Evermore (24 page)

"Where is his body?" Lord Preston shouted. He
grasped my shoulders and shook me so hard my neck hurt.

Lady Preston gathered up the skirts of her
ball gown and rushed down the stairs. "Reginald, let her go."

Lord Preston didn't heed his wife. Every
shake grew more and more violent. Louis grabbed the lapels of the
earl's exquisitely tailored coat and punched him in the jaw. Lord
Preston tripped on the steps and landed on his rear near his wife's
slippered feet. She gasped and knelt beside him.

Polson ran up the steps toward us, but Lady
Preston ordered him to stop. "Fetch Adelaide. She's in her room.
Everything is all right here." This last sentence was spoken to her
husband who still sat on the step, his eyes unfocused, his
shoulders stooped like an old man.

Polson glanced at Lord Preston then did his
mistress's bidding.

"What were you saying about saving my son,
Miss Chambers?" Lady Preston asked me. "Were you able to save the
Otherworld?"

"Yes, but this is something else. Something
more." I spoke quickly, the words spilling out like a waterfall.
"Jacob is alive. We need to find his body to bring him back." At
Lady Preston's stunned silence, I shook my head. "It's complicated.
A curse was laid on him by the man who wanted to kill him,
Frederick Seymour's father, but it was the wrong curse. It didn't
kill him, just put him into a type of sleep where his spirit was
separated from his body."

"So he's...alive?" She slipped to the side
and I was afraid she might tumble down the staircase, but she
simply sat heavily. Both she and her husband were as white as the
marble steps.

"I'll explain more later, but for now, time
is running out. Jacob's body is dying. We have to find it which
means we'll need to separate. We'll also need your coaches, as many
as you have. George will be back soon to tell us where to go." She
sat there, staring at me, her eyes unblinking, her mouth ajar.

Lord Preston looked equally perplexed. "My
dear...could it be true?"

"I believe her," Lady Preston said, sounding
quite dazed. "And if you have any hope left, then you must
too."

"But how can I? It's too...ridiculous."

"Oh, Father," Adelaide said from the landing
above us. She too was still dressed in her ball gown, but her
unbound hair fell around her shoulders. "Put aside your
stubbornness for one moment and listen to your heart. I know you
want to believe, so just do it. Please. If not for Jacob, then for
Mother and me."

He turned to look at her. "You think I
wouldn't do anything for your brother? That I would throw away any
reasonable chance of finding him again out of stubbornness?"

"I don't know what to think. Perhaps it's
more pride than stubbornness." Her lower lip wobbled and her eyes
swam with tears. "You and Jacob did not get along before his death,
and since then it only seems you want revenge because you hate it
that someone took something from you."

He craned his neck to look up at her as she
stopped on the step above him. "You think I care so little about
him? About you?"

"You certainly don't seem sad, only angry.
The only other time I've seen you this angry was when you were
fleeced out of a small fortune by that investor."

"Don't, Adelaide," Lady Preston warned.

"No," her husband said. "It's all right." He
reached up a hand to his daughter but she ignored it, and he let it
fall limply to his lap. "You're right, my dear. I haven't been the
best father, either before Jacob's death or after. I've been
blinded by the search for him. It occupies me constantly, to the
point where I don't know what time of day it is anymore. I forget
to eat, I can't sleep. It consumes me."

"And yet when the opportunity to communicate
with him presents itself in the form of Miss Chambers, you refuse
to believe her."

"Adelaide, what you're saying, what all of
you are saying...it's beyond belief. How can it be real? Give me
solid facts and I will listen to what she has to say."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I
can't, Father. You're right. It defies logic. Yet Mother and I
believe her nevertheless."

"I can explain it," Celia said. She gripped
my arm and squeezed hard, a sign she wanted me to stay quiet.
"There is a tribe of Africans where all the women can communicate
with spirits." She proceeded to tell him about my origins and how
the ability to see spirits had been passed down the family line to
me. Lord Preston did not interrupt. He seemed riveted. I suspect
the history was something he respected. It was an explanation of
sorts, and all the more real for being written down. "Emily did not
wish to be a medium," Celia said. "She doesn't want the gift.
Indeed, we are closing our little business immediately so she can
resume a normal life."

