Spirit Guide, page 11
As suddenly as we had appeared into the Beyond, we were back to the earthly plane. The shock of reality— the air moving against my face, the intense smells, the vibrant colors— slapped me brightly awake. Twyla was still in a swoon, and I gently laid her down on the couch, putting a pillow behind her head and back. She was semi-conscious, her eyelids flickering as she struggled to stay awake.
Anne-Marie was standing where we had left her, at the door with her hands still full of linens.
“Put that down, Anne-Marie, and fetch me a glass of sherry.”
One thing about her, Anne-Marie was quick in an emergency. Without hand-wringing or asking a bunch of questions, in a flash, she returned with what I needed.
“You did well, Twyla. Now drink this.”
There was a bit of sputtering, but she sipped, and the girl revived somewhat.
“What happened, Madame? One moment you were here, and then gone! Like a stage magician’s act!”
“Our bodies weren’t left here?” I said in surprise.
“No! Both of you vanished.”
“Somehow, Twyla took both our corporeal bodies and souls to the Beyond.” I shook my head. “Go to my cabinet and retrieve my pistol. Load it and bring it here, along with some extra bullets.”
Anne-Marie’s eyes practically popped from her head at my words, but she scurried to do as I asked. She returned and handed me the ammunition and the small pistol. Opening the chamber, I double-checked it was loaded before putting the gun in one pocket, the extra bullets in the other.
If Vonn came back, he was going to meet a different reception. He wanted to act as if he were alive? Fine. I would make him dead again.
“I want you to be extra careful, Anne-Marie. We have a malevolent ghost tracking us, and until I am sure he won’t come here again, you need to stay on your toes. Don’t ever be alone. I’ll be requesting a guardia to stay here until we get this case resolved.”
Anne-Marie nodded, her face solemn. Given the years she had been with me, she knew to take my warnings seriously.
“Call down to the kitchen and get an order in. Something hearty for Mys Andricksson, as she needs to renew her energy.”
There was at least one advantage to draining yourself by contacting the spiritual world; you could eat to your heart’s content and not gain weight. Or at least not too much. Anne-Marie left to our little kitchen, where a pull-button and a speaking horn should get us food soon.
Twyla was waking up, and she asked fearfully, “You don’t think he’ll come back, do you?”
“Don’t worry about it. He won’t be a problem soon. I plan on destroying his soul.”
Twyla’s eyes widened. What I referred to was the harshest penalty the Morpheus Society could give. The act of sundering took five Ghost Talkers to conduct the ceremony, for it needed the agreement and spiritual power of many. Sundering would mean that Vonn’s soul would be destroyed, and any hope of moving from the Beyond to the Afterlife, gone. There would be no chance for salvation or atonement.
Chapter Fifteen
With Twyla settled, I wrote a brief note to Inspector Barbier requesting one of his men. Perhaps I wasn’t thinking clearly, because this vague request for assistance brought down upon me a barrage of visitors. It turned out that when my request had arrived, Barbier had been closeted away with Archambeau and Baron Losendahl discussing the case.
“Please do be quiet! Mys Andricksson is asleep in my room, with Anne-Marie caring for her. I don’t want them disturbed.”
“Yes, let’s be calm while we all hear the reason why you need guardia protection, madame,” said the duke sarcastically. He was in one of his cold angers when his words sliced you like daggers.
Sensing a fight before I would give an explanation, Barbier said diplomatically, “I suggest we leave Dupont here with Mys Andricksson and your servant. Then we can adjourn to a private room to hear what has happened? Will that suit?”
I gave him a grateful smile. “Yes, please.”
It was still a few hours before the fashionable dinner hour and Henri Colbert, the Crown’s manager, easily found us accommodations in the same room we had used before. While the rest of us sat down at the round table, Archambeau remained standing, arms crossed, his eyes watching me as hard as slate.
