Of Fates And Phantoms (The Ministry of Curiosities #7)(24)

I introduced myself and Lincoln, and explained about my necromancy. "It was your daughter's suggestion that we summon you," I told him. "You see, we need your help. We need to understand more about how you and your daughter are able to change form."

The spirit shimmered again and clasped his hands behind his back. He studied Harriet, sitting primly on her bed, a look of expectation on her face. "I don't know what you're talking about," Erskine growled.

He reacted as I expected, but it still irked that I had to win his trust when his own daughter believed us. "Harriet has told us everything she knows, but it's not enough. We need to know if there are others like you, and if it's possible to change into anything other than a … a wolf-like creature."

The mist drifted away then suddenly swept around the room, darting over furniture, up to the ceiling, and plunging to the floor.

"My lord," I said. "Please, settle down and I will answer your questions. Firstly, Lord Gillingham has gone out and left instructions that his wife not be allowed out of her rooms."

The spirit stopped suddenly, his scowling face directly above mine. "He did what?" he bellowed.

"Don't worry about Gilly, Daddy," Harriet said. She couldn't hear or see her father's displeasure, but she must have guessed my statement upset him. "I can manage my husband." She gave me an arched look and I decided to leave the topic alone.

"Mr. Fitzroy and I are friends to your daughter, my lord. We wish her no harm. Indeed, we protect people like her and myself. People with supernatural abilities."

His nostrils flared. Up close, they were cavernous. "Being her friend doesn't make me inclined to speak to you of her affliction."

I didn't expect her father, a man who could change shape too, to call it an affliction. I was glad she couldn't hear. She had enough disappointment to bear with her husband's disgust.



       
         
       
        

"Please, sir," I begged. "If there's anything that can help us, you must tell us. There is no one else."

"You may be my daughter's friends, but I don't know you. I do know that Harriet is too trusting of others. She's gullible and inclined to think well of people who might not have her best interests at heart."

"We don't wish to harm her. Indeed, she's like me. Neither of us are normal."

"And him?" He jerked his head toward Lincoln. "What is his affliction?"

I paused but dared not glance Lincoln's way. "An inability to understand people."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lincoln shift his stance.

"Daddy, you must help." Harriet got to her feet and put out her hands, as if searching for something in the dark. I nodded in his direction and she turned toward the spirit. "The royal family is in trouble."

Erskine cocked his head to the side. "In what way?"

"Someone impersonated the Prince Consort," I told them. Harriet hadn't known the particulars, only that the royal family was affected.

"But he's dead," both Harriet and Erskine said at the same time.

"You see why we're searching for answers."

Harriet sat heavily on the bed again. "Indeed."

Erskine paced the room as a living person would, except his footsteps made no sound on the carpeted floor. After crossing the room three times, he stopped in front of Lincoln. "Why you?" he said to Lincoln's face.

Lincoln didn't answer, of course. He wouldn't even know Erskine was there.

"The Prince of Wales tasked us with the investigation," I told him. "We belong to a discreet organization working for England on matters such as this. Matters that can't be explained with reason or logic."

"Supernatural matters."

"Yes."

He half turned to look at me. "A government organization?"

"Semi-official. Mr. Fitzroy is our leader. Lord Gillingham is on the committee."

"Is he? Then why isn't he here, urging me to help?"

"Because he doesn't like his wife being involved, or his wife's family."

He must have understood my meaning because his nostrils flared again. His misty form shot toward me, his chin thrust out in all its noble glory. "If it's for the queen, then I am obliged to assist in any way I can."

"Thank you." I let go of my necklace. "He agreed to help," I informed the others.

Harriet clapped her hands quietly. "Thank you, Daddy. It's very important."

He sat on the bed beside her. "You wanted to know if I am aware of others like us?" He placed his hand over hers, but she didn't move. I could see that she'd inherited her father's large hands. Feet, too. "There are others, as it happens." 

"How many?"

"I don't know. All I know is they do exist. I grew up thinking I was alone, you see, that nobody like me existed. My parents died when I was young, so no one ever told me what I was. I could control my changes easily, and none learned what I could do. Not even my wife. Not until … " He looked sadly at Harriet. "Not until Harriet changed from a baby into her other form as she slept. My wife went mad from the shock. She screamed whenever the nurse tried to give Harriet to her. I had to pay the nurse handsomely to keep her quiet about my daughter's condition, and I had my wife committed to an asylum."

An asylum! The poor woman. Poor Harriet, although I was quite sure she didn't know her mother's fate. She'd told Lincoln her mother had died.

"Harriet doesn't know the truth," he said, following my thoughts. "You have my permission to tell her, if you think she can cope with it. Otherwise, please keep it to yourself."

I nodded, somewhat numb. "Go on."

His large chest rose and fell, as if he took in a deep breath, although he no longer needed air. It would seem that breathing wasn't a habit easily broken. "I thought Harriet and I were the only ones in the world who could change, but then I read a newspaper article about some wolves seen in London."

"Wolves?"

"Wolf-like, was how they were described by the witnesses. They ran on all fours, had fur, a muzzle, claws and teeth. According to the article, they didn't harm anyone, just ran through the streets at night, sometimes howling."

He paused and I repeated what he'd told me for Lincoln's benefit.

"Did they appear at a specific time?" Lincoln asked, speaking for the first time since Lord Erskine's spirit arrived.

"One of the witnesses said only at a full moon, but others made no such comments," Erskine said.

I repeated this for Lincoln.

"Animals roaming the city's streets isn't unusual," Lincoln said.

"No," Erskine said. "But what was unusual was that they simply disappeared. When witnesses chased them, they came across only other people. Naked people. When asked if they were attacked by wolves, these people claimed they were not and showed their unmarked limbs to prove it. They laughed off their lack of attire as if it were nothing."

"Extraordinary," I said, and told Lincoln what Erskine had said. "You think these people were the wolves, back in their human form?"

Erskine nodded.

"Were any names given?"

"No, but I inquired at the newspaper office. The reporter gave me addresses of the witnesses and I sought them out. They laughed it off as a silly joke, a trick of the light, and claimed they must have been mistaken. They said the newspaper sensationalized the incidents and that it was really nothing."

"Why would they laugh it off? Didn't they believe their own eyes?"

"It was dark, for one, and the lamps in that part of the city often don't work, particularly in those days. But it was largely because of the people they came across after chasing the wolves who convinced them they were deluded. They were well known in the area, you see. The witnesses believed them without question."

Again, I repeated his story for Lincoln.

"Did you investigate further?" Lincoln asked.

Erskine said he did. "I tried not to think any more of it after speaking to the witnesses, but I couldn't stop. Then the more I thought about it, the more I became certain these people were like me, capable of changing shape. The notion consumed me. I had to find them and know for myself. So I returned to the slums and asked the witnesses for names of the people they'd seen that night. I then went to speak to them, but was met with silence and threatening glares at every turn. I wasn't sure if they wouldn't speak to me because I was an outsider or because they had a secret to keep. Their silence frustrated me." He spread his hand over Harriet's then curled it into a fist. "I couldn't stand it anymore, so I told one of them that I could change shape too and that I was searching for others like me."



       
         
       
        

Revealing himself had been a risk. "And what did he say?"

"He gave me the name of a man, a leader of their group, I suspected. I visited him and he didn't dismiss me immediately, at least."

I shifted forward on the chair, my gaze riveted to Erskine. "Go on."

"He asked me to prove that I could change. So I did."