"Celia," I said. "We can't. We'll have
nothing to live on."

She squeezed my arm harder. "We'll discuss it
tomorrow. For now, there are more urgent matters. Mr. Culvert will
be back soon with directions. Lord Preston, please issue orders to
your drivers to have all the coaches at your disposal ready. It's
likely we'll need to separate. Once you've done that, return to the
hall and I'll tell you the counter curse."

But he did not get up. Instead, it was Lady
Preston who rose. She called for a footman as she ran down the
stairs, her skirts raised immodestly high to avoid tripping.
Adelaide gave her father a sour glare then swiped away her tears.
She followed her mother.

"As you can see, this search is going to
happen with or without you, my lord," Celia said. "Having you join
us will help, however it's not necessary."

He stared at the retreating back of his
daughter. His drooping moustache twitched, but otherwise he didn't
move. He still looked bearish but not like a formidable one, but
rather a poor, chained beast in a cage. Defeated. I felt sorry for
him.

"Join us," Louis urged him. "If we find your
son's body in time and the counter curse is issued, all will be
well and you'll come to believe us. If we don't and nothing
happens, then you've only wasted an hour of your evening and this
will all be over. We'll never bother you again, or your family." He
held out his hand.

Lord Preston bowed his head. I sighed. It was
hopeless. The man could not set aside his stubbornness and pride,
not even for an hour. Not even in the hope of seeing his son.

Louis lowered his arm. Lord Preston's hand
shot out and grabbed it. Louis hauled him to his feet and clapped
him on the shoulder as if they were old friends.

Celia and I followed behind them, but I
stopped short as Jacob appeared. He was considerably weaker, almost
entirely transparent. I bit my lip to stop myself crying out at the
shocking sight of him.

Then he suddenly disappeared. I waited. Celia
did too, aware that I'd seen him. Louis and Lord Preston continued
down the stairs.

Jacob did not return.

I began to shake uncontrollably. What if we
were too late? What if that was his last attempt to see me? The
tears rolled down my cheeks, silent but unrelenting. We were so
close...to lose him now would be unbearable. Celia wrapped her arm
around me and held me.

Jacob flared into existence again and I
whimpered with relief. "Em," he said in the whisper that must be
all he could manage. "Em, sweet..."

I hugged him fiercely and kissed his lips,
his throat, his cheek. He wasn't gone. Not yet. There was still
time.

"George will be here soon," I assured
him.

"Not..." He pressed the heel of his hand to
his eye and faded in and out.

"Are you in pain?"

He shook his head but whether that was
because he wasn’t in pain or he didn't want to answer me, I
couldn't be sure. At the bottom of the steps, Louis and Lord
Preston had stopped to look back at me. I expected angry words from
Jacob's father, but I received none. That was one powerful punch
from Louis to finally knock some sense into his lordship.

"Got him," Jacob said.

"What do you mean? Got who?"

"Administrators...you a favor...help find
my..."

"They're going to help us find your body?
How?"

He shook his head again. "Not going
to...have."

"They have
found
your
body?"

"...asked Price."

"But he's crossed over."

"Administrators...access..." He shook his
head and winced.

"Tell me later. Save your energy. So where is
it? Where's your body?"

"...storage...Society...Paddington
Station."

The front door burst open and crashed back on
its hinges, quite a feat since it was solid wood. George waved a
piece of paper in the air. "I have all the addresses of all the
warehouses."

"Good," I said, charging down the steps.
"Which one is near Paddington Station?"

George scanned the sheet. Adelaide hovered at
his elbow, reading too. "Here it is," he said, pointing halfway
down the page. "Why?"

"According to Price, that's where we'll find
Jacob's body." I ran outside, not caring who followed. I gave
George's driver directions and climbed into the carriage. George,
Lady Preston, and Adelaide got in with me. As we drove off, another
carriage pulled up and Celia, Louis, and Lord Preston set off in
it.

