Mr Scarletti's Ghost (17 page)

‘After my adventure last night, I am quite certain,' said Mina. ‘It is no wonder to me now why the lady insists that no one must touch her spirit guide. Oh, I know that it is Professor Gaskin who says so but I am sure that he takes his orders from Miss Eustace, who he thinks will make his name as a great innovator. I can assure you that the lovely Phoebe is no more of the other world than I am. I cannot explain the glowing drapery but I am sure a chemist could do so; unless he was, like Professor Gaskin, blindfolded by his own credulity. When I fell against her I knew beyond doubt that what I was encountering was the body of a real, warm breathing woman.'

‘But consider,' said Dr Hamid thoughtfully, ‘and I am not necessarily disagreeing with your conclusions but merely offering this observation – there have been many cases where persons attending a séance have been touched by spirit hands and reported that they felt something like a solid human hand. I have experienced this myself. That seems to be very similar to what you have described. Could not Miss Eustace have used the vital energy produced by her body to create something warm and shaped like a woman?'

‘Could not Miss Eustace have dressed up in a lot of white muslin and pretended to be a ghost?' replied Mina.

‘She could, of course,' said Dr Hamid, ‘but from my recollection I am sure that Phoebe was several inches taller than Miss Eustace.'

‘She was, but I think that has a simple explanation,' said Mina. ‘Miss Eustace tends to adopt a slightly round-shouldered posture. She presents herself as the very essence of humility. As we both know, any bending of the spine will make a person appear to be shorter than they are. In order to become Phoebe she had only to stand up straight and walk on tiptoe. That was probably why she lost her balance and fell. You don't imagine that
I
can easily knock another person to the ground?'

‘No, but then you surprise me every day,' said Dr Hamid, with a smile. ‘But if Miss Eustace did indeed transform herself into Phoebe, she was able to change her clothes in just two minutes. Has a lady been born who can do that?'

‘We all can,' said Mina. ‘It is a matter of finding the right dressmaker.'

He paused. ‘I hope you like the mineral water; it is manufactured expressly for me.'

‘It is quite delicious. I will place an order for a dozen bottles if you can deliver them.'

They both sipped their drinks. ‘I think,' said Dr Hamid after a great deal of thought, ‘and I am reluctant to admit it because to do so would be to relinquish hope – that you may be right about Miss Eustace. Hope blinds people to the truth, makes them see only partial reality or even if they do see it all, they offer explanations that conform to their prejudices and ignore the more probable truth.' He put down his glass, opened a drawer, removed the papers that Mina had lent to him and laid them on the desk before him. ‘How can you do it, Miss Scarletti?' he said, shaking his head. ‘How can you take away hope? Some of us have nothing else; some of us live for it.'

‘I have had false hope offered to me and taken away so many times that I am more content to live without it,' said Mina. ‘I prefer the possible and the probable to the mysterious and unlikely.'

‘Dr Edmunds of the Dialectical Society, whose observations I have read with very great interest, is a sensible and forthright man,' said Dr Hamid, ‘but he admits in his statement that he was a sceptic from the outset, so it might take a great deal to move him, and I suspect that he is not a widower.'

‘I think that he is not a man who would let his feelings affect his judgement, and neither, I believe are you.'

He looked dejected and gazed at the portrait of his wife.

‘I have lost a darling sister, and also a father who I loved dearly,' said Mina. ‘I miss them every day, but they live on in my heart. Neither of them has ever rapped on walls or tables or rung bells or shaken a tambourine, and it is ludicrous to imagine that they might start doing so now.'

He nodded, wistfully. ‘Jane could not abide loud noise; she loved sweet music and harmony.'

‘The only reason mediums employ bells and tambourines is that they can be played in the dark with one hand and are not expected to produce a melody,' said Mina. ‘Let one play a tune on the trumpet and I might be persuaded to listen.'

‘You have an explanation for everything,' he replied, with a smile.