The benefit to having all of them in one place was that I only had to tell my tale once. Our adventure was greeted by various degrees of shock and surprise among them, but my attention was only on Archambeau, whose expression grew harder with each word I uttered.
Inspector Barbier gave a low whistle. “Mysir Vonn? Who would have imagined we would need to deal with him ever again?”
I couldn’t help but shudder.
Barbier asked, “How did he appear so real? Are you saying, Elinor, that he isn’t dead?”
“No. He’s dead, but like the ghosts at these parties, he appeared as if he were flesh. Perhaps he was one of the ghosts summoned before? We would need to ask Mysir Solberg.” I gave the baron a sad frown. “If Vonn spoke the truth, he killed Hannah Wahl. He told us he found her in one of the alleys of the Hells and murdered her.”
We were all silent for a moment, thinking of his last victim. For me, the fact that Ebbe had not asked after Hannah either showed she was not aware of her fate, or knew and did not care. I hoped it was the first.
I gave the baron the earring that had caused so much trouble. I had scrubbed away the blood that had gotten into the crevices of the diamond settings. The blood was probably why Vonn had found us so easily, since it tied the earring to his victim.
“Here is your daughter’s earring. I did a brief cleansing ceremony with it, and it should be fine now. The other earring, I fear, is lost in the Beyond.” I did not want to explain to him that it was a trophy kept by Vonn, so I left its whereabouts vague.
As he took it in his bear-sized paw, Baron Losendahl asked me, “You saw Ebbe? In this Beyond place? Yet you think she is still alive, not a ghost? I don’t understand.”
“Sometimes living beings get pulled into the Beyond. I’ve been there several times, but we can’t stay long. Our vitality is anathema to the place of the dead. From what your daughter said, it seems her spirit travels there when she sleeps.” I didn’t add the word ‘drugged’. He had enough to worry about.
Archambeau cut in. “You stated your servant said your physical bodies didn’t remain on the earthly plane. That’s different. Explain.”
“I’ve never heard of that happening before, either. When a medium goes to the Beyond, it’s through meditation, not through teleportation. It was something that Twyla made happen. When she revives, I will question her about it.”
“You don’t seem to know much.”
Tired myself, I snapped back at the duke. “Do you want to hear what I do know, or are you going to loom over me? Questioning my every word as if I am the villain in this piece?”
Barbier once again stepped in as peacemaker. “Now, I’m sure we all want to hear what Elinor has to tell us. We can argue about what it means later.”
Ignoring Archambeau’s roll of his eyes, I said to the baron, “What concerns me is what your daughter tells me. We don’t have much time before it might be impossible to bring her back. She clearly expects to stay forever in the Beyond, and I know no way of that happening without her death.”
“Who is this Creator that Lady Losendahl mentioned? Is that Parnell Lafayette?” asked Barbier.
The baron was done with all of us. He pounded the table with his fist, demanding, “Where is my daughter?!”
Everyone reacted differently to the baron’s pain. The inspector looked down at the notebook he held in his lap. The duke put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, and I tried to offer some hope. “I’ve been thinking about where someone could hide a lady— or a group of girls, for we don’t know how many he might have. A school for young ladies? A charity hospital? An asylum?”
“Too many to check in two days,” said Barbier.
“What about the source of the drugs? Any luck there?”
The inspector shook his head. “Still checking that and the list we got from Lafayette.”
“Twyla’s research turned up the names of two missing girls, Lorraine Kaplan and Renee Bassett. They both went to the same lending library. We should check that out.” I gave the name and location of it to the inspector, who jotted it down in his notebook.
After we had gone over everything at least three times, the meeting finally adjourned, with us no closer to linking Lafayette to any actual crime. Barbier agreed to my request for police protection, assigning Dupont and another officer to the task in alternating shifts. Tipping his hat to me, he said goodbye, promising to continue pursuing any possible lead.
Grief seemed to be shrinking the baron every time I met him. How I wanted to help him! And how frustrated I was at not being able to. He shook my hand goodbye. His wife was coming on the evening train, and he was meeting her at the station.
