Photographs & Phantoms (6 page)

Amy took a deep breath and bit down on her lip, still swollen from his kisses. What in heaven’s name was she doing? The answer was unmistakable.
Falling in love with Kendall Lake.

Facing Amy across the breakfast table without giving away any hint of the previous night’s intimacy strained even Kendall’s social skills. Her hair was tightly braided and wrapped into a knot at the nape of her neck, and she wore a pale green muslin walking dress with her usual narrower hoops. Kendall couldn’t help remembering the feel of that silky hair skimming across his skin, or the sight of her generous curves, unbound by proper clothing, quivering as she took her pleasure. When Sergeant Peterson flirted with her, Kendall had to resist the urge to drag Amy to his side and beat his chest like a gorilla.

It was with some relief that Kendall finally followed Amy to her studio shortly after the morning meal. He wanted to take one more look around before they fetched Lady Northland and Nell from the train.

“Can you think of anything connecting those six subjects?” he asked her again as he examined her spider-legged barrow. “Something they said, something they did, anything to separate them from your other customers?”

“As if a six-week-old infant said anything? Honestly, I’ve been over and over this in my head. Three of the victims were children of varying ages, one was an old man, one a middle-aged matron and the other was a healthy young bridegroom. Two females, four males, some local, others from out of town. Most were of modest means, but one family was quite wealthy. I can’t think of one single thing to connect them, other than that damned snake appearing in the photograph.”

“It isn’t your fault, Amy.” God help him if she began to cry—he was growing too attached to her for his comfort already. If he had to hold her…well, he couldn’t be sure he’d be as strong as he was last night. Technically, Amy was still a virgin, and he was going to make sure she stayed one, even if it killed him.

That gave him an idea. “I want you to take my photograph.”

Amy stopped going through the stack of images on her work desk and stared at him, jaw hanging. “Are you insane? Do you want me to accidentally kill you?”

He shrugged. “How about this, then? Walk me through a typical sitting, up to the point where you actually expose the plate. I come in to the reception room. What then?”

“All right.” She followed him into the other room and pretended to greet him at the door. “Thank you for coming, Lord Lake. Please have a seat.”

He did, and she sat across from him in a chair, a notepad on her lap. “What kind of portrait are you hoping for? Glass or paper? Formal, with a solid background, or something more relaxed, perhaps with a painted backdrop? Sitting or standing?”

Kendall took in each of her questions. “The backdrops—those weren’t the same in the problem photos, were they? What about the chairs or sofas?”

“No. And I don’t take either of those to the beach.” She tapped her pencil on the pad.

“Then just pick one at random, and let’s move on to the next step.” He stood.

“Very well. There’s a lavatory, if you’d like to freshen up before we start.” She pointed toward that door.

Kendall shook his head. “I’m fine.” He followed her into the studio and watched as she slid a solid brown backdrop into place and positioned a single chair in front of it.

“Have a seat.” She made suggestions as to his pose and adjusted the curtains and mirrors for lighting, then stood behind her camera. “Hold very still now please. And…snap.” She pretended to click the shutter. “I’ll do that two or three more times, if needed. Then, if you’d like to wait, I can have them developed in a half an hour or less, and you can be on your way.”

Kendall shook his head. Not one thing she’d done, said or touched had triggered any of his Knightly senses. He had absolutely no idea of what was happening here, and helplessness didn’t sit well with him at all. He was still angry at himself as they walked down to the King’s Road to catch a cab to the railway station.

“Kendall, I’m sorry if I’ve said something inappropriate.” Amy sat across from him in the cab and studied his face, her deep blue eyes wide with concern. “I’m not very experienced at the etiquette for this sort of thing.”

He reached out and squeezed her hand where it rested on her knee. “You’ve made no missteps, sweetness. I’m simply frustrated by this business.” And perhaps a little concerned about being shown up by a ghost-seeing girl not yet out of the schoolroom. He wanted to be the one to solve Amy’s problem, though he knew he was being utterly irrational.

Amy’s nerves grew as they waited on the platform for the first-class passengers to disembark from the train. One group emerged from the first car, but it was too large and boisterous a family to be the pair they were expecting. Or so Amy thought, until the lovely blonde, just a few years older than herself, hailed Kendall by his first name. She held a dark-haired toddler in her arms and half a dozen other children swarmed about her.

He smiled and stepped forward, his hand on Amy’s waist propelling her with him. “Caroline. Did you have to bring half of London with you?”

