Possession (8 page)

I did not want
to tell Celia that Louis may have returned to London approximately ten years
ago and fathered another child. She didn't need to know that he hadn't cared
enough for Mama to see her again.

Perhaps it would
have been different if he'd known about me. Then again, perhaps not.

I wanted to curl
into a ball and brace myself against the tide of sadness washing through me. I
got up and embraced Celia instead. I would always have her, and one family
member was enough. After all, it was better than having none.

***

Jacob waited
until after breakfast to tell me about his search for Wallace Arbuthnot. I was
alone in the small parlor, Celia having already left to speak to Lucy in the
kitchen. She and I had barely spoken over our coddled eggs and the weight of
all she'd told me hung heavily in the air.

I wondered if Jacob
timed his appearance with her departure. It wasn't that Celia disliked him. She
just didn't like the affection I'd developed for him. As was often the case
lately, her overprotectiveness had turned overbearing. I was glad to be alone
with Jacob, even if we only discussed matters supernatural and not personal.

"I found
Arbuthnot." He stood in the doorway, one broad shoulder resting against
the frame. He looked relaxed and comfortable, until I noticed the tap of one
finger on his thigh. It was a new habit he seemed to have formed.

"Thank
goodness. Where?"

"Everywhere."

I slid my plate
of coddled eggs away, no longer hungry. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the
spirit inside Arbuthnot has taken him into gaming hells of the most
disreputable kind, ratpits, pubs...think of the worst places in the meanest
parts of the city and there I found him."

I stifled a
gasp. "Poor Mr. Arbuthnot. If he knew what was happening to him, he would
be utterly ashamed. He doesn't know, does he? Can he?"

Jacob shrugged. "My
sister seemed to be partly aware when she was possessed, although dazed."

I nodded. "She
was sometimes herself, but when the spirit had her fully in his grip, she
seemed completely...gone. As if he'd overruled her mind somehow." I could
think of no other way to explain it. It was as if Adelaide's will did not exist
during the possession except for those brief moments when her mother's voice
brought her back.

"Wallace is
not as strong as Adelaide." That busy finger tapped his temple but then
returned once more to drumming against his thigh. "It's possible he
doesn't know what the spirit is doing."

"It's best
that way."

"True."

I waited, but he
did not continue. "So what are we to do now?" I asked.

He didn't
immediately answer. I thought he would correct my usage of "we" to
exclude me, but he didn't. Intriguing.

"You must
tell me, Jacob. I need to know what to wear."

He burst out
laughing and pushed off from the doorway. "Only a female would think of
clothing at a time like this."

I gave him a
withering look. "Would it be a good idea to enter a ratpit dressed in my good
day dress?"

"You are
not entering any ratpits."

"But you
have found him, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You need my help, Jacob
Beaufort. Admit it."

He clamped his
jaw so hard I could hear his back teeth grinding. "I have found him, yes,
but George will lure him to a place where you are waiting. A safe, respectable
place."

It made perfect
sense. Almost. "So I assume you will tell me where to find Mr. Arbuthnot
and I will inform George. George will then go to that place and convince the
spirit to follow him."

"Ye-es."
From the cautious way he said it, I could tell he knew I had doubts and was
waiting to hear them.

"I can see
two flaws in the plan. No, three. Firstly, what if Arbuthnot has gone? Even if
you manage to find him again, how will you communicate that to George without
me there? It would involve George returning to wherever I am tucked away,
waiting for you, you telling me—"

"All
right." He held up his hands. "Point taken. Let's worry about him
moving when and if he does. The other two concerns?"

I
humphed
at his dismissal. "Secondly, how will meek-mannered, gentlemanly George
coerce a thug like that spirit into going with him?"

"Bribery."

"Which
brings me to my third point."

"I had a
feeling you would think of everything." Most men would have made that
sentence sound derisive. Few would like having the holes in their plan pointed
out by a young woman. Not Jacob. There was a smile in his voice, if not on his
lips, and something else too. Pride?

"How do you
bribe a ghost? He won't want financial gain."

He picked up my
plate. "Eggs?"

"Very
amusing."

"Truth is,
I don't know. Fear? Curiosity? We'll think of something when we confront
him." He set down the plate, his face suddenly dark and serious. "I should
go. Arbuthnot stayed overnight at a pub at Victoria Dock. I'll go and see if
he's still there. You fetch Culvert and meet me at The Three Knots. Do you know
it?"

"I've seen
it before."

"I'll allow
you to come with us, but you will not be leaving the coach. Understand?" He
disappeared without so much as a goodbye, probably so I wouldn't have a chance
to protest.

I sighed and
went to find Celia to tell her I was going to George's house for more research.
She was in the small parlor entering figures into columns in the household
ledger. A knock at the front door sounded before I could speak to her.

"I wonder
who would be calling this early," she said. We removed ourselves to the
bigger drawing room to receive our guest or guests.

Lucy came in a
moment later, her cheeks pink and her eyes bright. "A Mr. Theodore Hyde to
see you, Miss Emily."

I almost fell
off my chair in shock.

CHAPTER 5

Theodore Hyde! I
didn't get a chance to gather my wits because he was right behind Lucy. He
bowed to me. "Thank you for receiving me so early, Miss Chambers."

"Oh, uh, of
course. Mr. Hyde, may I present my sister, Miss Celia Chambers." He bowed
again.

"Thank you,
Lucy," Celia said. The maid turned her blush on Mr. Hyde, sighed then left
very slowly, casting doe-eyed glances at Theodore over her shoulder as she did
so.

Theodore wasn't
smiling. Indeed, he looked very different from when I'd first met him. He was
no longer jovial and friendly. Instead, he looked like a man in search of
answers.