‘Not everything; far from it. And now that I am an outcast I need your help if I am to expose the fraud. I can see all too clearly that if I simply stood up and said that I did not believe, the opprobrium would fall upon me and not Miss Eustace. We need proof. If you are continuing to attend the séances you must observe them for me and carry back a report. There is no one else to whom I might appeal. All the others who attend are fervent believers in Miss Eustace with not a critical eye amongst them.'

Dr Hamid rested his fingertips on Dr Rand's scathing denunciation of Mr Home. ‘There are very many ladies like Jane Lyon residing in Brighton,' he observed. ‘Widows or spinsters of means who are as vulnerable as she and have no one to advise them. Well, I will see what I can do.'

That was, Mina feared, the best agreement she was likely to have. Before she left she purchased a subscription and enjoyed another vapour bath and massage. Anna was pleased with Mina's report on the exercises, satisfied herself that her patient was making progress without over-straining herself, and suggested that, if she might like to try it, some light work with dumb-bells might be the next step. Mina was eager for the next step. She had hope, a real true hope of something that she could reach out and take with her own efforts, hope that she could build the muscles of her back so that they would support her spine and prevent any risk of further collapse, hope that her lungs and heart would never be crushed by her own ribs. It was agreed that Mina would call to see Eliza again, and bring some of her own stories to read. Mina could see that she was Eliza's hope – not of any change in her body, since that was past any possibility of improvement, but the new friendship had opened a door to another place for Eliza's enquiring mind to explore.

Mina went home and pursued her exercises relentlessly. She spent the rest of the day at her desk. She had completed the tale of the cursed emerald, and her next composition was a story about a haunted castle. Its master was a tall stooping man with elephantine ears who had the command of a whole orchestra of ghosts able to entertain him with the most delightful music. The heroine of the tale, who had been kidnapped for her sweet singing voice, was trying to escape through a maze of tunnels that she had discovered under a trapdoor hidden beneath a carpet in a curtained recess. Chased by ghosts, she had turned and seized one, only to find that it was made of airy nothing and melted away in her arms.

M
iss Whinstone, when she called next morning for a conversation over the teacups with Louisa, was labouring under a fresh burden of barely suppressed excitement, and had made a change in her appearance so substantial that it was hard to know if one should be pleased or alarmed for her. Abandoning the dull bronze gown she had favoured since putting off her mourning, she had found something in light green, which matched the colour of her eyes. It was an old gown, something she had worn before her dear brother Archibald had died and was therefore, she was obliged to admit, dreadfully out of fashion, but she thought that with a little good advice she might have it altered and trimmed and no one would know that it was not just arrived from Paris. It was time, she said, touching her hair, which had had extra attention given to its dressing that day, to do away with drabness and go out and enjoy the summer months. She knew this because she had consulted Miss Eustace at a private séance the night before, and Archibald had come and told her so.

Louisa had grudgingly permitted Mina to sit with them in the parlour, although not without expressing grave concern that her daughter might commit some solecism or random act of mayhem that would hinder or even prevent Miss Whinstone's recall of events. Mina promised to sit very quietly without stirring from her chair, and say nothing at all unless spoken to. She was perfectly content with this arrangement since all she wished to do was listen, and had no desire to interrupt Miss Whinstone's flow of useful information.

Miss Simmons, who with her employer's restoration to vital good health was less of a nursemaid than someone who could be relied upon to fetch and carry, sat in a corner in a dark drab gown, like a piece of old furniture than no one had troubled to discard because it was occasionally useful. Whatever her opinions were of her position in the household, she kept them to herself.

Miss Eustace, enthused their visitor, was a good-natured and kindly young woman, who existed only to act as a channel through which the living could speak to their departed loved ones. Unable to resist inserting a touch of drama into the proceedings, Miss Whinstone felt obliged to mention that she had been very nervous to start with, and required a glass of water and the application of a smelling bottle before she could even consent to begin, imploring Miss Eustace not to summon any spirits that she would find frightening. Miss Eustace had gently reassured her that all would be as calm as possible, and she had nothing at all to fear, rather she would be uplifted and cheered by any communications she received.

