The Medium

"Your sister told me something that might help us," I said.

His fists curled into balls at his sides and those blue eyes, duller than usual, stared unblinking at me for an inordinately long time. I could see he wasn't entirely convinced he wanted to follow through on his new resolution to cross over. We both knew that this was just the first step on what could be a long road, but it was still the first step to an end neither of us really wanted.

"You'd better tell me what it is," he finally said.

"Do you remember a boy called Frederick?"

I could have sworn he paled, something that wasn't possible considering he was dead. "Yes." He recounted the same story that Adelaide had told me about Frederick coming to their Belgravia home and accusing her and the butler of lying about Jacob's whereabouts. "It upset her greatly at the time but I'd thought she would have forgotten about it by now."

"You clearly haven't. Which means you thought it was important."

He gave me his crooked smile and I was overjoyed to see the charming Jacob back. No matter how hurt I was by the fact he didn't want to stay with me forever, I couldn't be mad at him for long. "You know me so well already." He sat on the chair near the fireplace and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. His shirt gaped open and I was rewarded with a rather delicious view of his naked chest underneath.

Would I ever get to touch it now?

"Emily, are you listening?"

"What? Yes, of course I am. You said I know you so well."

"And then I said I told Adelaide I didn't know anyone called Frederick. But that probably wasn't true."

"Why would you lie to her?"

"I didn't lie deliberately. I thought at the time that I didn't know anyone called Frederick. But now...now I think I must have."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because I now think he had something to do with my death."

I hugged my knees closer to my chest. "Why? No, let's start with who he is. How well did you know him?"

He turned his hands out, palms up, without shifting his position. "I didn't. That's the thing, I don't remember anyone from Oxford named Frederick."

"No one? It's a common enough name."

He looked down at his hands. "I know."

"Adelaide said he was fair haired, slight build, plain features. Can you recall anyone from school matching that description?"

"Not really. I suppose it could describe several of my classmates though."

"None of whom were named Frederick?"