He looked around again and nearly jumped out of his skin. Someone sat on a box near the clock face. Danny could have sworn no one had been there a minute before.
“Oh,” he breathed as shock faded to annoyance. “You must be Brandon.” The Lead Mechanic had mentioned his new apprentice would be Brandon Summers, a name Danny had never heard before. That was fine with him; his apprentices never lasted very long anyway.
The apprentice turned from his examination of the clock face and examined Danny instead.
Danny tried to mask his surprise. He had expected a fourteen-year-old brat, not someone his own age. Brandon’s blond hair made a halo around his face, his skin a soft shade of bronze. Danny wondered if he came from one of the colonies. Australia, maybe. A break in the rain clouds resulted in a brief flare of sunlight that gilded the room around them, giving the apprentice a preternatural glow. The eye Danny could see was light brown, like amber. The other was shut tight.
They stared at each other. Danny wanted to stay annoyed, but couldn’t stop his own eyes from traveling over the apprentice’s face. The shape of his eyes, the slanted slope from his cheekbone to his jaw. The width of his shoulders and the straight line of his back.
Danny had never seen this apprentice at the office before. Then again, he’d been away for a while.
“Hello,” Danny said when the silence stretched on. His nerves hadn’t settled, and his face grew hot.
It might have been the way the apprentice looked at him, somber and curious, like Danny had spoken a foreign language.
“Is there something in your eye?” Danny asked.
Brandon nodded.
“Must be all the dust.”
Brandon remained silent.
Danny tensed, wondering if he was about to contend with yet another apprentice who resented being assigned to a mechanic barely older than himself. Danny couldn’t count all the times he’d been tripped, had his tools stolen, or been laughed at behind his back—and all that within months of becoming a full mechanic, the youngest mechanic on record.
But he’d never had an apprentice so utterly silent before. Brandon could have at least mustered up a “Yes, sir.” Or better yet, not been here at all.
Danny stripped off his gloves and rubbed sweaty hands against his waistcoat. He couldn’t let this silence unnerve him. “My name’s Danny. You are Brandon, correct?” That should have gotten a response, but the other boy only nodded after a slight hesitation.
“Cat got your tongue?” Danny gestured toward the parcel. “Help me with this. Please.”
He knelt before the package to unwrap it, and Brandon came to his side. The apprentice wore tight brown trousers and a baggy white shirt, which he hadn’t bothered to tuck in. Danny tried not to look too long at the way the collar of his shirt drooped low enough to reveal the sharp corner of his collarbone. Mechanics and apprentices were required to wear proper trousers, shirts, and waistcoats, along with sturdy boots and gloves. Not … this.
Brandon hadn’t come prepared. The blatant disregard heated Danny’s blood. This assignment was a test, and the new apprentice was going to make him fail.
Just focus on the clock, he thought. Focus on Enfield.
They unwrapped the package, which the Lead Mechanic had given Danny that morning. A large black iron Roman numeral II lay within the wrappings.
Shuddering, Danny said, “We’ll have to use the scaffolding.”
In the clock room, the scaffolding—a wooden slat with metal rails that suspended mechanics in front of clock faces—was stored on a platform above the face, which could be reached by stairs. Danny found even this small height problematic.
He opened a latch above the face and asked Brandon to lower the scaffolding down. Danny looked out and tried not to groan. He could see almost all of Enfield from up here, including the village green near St. Andrew’s church. He could also see the dirt road where his skull would crack, should he fall.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” he said, more to himself than to the apprentice. “I’ll … er … you go first, and I’ll bring the number down.”
The apprentice’s fair, nearly nonexistent eyebrows rose, but he did as he was instructed, tying a line to the belt sitting beside the equipment. Danny tugged the rope to make sure it was secure, and without waiting for approval, Brandon climbed out onto the face like he’d been a squirrel in a past life.
“Hey!” Danny called down. Brandon paused, his left eye still shut tight. “Keep both eyes open.” The apprentice waved and continued to lower himself until his feet rested on the scaffolding. The cables creaked, but there was no sudden snap or scream.
His own line secure, Danny grabbed the Roman numeral and slung his tool bag over his shoulder. He hesitated long enough to raise sweat on his brow before he followed the apprentice down.