Evermore (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #3)(27)

Bloody hell. "Celia will go into a panic if that happens."

"And you?" Theo asked. "It is your livelihood too, after all."

"We'll survive. We must have built up some savings by now." I heaved a sigh. "By the time it runs out, we should both have found employment elsewhere. Perhaps Mrs. White can tell me how to become a governess." The prospect of leaving behind my work as a medium lifted my spirits a little. I was tired of being seen as an oddity. All my life, I'd been treated differently, partly because of my heritage, but mostly because it was known I could communicate with the dead. It made making new friends difficult. Those who believed me were generally afraid of me, and everyone else just assumed I was mad or a fraud.

"Good," George said. "I'm glad you'll be all right. Aren't you, Hyde?"

"Of course, of course."

"I do hope Blunt's illness isn't contagious," said George after a moment of silence.

"I don't think it is." Theo pulled a small package out of his pocket and unwrapped the brown paper to reveal a little pile of black powder.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I think I know," George said, adjusting his glasses and taking a closer look.

"So do I," Theo said.

"What is it?" I asked them. Neither answered. George sat back and Theo shuffled his feet. "Tell me!"

"It's opium," George finally said.

Theo nodded. "It seems Blunt is addicted to the stuff."





CHAPTER 7





"Opium! Good lord," I said. "I don't know much about it, but I do know having an addiction to it can be debilitating."

Theo folded the brown paper over the powder and tucked the parcel into his waistcoat pocket. "That explains why Blunt was sick. He must be due his next dose." He patted his pocket. We now had his next dose.

"That's what he must have meant about his appointment," I said. "Will he be all right? What will happen if he doesn't take it?"

Theo shrugged. "Culvert, do you know?"

George's nod was grim. "I do unfortunately. There was a fellow in the Society who was addicted to the stuff. He started smoking it to lessen the pain of a back injury obtained from a riding accident. After a few months, it no longer had the same effect and he needed to smoke more of the stuff to get some relief. That's when his health began to decline. He lost weight, lost his ability to focus, and looked ill all of the time. He ceased caring about everything and everybody, which I think was part of its allure. When he tried to give up, or when he hadn't smoked it for a period of time, he was very much like Blunt was now. Sick, shaking, terrible nightmares, and that was only on the nights he could sleep. More often, he could not."

"I almost feel sorry for Blunt," I said.

"Was he like this the last time you met him?" Theo asked.

"No." I pressed a hand to my stomach, suddenly feeling a little ill myself. "Oh George, what have we done? What if Jacob's haunting was the reason Blunt took up the habit in the first place?"

"Don't think like that, Emily," George said. "We are not to blame."

"Agreed," Theo said. "You cannot be held accountable for the actions of a grown man capable of making his own decisions." He suddenly took my hand and kissed it, eliciting a polite cough from George. Theo let go, removed his hat, and dashed his fingers through his hair. "My apologies," he muttered.

"No need to apologize," I said, bemused. He was behaving rather oddly all of a sudden. Very...earnest. Perhaps he'd been overcome with ardor. I quite liked the thought of that.

"I wonder what he'll do when he finds his next dose missing?" George said.

A terrible thought struck me. "Will he die without it?"

"No, nothing like that. Having too much of it will kill him, not the withdrawal. Although he'll probably want to die as the pain worsens."

"I wonder if this was all he had left." Theo took the package out of his jacket pocket again.

George gasped then half rose out of his seat. He removed his hat, pulled down the window, and shouted at the driver to stop and return to the Institution. We jerked back and forth as the coach halted. The movement sent me closer to Theo. Our thighs touched. Neither of us shifted away.

"I hope we're not too late," George said, his eyes sparkling like gems.

"Too late for what?" Theo asked.

"To follow him," I said, as George's intention became clear. Excitement trickled down my spine. "If Blunt has no more opium, he will probably go to buy some before his condition worsens. If we can stop him but promise to let him go if he answers our questions, we might finally find out if he is indeed the villain."

"Blackmail." Theo grinned. "Brilliant!"

"I prefer to think of it as an incentive," George said. "Blackmail sounds so despicable and our intentions are honorable."

The coach swung into the traffic and headed back the way we'd come. Within moments it had pulled up outside the school again. Theo got out and spoke to the school's footman. A moment later he returned to the coach and spoke to our driver.

"Blunt did indeed leave just after us," he said as the coach rolled forward. "I've given the driver instructions to slowly scour the nearby streets to search for him. He cannot have gone far."