Miss Whinstone's private séance had taken place not in the Gaskins' parlour but in the lady's own home, which, she believed was why her brother's spirit had come so readily. Archibald had always had her best interests at heart, and his wise counsel was something she had sorely missed. Through the agency of Miss Eustace, however, she had been able to speak to and even touch him, and had received messages of great comfort.

The proceedings had begun with the medium and her client sitting facing each other across a small table, and after a few minutes of prayer and reflection, Miss Eustace had quietly drifted into a state of trance. Mina would have liked to know if the two women had sat in the dark, but since it was not mentioned, she assumed that they had. Her reading on spiritualism had led her to the conclusion that sitters at a séance only made a point of mentioning the available light when there was any. It was not long, said Miss Whinstone, before the spirit of her dearest Archibald made itself known by tapping softly on the table. Miss Eustace had whispered to her, asking that she should place her hands underneath the table, and she had felt, very distinctly, her brother's hand touching hers.

‘And it was certainly he,' she gasped. ‘I know that there are some who might say it was all in my imagination, or that it was really Miss Eustace's hand I could feel,' – here Miss Whinstone cast a very accusing look at Mina – ‘but Miss Eustace was sitting much too far away to touch me and in any case it was undoubtedly a man's hand, in a leather glove, very like the ones Archibald used to wear. Miss Eustace has such small, delicate hands and I could not have made that mistake. And there was no one else in the room.'

‘Did your brother speak to you?' asked Louisa.

‘No, although I am told that if I am patient that may happen in time. It would so please me to hear his dear voice again! But he was able to send me messages by knocking on the table. I asked him questions and he could answer yes or no by the number of knocks, or if I spoke the letters of the alphabet out loud he could show his agreement to them and so spell out words.'

‘How very wonderful!' exclaimed Louisa, almost quivering with impatient curiosity coloured by a bitter hint of jealousy. ‘Did he have anything of importance to convey?'

Miss Whinstone glowed at the recollection. ‘He told me that he is very happy and has a fine house to live in, and worships God daily, but I must not think of joining him for a long while yet as I have my life to lead here first, and good and charitable works to perform. I have missed him so, and he misses me, but the pain of separation will be eased now that we can converse. And he assured me that he is in good company, for he sees Mr Scarletti and Mr Bettinson and many others and they are very friendly.'

‘Extraordinary!' said Louisa, as well she might, thought Mina. Archibald Whinstone had died not long after the Scarlettis had moved to Brighton. Her father had only met him once, declared him to be a peevish fellow, and had not expressed any great desire to see him again. ‘Was your brother friends with Mr Bettinson?' queried Louisa.

‘Oh but that is the marvellous thing!' exclaimed Miss Whinstone. ‘They could not abide each other while they lived, and just before Mr Bettinson died they were not on speaking terms. Mr Bettinson, who I cannot say I liked a great deal, was a very quarrelsome man who went to law on the smallest excuse. Archibald wrote a letter to the
Gazette
to complain about a speech that some foolish gentleman had made at a meeting and Mr Bettinson had imagined that Archibald was referring to him. No argument could convince him that he was wrong, and he was on the point of suing poor Archibald when he suddenly fell down and died of apoplexy. But Archibald said that now they are both in the spirit they have quite made up their differences and are the greatest of friends.'

‘So the spirit world is a place of harmony where all quarrels may be mended and all wrongs righted,' said Louisa.

‘Oh yes,' said Miss Whinstone ecstatically, ‘and how happy I am to have been granted even this little sight of its wonders.'

Both women turned to look at Mina as if she might be inclined to say something. Mina was inclined to say a great deal, but was determined to keep to her promise. She smiled politely, took more tea, and was silent.

‘I am happy to say that I have now quite lost my fear of the spirits,' announced Miss Whinstone. ‘Passing into another phase only makes us better than we were.'

‘And – please excuse me for asking this – but you are quite quite certain beyond any doubt that it was your brother to whom you spoke?' asked Louisa.