Page 68 of Captivating the Countess
She was accustomed to sitting still, shutting out spirits, and letting others regulate how much of real life came to her so she would not be set upon by her own head. She’d come to Yates Castle in hopes of taking baby steps away from that cocoon and into the real world. She refused to be pushed into retreat, or to let Iona set up a barrier to protect her. She’d be back in her cocoon if she allowed her fear of the ghost—or anything else—to intimidate her.
Determined to face her fear, Bell set down her teacup. “Button, will you go up to the nursery and see if Drucilla might join us here?”
The maid bobbed a curtsy and hurried on her errand.
Iona regarded her warily. “And Drucilla is whom?”
“Lady Dalrymple’s very young daughter. She sees ghosts. She’s too young to understand what she sees, but she’s seen the entity slamming doors.” If only Bell had any inkling of how to make this work...
By the time she had explained all that had been happening, Button returned with the five-year old. Drucilla did not seem in the least awed by the duchess’s elegant bedchamber. She merely looked relieved when she saw Bell.
“The lady is angry again,” the child said a little more confidently than she had in the past.
“Perhaps she is upset about something. Is your leg hurting from the stairs?” Bell crossed the chamber to pick up the child. She was little more than skin and bones.
“A little. Why is the lady upset?” Dru settled down in Bell’s lap as if she belonged there.
“That’s what we need to find out. Lady Ives, this is Drucilla Dalrymple. Dru, you needn’t curtsy to Lady Ives this time, but greet her politely, sayPleased to meet you, my lady.”
The child buried her face in Bell’s shoulder but obediently repeated the greeting.
“She’s frightened and in pain,” Iona said, apparently reading the child’s scent.
“See, that’s the sort of thing you can tell us if you mingle with the guests. I can only surmise. For instance, the doors have stopped slamming. I have to assume our lady ghost is expecting us to reach out to her.” Bell grimaced at the thought. “But I don’tknowanything.”
“Well, I don’t know anything either. I am making assumptions when I call a scent fear. How does one talk with a ghost?”
“Apparently one holds a séance, I hypnotize myself into unconsciousness, and the ghost moves in. I’m not enamored of the process. I would like to develop a better system.” Bell hugged the child in her lap, who now nibbled a biscuit Button had provided. “Do you only see the lady when she’s slamming doors?”
“She’s over there now, walking back and forth.” Dru pointed at the unoccupied side of the chamber.
Iona froze with her teacup half way to her lips.
Bell tried to see what the child did but couldn’t. “The ghost apparently doesn’t know names. I can’t simply ask who pushed me. I’m not certain what I can do.”
“She’s coming closer.” Dru crushed closer to Bell in fear.
“Did the temperature just drop?” Iona glanced around, then tasted her tea. “I think the tea got colder.”
Bell shivered and held Dru, not knowing how to face an entity she couldn’t see.
Dru shrieked as an icy hand seemed to fall upon them and the suffocating atmosphere descended.
Bring them togetherBell heard herself say in a voice not her own.
Iona added her shrieks to Dru’s.
Twenty-five
Rain pacedhis father’s sitting room after the child had been returned to the nursery.“Bring them together... What in hell does that mean? Pardon my language,” he added with a weary wave. “Whotogether? When, why, where...?”
Bell played a card at the table they’d set up for whist. Rain wanted to ask how she could sit there so calmly when even the family ghosts worried about her. But he thought she used her formidable mind as a barrier between her ghosts and the real world. He should let her build that barrier instead of disturbing her, but he couldn’t do that and protect her too. Not without locking her in an ivory tower, anyway.
“If I could speak ghost, I would tell you,” she said. “Although if this is your grandmother, one assumes she means bring the family together. I could be wrong.”
“Put everyone in one room and interrogate them?” Rain was all for that, using cudgels, if necessary. He just didn’t think it would work.
“Before dinner, I tested everyone in the drawing room.” Iona drew a card from the deck. “If we trust in scents, there’s a good deal of worry and concern, but that could be about His Grace.” She nodded at the duke, who studied his cards and didn’t draw another. “I particularly tested Lady Pamela and Lady Dalrymple, but there isn’t much I can tell you. The actress smells of avarice, but she’s poor and you’re rich, and that’s fairly natural. Lady Dalrymple... is a little vacant, like a pretty flower with no scent. The ghost should try to occupyher.”