“I tried to sneak away, but when this lot heard we were going to the beach, they insisted.” She leaned over and kissed Kendall’s cheek. “Since Wink and Tom are both down from Oxford, we decided to make it a family outing. They’ll take the others to the shore and check into the hotel, while Nell and I come along with you.”

Amy swallowed hard. “We’re going to need a few more cabs.”

The woman laughed and handed the toddler off to another, this one perhaps eighteen or twenty. She was stunning, tall, with auburn curls, and just a moment earlier, she’d hugged Kendall enthusiastically. An enormous bronze mechanical dog sat by her side, head cocked as if it were listening.

Freed from hugs, Kendall put his hand back on Amy’s waist and faced the blonde. “Amy, let me introduce you to the Hadrian clan. This is Caroline, Lady Northland. She’s a particular favorite of my grandmother’s, so the Hadrian brood can often be found at Lake family gatherings.”

“Pleased to meet you, my lady.” Amy curtsied awkwardly.

“Caroline, please. These are my children.” She waggled her fingers at the mass. “And our foster son, Sir Thomas Devere.”

Amy shook hands with an impossibly tall youth who gave her a wicked grin.

“My daughters, Winifred, Eleanor and Sylvia.” Lady Northland pointed to the auburn-haired young woman, another, somewhat younger girl, with the dusky skin and dark eyes of the subcontinent, and a blond angel of perhaps three. “And my sons, Piers, Jamie and Will.” The elder two appeared to be in their early teens, one copper-haired and one fair, while the last was the dark-haired toddler she’d just handed off. She followed that by introducing two governesses, a driver and a footman.

Amy blinked.

“They’re a lot to take in, aren’t they?” Kendall whispered with a laugh. “They’re formidable allies, though, even some of the little ones.”

Somehow, the chaos was managed, and Amy found herself in a cab with just Kendall, Lady Northland and the middle girl—the one whose ancestors were clearly from India or thereabouts.

“Merrick will meet us at the hotel tonight,” Lady Northland told Kendall. “Perhaps you and Miss Deland can join us for supper?”

“I think that would be fine. Amy?”

Amy shrugged helplessly. “Fine, my lady.”

“Please call me Caro. Really.” The other woman shared a wry smile. “Now, before your brain explodes, let me explain a few things. My husband, Merrick, works with Kendall, and the families are old friends—as is your uncle, by the way. My older four are adopted. I didn’t have Wink when I was twelve or Nell at fifteen. Tom is a Knight-in-training and would have been adopted with the others if he wasn’t a baronet in his own right. Each of them is gifted, in their own way, and Nell here has the ability to see and speak with ghosts. Hopefully, we can be of some assistance.”

“That would be…wonderful.” Amy shook her head. “And your husband doesn’t object to this? I can’t guarantee that there won’t be some danger.”

“I trust Kendall’s judgment and his ability to defend us. Not that either Nell or I are utterly helpless. Both of us are acquainted with self-defense.” Her smile twisted into a grin. “I haven’t been ‘my lady’ for too many years. I was originally the governess to this brood.”

That explained a great deal. Amy sat back and listened as Kendall explained about the phantom serpent in the photographs and the subsequent deaths. “I can’t find a thing in her studio,” he finished. “But there is some vague sense of a presence, which is why I was hoping a medium could help.”

“I can’t perform an exorcism, but I can certainly spot a ghost if there’s one present,” Nell agreed.

“It’s not a spell,” Kendall said with a shrug. “Or a curse. I’d be able to sense those. All that leaves is some kind of entity.”

“We’ll know shortly.” Caroline turned to Amy. “So tell me, how do you like working as a photographer?”

Soon, they climbed out of the cab and Amy led the others to her studio. After a brief tour, Nell shook her head. “There’s nobody here.”

Her mother frowned. “I’d swear there is. I agree with Kendall. I feel…something. And it’s definitely malevolent. But I can’t pinpoint what or where.”

Caroline stood beside the shelf where Amy kept the toys Sergeant Peterson made to entertain her subjects and picked up a clockwork horse that whinnied and pranced. “Wink would love these. She’s studying to be an engineer, but mechanical animals are her first love.”

“Mum, drop that right now!” Nell screamed and ran across the room. She grabbed the toy from her mother’s hands and threw it as far as possible across the room. “Mum, go outside. Now.”

