Heart Burn (6 page)

Samuel shifted his stance and cleared his throat. I'm sure he was used to being the object of female observation, but even he must have felt a little uncomfortable with her interest.

"Thank you for asking your footman to fetch Mr. Myer," Jack said.

She tore her gaze away from Samuel and turned it on me. "Your announcement intrigued me," she said. "You are Hannah Smith, the ward of Lord Wade?"

I nodded. "Do you know him? Have you heard of me?"

"I've not heard of you, but I do know Lord Wade. I haven't seen him for many years. How is he?"

"He's, uh, well." I had no idea if he was or not, but I'd learned that it was the standard answer for a polite social call. "You seemed quite intrigued when Samuel mentioned my name," I went on. "Are you sure you've never heard it before?" Perhaps she'd known the other Hannah Smith, the one I'd been named after. That woman had been a friend of Lord Wade's or perhaps his lover. Langley hadn't given us any details, if indeed he'd known any. As always, he'd been evasive.

"I was curious simply because I didn't know Lord Wade had a ward," Mrs. Myer conceded. "But as I said, we have not seen him for many years."

"We?" Samuel prompted. "Neither you nor your husband have been in contact with Lord Wade recently?"

She glanced over her shoulder at the staircase, but it was empty. There was no sign of her husband. "I don't believe Everett has seen his lordship for some time, but you'd have to ask him. Come into the drawing room and wait for him. There's no telling how long he'll be. My husband does not usually rise before noon, you see."

"Oh?" Jack said. "He doesn't work at the offices of Hatfield and Harrington during the week."

Mrs. Myer smiled tightly. "My husband's presence isn't required at the bank, and he prefers to stay away anyway. The arrangement suits everybody."

She walked ahead of us. Behind her back, Jack and I exchanged glances. I understood what he was saying without words: Mr. and Mrs. Myer were not a couple on happy marital terms. Samuel didn't join in with our silent discussion. He seemed pre-occupied, even worried. I couldn't think why. Mrs. Myer might not be the easiest lady to talk to, but she
was
talking. She'd also known Wade around the time her husband hypnotized me. She might know more than she realized. I wanted to find out as much from her as I could before Myer arrived.

The drawing room was large but spartan compared with Frakingham's. A single framed daguerreotype of an elderly couple occupied a round table in the center of the room, and empty vases decorated other surfaces. Two paintings of the same country house in different seasons hung on a wall, and a portrait of the same man from the daguerreotype took pride of place above the mantelpiece. Most drawing rooms saw tables cluttered with sketches, paintings, figurines and stuffed animals, but the Myers had none of that. It must have been used rarely, or perhaps Mrs. Myer preferred minimal clutter.

A small fire warmed the room, and I removed my coat. Mrs. Myer did not offer to hang it up.

"Would you mind telling me what Lord Wade has to do with my husband?" she asked, sitting on one of the dark green leather armchairs.

"We'll wait and speak to him directly," Jack said. "Will he be long?"

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "Let's hope not."

Silence blanketed us, and I shifted uncomfortably as Mrs. Myer's gaze flicked between Samuel and myself. It was as if she couldn't decide which of us was more interesting. Yet she didn't ask questions. I'd found that strangers usually liked to pinpoint where we were from, who we were connected to, that sort of thing. It was a way of categorizing us, I supposed, and helped determine how we should be treated. Mrs. Myer asked us nothing. It was refreshing in a way, yet disconcerting at the same time. I wasn't sure how to react.

It appeared it drove Samuel to distraction too. His fingers drummed on his knee and his foot tapped on the rug. He avoided Mrs. Myer's scrutiny by staring at the door, as if he could conjure her husband by sheer force of will. What was wrong with him? Why was he so agitated?

Finally, a man joined us, thank God. His entrance broke the tension in the room. Samuel sprang off the sofa as if something had bitten him. He thrust out his hand in greeting. "Mr. Everett Myer?"

"Yes," the man said, smiling.

"My name is Samuel Gladstone."

Myer shook his hand. He was as tall as his wife, but more slender with long, fine fingers. He had very little hair on the top of his head, most of it having migrated southward to his side whiskers and eyebrows. He wasn't a handsome man, but pleasant enough to look at with his gentle smile and soft hazel eyes. He introduced himself to each of us, bowing when he came to me in a most gracious manner.