His departure left me alone with Archambeau.
“I will escort you back to your room, madame.”
Back to being formal and stiff, were we?
The trip up the stairs was conducted in silence. Outside my door was Sergeant Dupont, a chair by his side for later repose. Giving him a passing glance, I didn’t see any hint of intelligence, no matter how well hidden.
Archambeau followed me inside, probably so he could berate me for an incident I had no control over. As soon as the door was closed, I turned to face him, ready for battle.
“Do you have your gun?” was his first question.
I patted my pocket. “Of course.”
I could tell he was doing his best to control himself, because his face was white and his eyes fiery. “Will you promise me not to hare off on your own? Or if you do, at least take Dupont. The man might be as bright as a potato, but at least he’s a strong arm.”
“What happened was not my fault,” I insisted.
“Yet these things keep happening to you,” he replied acerbically. “Perhaps it is because you go rushing off into danger without thinking? I thought you were one of the few women I knew that had a working brain, but I’m beginning to doubt that belief.”
“I say that is unfair! What did you want me to do?”
Of course, he had no answer.
“Besides, who got me involved in this in the first place? You showing up at my door and simply asking Anne-Marie where I am, acting like no time has passed since we parted at Lindengaard. But I’m to jump into a carriage and run off to assist you like I’m your servant?! At your beck and call? Imagine if I arrived at your front door, demanding from your footman that I should speak to you immediately!”
He actually laughed, infuriating me further.
“I think Ruben would enjoy you visiting. I overheard him saying that Hartwood hasn’t been exciting since you left.”
He hadn’t heard a word I said.
“You disappear for months with no word! I thought that, as friends, you might drop me a note. Perhaps arrange a meeting? But— nothing. Isn’t that a little insulting?” To my own ears, my words acted like a flail against my raw feelings, and I cringed internally. It sounded so needy and desperate. A woman admitting she needed a man’s attention!
His northern burr became broader, indicating his temper was not all quenched. “I had planned to do so, but was called away by the king on business. As I’ve explained.”
“What a convenient excuse for rudeness! Thank you, Your Grace, for showing up and blessing me with your magnificence.” I dropped a curtsy.
“Get up and stop speaking so foolishly,” He snapped. “Stop calling me Your Grace in that supercilious way.”
By this time, both of our voices were raised. I had forgotten about Anne-Marie and Twyla in the room next door. “Has it occurred to you that perhaps I do not appreciate being a tool to be used at your convenience?”
“If this investigation is too much for you, then bow out of it. Do not let me inconvenience you!”
“Of course I want to help! But, mannish, you twist my words around to win your argument.”
“And just like a woman, you want to hold the whip hand and make me jump at your command!” His hard breathing through his nose caused his nostrils to flare. Well, if I’d wanted my cold duke to warm up, he was blazing hot now.
We stared at each other, our chests heaving with emotion. For some reason, during our argument we had moved closer together.
“I do— do not— want you to jump at my command,” I said, almost crying with rage and other mixed emotions. “I was worried about you. Do you realize if anything happens when you are working for King Guénard, I might never know?”
His hand came up around my neck, under my hair, and he brought me even closer to him, his gaze holding mine. “As I am about you. Worried. Yes, I know this wasn’t your fault, but please promise me to look after yourself?”
Looking up into his serious eyes, I said softly, “Do you think I’m some penny-paper heroine? That I’ll go off with the villain and be tied to the railroad tracks until you rescue me in the nick of time?”
“So far, you seem to be determined not to be rescued. Stubborn woman. You keep saving yourself.”
“I do not think you would care for a woman who needed rescuing.”
“Perhaps, but occasionally a man wants a chance to be seen as his lady’s champion. To remind her why she needs him around.” He gently brushed my hair from my forehead, tucking a long stray strand behind my ear. “You need to be more cautious. The world is a dangerous place, Elinor.”
“How dangerous?”
