Page 70 of Ravishing Camille

“We’ll climb down now,” Pierce announced to those in her carriage after his own had dismounted. “You must stay together. No running off. The workmen have their orders and their timetable. You must not interfere. And you will all line up here, single file and quietly observe.”

Horses drew long carts with lattices of all widths and lengths. Men positioned huge swathes of iron to the foot of the cranes. Derricks stood at the four corners of the tower, sentinels to what it would eventually become.

“They began,” Pierce said, “by drilling the foundation into the water-bed of the Seine.”

“How can they do that, Uncle Pierce?” Garrett asked. “They’ll be drowned.”

“The tubes were air-tight, Garrett. They forced them into the river with steel drivers.”

“When did they start to build this?” Dylan wanted to know.

“Last June,” he told them all.

“More than a year and they’re not finished,” Camille said in awe, gazing up at the black iron beams that arched and bent and stretched at odd angles to the sky. “And yet it is lovely.”

“I read the newspaper reports that it stands one hundred and fifteen feet high as of August fifteenth.”

That was days ago. “Astonishing,” she said “And they predict they will finish it in time for the May Exhibition.”

“MonsieurEiffel demands they embrace the schedule. During the winter, they worked nine hours each day. Now that it is warmer, they work twelve.”

“That’s exhausting.”

“It is,” he said, his gaze never leaving the cranes that rose inside the structure. “They are demanding higher wages.”

“I would think they deserve it.”

“I would agree. However, we do not know what the original contracts stated.”

“Will Eiffel hold them to that?”

“I’ve no idea. But I will say that many laborers are coming to the conclusion that they undervalue their own work at the beginning of a project.”

“Human nature, I would say.”

He stopped to consider her with a look of wonder on his face. “What do you mean?”

“We don’t know what we’re worth until we try it and excel at it. This,” she said with her hands up, “will be a wonder of the world. More will attempt such lovely structures. And many will build them. Don’t you think?”

He nodded, his expression stark.

“So then,” she said. “The more skillful workmen become, the better compensation they demand.”

“May I quote you?” He chuckled.

“Of course. To whom?”

“My partners?”

“You meet again. That must be an intricate proposal you have.”

His silver eyes seemed to melt into hers. “I have quite a few I’m making.”

“Do you?” she asked, breathless at his implications.

He inched closer. “I have a house for us.”

Her whole body tingled at the idea. “Where?”