To Jack he said, "Langley? Are you a relation to August Langley of Frakingham?"

"He's my uncle," Jack said. "You know him?"

"We've met. I hear his estate is an ancient one with ruins of an old abbey on it. I have a passing interest in archaeology," he explained.

"It is indeed old."

"Please forgive my footman's brusqueness earlier. I'd given him instructions not to disturb me while I finished some business matters."

Mrs. Myer's cough didn't quite cover her derisive snort, which I think was her intention.

"Ah, Edith dear," he said with a sigh in his voice. "You're here." Had he not seen her when he walked in? Or was that his way of reluctantly acknowledging a wife he didn't like?

Her glare was so cool it could have soothed my hot skin if it had been directed at me. "Of course I'm here. I couldn't allow your guests to languish in the hall."

Myer's fingers stretched at his sides. He turned to us, but the gentleness had gone, replaced by a frosty glint in his eyes. "Shall we adjourn to my study?"

"No need for that," Mrs. Myer said before anyone could answer. "Stay here where it's more comfortable. I'll have Adamson serve tea."

"We wouldn't want to bore you with business matters, dear."

"It wouldn't be a bore. I would very much enjoy hearing what these young people have to say. Besides, I do believe they're not here to discuss business at all. Mr. Gladstone seems to have a familiarity about him. If you look into his eyes, perhaps you can see it too, Everett. Go on, look."

Myer did not look, merely shook his head at her. There was a sort of tug-of-war happening between them, but I wasn't sure of the rules or who was winning.

"Edith, dear," he said, standing in front of his wife, blocking my view. "Perhaps you ought to retire. You did say earlier that you had a sore throat." His voice was like honey warmed by sunshine. It made my head hum and my eyes droop. It was compelling and eerily familiar.

A sharp shock in my shoulder jolted me out of my stupor. Jack glared at me and shook his head. I frowned back, and he showed me his finger. It was red. He had touched me, firing a spark between us. Whatever for?

Then it struck me. I was being sucked into a trance by Everett Myer's voice. He was hypnotizing his wife! I swallowed my gasp and blinked back at Jack. He gave me a reassuring smile. Now that Myer had stopped, I was in no danger of succumbing, yet I still couldn't quite believe what had happened.

So it was true. Myer
was
a hypnotist, and a powerful one at that. One who didn't need a swaying object or very much time if his wife's vacant look was anything to go by. Like Samuel.

I tried to catch Samuel's eye, but he didn't notice. He was staring at the Myers, his brow deeply furrowed and anger vibrating off him.

"I think I'm getting a sore throat," Mrs. Myer said, staring at her husband with adoring eyes.

"Perhaps you should retire to your room to rest," Myer said. "I'll see you later, my dear." He held out his hand and she took it. "Say goodbye to our guests, Edith."

"Goodbye," she said, and left the room.

I watched her go in stunned silence. There were a million questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn't get my tongue to work. I was utterly speechless.

"That was low, Myer," Samuel said, his jaw hardly moving.

"Agreed." Fury edged Jack's voice like sharp flint.

Myer sat in the seat his wife had vacated and crossed his legs. He didn't seem to care what opinion we had of him. "She'll suffer no ill effects. I'm very sorry you had to witness that. She's a stubborn woman and needs a little husbandly guidance from time to time."

"Don't you dare try to justify it," Samuel growled. "Not to me and especially not to yourself. What you did was despicable."

Myer seemed taken aback by the outburst. He frowned at Samuel and gave a single shake of his head. "It's nothing more than what you yourself have done, Mr. Gladstone."

I gasped. "You know what Samuel is?"

"I do now. I admit that I didn't suspect a thing at first, although Edith did. Perhaps her experience with me has led her to see the same quality in others. You two gentlemen are immune, it seems. Although
you
look quite pale, Miss Smith. It is Hannah Smith, isn't it?"

It took me a few moments to recover. Myer seemed quite unconcerned by the fact that he'd just hypnotized his wife and equally unconcerned that we knew it. I hadn't feared him before, but that may have been a mistake. If someone from the Society had paid Mott to summon the demon, there was no reason why it couldn't have been Myer himself.

"I am Hannah Smith."

