Possession Read Online Free PDF Page B

and slack jaw. "We
wouldn't want any unkind words spread about either Mr. Arbuthnot or Adelaide considering they are both...ill."
    "Ill?"
Theodore spoke cautiously, carefully. "My cousin wasn't ill when I left. What
happened here?"
    "Your aunt
will explain," I said breezily.
    Adelaide gave a
little whimper and her mother helped her to her feet. They were both as white
as fresh snow.
    "Yes,"
Mrs. Arbuthnot said, rubbing the head of her cane. "Yes, of course." She
shouted for her butler and he scurried in. By the uncertain look on his face, I
expect he must have met Wallace in the hall. "See Lady Preston, Miss
Beaufort, and Miss Chambers out."
    "Miss
Chambers?" Theodore took my elbow. He looked confused, concerned, and I
wished I could tell him the truth. But I didn't want to alarm him or his aunt,
and I wasn't entirely sure what the truth was anyway. "If there's anything
I can do to help, anything at all, please let me know."
    I thanked him. We
left the house and climbed into the waiting coach. The footman closed the door
and all three of us emitted deep, grateful sighs.
    "What
happened in there?" Adelaide asked. Her voice trembled as much as she did.
    Lady Preston's
arm circled her shoulders. "Nothing, dear. Absolutely nothing." Her gaze
connected with mine and I nodded slightly. If she wanted to shield her daughter
from the truth, then I was happy to go along with the scheme.
    Except...what had happened?
    Jacob winked
into existence beside me. I went to touch his hand, resting on the seat between
us, but he shifted away. So it was still like that, was it? All business. Very
well. I could switch off my emotions too. I could.
    I didn't want to
tell the ladies he was here and alarm them—their nerves seemed frayed enough—so
I simply lifted my brows at him and mouthed "What happened?" while
they weren't looking.
    "Possession."
He watched his sister, sitting opposite. He might be a ghost, but his body
still seethed with anger and frustration and God knew what other emotions. "A
spirit took control of Adelaide's body then transferred itself to Wallace Arbuthnot.
I don't know why or how, but all their movements were controlled by a spirit
and not a very nice one if his manners were any indication. He's gone now. I
couldn't find him."
    It wasn't until the
coach deposited Lady Preston and Adelaide back at their Belgravia house that I
got to be alone with him. Lady Preston had ordered her driver to take me to Druids
Way, despite my insistence that I could walk home.
    "Are you
all right, Em?" Jacob asked me as soon as the coach rolled forward.
    "I would be
if you'd only talk to me more, visit me." I turned to face him fully. "Jacob—"
    "Don't!"
He closed his eyes, sighed heavily. "Keep the conversation to the
possession. Please."
    I swallowed the
barrel-sized lump in my throat. I wouldn't cry. I wouldn't. He was right to
want to keep our conversation on a proper footing. Right but cruel. "Very
well." I tried to remember all the questions I'd been bursting to ask
before. "Oh yes. Why your sister? Why Wallace Arbuthnot?"
    He opened his
eyes. "I think the spirit preferred a man's guise to a woman's. As to why
it chose him when it could have had any number of footmen or other men, I don't
know. And as to why it chose my sister in the first place..." He shrugged.
"I can't answer that either."
    "It has
something to do with my house. There was a girl there." I pressed my
fingers to my mouth. What I wanted to say was too fantastical, too absurd to
contemplate. Yet I had to put it into words to understand it. "I think she
summoned the spirit into Adelaide's body deliberately."
    Jacob whipped
around to face me. "What girl? Who was she?"
    I shook my head.
"I don't know, but I think she's the one who's been following me. There
was a man with her too."
    He dragged a
hand through his hair, ruffling it. I got the feeling he was holding back from
saying some very ungentlemanly words. "To what purpose?"
    "I don't
know," I said, weakly. Oh God, why