“Nell—” Caro began to protest, but she did start moving.

“It’s after the baby,” Nell said hoarsely. “Get out.”

At that, Caroline clasped her hand over her stomach and ran from the studio.

“It’s still here,” Nell said in a near whisper. “I don’t think it can go very far from the pony.”

“What does it look like?” Kendall stood beside the girl, his hand on her shoulder, his walking stick raised, though there was nothing visible to strike.

“A black serpent, but the eyes are human, or once were.” Nell stared fixedly at the toy on the floor. “It’s pulling back in—I don’t think it can reach any of us.”

“Is it a ghost?” Amy asked, coming to stand behind the girl.

Nell shook her head. “Not like any I’ve seen. It was, I think, but it’s been…twisted somehow. I think we need Lord Drood to handle this.”

“Amy, did any of the subjects who died play with that horse?” Kendall asked without turning to look at her.

“Yes. I don’t know how I could have forgotten. In each of those groups, someone picked up the pony and played with it. Even the honeymooners—the man was intrigued and studied the horse while they waited their turn. Louisa played with it to get Daisy to settle. It
is
the one thing that connects all six. It
is
my fault they died.”

“No. You didn’t do this.” Now Kendall did turn and put his hands on her arms. “It has to have been Peterson. I knew there was something wrong about that man.”

“The snake is back inside the horse,” Nell said. “We need to seal it up in something until Lord Drood can do something about it.”

“I have a metal cashbox,” Amy said. “We could seal the seams with wax, once it’s inside.”

Nell nodded. “And don’t touch it when you’re putting it in. I think touching it is what lets the spirit out.”

“Nell, is your mother all right?” Kendall looked out the window to where Caro watched them through the glass. “Can you be sure the serpent didn’t hurt her or…”

“The new baby? No. The serpent bites, and it hadn’t yet. I think…maybe it seeks out the most vulnerable person within reach. It circles them, like you saw in the photos and then it sinks in its fangs. It had started to circle Mum’s middle and was rearing up like it was about to bite when I threw it. It was angry, as if it hadn’t finished what it wanted to do.” She swallowed convulsively.

“Miss Eleanor Hadrian, you can watch my back anytime.” Kendall patted the girl’s shoulder. “Now perhaps we should go to your mum, make sure she’s all right.”

Caroline sat on a bench in Mrs. Bennett’s small garden, pale but steady.

“I’m fine.” She pointed back at the studio. “Now go do what needs to be done.”

Back inside, Amy ran to fetch her cashbox, dumping the change still inside into a heap on her desk. She grabbed a candle and some matches and laid the open box on the floor beside the horse. “Should we check the other toys?”

Kendall nodded. “I’ll handle them. Nell, the first sight of anything coming out, you let me know, all right?”

One by one, he lifted the other half-dozen toys, but each time Nell shook her head.

“Fine,” Kendall said. “Let’s seal this thing up.” He used his walking stick to slide the toy into the box, and then to close the lid. Amy lit the candle and began dribbling wax over the lock.

“Amy, you have a safe, right? Let’s stash this thing in there until your uncle can get here.” He hooked his walking stick handle through the handle on the cashbox and lifted it like that, carrying it into the back of the workroom where Amy kept her small fireproof safe.

Once the heavy lead door was locked, Kendall and Amy went back outside to join Caro.

“We hadn’t even told the children about the new one yet,” Caro confided as they walked back toward the house. “But Jamie, bless him, has visions, and apparently he told the others, or Nell wouldn’t have known. Keeping secrets in a family like this is next to impossible. Life is never dull around the Order, but it’s good to be even an indirect part of something that does so much good.”

“I’m sure it is,” Amy agreed.

Caro paused and turned to face Amy directly, putting a gap between them and the others. “Kendall’s a fine man. Even if he wasn’t wealthy or titled, a girl could do much worse.”

“But
he
can do far, far better.” Amy held out her hands, nails chipped, fingers stained with developing chemicals. “Can you see these as the hands of a duchess? While I may have the pedigree, I don’t have the temperament to live in his world. I’m a photographer, nothing more.”

Caro laughed gently. “And I was a bastard-born governess. Yet here I am. Lord Drood is a powerful man within the Order, who can open a lot of doors, and Kendall’s parents carry a lot of weight in society, his grandmother even more. If you care about Kendall, don’t give up too easily. The families within the Order get away with a certain degree of eccentricity.”