"Just now you said that I know what
Samuel
is," he went on. "Which would imply he is the only one of the three of you who is like me." His gaze focused on Jack. "That begs the question, why are
you
not touched by my little parlor trick, Mr. Langley?"

"It's no parlor trick," Jack said. "It's a despicable practice." He stood and approached Myer. Myer smiled. If it weren't for the vein pulsing above his collar, I would have thought him unafraid. "Nobody deserves to be hypnotized against their will."

"Calm down, Mr. Langley. Don't pretend you haven't been a party to Mr. Gladstone's own hypnotizing on occasion."

A lump weighed heavily in my chest. We had indeed witnessed Samuel hypnotize a woman, but only to find out where her sister lived. She'd been Reuben Tate's housekeeper and our only link to finding him. Surely Myer didn't know that. How could he?

"Enough games," Jack snapped. "We know who you are. We know you hypnotized Hannah when she was a child."

"Is that what this visit is about?"

"Yes and no."

"Which is it, Mr. Langley? Yes or no?"

"Mr. Myer," I said before Jack's temper could make matters worse, "are you a member of the Society For Supernatural Activity?"

"That's not the question I thought you were going to ask," he said with a laugh. The tension left his shoulders, and his eyes brightened. "I am a member. I am also the Grand Master."

"Grand Master?" Jack said. "So you give the orders?"

"Orders to do what, Mr. Langley?"

"To summon demons."

CHAPTER 4

Myer's eyebrows drew together to form a bushy hedge. He pressed himself into his seat and held up his hands, warding Jack off. "Mr. Langley…I…I don't know what to say to that. Demons? What in God's name are you implying?"

I rubbed my temple where it felt like a small hammer was tapping away at my skull. I was hot, tired and my patience had worn thin shortly after walking through the door. The Myers were an exhausting couple. "Don't play the innocent with us," I said to him. "We know you're aware of the existence of demons, just as you are aware that the power of hypnosis isn't necessarily a learned gift. So, does Mr. Langley need to ask you the question again?"

Myer's nostrils flared. I half expected him to try to hypnotize me as he'd done his wife, but he did something more unexpected instead. He smiled. "I like your spirit, Miss Smith. You are correct. I do know about demons, but I didn't want to be tricked into admitting anything. There are some people in this country who would commit members of the Society to asylums simply for stating they believe in demons and other paranormal things. It's a natural tendency of mine to be cautious."

"Of course. I'm sorry, Mr. Myer, I hope you can forgive me." He
had
taken a risk, and it was only fair that I acknowledge that. It didn't mean I trusted him.

Myer clasped his hands together and rubbed one thumb along the other. "Let me assure you that I have never summoned a demon, nor have I given the orders to anyone else in the Society to do so."

"Why should we believe you?" Samuel asked. For someone usually so amenable, he was behaving rather aggressively toward Myer. I thought he would have liked to meet someone like himself. Myer may have hypnotized his wife in front of us, but it wasn't like Samuel had never done it. He'd hinted that he'd committed numerous sins with his talent in the past that he was now ashamed of.

"Because it's the truth, Mr. Gladstone," Myer said. "There's no way I can prove it, so you'll just have to have faith and trust me." He turned to Jack. "You'd better tell me why you've come here accusing me of such a despicable thing."

Jack returned to the sofa and explained about the demon that had tormented us for several days until we'd managed to kill it.

"Kill it?" Myer echoed, frowning. "You mean sent it back."

Jack leveled his gaze on Myer's. "It's gone. That's all that matters."

Myer's thumb rubbed faster. "Of course. I'm glad it's no longer here. Very glad. A demon running loose is an extremely dangerous thing."

"You have experience with demons?"

"Not personally. I'm no demonologist. Others in our organization have more knowledge of these matters than I do. I leave the demon hunting to them."

"Do you know of anyone who might summon one?" Jack asked.

"Of course not. Why would they do such a thing?"

"To do harm," Samuel said. "Revenge. Greed. Jealousy. Why does anyone do anything evil, Mr. Myer?"

Myer's thumbs stilled. "A good question, Mr. Gladstone. Let me assure you, the members of the Society are carefully selected. They have an interest in the supernatural, but from a curiosity and scientific perspective only. We don't allow loose cannons."