"I met Mr.
Hyde at the Arbuthnots' house," I told Celia. "He's Mrs. Arbuthnot's
nephew."

"Oh?" She
smiled at him then at me, an unspoken question in her hopeful glance. I
resisted the urge to roll my eyes. If I told her he was a poor relation of the
Arbuthnots, would she stop her matchmaking? Probably not. Theodore might be
poor by his aunt's standards, but I doubt he was poor by ours.

"Forgive
me, Miss Chambers," he said. He cleared his throat. "But I want to
know what happened to my cousin."

Celia and I
glanced at each other.

"Please,"
he said. He leaned forward, his hat clasped loosely in front of his knees. "I
know who you are, Miss Chambers. I know you're a spirit medium."

"Ah,"
Celia said. It seemed she was capable of speaking only single words of one
syllable.

"And I
suspect you are able to explain what happened to my cousin." He ran a hand
through his thick blond hair. "He hasn't returned home, you see, and my
aunt is very worried. She's taken to her bed and refuses to rise. She's
convinced that the terrible business that befell Wallace's friend, Beaufort,
has befallen him too."

"I assure
you, it hasn't," I said.

His brows rose
in surprise and he leaned back. "So you do know what's happened to
him?"

Theodore had not
looked at me differently when he admitted knowing I was a medium. There was no
sneer on his face, no disdain in his voice, no hint that he didn't believe me. He
simply stated a fact and now he wanted answers about his cousin. I saw no
reason to keep the truth from him. I didn't think he would run screaming from
the house in terror.

"He's been
possessed."

He drew a
breath. Two. "Well." He scratched his chin. "When I learned what
you did for a living, I wondered if something like that had happened to
Wallace." He fixed his gentle gray eyes on me. "Thank you for your
honesty, Miss Chambers." His smile was grim.

"Rest
assured my sister is doing everything she can to separate your cousin from the
spirit inside him," Celia said. "She is quite a capable young
woman."

"I don't
doubt it."

"She's very
resourceful for a seventeen year-old. Mature too, all of our acquaintance say
so."

I groaned
inwardly. "As my sister so subtly puts it, Mr. Hyde, I promise to do
everything I can for your cousin. It won't be long before he's back home."
Dear God, I hoped so.

"Surely you
cannot do it on your own."

"Oh no,"
Celia said. "The ghost of Jacob Beaufort is helping."

He cocked his
head to the side. "Wallace's friend? The one whose death you came to
discuss when all this occurred?"

"The very
one," I said.

"It sounds
dangerous." He frowned. "I don't think the spirit possessing Wallace
is a particularly friendly one. Are you sure Beaufort's help is enough?"

"It won't
be dangerous for Emily," Celia said. The look she gave me was hard,
challenging. "Mr. Beaufort's spirit will find your cousin, Mr. Hyde, and
then all Emily need do is utter the final words to send the possessing spirit
back. She won't be close to danger at all. Isn't that right, Em?"

"Quite. Indeed,
I was just leaving to go to my friend George Culvert's house to..." I
glanced at Celia. "...to research the incantation needed to oust the
spirit." I didn't tell her Jacob had found Arbuthnot. If I did, she might
not let me go. She would want Jacob to bring him here where she could maintain
some control. That was an impossibility.

"May I
come?" Theodore asked. "To help you with your research?" I began
to shake my head, but he put his hand up. "Please, Miss Chambers. I need
to do something useful and I don't particularly want to return to my aunt's
home and tell her there's nothing to be done but wait."

I understood his
dilemma perfectly. Waiting for others to do all the work was terribly
frustrating. "Certainly. We could do with another set of eyes on the
books."

The plan seemed
to please Celia. Her grin could not have been wider. The prospect of me being
alone with two eligible men made her positively giddy. I suspected, if she
hadn't already begun planning my trousseau, she would now. "Mrs. Culvert
will be there, will she not?" she asked.

"Of course.
She's always at home." I doubted she knew I was lying, but the fact she
never questioned me about George's mother indicated she didn't want to know too
much.

I gathered my cloak,
hat, and gloves and left with Theodore Hyde at my side. It was a pleasant walk
to George's house and we easily filled it with chatter. He told me about his
home in Shropshire and made the countryside sound so picturesque that even I, a
city-dweller through and through, wanted to see it by the time he finished.

He then asked me
about my life as a medium. "How did you find out I was a medium?" I
asked.

He looked at me
sideways, a small smile twitching his lips. "I guessed. I didn't know for
certain until you and your sister confirmed it just now."

"You
tricked us!"

He winced. "It
does seem that way, doesn't it? I didn't mean any harm, and I am sorry if I've
caused offence." He nudged my elbow. "Forgive me?"

I nudged him
back and smiled. "I suppose so."

"So what
sort of research are we going to do at your friend's house?"

"Ah. Well. I
lied about that to appease my sister. She's protective to the point of
smothering."

"I
understand that." He looked at me beneath hooded lids, his eyes smoky. My
insides did a little flip. "So tell me, what is the real plan?" he
asked.

"Jacob has
found Wallace at a pub at the Victoria Dock."

He stopped and
caught my shoulders. "Then we must go there! Now!"

"No, Mr.
Hyde." I spoke with deliberate calm and withdrew his hands from my
shoulders. I quickly dropped them because people were staring, and touching him
made me feel uncomfortable, not afraid just...unsure. "We'll collect
George then all three of us will travel there together in his coach. I suspect
I'll have to remain in it while he and Jacob fetch Wallace out of the
pub." I clicked my tongue. "I don't think they'll let me follow them
inside, unfortunately."

"Quite
rightly," he said.