Jacob had disappeared.

It seemed to take an age to get to
Paddington, but it probably only took ten minutes. Moonlight cast
an ethereal glow over the empty streets but kept the lanes in
shadow. I felt like I was in another world. This quiet, sleeping
London was not the city I recognized.

We piled out of the carriage before it had
completely rolled to a stop in a small street behind the station. A
large warehouse rose before us, all grand arches and high windows.
I held the coach lamp as George unlocked the door. Inside was a
long central corridor with several doors running along both sides.
George unlocked the fifth one on the left and it swung open on
creaking hinges. The smell of dust mixed with something bitter and
putrid wafted out. I covered my mouth and nose, but the scent had
already lodged in my throat and nostrils.

"We'll split up," George said, removing
another lamp from a hook near the door. Adelaide clung to him and
either Lady Preston didn't notice or didn't care. She and I peeled
off to the right as George lit the other lamp and moved to the left
with Adelaide. Outside, the rumble of wheels on cobblestones
announced the arrival of the second coach.

"Found anything?" Celia asked as she entered
behind me.

Lord Preston held his lamp up high. I did
too. The yellow light cast a circle around us and we assessed the
area of our search. The storeroom was quite small with no other
doors that I could see except for the one we'd used. Several tables
took up most of the space and a cupboard occupied one corner. There
was hardly a spare square of table surface anywhere. Jars, boxes,
caskets, and odd paraphernalia were crammed together or piled on
top of each other. There were microscopes and sharp implements,
brass syringes and pipes, tubes with colored liquids in them,
scales for weighing, coils of rope and chains hanging from the
ceiling beams. And that smell—it burned my nostrils.

Somewhere to our left, Adelaide squealed.

"What is it?" Lord Preston forged his way
toward her.

"It's all right," came George's voice. "She
just saw something...unusual."

"She's not the only one," Louis muttered. He
bent down to inspect the contents of a large jar. By the light of
my lamp, I could just make out the head of some creature inside it,
not human but not like anything else I'd seen either. My stomach
rolled. Celia made a gagging sound. Beside the jar was another with
what appeared to be a four-legged duck covered in fur, not
feathers.

I turned away and tried not to look too
closely at any more jars. "There doesn't appear to be many things
large enough to store a body the size of Jacob's," I said. We
quickly and methodically checked under the tables, in the bigger
boxes and crates, but there was nothing even resembling a human
body. There was only the cupboard left. It was larger than Lord
Preston, rectangular and wooden with two doors side by side.
Strange markings were carved into them, but I was too far away to
make them out.

George fumbled with the keys, their jangle
loud in the thick silence. We all watched. Waited. George struggled
with the lock and passed the lamp to Adelaide so he could use two
hands. The click of it unlocking was the signal for everyone to
hold their breaths.

George opened the doors. Adelaide held the
lamp up high and covered her mouth.

I rushed to them in disbelief. Perhaps if I
got closer, it would all make sense. But it did not. My heart
plunged to the floor, and I crumpled along with it.

"No!" I cried.
"
No
!"

The cupboard was empty.

CHAPTER 14

"He must be here
somewhere." Lady Preston stepped into the cupboard and knocked on
the walls. Each knock grew louder until she was pounding so hard I
thought the wood would crack. "Where is he?" She swung round and
fixed me with a wild glare. "You said he'd be here! You told me my
son was alive!
Where is
he?
"

I looked around the storeroom, but we'd
checked everywhere. There were no more rooms, no more boxes or
cupboards, nothing. "I don't know." My legs were too weak to hold
me, so I remained on the ground, dirtying my beautiful ball gown. I
didn't care. Celia held me, but I hardly noticed her and I did not
feel comforted in the least. "He told me it was here. Price
lied."

"Come, my dear," said Lord Preston to his
wife. "Let's go home."

I bent over and pressed my forehead to the
cold wooden floor and cried until I ran out of tears. My body was
wrung out, all the moisture squeezed from me. I had nothing
left.