"Where?" Lady Preston joined her daughter and together they looked at the bent lamp post as if Jacob's ghost was there. "Where's my son?"
I waved in his direction.
"Can we speak to him?"
"I don't want to talk," Jacob said. He moved even further into the shadows so that only his silhouette was visible to me.
"Another time," I said through a tight, full throat.
Lady Preston's face crumpled, tears filled her eyes. Adelaide hugged her.
"He and I have Otherworld business to finish," I said quickly. "We'll return another day." It was the best I could manage when my thoughts were so jumbled together I could barely think let alone speak.
"Leave us!" It was Lord Preston, stomping down the stairs. As he spoke, two constables rushed up and took in the scene, truncheons poised to strike. "Move her on," he said, pointing at me. "She's not wanted here."
"But Father, she-."
"She's not wanted!" His bellow would have been heard up and down the street, despite the dense fog deadening it. The lights from the neighbors' lamps disappeared back inside their homes. I could only imagine what they must think of the events of this night and how it would be recounted in the clubs and coffee houses tomorrow. How would they explain what they'd seen? How much could they see? Certainly not the demon's changing faces.
"Jacob is here," Lady Preston said in a quiet voice, so steady compared to the first time we met but still small and thin like a child's. "He's busy now but he'll return soon."
Lord Preston took his wife's hand, looped it through his arm and patted it. "Go inside, my dear. Both of you. I'll sort this out and join you soon."
Adelaide didn't move as the constables approached me. "No, Father," she said, tossing her long braid over her shoulder. "You'll not treat her like a criminal. She's done nothing wrong."
"She can see Jacob," Lady Preston said, still staring off in the direction of her son. Jacob remained in the darkness but I could feel his presence as strongly as ever. It was troubled. And so very angry.
"It's all right," I said to Adelaide. "We have to go anyway."
"We." Lord Preston snorted. "You're very good, Miss Chambers. A genius at theatre."
"Theatre!" Adelaide cried, fists clenched at her sides.
"Father-."
"Silence! Inside, both of you."
Lady Preston meekly climbed the stairs but kept looking over her shoulder into the shadows. Adelaide sighed and touched my arm. I nodded at her to go. It wasn't her battle and I didn't want her to be punished on my account.