Page 48 of Mesmerized

Madame Valenskaya looked again at Lady St. Leger, who appeared eager to sit beside her. She chewed at her lip and said finally, “Yes. Is all right. Tonight. A, how do you say? Experiment?”

Stephen said nothing, merely held out the chair for his mother. “Shall I sit here beside you, Mother?”

“No, no,” Irina cut in quickly. “Your disbelief will still be too near. Your presence will frighten away the spirits.”

Stephen nodded and moved down the table to his usual seat. “Then how about a little light? I am so far away it is difficult to see Madame.”

“Spirits like dark,” Madame protested.

“Indeed? But, surely, does it have to be pitch-black?”

“Yes, why don’t we leave a small light on?” Olivia suggested. “A candle—it wouldn’t have to be on the table. We could put it on the sideboard over there.” She demonstrated by carrying a candlestick to the small table beside the sofa, which had been pushed back to make room for the séance table. “It will be so much easier when the séance is over, don’t you think? Not having to scrabble around in the dark, trying to light the lamp.”

“That does sound sensible,” Lady St. Leger agreed.

“I am not sure the spirits will oblige us,” Mr. Babington put in. “That is often the case, I have found, when there are lights about.”

“It wouldn’t do any harm to try,” Olivia responded reasonably.

“Yes, could we?” Belinda spoke up. “I—well, after last night, I’d really rather not be entirely in the dark.”

“Of course,” Lady St. Leger said quickly, smiling in sympathy at her daughter. “I am sure you would rather not.” She turned to the medium, saying pleasantly, “Please, Madame Valenskaya, let us try it with a little light. Belinda and Olivia went through quite an ordeal, and I am sure they would both feel much better if it was not completely dark in here.”

“If you wish, my lady,” Madame Valenskaya replied, forcing a smile.

Olivia was careful not to look at Stephen, lest a grin of triumph flash across her face. It had been a bit of luck, Belinda piping up with the request for light. It had made Lady St. Leger press for the light, and Madame Valenskaya could scarcely refuse her patroness. Rearranging the seating and having the light would make it easier to catch whatever sleight of hand Madame Valenskaya used—or make her abandon it altogether.

They settled around the table, and the other lamps were extinguished, leaving only the dim light of the lone candle halfway across the room. The people around the table joined hands, Olivia this time linking hands with Mr. Babington, since Lady St. Leger had gone to sit beside Madame Valenskaya. In the dim light, it was at least possible to make out the medium’s face.

Madame Valenskaya closed her eyes, and around the table, everyone settled into silence. Olivia watched the medium intently. She saw the woman relax, her head sinking down, then coming back up. “There are many spirits here,” she said in measured tones, the accent leaving her voice.

Olivia noticed that there had been no tunes playing tonight or ghostly hands and such appearing. Madame Valenskaya must have been afraid to risk it with Lady St. Leger right beside her and a little bit of light in the room.

“Roddy?” Lady St. Leger asked. “Is that you?”

“Yes. I come tonight. But I—it is difficult. The light...” Madame Valenskaya paused, letting out a deep sigh. “I cannot rest. We cannot rest. There are so many of us here. It is very dark here, and lonely.”

“Roddy, no! Why can you not rest? What is the matter?” Lady St. Leger cried.

“So much has been stolen,” the medium went on in the same flat, ponderous voice. “They cannot rest. The Martyrs cannot rest. None of us can. Until what was stolen is returned to them.”

“But what?” Lady St. Leger asked. “What must be returned to them?”

Madame Valenskaya’s head sank, and she was silent.

“Roddy?” Lady St. Leger said tentatively. “Please, darling...”

Madame Valenskaya jerked her head, then slowly raised it. “He is gone,” she said, not yet opening her eyes. “His spirit has left me.”

“What did he mean?” Lady St. Leger spoke up. “What are we supposed to return to these people? I mean, we can scarcely give up our lands and house.” There was a faintly mutinous look on the older woman’s face.

“I think it would be rather difficult to give a ghost anything,” Stephen put in dryly.

“Wait!” Madame Valenskaya exclaimed. Her eyes were still closed, and she began to sway a little. “I am seeing something—gold, something gold. I see a cross. Yes, a cross, large and gold.”

She opened her eyes now. “Forgive me. Is all.”

The people around the table looked at each other. Finally Irina said, “Does that mean anything to you, Lady St. Leger?”