Page 16 of A Gathering Storm
Hearn sighed. “Let’s start with what will be involved. Perhaps then we can agree the terms of our arrangement.”
“That’s a good idea,” Ward replied, relieved. “Once you grasp the purpose of my work, you may understand why I am a little—” he paused, searching for the right words “—a littlesingle-minded, at times.” He offered a tentative smile, but Hearn merely waited for him to go on.
Ward took a deep breath, trying to settle himself before he began. “These are exciting times for men of science, Mr. Hearn. New discoveries are being made every day, some of them in fields that didn’t even exist a few years ago. My own field is the physical sciences. For the last number of years, I have been studying electricity and related phenomena—” He broke off when Hearn held up a hand. “Yes?”
“This is all very interesting,” Hearn said, though his weary tone suggested the exact opposite. “But perhaps we could stick to the question I asked, namely what it is that you want todoto me.”
The image that sprang, unbidden, to Ward’s mind in response to that question—Ward on his knees, unbuttoning Hearn’s trousers, reaching inside to take hold of his shaft—had his cheeks flushing again. Somehow though, he managed to thrust the mental image aside and say, “I want to hypnotise you. Hypnotise you and ask you some questions—that’s all at first. Then, gradually, I’ll introduce some other variables.”
“What does that mean? What ‘other variables’?”
“Other factors that might influence your ability to contact or attract . . . well,spirits, for want of a better word. In this case, the variables I am principally looking at are electricity and ozone gas.”
Hearn blinked at that. For several moments he was quiet, then eventually he said faintly, “I’m beginning to wonder if the Jones family have a point about you.”
Ward bristled. “I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I can assure you that whatever you may have heard, nothing untoward occurred with Mr. Jones. I hypnotised him precisely once, for approximately half an hour, and he was fully conscious and quite unharmed when he left this house. I didn’t get anywhere near the stage of introducing other variables, and Icertainlydidn’t give him electric shocks as the Jones family have been telling everyone.”
Hearn’s eyebrows rose at that, and a hint of a smile momentarily played about one corner of his mouth. “All right,” he said mildly. “I don’t disbelieve you about Jago Jones. But that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like the idea of you mesmerising me. I don’t want to lose control of my mind to a man I barely know.”
“It’s hypnosis, not mesmerism,” Ward corrected him. “And it won’t be like that. What you must understand is that I have no wish to control you—that’s the last thing I want, in fact.”
“What do you want, then? Why put me in a trance?”
“I want to try to unveil something that is already in you. It’s something I believe may be in all of us, but there are a few indications that you may be more receptive than others to the subtle influences of the spiritual plane.”
“And what indications would those be?” Hearn asked. “The fact that my mother was aGypsy?” He used the word himself this time, lacing it with a touch of bitterness.
“No,” Ward replied carefully. “But I do take into account that she was considered by the villagers to be a clairvoyant, and also that you reported seeing a ghost when you were a boy. Those strike me as highly relevant factors.”
Hearn gave a humourless laugh. “You shouldn’t believe everything that people tell you,” he said flatly, and Ward wondered which one of those factors Hearn was alluding to.
He forced himself to stay quiet though—he could see from Hearn’s face that the man was pondering what they’d discussed. Surely that, at least, had to be a good sign?
After a while, Hearn said, “What do you mean when you say you’ll ‘introduce’ the other variables? I don’t want you shocking me with electricity when I’m in a trance.”
Ward huffed a laugh. “You needn’t worry. I have no such intention, I assure you. At some point, I would wish to expose you to thepresenceof electricity and ozone gas, but I have no intention of applying them to your person. My hope would be that I could put you into a trance during a real electrical storm. If that is not possible, I can only do my utmost to re-create such conditions as best I can. We will have to see what the weather brings. In any event, I promise you, on my honour, I will not be ‘shocking’ you with electricity.”
Hearn nodded and fell into another contemplative silence.
After a while, Ward said, “Does that answer all your questions?”
Hearn looked up. A small, puzzled frown pleated his brow. “To be frank, I don’t understand how any of this relates to what you are trying to achieve. How is this supposed to help you contact spirits? And why do you even want to?”
Ward stared at him. The sudden lump in his throat surprised him. He had to swallow against it and felt sure Hearn must see him doing so. Somehow, that was humiliating. He wanted to seem impervious to Nicholas Hearn. Strong and confident and sure. But all he’d done today was blush and stammer like a green boy. And now he had to speak of something that might even make him weep.
A part of him wanted to refuse. A part of him whispered that he should tell Nicholas Hearn in no uncertain terms that Ward was the one who held the power here and Hearn had better start falling into line and stop asking questions. But he couldn’t have done that, even if he wanted to. The fact was, he wouldn’t have a chance of hypnotising an unwilling subject. Somehow, he was going to have to persuade Hearn to assist him.
“I believe it will help because it happened to me,” he said at last. “I spoke to a spirit. My brother, George.”
Hearn’s gaze flicked to the photograph on the wall and back.
“He was with the 80th Foot in Rangoon,” Ward went on. “On the night he died, he—he visited me. I heard his voice, Mr. Hearn, and it was unmistakably him. A visitation from my brother—from beyond the veil.”
Hearn’s expression was difficult to read, but Ward detected a glimmer of pity in those bright-silver eyes, one he’d seen before in others’ eyes. He didn’t like that sort of pity.
He continued, determined now to get it all out. “On the night it happened, I was on the deck of a ship, theArchimedes, in the midst of a huge electrical storm.”
“And so,” Hearn said, a hint of a question in his tone, “you have concluded this visitation occurred because of the storm?”