Evermore (23 page)

"We have to trust her," Celia muttered. "We
cannot risk doing nothing." She looked to me. Everyone did.

I clutched Jacob's shirt, even as he faded in
and out. I didn't look up at his face. Could not. If I moved, if I
spoke even in a whisper, I might shatter this dream and wake up
into a nightmare instead.

It was Jacob who roused me. "Emily," he said
urgently. "Emily, ask her where my body is. Ask her how she knows
this. Ask her...bloody hell." He pressed his forehead to mine and
breathed deeply, despite not needing air.

I pulled away and held his hand as if that
could stop him disappearing. He shimmered but remained.

"You had better tell us what you know," I
said, putting as much of a threatening tone into it as I could.

Mrs. Stanley sat heavily on the chair and
smoothed her apron over her lap. She looked much older and somewhat
weaker, as if all the life had gone out of her. "When Leviticus
first came to me at the circus and asked for a curse to use on the
Beaufort boy, I was hesitant. He paid me a large sum, but still, I
did not like the idea. I was not in love with him then. I
sympathized with his tale, but what he asked went against
everything I was brought up to believe. I could not do it."

"But you took his money anyway," Louis
said.

She nodded. "I gave him a curse that I told
him would obliterate his victim completely. He would have no
existence, not in this world or the Otherworld. All he had to do
was make him lose consciousness, not kill him, then speak the
curse."

Jacob let go of me and I thought he was going
to fade away completely, so faint was he. But he sat on the floor,
his back against the sofa. He clasped is drawn-up knees and stared
straight ahead. I knelt beside him and touched his shoulder. He
didn't move.

"The curse you gave Price...what did it
really do?" I asked.

"It turned Beaufort into a spirit, separated
him from his body. But he was more than a spirit, or perhaps less,
depending on your point of view."

"He is more solid than other ghosts," I said,
"and can go where others cannot."

"But he could not crossover, could never be
truly dead unless he gave up what he loved most."

Me.

I tightened my grip on Jacob's shoulder. He
did not acknowledge my presence. It was as if he wasn't even
listening.

"Jacob said his killer told him that he must
give something up," I said, "something he loved dearly."

"I did not want to dabble in the spirit world
back then," she said. "So I gave the milder curse to Leviticus and
told him to tell Beaufort that he had to give something up. It was
my way of helping Beaufort end the curse himself and return to his
body and his life, but I told Leviticus that it was merely a part
of the curse and would not work if left out." She cast a longing
gaze at Price's body. "I lied to him and I did not know how to end
the lie."

"But Jacob couldn't do it," Celia muttered.
"He couldn't give you up, Em." She stared at me, her eyes widened
and filled with wonder.

"A man can never truly set aside the woman
who occupies his heart," Louis said. "No matter how much distance
or time separates them."

"Very true," George said.

Jacob took my hand and kneaded my
fingers.

"So you never told Price the truth?" I asked
Mrs. Stanley.

"He soon realized something was wrong when
you poked your nose in. You claimed to be speaking to Beaufort's
ghost and he knew you had no reason to lie. Leviticus blamed me for
giving him the wrong curse. I told him it was innocently done, and
he...he believed me." She wiped away the tears washing silently
down her cheeks. "He decided to use Beaufort's spirit state to his
advantage instead. He did not know that Beaufort was not really
dead, see, and I never told him."

"So he thought he'd make Jacob's spirit
suffer by watching his loved ones hurt," I said. "He set the demon
onto Jacob's family and he summoned Mortlock into his sister's
body."

"When that did not work, he wanted to end it
once and for all by destroying everything, the entire Otherworld,"
Mrs. Stanley said. "He didn't care what would happen to himself
anymore, and by then I loved him too much not to help."

"So you gave him the most dangerous curse
there is," George said. "Mad. Utterly mad."

"Hush, George," I said. We needed Mrs.
Stanley's help and blaming her was not going to win her over. "Mrs.
Stanley, where is Jacob's body?"

"I do not know, do I? I was not there when
Leviticus set upon him."