His hands on my temples, his fingers entangled in my hair, he closed the small space left between us as his warm mouth covered mine. We moved together in a synchronized dance of perfection.
Unfortunately, it was a bliss that could not last. When I opened my eyes, I saw over his shoulder the interested faces of my apprentice and servant through a crack in the bedroom door.
Chapter Sixteen
Sensing my distraction, Tristan looked over his shoulder and saw our audience just before they ducked back into the room.
“Madame, perhaps we can continue this conversation the next time we are truly private.” With a bow, he left the room.
Hearing the front door, the two girls practically pushed each other out of the bedroom in order to surround me with their chatter.
“Wasn’t that the Duke de Archambeau?” asked Anne-Marie with eager interest.
“You know it was!” said Twyla in a superior tone. “Imagine that! My mentor having an affair of the heart with one of the highest nobles of the land. Has he said he loves you? Have you exchanged tokens? Does he write you letters? Can we see them?”
“Please, Twyla! Please, just be quiet. And the answer is no to everything. This is not to be discussed at all.”
Anne-Marie and Twyla exchanged looks. I had the sad feeling it was going to be discussed again, just not in my presence.
Trying to change topics, I said, “I’m glad to see you recovered, Twyla. How are you feeling?”
“Normal. I’ve already finished what Anne-Marie gave me. Is there anything else to eat? I’m starving!”
“Anne-Marie, show Twyla how to order using the speaking tube in the kitchenette. Get something for us all, including Sergeant Dupont, who is stuck on door duty.”
The two girls went through the swing door and I heard Twyla asking Anne-Marie, “How long has Madame known the duke? Did you know they liked each other? How long have they been lovers? Didn’t you know?”
Couldn’t a woman have a moment to enjoy something of her own for a while? I collapsed onto the sofa, staring at the ceiling. Finding no answers written there, I picked up a book off the corner table. Trying to distract myself with reading was unsuccessful, for that moment with Tristan kept popping into my thoughts, breaking my concentration.
However, there was no time to savor it and wonder what Tristan had meant by his actions, for soon the two girls returned, carrying a tray of appetizers sent up in the dumbwaiter. After arranging it on a table, Anne-Marie went to close the drapes as the evening was starting to fall. Turning up the gas, she returned to where Twyla and I were starting to nibble on the crackers, cheese, and olives.
Before either of them could ask me anything intrusive, I went on the offensive.
“Tell me how you took us into the Beyond, Twyla.”
“Oh, I’ve done that plenty of times. Whenever I wanted to get out of a boring class, I just left.” She shrugged casually as I stared at her, shocked.
“Do you mean to tell me that you can leave the physical plane at any time and enter the Beyond?”
“Of course, I’m a natural. I told you that, remember? But I don’t do it too much. It makes me tired and hungry.” She buttered her third muffin and popped it into her mouth.
Anne-Marie quickly caught on that something unusual was being discussed and inserted herself. “When I entered the suite, the three of you vanished. I thought I imagined it all. Is that unusual, madame?”
“Yes, very unusual. I don’t know anyone else that can do that in the Morpheus Society.”
“As I said, I have talents,” Twyla said smugly.
I shook my head, trying to gather my thoughts. “Did no one at the Society tell you that couldn’t be done? How unique it is? Who else knew you could do this?”
“No one else. I didn’t tell anyone because I thought it would get me into more trouble. They were already mad at me for dropping plates and forgetting to turn off the bath taps.”
Before I could question her further, I heard voices in the hall. It sounded like— but surely couldn’t be— Parnell Lafayette!
“You two, get in the bedroom and this time stay there. Here, Anne-Marie, take the tray with you. And the cups. Be quiet in there, and no peeking.”
After the bedroom door closed, I went to the front door and gently cracked it open. Yes, it was Parnell’s voice. He was speaking with Sergeant Dupont. “—can’t believe you’re still with the inspector, Dupont. I was sure you wouldn’t last.”
