Evermore (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #3)(65)

"I said she wanted to stay there, not that she did or could."

"Emily..."

"Don't, Celia. It's over. What's important is the next chapter of our lives." I didn't want to tell her I'd wanted to die. She wouldn't understand.

"You are with your loved one, Miss Chambers." Mrs. Stanley said, approaching me. "Now it's my turn to be with mine." She opened her reticule and pulled out a small pistol. "Take it. Aim true." She thrust it into my hand. When I hesitated, she added, "If you don't, I will put another curse on you."

Celia pulled me closer, half shielding me. "That's enough," Louis said. "Leave my daughter alone."

Mrs. Stanley's lip curled into a snarl. "Go from this world." She pointed a bony finger at me. "Go free, spirit, and leave this earthly body."

My skin tingled. My insides felt as if they were unraveling. "Something's happening! She's cursing me."

"Stop!" Jacob shouted from the doorway.

"I set you free, oh spirit, never to return."

My head throbbed. The room spun out of control. My legs gave way and I crumpled like a ragdoll.

Someone caught me before I hit the floor. The pistol was removed from my hand.

The noise level suddenly rose, piercing me behind the eyes. Everyone was shouting at once, making it impossible to distinguish words. All except Mrs. Stanley's high-pitched, crazed, "Be gone—"

The gunshot punched a hole through the wall of noise. The following silence was almost as deafening.

Mrs. Stanley lay on the floor, blood seeping out of a bullet wound in her chest. It was the same manner in which Price had died.

"Is she all right?" That was Celia and I suspected she was asking after my health, not Mrs. Stanley's who was clearly dead.

Mrs. Stanley's spirit rose out of her body and hovered nearby. "Thank you." She said it to Jacob, not me, and I realized he was holding the pistol. He'd shot her. Mrs. Stanley nodded once then vanished.

Celia knelt in front of me, flapping her hand at my face. "Emily, can you hear me?"

"Y, yes." I sat up. Jacob pushed the hair from my face and kissed each of my eyelids tenderly.

"What in blazes was that?" Lord Preston bellowed from the doorway.

"I shot her," said Jacob. "She was going to kill Emily."

I opened my mouth to protest, but at Celia's whispered "Hush" I shut it again.

"Bloody hell," Lord Preston muttered.

Through the thick fog clouding my head, I heard George and Adelaide, Lady Preston too. Everyone was there. Jacob was there. Holding me, rocking me. He didn't speak.

After several minutes, his mother's gentle voice sounded close to my ear. "Let her go, Jacob."

He shook his head. I breathed in a deep, shuddering breath. "Never."

I pulled away and extricated my arms from his embrace. "I'm all right, Jacob. I'm here." I wiped his tears away with my thumbs, but I did not try to stand. I liked being there with him, so close together. Liked it very much.

"I don't care what people say," he whispered. "I don't care what you do." This he said to his father. "I will not give her up. Cut me off, disinherit me, it doesn't matter. I've been given another chance and I will not waste my life with someone I don't love. I love Emily, and I'm going to be with her."

Lord Preston cleared his throat and stretched his neck. His impressive whiskers twitched. "Well," was all he said.

"We can't," his wife said. She was still on her knees near us, her pretty face etched with concern. She looked much older. "We can't do this to him. Not now."

Lord Preston nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "But she will have to give up her séances."

"That certainly won't be a problem," I said.

"And we'll have to gloss over your family origins when our friends ask," Lady Preston said with a somewhat apologetic wince in Celia's direction.

"I won't deny who my parents are," I said.

"Stop putting conditions on it, Mother." Jacob rose and helped me to stand. My legs still felt weak but he tucked me into his side and I felt safe. "She will marry me, and that's final."

"You could tell everyone her parents are from the colonies," Celia said. "Louis and I are leaving for Melbourne soon anyway, so it wouldn't be a lie. Tell them her father went there to make his fortune many years ago and now he has." She smiled at Louis and he smiled back. "Tell them whatever to want."

"We could say he holds an important position," Lady Preston said, thoughtful. "Communication between the colonies and England is scarce at best. A good plan, Miss Chambers."

"Mother," Jacob chided.

"It's not for our sakes, dear, but for Emily's. The less speculation there is about her family, the easier it will be for her to fit into your life."

"What are the prospects like in the colonies?" Lord Preston asked Louis. "Any projects a man can sink capital into?"

"A man of capital could do very well there," Louis said. His eyes twinkled with new vigor. "Melbourne is a thriving settlement and more permanent buildings are going up all the time."