Page 14 of Of Fate and Phantoms
"The thing is…" I toyed with the leather ties on his jerkin. "You can't possibly be all right. You saw both your mother and father, not to mention your mother now knows your name and where to find you. Don't you wish to seek her out and talk to her more? Aren't there questions you wish to ask her?"
"No."
I searched his face and peered into his eyes to see if he spoke the truth. I saw nothing in them that would indicate he was covering a deep hurt. "I don't understand," I said, more to myself than him. "How could the meeting not have affected you? It affected me and they're not my parents."
"I dislike my father," he said. "That hasn't changed since the last time I saw him. And I don't know my mother. She's a stranger to me."
"Yes, but she at least seemed nice. And she is your mother, Lincoln. That must mean something."
He clasped my hands in his and looked down at them. "Perhaps I lack the sentimental part in my heart that others have."
"You were sentimental about me. You fetched me from the school."
"Because I missed you." He kissed my nose and circled his arms around me. "I knew you, Charlie, and I was lonely without you. I needed you and wanted you. I've never known my mother so how could I miss her?"
I rested my cheek against his chest and listened to his steady heartbeat. "That makes sense. And yet it doesn't explain why I'm so curious about her."
"You have a curious nature. You wonder about everything whereas I simply accept."
"Sometimes."
His arms tightened. "Sometimes."
I closed my eyes and let him hold me in a blanket of warmth until he eventually set me aside. "Go to bed or we'll stand here all night."
"Goodnight."
"Try not to lie awake and plot ways of forcing me to speak to Leisl again."
I sighed. "You know me too well."
* * *
Lincolnand I resumed training in the empty ballroom late the following morning. Dressed in my loose fitting attire, complete with men's trousers, we punched, kicked and wrestled ourselves into a sweat. Or rather, I sweated. Lincoln didn't even breathe heavily, something which Alice commented on when we finished and he left the room. She, Seth and Gus had watched us train, sometimes assisting. Alice stood near the window, fascinated that I could throw quite a solid punch.
"Does anything exert him?" she asked.
I laughed. "Sometimes. This, however, is nothing for him. Maddening, isn't it?"
"If I hadn't seen him weak from the explosion when I arrived here, I would have wondered if he was human at all."
"You're not the only one who wonders that," Gus said, returning the baton to the sideboard cupboard.
"That's why we're so surprised to hear that Leisl is his mother," Seth said. "I'm still reeling over the news, in fact. I thought he was made, not born."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't let him hear you say that."
"Why not? It's not like he has feelings that could be hurt with a little teasing."
I was about to protest but he was right. While Lincoln had proven to me that he did have feelings that could be bruised and battered just like mine, a few humorous barbs from a friend wouldn't so much as leave a mark.
Lady Vickers strode into the room. "Here you all are. Good lord, Charlie, what are you wearing? Are thosetrousers?"
I plucked at the lightweight cotton. "Training attire. I rather like wearing them. It allows me to do this." I performed a side kick which would have revealed far too much if I'd been in skirts.
Lady Vickers pulled a face. "You are a unique girl."
"Thank you. I think."
