Free Possession by C. J. Archer

in, so I had to begin the introductions again,
a difficult task considering Theodore couldn't see Jacob and Jacob scowled back
at him.
    "Why's he
here?" he asked. He stood with his feet apart and arms crossed.
    "Mr. Hyde
is very concerned about his cousin," I said, keeping the irritation out of
my voice for Theodore's sake. I didn't want him to know that Jacob had already
made up his mind to dislike him.
    Jacob grunted in
response. "It's going to be crowded in the coach."
    "Is Mr.
Arbuthnot still at The Three Knots?" I asked.
    He nodded as he
circled around Theodore, assessing him. They were of a similar height and about
the same size, but there the similarity ended. It was like looking at night and
day, dark and light. The way Jacob sized him up made me uncomfortable and when
I'm uncomfortable, I talk.
    "I'll stay
in the coach while you three go inside the pub and bring him out. Actually, now
that we have Mr. Hyde to help George, you might not be needed, Jacob."
    He stopped and looked
at me. Just looked. The small muscles on either side of his jaw worked. I felt
a little like a fly trapped in a spider's web, unable to move. My chest
suddenly tightened and I remembered to breathe.
    What had I said
wrong? Why was he making me feel this way?
    "Please
call me Theo."
    I must have
turned a dumb-struck gaze on Theodore because he said, "You all seem to be
on a first name basis with each other, so I want you to call me Theo."
    "Certainly,
Theo," George said cheerfully. He had no idea how heavy my heart felt.
    "Miss
Chambers, is everything all right?" Theo asked.
    "Emily,"
George said, laughing. "First names, remember?"
    "Emily?"
Theo asked again.
    "I'm
well." I pressed a hand to my forehead. "Just a turn." I glanced
at Jacob, but he no longer looked at me. He sat down on the arm of the sofa and
lowered his head to his hands.
    I went to him
and reached out to press my hand to the back of his neck. But I didn't touch
him.
    "Ah,
there's the coach," George said. "Shall we?"
    I looked up,
straight into the soft gray eyes of Theo. He gave me a crooked smile and held
out his elbow for me to take.
    I did. When I
glanced over my shoulder, Jacob was gone.
    ***
    I thought I
wouldn't see Jacob until we reached our destination, but he reappeared in the
coach. Whatever emotions had overcome him in George's drawing room were replaced
with a business-like manner.
    "When we
get to the Three Knots, you'll wait in the coach," he said. "The
footmen and driver will remain behind and George is to give them instructions
not to leave you. George, Theo, and I will go inside and bring Arbuthnot out to
you. Now, let's go through the words you need to use to send the spirit
back."
    I spent the rest
of the journey memorizing what I had to say. I shivered when I first heard the
incantation. It was so like that other time when we had fought the demon. In
fact, the similarity was too close for my liking—as if the same hand was behind
both.
    But we had
killed Finch, the man controlling the shape-shifting demon, and banished his
accomplice, Mr. Blunt. Jacob had terrified Blunt—the master of the North London
School for Domestic Service—so much that he'd left the city in a hurry. We had
been quite certain, however, that Blunt didn't have the capacity to be the architect
of the scheme.
    We may have been
wrong.
    If Jacob and
George felt the similarity too, they didn't say.
    The Victoria
Docks wasn't a dangerous place, or no more so than any other busy London hub in
the middle of the morning. And it was certainly busy! Noise hummed all
around—the whir of cranes stretching into the sky like fingers, the hammering of
builders at the eastern end, the rumble of cart wheels, the shouts from
dock-workers loading and unloading, and the clack of crates being stacked one
on top of the other. Foremen, carters, porters, merchants, and sailors milled
together with passengers of all shapes, sizes and colors. I counted at least
four different languages as people walked past the