Grain

Alice looked at Amaretto and a small smile crossed her lips. "We are currently headed towards Piccadilly Quarter. Chances are, there aren't that many IronMen around there, so we won't have to worry that much. Other thing is that we have a safe house there."

Amaretto looked at Alice with a quirk in her eyebrow. "Did you just say a safe house?"

Alice continued to smile. "A girl has to have some secrets about her. If not, then what good is she at running a household?"

Amaretto looked at her aunt who merely smiled and then rolled her eyes as she took another sip from her flask that she had somehow managed to pull from her bag again. Amaretto stared at her aunt and then said, "Is that flask like your bag?"

Katherine turned a confused face back at Amaretto. "Pardon?"

"You know," said Amaretto before she lowered her voice, "A bottomless void."

Katherine looked at her god-child and then smiled and gave Amaretto a wink. "You know, sometimes I wish." With that she continued to look out of the window once more and look around at the passing scenery.

Amaretto decided to watch the scenery as well and was not at all impressed by what she saw. There was a distinct lack of what she liked to even call scenery in the first place, but she was not one to generally complain. She knew that if she didn't look away, there was a high chance that they were not going to get anywhere.

Katherine suddenly spoke in a rather bored voice, "Piccadilly, isn't that near Westminster?"

Alice nodded her head. "Of course, it is, but then again where did you think we were going?"

Katherine continued to look out the window and then said, "It appears that that road is currently closed at this moment in time. As a matter of fact, I believe that it is now going to be under contract."

Alice looked at Katherine rather sourly. "How on earth can they close a ward?" Almost as if the question from her mouth were the cause, the lorry halted in an abrupt stop. Alice and Johanna all tumbled forward in a heap on top of Amaretto and Katherine. There was nothing that they could do about the fact that they were being tossed around like a ask of potatoes.

Alice tried to grab at her hat with very much success and then looked around furiously. She pounded on the top of the cab and then said, "What on earth man! Why did you stop so abruptly?"

At this they heard the voice of the cab driver from up above. "Sorry ma'am, but it appears as if the road is closed."

Alice blinked in confusion which then gave away to anger. "What are you talking about?" She sputtered as Johanna peered out of the window to get a better look.

"It appears he is right," said Johanna emotionless pulling her head back into the carriage. "There is a rather large contingent of IronMen in the middle of the street and they have closed off the entrance to Piccadilly."

Alice's mouth fell open and she looked at Katherine. "How on earth did you know?" Her voice was filled with incredulity.

Katherine looked back and then said, "They had placed a sign in the road which I know that the driver missed."

Alice closed her mouth and then frowned. "Well I guess there is no way that we are going to get to where we are supposed to go. We are going to have to," Alice however got no further in her train of thought. Katherine had placed her hat on her head and opened the carriage door. Alice sputtered and then tried to follow her, but instead wound up pulling the carriage door hastily shut. Johanna simply watched from her seat. Amaretto poked her head out the window and watched as her aunt walked right up to one of the IronMen which were positioned at the entrance to the road they wanted to go down.

Her aunt took a deep breath and then in a commanding tone spoke to the IronMan in front of her. "Now see here! What is the meaning of shutting down this road at this time of day? Can't you see that I have somewhere to be at this moment in time?"

The IronMan turned his head to look at Katherine and Amaretto felt a moment of distrust as the mechanic creature just stared at her aunt. After a moment it spoke in an oily mechanized voice which made her think of the wheel bound scientist, only better.

"There has been a sighting in the city of someone who is working against the Crown and we have reason to believe that they will be headed in this direction." At this, the IronMan looked in the direction of the carriage where Amaretto was peering out of the window. Alice was pushed far back into her seat and Johanna was sitting next to her with her hands quietly folded into her lap.

Katherine looked completely appalled. "Dear heavens! That is catastrophic! By all means then, keep the street shut down. You can never be too careful." Katherine began to turn around and then almost as if a second thought had occurred to her, turned around once more to face the IronMan. "Who exactly would it be that you are referring to?"

The IronMan paused a moment and Amaretto saw the gears turning in his body for a moment before he said, "That is none of your concern at this moment in time citizen. Please continue on past this destination before you are detained for obstruction."

Katherine made a polite curtsey as best as she could and then nodded. "A good day to you then kind sir."

The IronMan then said, "A good day to you madam and be careful on the roads." With that, a jet of steam escaped from his side under the cloak and he settled down into a locked step to walk back and forth in front of the barricade. Amaretto watched as the IronMan paced and Katherine calmly walked back to the carriage and then opened the door and stepped inside.

"There you have it, now this carriage and its driver will be remembered for nothing more than taking a busybody and her daughter to a friend's house and nothing more."

Alice smiled slyly and then nodded at Katherine. "Well that was very well done, but we still have no idea what it is that they are preventing except for this; they know where we are going."


Johanna turned to look at Alice for a moment and then said, "If they have the stone of Communication, then it is quite possible that they have already taken it to the Tower."

Alice shuddered for a moment. "No. We have to think that hopefully it has remained hidden. I know I said that they stole it, there is the chance that it might still be in the hiding place."

Amaretto looked at Alice as she said this. "Wait, I thought that you said this Chime person had it?"

Johanna looked at Amaretto, her monotone voice echoing Amaretto's thoughts. "That would be Mother Chime."

Amaretto waved her hands at Johanna. "Yes, Mother Chime. I thought you all said that she had it. hat she had taken it and was now in possession of it."

Alice made a moue with her mouth as she thought for a moment. "Just exactly who is Mother Chime though?"

"She is the woman that we have to watch out for Amaretto," her aunt Katherine said. "If we watch out for her, in the meantime we can be on the lookout for what it is that we are looking for. So let's make sure that we don't miss anything alright?"

"You are looking for something then?" Alice looked at Katherine with wary eyes. "So that means that this trip is hardly a social call to the Watchmaker then was it?"

Katherine grimaced once and then looked out the window. The look on her face made Amaretto think that her aunt looked like she had swallowed a whole lemon the way her lips pursed. Amaretto bit the bottom corner of her lip believing that her aunt would answer the question. The carriage continued on in silence. Just as Amaretto was almost able to take no more and answer the question herself, her aunt spoke for the both of them.

"It is incorrect to assume that we are only here on business. We are here on a social call, just as to whom, we were not at liberty to say at first. However, now the times have changed and it seems that we have no choice but to tell you. However, we do ask that you keep an open mind in these matters as we are most assuredly in danger from the moment we came into London proper."

Alice nodded almost immediately. "Anyone who is a friend of the Watchmaker can keep a secret surely madam."

Katherine nodded and Amaretto marveled at how well her aunt seemed to be taking care of everything. Amaretto suddenly found that she was wishing that she was able to totally take charge of a situation like her aunt. The sad fact of the reality was that she was just a high school student and she was not able to do anything, but that hardly mattered at the moment. Right now, she was with her aunt and they had traveled to another universe and were trying to get some unfathomable thing done so she could be sent home willingly with the blessing of some magic woman who was trapped somewhere.

"What a wonderful birthday this is turning out to be then," Amaretto muttered under her breath.

Katherine turned a sharp look at her. "What was that darling?"

Amaretto smiled rather cheerfully and said, "Nothing dear aunt. The world is currently right with itself." Her voice was sickeningly chipper, and Amaretto hoped that Katherine would at least sense the humor in that statement.

Katherine looked at Amaretto for a moment and then shook her head.