Hot and Steamy by Jean Rabe

made. Shall we give it a try?”
    â€œYes, of course.”
    He wound it with a small gold key. It let out a softly comforting tick-tock sound, exactly as all the others had. Rosa wondered why, if this mechanism was his finest, he hadn’t tried it first, but watched as he turned the adjustment switch on the face to the right, from sixty beats per minute up to seventy-two, and set the dynamo’s power lever to ninety millivolts. With Aunt Jean’s help, he hooked it to the leads and all the gauges. When he rose to attach the black switch to the umbilical near the body of the regulator, Aunt Jean reached over to the ticking device and tweaked the lever ever so slightly up. She shot a significant look at Rosa, who frowned. Mr. Greenberg sat down on the stool at her knee and held up the switch.
    â€œReady, Miss Lind?” he asked.
    â€œYes.”
    Aunt Jean took her hand and squeezed it. Rosa held on as Mr. Greenberg threw the switch.
    There was no shock, as there had been with several of the devices. The ease of transition surprised her. She breathed normally. Mr. Greenberg beamed at her.
    â€œHow are you doing?”
    â€œVery well,” she said, pleased. “Very well indeed.” Her heart was getting the proper stimulus. Blood moved as it was meant to by nature. She smiled. Mr. Greenberg smiled back.
    Then the stimulus became too much. Her heart was beating faster than usual. Not enough that anyone but she would be aware of it. Blackness rose in her eye and her blood pounded in her ears. Too fast. Her aunt had increased the pace of the clock regulator. She reached for the device to turn it down. Aunt Jean shook her head and held her hands firmly. Rosa tried to speak, but it felt as if her heart was in her throat.
    Mr. Greenberg saw that she was in distress. “What is it? What is it, Miss Lind?” he asked.
    Rosa opened her mouth to tell him, but the room went dark, and she heard nothing more.
    When her vision cleared, she was reclining in a very warm chair scented with bay rum. A scratchy cloth was being applied to her cheeks and forehead, and something was puffing warm air on her face.
    â€œDarling Miss Lind, are you all right? Can you speak? What did I do?”
    The scratchy cloth was Mr. Greenberg’s unshaven face, as he kissed her again and again. The warm air was his breath. She tilted her head back.
    â€œWhat happened?” she asked.
    He looked relieved and abashed. “Are you all right?”
    Rosa tried to sit up. He took her arms and righted her against the sofa back. She leaned away from his grasp. He seemed reluctant to let her go. “I am fine. What happened?”
    â€œWhen I switched from your regulator to my device, I must have miscalculated the voltage,” he said. “I am so sorry! Have I done you harm? I would never want anything ill to happen to you. I would rather wish all the woes of the world on myself instead.” His brow was wrinkled with concern. He clutched her hand. “My dear, dear young lady.”
    Rosa frowned, looking down on their joined hands in confusion. Was this the distant man who for a week had only had eyes for her machinery? “Your declaration puzzles me, sir. We’ve only just met.”
    Mr. Greenberg smiled a little shyly. “The truth is that I have seen you across the room on many an occasion over these last months, Miss Lind. You are so very beautiful, but you seemed to me as remote as a mountaintop. I felt that I could not approach you until I could offer you something tangible, to prove I might be worth your interest. It was only last week I was ready to ask your aunt to introduce me to you.”
    Rosa laughed bitterly. “My dear sir, you have seen how few gentlemen I attract. Anyone who would brave my clockwork companion, not to mention my chaperone, is worth my interest. I thought that you were not interested in me.”
    Mr. Greenberg kissed her hand. “You should see more value in