"You don't know!" I stormed over to her and
grabbed her by the shoulders. "How can you not know? Why didn't you
find out?" I was so angry I wanted to shake her until the answers
fell out, but someone gently pulled me away. Two someones, I
realized, Celia and Louis.

"We'll find him," George said. "Let's
approach this scientifically."

"Emily," Jacob said. "Emily, it's no use. I
can't do it. I can't give you up. And I'm so weak..."

I knelt in front of him. He closed his eyes
and his face crumpled. "Be strong. You have to be. There must be a
counter curse?" This I said to Mrs. Stanley.

She nodded. "There is. Find his body, speak
the words, and his spirit will return as if nothing were
amiss."

"You'll tell us what to say," said George. It
was not a question but a demand.

"I will. If you do something for me."

"Name a sum."

"I do not want money," she said. "I want you
to kill me."

Celia and Mrs. White gasped. George swore
under his breath, but I simply sat back on my haunches and stared
at her.

"I cannot do it myself," Mrs. Stanley said.
"Taking my own life goes against my beliefs."

"As it is against ours for taking another's,"
Mrs. White said. "We cannot do it. I won't be a party to it."

"Then you can look the other way," George
said bluntly. "We'll do anything required. Even that."

"Why?" Mrs. White asked her dead husband's
lover. "You could have money, live comfortably."

"Because she wants to be with him," I said.
"If you've never loved deeply, Mrs. White, you wouldn't
understand."

She shook her head slowly. "You're right,
Miss Chambers, I don't understand."

"You must hurry," Mrs. Stanley said. "Now
that Leviticus is gone, the body will be dying. Beaufort's spirit
will not last much longer."

"How much time have we got left?" I
asked.

"Perhaps an hour, maybe two."

"An hour!" I felt like I'd been punched in
the stomach. How could we find his body in an hour when no one knew
its location?

To my surprise it was Celia who sprang into
action first. "Jacob, do you know where you were killed, or cursed?
Perhaps your body is nearby somewhere."

"It was in the country," I said, recalling an
earlier conversation I'd had with him. "But his body could have
been moved afterward for safe-keeping."

"Is there a basement to this house?" Celia
asked Mrs. Stanley.

"Yes, but I can assure you there is no body
in it."

"I'll look," Louis said and ran out the
door.

Mrs. Stanley sighed. "You could try the
Society."

"Of course!" George slapped his thigh. "I'll
drive to the hall now."

"It would require utter seclusion," Mrs.
Stanton said. George paused mid-stride. "Leviticus could not risk
it being found."

"Hell. There's nowhere particularly secluded
at the hall. We have other storage rooms, though. Small warehouses
really. Beaufort could be in one of those, but—"

"Then let's go," I said, rising.

He shook his head sadly. My heart plunged at
the pained look on his face. "Emily, there's so many, littered
around the city. I don't know where they all are. Nor do I have
keys."

"Price had keys. They must be here
somewhere." I looked to his body, but Mrs. Stanley got there
first.

"I'll search him," she said, lovingly
unbuttoning his bloodied waistcoat.

"But even if we find them, how will we find
the warehouses?" George asked. "How will we search them all?"

"Em, it's hopeless," Jacob said. He still sat
on the floor, embracing his knees.

I knelt beside him again. "We have to try,
Jacob. I will not give up without a fight. Not when there is a
chance." I gritted my teeth and fought back the wave of
hopelessness. "George, you must find out where the storage rooms
are. Is there a member you can ask?"

He nodded. "Our second master. He lives not
far from me."

"Drive us to Lord Preston's house on your way
to the second master's home, then send word there once you have
some locations. We'll split up and search them."

"If you can convince Lord Preston to
help."

"We will." I was utterly determined to make
Jacob's father believe us.

"But that will take so much time," Mrs. White
said.

"Then we have to hurry. Mrs. Stanley?"

She had finished checking Price's pockets and
was searching through the drawers of a desk. "Here!" she shouted,
triumphant.

George took the keys off her. "Now, tell us
the counter curse. Is it difficult?"

