Page 29 of Of Fate and Phantoms
"It wasn't like that," she said quickly.
She thought I suspected her and Lincoln ofthat? "I know."
"Really? You trust him?"
"Of course." I was about to ask her why I wouldn't but decided against it. I didn't want to hear a list of Lincoln's past mistresses.
"You're not yet married, I suppose," she said heavily. "And you're not a…a creature like me." She was thinking of her own husband's transgressions, then, not Lincoln.
"You are not a creature."
"You haven't seen my other form."
She was a pretty woman with fair hair and smooth skin. She wasn't as young as me, but she must be considerably younger than her middle-aged husband. He ought to consider himself fortunate to be married to such a lovely woman, but instead he treated her cruelly, according to Lincoln. Lord Gillingham was the monster, not his wife.
"Lincoln didn't tell you about me, did he?" I asked.
"No." She gave me an odd look. "Why?"
"I'm not normal either. I can communicate with ghosts."
She made a small scoffing sound. "Mediums are not all that unusual."
"I can also raise the dead by ordering spirits to occupy corpses."
She stared at me, her mouth forming a perfect O.
"Even decomposed ones that have been in the ground for some time," I added, picking up my cup. "Gruesome, isn't it?"
"Yes. Er, no. Not gruesome, merely…unique."
I laughed. "I can see from your face what you truly think. It's all right. I've made my peace with it. It is gruesome, but it's what I am, and I can't not be a necromancer."
She picked up her cup. "At least you can control it. I can't always."
"Like when you're asleep?"
She nodded. "He saw me, you know, while I slept. And now he…he's not as attentive."
Lincoln had told me how Lady Gillingham's beastly form disgusted and frightened her husband and that he refused to lie with her once he found out. For someone who dearly wanted children, the lack of intimacy devastated her.
"I appreciate you telling me about yourself, Miss Holloway," she said. "What is it you are called?"
"A necromancer. And please, you must call me Charlie."
She smiled. "And you must call me Harriet. My mother-in-law is also Lady Gillingham. I hate it." She giggled, reminding me of just how young she was.
"Tell me how you and Lord Gillingham met."
"I can't really recall. I was just a child. He asked my father for my hand then and there."
"How old were you?"
"Twelve. Father said he would have to wait, of course. And wait he did."
"You had no choice in the matter?"
"None. But I didn't mind. I knew it was a good match. He's an earl."
