The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Watchmaker of Filigree Street, #1)

by Natasha Pulley

The watchmaker nodded. ‘Near enough. The weather is better in Japan, and it would be difficult to find English food. But I think they do draw the line here at brown tea.’ Thaniel could smell the bitterness of green tea now. ‘What’s wrong with brown?’ ‘Don’t be stupid.’ He snorted and let the watchmaker lead the way.

Grace’s carefulness cracked. ‘Look, if I get married, I’ll be someone’s wife. Wives have duties. If I have children I’ll go insane for a year and a half – don’t look like that, you did, with James and with William, it was terrifying – and that will be a year and half of weeping over nothing and a brain made of soup in which I can’t work. And then it will happen again with the next child, and then slowly I won’t want to work at all, and I’ll always be soup, and I’ll just be … ’

‘So, you’ve got an unusual voice for someone who works at the Foreign Office.’ ‘You’ve got unusual hair,’ he said. It was a gamble to say anything; he had only just learned to dance and talk at the same time.