"Not very." She launched
into the words one of us would need to speak if—no,
when
—we found Jacob's
body. Unlike the counter curse that fixed the Waiting Area, this
one was in English and was easy to remember.

"Let's go," George said when she'd
finished.

I went to follow him, but Jacob caught my
hand. "Wait." He picked up my shawl from where it hung over the
back of the sofa and gently wrapped it around my shoulders. "Take
care."

"You're not coming?" I asked.

His eyes turned wild and glassy, as if he
wasn't quite seeing things in our realm, but in the Waiting Area
and beyond. "I have a better way. Faster," he said. Then he
disappeared.

"Jacob!" I tipped my head back and searched
the ceiling. George and Celia urged me to go with them, and so did
Louis upon his return from the basement.

Precious seconds ticked by and Jacob didn't
return. I followed the others out while Mrs. White and Mrs. Stanley
remained behind. I wasn't sure it was a good idea leaving the two
together but Mrs. White assured me she would be all right, and that
she would notify the police about Price's death.

We ran down the stairs and George rattled off
instructions to his driver. He certainly heeded the "post-haste"
part because the horses flew through the streets back to Belgrave
Square.

The ball had ended. There were no coaches
outside Lord and Lady Preston's house, and no footmen either. Light
shone from the upstairs windows. I ran to the front door, my sister
and Louis behind me. George drove off to speak to the Society's
second master. I banged on the door and it seemed to take a
lifetime for the butler to open it. He loomed large and looked
decidedly unhappy about the intrusion, but when he saw my sister
and I in our ball gowns, he resumed his professional demeanor. He
must have thought we'd left something behind earlier.

"We need to see Lady Preston," I said.

He bowed, but I didn't have time for such
niceties. I pushed past him and ran up the stairs.

"Miss! Miss!" he yelled.

"Lady Preston!" I shouted. "Adelaide! We need
you. Jacob needs you."

But it was Lord Preston who
greeted me at the top of the grand staircase. With his thick, gray
moustache and huge frame, he was as ferocious as an angry bear. But
I would not back down. I couldn't afford to. He
had
to listen to me.

"Jacob needs your help, my lord," I said. "I
know you don't believe—"

"Enough!" he bellowed. "I have put up with
this nonsense for too long."

"Actually, you
haven't
put up
with anything. As I recall, you've been quite belligerent
about it all."

"You are a disrespectful, malicious, and
base-born girl. I should never have let you into my house tonight.
It was a mistake. Now leave."

"Indeed it is enough," said Louis. His voice
was a low growl, his jaw rigid as he stood beside me. "I don't care
who you are, you will not speak to my daughter like that."

"Who are
you
?"

"I just made that clear.
I'm her father. Emily has come here seeking help for
your
son. You owe her a
great debt, sir."

"Owe? Her?" Lord Preston advanced down the
steps, one at a time. "That is laughable. Get. Out. Now. All of
you."

I held up my hands, but Lord Preston ignored
the placating gesture. He continued to advance down the steps with
menacing slowness, his strong brow deeply scored by his frown. "I
know this is a lot for you to take in," I said, "but for just this
once, set aside your beliefs. I know you're hurt, and I don't blame
you for your anger toward me. But listen to me now, I beg you. If
our plan doesn't work, you will never see me again."

"You're right, I will never see you again,"
he snarled. "Starting now. Polson! Remove them."

"Please, my lord." I glanced back at the
butler. He looked uncertain as to the reaction he would receive
from Louis. "If nothing happens after we find Jacob's body—"

"His what?" Lord Preston
took a stumbling step back up the stairs. "You know where his body
is? Tell me.
Tell me!
Where is it? How do you know?" He was advancing again,
faster, coming at me with those big paws outstretched as if he
would wrap them around my throat and squeeze the answer
out.

"Reginald?" Lady Preston said from the
landing above. "Reginald, who—? Miss Chambers!"

"Lady Preston, there's so much to tell you.
Please, you must listen to us. There's a chance we can save Jacob,
but—"