His Lordship Possessed

“Lady Walsh is a pawn in a much larger game.” He felt me shivering and pulled me closer, lifting one side of the blanket over him in order to share his body heat. “When you spoke of the wound paste, he reacted strangely. He stared at you for several moments.”

I remembered that look. “As if he were seeing me for the first time. But that old trick isn’t anything important. Other than it’s being used to drive his wife mad.”

“I think it’s something else.” He looked out as the coach came to a halt. “The snow is knee-deep. I’ll have to carry you.”

I pushed off the blanket. “Should I struggle again for the benefit of the neighbors?”

“I have no neighbors.”

I saw why when he helped me out. “Dredmore, this is Feathersound.”

“It is.” He swung me up into his arms.

I linked my hands behind his neck. “The lord mayor allows you to make use of his private residence?”

“His former private residence.” He carried me up the steps and through the door Connell had unlocked and held open. “He signed the deed over to me for services rendered.”

“Does the governor know about this?” I frowned as I saw his driver lighting a candle to illuminate the dark hall. “No servants?”

“Officially the house has been closed for two years.” He set me down and instructed Connell to light the fires before taking my hand. “Unofficially, it’s haunted. Legally, it’s mine.”

* * *

Dredmore guided me into Feathersound’s library, which appeared to be as large as my entire flat. Every wall had been fitted with shelves from floor to ceiling, save the center of one where space had been made for a massive cherrywood secretary. “You cheated the mayor out of his home by telling him it was haunted?”

“No. I saved his life from what he believed was the vengeful spirit of his former business partner.” He went to the hearth and lit the kindling under a large stack of split seasoned oak. “The specter turned out to be the gifted and rather resourceful aide of the mayor’s opponent, who had hoped to frighten away his competition before the election.”

“But you didn’t tell the mayor that,” I guessed.

“After I assured His Honor that I had dispelled the spirit from the premises, I discreetly arranged for the mayor’s opponent to withdraw from the election.” He sat back on his heels and watched the flames catch. “Directly after that, he and his aide left Rumsen.”

He hadn’t killed them, as everyone had believed. “You blackmailed him.”

“I persuaded him to relocate to a city in the east where he might enjoy more success in the political arena.” He rose and brushed some melting snow from his shoulders before regarding me. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”

“You don’t believe in magic any more than I do.” And now I had proof of it. “You’re an investigator like me. You only dress it up with spells and nonsense to hide your methods. So how did you disguise the blade you used on the snuffmage outside court? Was it some sort of trick, like the way you pretended to pop through the floors at Morehaven?”

“Come here, Charmian.” He removed a dust drape from a cushiony lady’s armchair by the fire and gestured for me to take a seat in it. When I did, he said, “I will answer your questions, but you must first do something for me.”

My first, automatic response was to refuse, but Dredmore had just diverted Walsh’s men from harming Rina and her gels, and had provided safe sanctuary for me. I owed him some cooperation, and we both knew it. “What do you want?”

“Take off your pendant and hand it to me.”

The moment I did, I knew Harry would appear, but at least Dredmore wouldn’t be able to see him. I reached up, unfastened the catch, and held out the chain to him.

The moment the pendant left my fingers, my grandfather’s misty form appeared. He didn’t say a word, but lunged at Dredmore, who quickly pocketed the pendant. As soon as he did, Harry turned semitransparent.

“Why on earth did you do that, you silly twit?” my grandfather shouted.

“Because I asked her to.” Dredmore looked directly at Harry. “Hello, Ehrich.”

“You know my grandfather?” I looked from Dredmore to Harry and back again. “Hang on. You can see him?”

“It’s a trick, Charm.” Harry solidified enough to cast a shadow on the faded but still colorful Turkish rug. “He’s only making a pretense so he can use you. You must leave here at once.”

“You’d rather send her out to die in the snow than tell her the truth?” Dredmore came to stand behind me, and I saw his angry expression reflected in the oval mirror above the mantel. “She’s your own flesh and blood, old man. She deserves to know more than the bits and pieces that you’ve been feeding her.”

“He seems to be able to see and hear you quite well,” I advised my grandfather. The thought of how he had possessed Connell at Morehaven, and the prospect of him doing the same to Dredmore, made me gesture at a cluster of brass-studded bronze leather armchairs. “Why don’t we all sit down and talk about this?”

“Sit down and talk. With him?” Harry uttered a bitter laugh. “You don’t know what spawned him, or what his sort can do.” He looked at Dredmore for the first time, and there was pure hatred in his eyes. “But I know, boy. I know exactly what you are.”

“Have you told her what you’ve done?” Dredmore asked this with exquisite courtesy. “Why don’t you explain that, Ehrich? Or are you leaving that for others to do, just as you did in France?”

“I know he was Houdini,” I told Dredmore, and watched the white puff of my breath float from my lips. “Why is it so cold in here now?”

“That is his doing.” He eyed my grandfather. “No more half-truths, Ehrich. Tell her who you were before you took possession of that Crown spy. Who you were when Harry White led his regiment into the Brecheliant, and what you were when you came back out.” He waited, but Harry said nothing, and the ticking of the great clock by the door seemed to grow very loud. “I see. She’s good enough to torment, to use, to manipulate, but not worthy of the truth. Fortunately for you, Charmian is now under my protection.”

“I beg your pardon.” I stared at him. “Your what?”

“Your what?” Harry strode forward without looking, banged into an end table, and caught it before it toppled. When he took his hand from it he left an icy print of his palm and fingers. “Your father may have wanted recompense for being taken. Like the others, Jack deserved it. But his battle was never yours. You can bloody well do as you like, but you won’t drag my granddaughter into it.”

“She’s in it to her ears.” Dredmore was sneering now. “You had your chance to do right by her, Ehrich. More than a thousand of them, I should think. But you sacrificed her, and her mother, and her grandmother on the altar of Queen and country and your own pathetic schemes.”

“So now you’ll cut her throat?” Harry’s eyes took on a strange purple glow. “I will end you first, boy.”

The mention of murder made it high time for me to intervene. “Whatever quarrel you two have with each other, it’s nothing to do with me. Lucien, I can look after myself, so stuff your protection. Harry, I’m not interested in carrying on whatever feud you have with Dredmore or his father.” I remembered Hedger’s strange reaction to learning that Harry was my grandfather. “Is there anyone who likes you?”

“His name isn’t—” that was all my grandfather got out before Lucien stepped between us. His broad back kept me from seeing what he did, but his back muscles shifted, and then Harry abruptly vanished.

“What did you do?” I asked, shuffling back a few steps.

“I banished him back to the netherside.” Dredmore turned to face me. “As long as you are with me, he cannot manifest or meddle with you.”

“Harry’s never meddled.” When he would have come closer I went round behind the chair. “You, on the other hand, have inflicted an excessive amount of damage to my reputation, my person, and my life.”

He didn’t like that. “How have I harmed you, Charmian? By wanting you? By taking what you freely offered me? Or by trying to shield you from Walsh and dark forces that you cannot even begin to fathom?” He extended his arms in a helpless fashion. “Please, enlighten me as to which it was.”

I did. “You abducted me and held me prisoner against my will. You raced about assassinating snuffmages, never mind that I might be blamed for the murders. Oh, and you also agreed to kill me for twenty thousand pounds.”