Possession Read Online Free Page B

herself.
    I wished Jacob were
near. I suddenly had a flurry of questions to ask him. I considered summoning
him but dismissed the idea. Alarming Mrs. Arbuthnot at this point would be
unproductive. So I silently willed him instead. Of course nothing happened. A
summoning needed to be spoken aloud.
    Thankfully the
tension in the drawing room dissolved when a young man burst into the room. It had
to be Wallace Arbuthnot because he looked very much like his mother, except
taller and with a shock of thinning blond hair standing to attention. He
already showed signs that he would be grossly overweight in years to come. I
feared for the buttons on his red silk waistcoat and the collar of his shirt,
both straining to contain the man within.
    "Lady
Preston, Miss Beaufort, delightful!" He smiled and bowed to all of us,
including me, and I instantly decided I liked him. He had such a friendly, kind
face, completely without guile.
    "It's
lovely to see you again, Mr. Arbuthnot." Lady Preston held out her gloved hand.
He took it and kissed it gently. "May I present Miss Chambers," she
said, indicating me.
    He bowed
graciously. "Delighted to meet you, Miss Chambers."
    "And you
know my daughter, of course."
    "Of course.
How are you, Miss Beaufort?"
    Adelaide said
nothing but eyed him up and down then circled him twice, her hands behind her
back, her bottom lip protruding like a shelf.
    Wallace coughed
into his hand and glanced at his mother. She lifted one shoulder.
    Lady Preston
looked mortified. "Adelaide," she said oh-so-politely, "perhaps
you should sit. You haven't been well, remember? Remember? "
    Adelaide paused
and pressed a hand to her head. "Yes, I remember," she muttered and
sank onto the sofa beside her mother. She sat with a rigid back, her ankles
demurely crossed, and stared down at her lap.
    "Wallace, ring
the bell. Tea, Lady Preston?" Mrs. Arbuthnot asked as if nothing were
amiss.
    "No, thank
you, not today."
    Mrs. Arbuthnot
ordered Wallace back and he sat opposite Adelaide on a pretty but narrow chair
that creaked under his weight.
    A tall young man
entered. He paused inside the door when he saw us and bowed. "My
apologies, Aunt," he said. "I didn't know you had guests."
    Mrs. Arbuthnot
beckoned him with a crook of her finger. "My nephew, Mr. Theodore Hyde. He's
staying with us for a while." She introduced us and Mr. Hyde bowed again,
a warm smile on his lips and a sparkle in his clear gray eyes.
    The family
resemblance between the two cousins was evident in the eye and hair color, but
that's where it ended. Theodore was tall and lean while Wallace was shorter and
round. Theodore's face looked like finely worked porcelain, Wallace's resembled
a lump of clay. If the latter was jealous of the former's good looks, he didn't
show it. Indeed, he greeted his cousin eagerly.
    "Back from
your walk already, Theo?" To us, Wallace said, "Theo likes to go for
a brisk walk every morning. For fresh air, he says, but I tell him he won't get
fresh air here in London." He laughed and his entire body shook. "He's
from the country." As if that explained it.
    Theodore laughed
too and shrugged. "The air here is indeed an acquired taste. It might take
a little more than my first week to get used to it. The exercise does me good,
however, and I will not be put off by a bit of soot." He spoke with the
crisp vowels of the upper classes, but a hint of a country drawl underpinned
his words.
    "Where are
you from, Mr. Hyde?" Lady Preston asked.
    "Shropshire,
in a lovely part of—"
    "My
sister's husband has a small parcel of land in that county," Mrs.
Arbuthnot said over him. "They wanted Theo to broaden his experience and
discover new prospects here in London."
    Wallace shifted
uncomfortably in his chair, causing the legs to groan in protest. The only
indication Theodore made that he was hurt by the note of condescension in his
aunt's explanation was to lift his chin a little.
    So he was proud.
Proud but poor. I didn't need Mrs. Arbuthnot to tell me