Word traveled faster than the trains ever had.
By the second morning after the field test, Shropshire Station was crowded—not with passengers, but with railway inspectors, magistrates, reporters, and men who smelled more of ink than coal. The villagers who had witnessed the first telegraph message stood at the edges, retelling the story with increasing confidence, the way people do when they know they watched history happen.
Phillip arrived at the foundry yard just as Henry rushed toward him holding two letters. Not envelopes—sealed dispatches bearing wax crests.
"London sent riders through the night," Henry said, breathless. "Two messengers. One from the Railway Board. One from the Home Office."
Phillip opened the first. The wax broke easily under his thumb.
Lord Wellington,
We require immediate attendance in London for examination of the electric signaling apparatus tested between Shropshire and Bradlow Village.
