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Clockwork Heart Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The divide between the wealthy district of town and the slums was noticeable almost immediately upon reaching the town centre. There was a visible line drawn in the dirt - the freshly cobbled streets ending as cleanly as if a wall had been built between the two halves. These streets trailed off towards freshly painted and overpriced opulence in the direction she had just come from while in the other direction, dirty and broken paths wound through the neglected and impoverished quarter of Portside.

Millie, who had run the length of the vast sweeping lawns of Clancy manor, climbed up the vine covered manor walls and slipped from the property. It was done with well-practiced ease which came from escaping her house one too many times.

Well immersed in her alter ego, Millie pulled the hood to her worn cotton cape further over her head. It did little to keep the drizzle from permeating through her clothes but it at least sheltered her identity. Adding a stoop to her shoulders and her gaze to the ground, she seamlessly slipped into the crowds drifting towards the slums.

Stepping across the divide with a little hop, her eyes darted from side to side. Her tool belt clinked around her waist with each step and her heart skipped a little as she stared at each of the shadows in consideration. There was a palpable fear that hung over Portside – rightly so. But Millie, who often took risks by coming out into the city on her own, did not believe she was impervious to danger like the rest of the rich folks. She would be a fool to believe that she could escape the Ripper if he too sought to steal her heart.

The Ripper… Elaina.

A pang of sorrow struck the Clancy heir in the gut like a strong punch to her stomach. Her brisk pace stumbled for a moment before she blinked back tears and continued onwards with renewed vigour. Elaina would want her to do this. They hadn’t been best friends or even childhood companions but the two of them had formed an alliance as they were often left upon the outskirts of social gatherings. They endured the cutting remarks of their peers together. Or at least they did. Thus, it was with an ache in her heart that Elaina had been hoping her health would improve before the summer months. She had wanted to travel and see the shores of France once more before her ill health left her housebound.

And Elaina knew of Millicent’s dreams to be more than a housewife and mother.

“I’ll live for both of us Elle.” Millie whispered as she slipped past the quiet and shadowed building that was the centremost part of the slums.

Clancy’s Clockworks, the factory that produced her father’s empire and ultimately employed most of the city folk, stood over thirty feet high and was continuously churning black smoke into the sky. The clanking of metal hitting metal sounded loudly through the air accompanied by the soft chatter of the workers. Within that building half of the poorest people of portside were working hard to gain that small income. Those few coins would mean the difference between dinner and going to bed hungry.

“Almost there,” Millie thought to herself as she fought a shiver.

Her hands pulled the cowl tighter around her head while her thick boots clomped over the muddy pathways that were becoming slick with rain. She passed very few people as she wandered through the streets. Most people were either safely at home, looking cautiously at the doorways and windows in fear that the Ripper would stop by their house next, while the rest were working hard within factories and shops.

Taking a sharp left near the west end of Clancy’s, Millie approached a seemingly run down two storey building that looked petite in the shadow of the large factory. Grime coated the bricked exterior, where the windows were almost completely blacked out by the grime. Neglect clung to the building like a second skin and looked like it was in need of some serious care to bring it to a liveable standard. And yet, it was there where one of the wealthiest women in the country made her presence known.