Page 83 of Inventions of the Heart

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

LOOK AT THAT WATER FLOW.”Michelle felt a pleasant chill, even in the California heat of August, watching the cool water pour out of the waterwheel onto the ground.

Everyone had come out to see the water start pouring onto the land from the newest waterwheel. But work waited for them all. Michelle had seen some wobble in the wheel, and she and Jilly had stayed to tighten a few bolts while everyone else headed back. It was touching really, the way Zane trusted her with these things.

“We did it.” Jilly slung an arm around Michelle’s neck. “Now a few windmills and we can turn our attention to hooking up the hot water boilers to all Zane’s cabins.”

There was already one in the house and one in the bunkhouse, but there were five other cabins that needed running water. They all now had to go to the bunkhouse, the ranch house, or the spring that flowed cold out of a rocky stretchnear the ranch yard. That’s where the ranch house water was piped from, but a windmill would be much more efficient.

“Jarvis is really headed for San Quentin.” Michelle watched the water but thought of the letter they’d gotten just today from Marshal Irving.

“I can’t believe his father didn’t find a way to get him out of it.” Jilly let go of Michelle to run her hands up and down her arms as if she had goosebumps. “Ten years. That’s brutal for a man as used to comfort and wealth as Jarvis.”

Standing silently side by side, each with her own thoughts, they watched the wheel turn and the water pump.

With a firm shake of her head, Michelle said, “He brought it on himself. He was so arrogant, he thought he could assault a woman, break into a man’s house, even kidnap me, and steal a horse and walk away from it.”

“His father did him no favors raising him in such arrogance. It sounds like Horace shares the same attitude. To think you might have ended up married to him.”

“Laura described Carlisle. You had a lucky escape from him, too.” Michelle didn’t mention that Jilly hadn’t fully escaped. And wouldn’t until she was married.

Michelle hugged Jilly tightly, then stepped away. “I want you to build my workshop before you start with the boilers.”

“Have you gotten Zane to stop calling it an invention shed yet?”

“No.” But talk of Zane put a smile on her face. “He wasn’t even listening when I said laboratory, but I’m hopingworkshopwill stick in his mind.”

“I’d rather build the workshop anyway.” Jilly jerked her head at the waterwheel. “Watching that water flow is really satisfying, though.”

Michelle rested her eyes on that beautiful cool flow. “I can feel the grass taking a big drink and imagine the cattle drinking deeply. It is satisfying.”

“This workshop is going to be pretty complex. I mean, sure, the building itself will go up fast, but you’re going to need things like a forge and a supply of steel, things like that.”

“I used to go down to the ironworks and use their equipment. It’s going to be much harder to set it all up here.”

“Is it worth it?” Jilly studied the water.

Michelle considered the question. She really did want to create a four-stroke cycle engine. Then she wanted to hook that engine to everything that moved. Maybe even a sewing machine.

“Should we put it off? Or should I focus on inventing something else? I have some ideas for springs under the carriages of train cars that will make the ride smoother. They already have them, but I can make them better. I think.”

“And brakes. You’ve got the patent on that. You could do a lot more work there.”

“When the traction engine comes, I can use that engine to modify machines to work with it, but it’s still too large. The key to true progress is making the engine smaller.”

“I’ll get started on the invention shed tomorrow.” Jilly grinned, and the two of them headed for the horses tied nearby.

“SO YOU DON’T THINK IT’S SELFISHto want my workshop built before we put running water into the cabins?” Michelle was peeling potatoes for dinner and talking to her twosisters-in-law. She was getting better at it, peeling potatoes, that is. She’d always been good at talking.

It was simple enough, making the potato and its peel part company, but not very interesting. And she did have a tendency to nick her finger a bit too often. Annie and Beth Ellen never did. She was forced to admit that, boring or not, there was skill to this job. And since everyone had to eat, there was importance to it. Add in that Annie and Beth Ellen would almost certainly someday marry and leave Michelle to run the house. Beth Ellen was rather testy on the subject of marriage right now, and Annie mourned her husband. Still, chances were good they’d each eventually find a man and move into their own homes, so she’d better learn.

“What you’re doing sounds so interesting.” Annie filled a pot with hot water with a look of delight on her face. “I know you have big ideas, about trains and tunnels and powerful machines that have not yet been invented, but there is so much you could do in little ways. Things to make running a home easier. I’m not sure what, but having the water run into the house, already hot, well, it’s just a wonder. Washing clothes is backbreaking work. Maybe you could find a way to hook an engine to a ... a...” Annie stopped and turned with a smile and pink cheeks. “I can’t even quite imagine hooking an engine to laundry. Foolish idea.” She turned back to her pot and hefted it to the stove.

“No, don’t be embarrassed. All inventions start with an idea. I’ve thought about washing clothes somehow using a waterwheel. A smaller one, powered by the force of the water that flows in hot through our pipes. If we had a little tub with the wheel in it, threw the clothes in that tub, then let water flow in and turn the wheel ...” Michelle shookher head. “I’m stumped, but it’s a good idea. Waterpower, steam power, these are the underlying forces that drive most engines. I’ve ordered the parts for a shower bath. You’re going to love that.”

But her mind was caught. Michelle thought everything small needed that small of an engine. And she believed the four-stroke cycle was the foundation of that. But was that wrong? Even the smaller waterwheels they’d used to pump water in the pastures were huge, and of course, the company she ordered them from made them. But what if—

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