For the first time since my arrival, I began to doubt my reasons for coming. Would proving to Lady Preston that her son really was dead help her move on, or simply send her over the edge she so precariously clung to?
I looked to Adelaide for an answer but she wiped a tear from her cheek and shook her head at me.
Just as I thought about leaving, a tall man with steel-gray hair and a bushy moustache strolled into the drawing room. He took in the scene but instead of going to his wife, he lifted a thick brow at Adelaide.
"Father," she said, "this is Miss Emily Chambers. Miss Chambers, this is-."
"Chambers!" He snorted. "I know that name." "She's a spirit medium," Adelaide said.
"She's a fraud," he said, with much more authority but less malice than his wife. "What's she doing here?"
Adelaide glanced at her mother then back to her father. Her gaze didn't falter beneath his cold one. But it wasn't directed at her. It was directed at me. "She's been telling us that Jacob truly is...dead." She looked to her mother again but Lady Preston didn't move. She stood completely still, staring out the window.
Lord Preston stepped closer and regarded me down his long nose. He appeared to be a good twenty years older than his wife but was strongly built nevertheless. He was as tall as Jacob but his features were bolder, heavier, not refined and handsome like his son's. In some ways he reminded me of the sketches I'd seen of cavemen-big-limbed and thickbrowed, but not nearly as ugly. He was handsome in his way, but intimidating, particularly when he stood so close.
I tried not to shrink away. "Good afternoon, Lord Preston." I held out my hand in an attempt to maintain some semblance of civility.
He ignored it. "I've been looking into you and your operation."
"He belongs to the London Association of Skeptical Scientists," Adelaide explained.
"Ah. Jacob told me he was a scientist."
There was a moment's silence then, "Bah!" The sound came from deep within Lord Preston's chest. "I'll not listen to another word of your nonsense. You're a trickster, Miss Chambers, just like the rest. And if you think you'll get any money from us-."
"I don't want your money, Lord Preston. I don't want anything from you."
That stopped him momentarily. "Why are you here?" he asked after a long pause in which he watched me through narrowed eyes.
"To give you all some peace. He wants me to tell you that he is dead and that he's happy-."
"Happy! How can he be happy if he's dead as you claim?" Lord Preston had a way of bellowing rather than talking. It was quite deafening. "Get out of my house or I'll have you thrown out."