans as I go. Alek and Klopp did the best they could with my arm, really, but it's still heavier than it should be. I'm continually miscalculating and stumbling, sometimes even falling as I try to adjust to the dead metal weighing me down. Newkirk got a good laugh out of it for a while, until I reminded him what damage a metal hand could do to his dorsal regions. He's been quiet ever since.

"Mr. Sharp? A word?"

I look up and see Count Volger, lurking at the door of his quarters. The sight of him sends a shiver up my spine. He knows. And it's true that others do too now, but he's the one I distrust the most. Which, I suppose, means I should cooperate. I step inside, running the fingers of both hands over the grain of the table before I sit down. My mechanical hand doesn't have feeling as good as my real one, and it never will, but I don't take what I have for granted anymore.

Falling almost to your death can do that to a person.

Volger steeples his fingers and peers over them at me, his eyes calculating as always. He drops the 'Mr.' now that we're inside. "Ms. Sharp, you are aware of Alek's history, are you not?"

"Of course." He already knows this. "His parents weren't married right and they had to get some fancy scroll from the pope-"

"Yes, yes." Volger waves a hand before I can elaborate. "I sometimes wonder if he didn't just hand you a word by word account of his entire life. Anyway, I'm most concerned with his mother."

"Mother?" A thought crosses my mind. "Barking spiders. My ma."

His eyebrows rise. "Excuse me?"

I wave my mechanical arm despairingly. "She's going to absolutely kill me for coming home with a Clanker arm." I break into a grin as another thought occurs to me. "I bet she won't be able to shove me into dresses and send me off to find a suitor now, though."

"That's as it may be." Volger seems irritated that I deviated from his intended plan of attack. "You and Alek have always been close. And now that he's aware of your gender, I thought it was best to remind you of the situation."

I realize what he's getting at. Typical Count Volger, to dance around a topic instead of just spitting it out and saving us all time. "I'm not daft. Alek doesn't fancy me." In fact ever since my accident, he'd been different. Not avoiding me like the plague, which was something, but distant. "And even if he did..."I pause unhappily."We both know our places."

Volger leans back, satisfied. "Very good, Ms. Sharp. But just as a deterrent, I see fit to tell you that if I see you and Alek acting... improperly, I will inform the captain of your secret. Do you understand?"

My mouth drops open in outrage. "Now that's just dead unfair, you-"

I hear the door open and see Alek stepping in. "What's going on?" he asks, his eyes moving from Volger to me.

I'm sure my face lights up red as a sunset, but Count Volger remains cool and calm. "I was just informing our friend that, due to her arm, I'm cancelling our fencing lessons."

Fencing. It had almost been worth losing an arm to escape those. Alek doesn't realize that though. "I'm sure that if you master your arm, I can continue to teach you," he assures me in what he must think is a helpful manner.

"...Great," I manage, sending a look of pure venom towards the count. He ignores me.

"Wonderful," he says. "It we're all done here?' He stands up and sweeps out the door, leaving me completely baffled.