Free His Lordship Possessed by Lynn Viehl Page A

her to.” Dredmore looked directly at
    Harry. “Hello, Ehrich.”
    “You know my grandfather?” I looked from Dredmore
    to Harry and back again. “Hang on. You can see him?”
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    “It’s a trick, Charm.” Harry solidifi ed enough to cast a
    shadow on the faded but still colorful Turkish rug. “He’s
    only making a pretense so he can use you. You must leave
    here at once.”
    “You’d rather send her out to die in the snow than tell
    her the truth?” Dredmore came to stand behind me, and
    I saw his angry expression refl ected in the oval mirror
    above the mantel. “She’s your own fl esh and blood, old
    man. She deserves to know more than the bits and pieces
    that you’ve been feeding her.”
    “He seems to be able to see and hear you quite well,”
    I advised my grandfather. Th e thought of how he had
    possessed Connell at Morehaven, and the prospect of
    him doing the same to Dredmore, made me gesture at a
    cluster of brass-studded bronze leather armchairs. “Why
    don’t we all sit down and talk about this?”
    “Sit down and talk. With him?” Harry uttered a bitter
    laugh. “You don’t know what spawned him, or what his
    sort can do.” He looked at Dredmore for the fi rst time,
    and there was pure hatred in his eyes. “But I know, boy.
    I know exactly what you are.”
    “Have you told her what you’ve done?” Dredmore
    asked this with exquisite courtesy. “Why don’t you
    explain that, Ehrich? Or are you leaving that for others
    to do, just as you did in France?”
    “I know he was Houdini,” I told Dredmore, and
    watched the white puff of my breath fl oat from my lips.
    “Why is it so cold in here now?”
    “Th at is his doing.” He eyed my grandfather. “No
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    LYNN VIEHL
    more half-truths, Ehrich. Tell her who you were before
    you took possession of that Crown spy. Who you were
    when Harry White led his regiment into the Bréchéliant,
    and what you were when you came back out.” He waited,
    but Harry said nothing, and the ticking of the great clock
    by the door seemed to grow very loud. “I see. She’s good
    enough to torment, to use, to manipulate, but not worthy
    of the truth. Fortunately for you, Charmian is now under
    my protection.”
    “I beg your pardon.” I stared at him. “Your what ?”
    “Your what ?” Harry strode forward without looking,
    banged into an end table, and caught it before it
    toppled. When he took his hand from it he left an icy
    print of his palm and fi ngers. “Your father may have
    wanted recompense for being taken. Like the others,
    Jack deserved it. But his battle was never yours. You
    can bloody well do as you like, but you won’t drag my
    granddaughter into it.”
    “She’s in it to her ears.” Dredmore was sneering
    now. “You had your chance to do right by her, Ehrich.
    More than a thousand of them, I should think. But you
    sacrifi ced her, and her mother, and her grandmother on
    the altar of Queen and country and your own pathetic
    schemes.”
    “So now you’ll cut her throat?” Harry’s eyes took on a
    strange purple glow. “I will end you fi rst, boy.”
    Th e mention of murder made it high time for me to
    intervene. “Whatever quarrel you two have with each
    other, it’s nothing to do with me. Lucien, I can look after
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    myself, so stuff your protection. Harry, I’m not interested in carrying on whatever feud you have with Dredmore or
    his father.” I remembered Hedger’s strange reaction to
    learning that Harry was my grandfather. “Is there anyone
    who likes you?”
    “His name isn’t—” that was all my grandfather got out
    before Lucien stepped between us. His broad back kept
    me from seeing what he did, but his back muscles shifted,
    and then Harry abruptly vanished.
    “What did you do?” I asked,