Mr Scarletti's Ghost (30 page)

She saw nothing of Richard, and assumed that he was busily engaged establishing his new career as an impresario of supernatural entertainment, although she was not sure if she should be glad of this or not. It was, admittedly, a source of income, and provided that he did not squander it, as he seemed to do with every other item of value that came into his hands, might make him independent of their mother. After all, M. Robert-Houdin had made a very respectable living on the stage for many years. Their father would in all probability have thought it a wonderful joke and made eyes at Miss Gilden. One afternoon, while Mina was out having her steam bath, the oriental vase reappeared in the hallway, with only a small crack on its rim that had not been there before.

The arrival of Miss Foxton in Brighton had not, to Mina's great disappointment, created any difficulty for Miss Eustace. Each lady had her own coterie, and as Richard had predicted, there was ample room for them both in the town. There was no suggestion in any of the prevailing gossip that the two were rivals. If anything, the excitement regarding Miss Foxton had merely served to increase the general interest in spirit mediums, and while Nellie Gilden quickly acquired a large number of admirers, Miss Eustace's fame also advanced. Mina had not heard a great deal of Mr Bradley, but saw from the newspapers that he was continuing to advertise his healing circles and assumed that he still prospered. While she was prepared under sufferance to accompany her mother to his pious demonstrations, she had no intention of going of her own volition.

With no new scheme in mind with which to end the career of Miss Eustace, Mina could only wait and hope that the craze would end, or that some other opponent more powerful than herself, another Mr Maskelyne perhaps, would appear, or that Miss Gilden's observations might provide some clue that would assist her.

The clue, when it did appear, came, however, from another source.

The newspapers had recently reported the death of a Mrs Apperley, a long-time resident of Brighton who was well known for her charitable work. As Mina read a lengthy appreciation of this selfless paragon, a detail that particularly caught her attention was that the lady had been eighty-six. This was the age mentioned by the young solicitor Ronald Phipps as that of the lady who had denounced Miss Eustace. Could Mrs Apperley have been the lady to whom he had referred? He had been silent as to her name, since she was a client, and Mina wondered how she might discover more. The only obstacle to this lady being the one Mr Phipps had mentioned was that the visit to the medium had taken place in London and Mrs Apperley had never, to Mina's knowledge, lived in London.

The next time she visited Dr Hamid's baths Mina mentioned Mrs Apperley and her sad demise, and learned that the lady had been a regular customer. Mina was quite open with Anna Hamid about the reasons for her interest, and found her forthcoming, since none of what she had to say was in any way confidential information or related to her patient's medical condition or treatment. On the last visit before her final illness Mrs Apperley had mentioned Miss Eustace, asking if Anna had ever been to one of her séances, commenting only that she had been once and would not trouble herself to go again. Mrs Apperley had never lived in London, but she did, it transpired, have a niece, a Lady Dunkley, who resided there, and a great-nephew of whom she was very fond.

Following Eliza's death, Anna and her brother had determined to devote themselves wholly to each other, Dr Hamid's children and their patients. Both lived with a grief that was weighty and relentless, but they had been able to take comfort from the fact that what they did for others was inspired by their sister.

The energy that Anna had once directed to the care of Eliza had now been transferred to Mina. There was a new kind of steady and concentrated focus on building Mina's strength and endurance, something with which Mina was more than happy to comply. They often worked together as she learned and refined her exercises, and the benefits were becoming apparent. Mina could see a new firmness in her muscles, which were beginning to achieve a defined shape quite out of keeping with what might have been thought womanly. It was pleasing to have such a secret, to have hidden power in her tiny frame. Anna was also experimenting with new ideas for exercises to benefit scoliosis patients for which Eliza would not have been sufficiently robust and Mina was her willing subject. One room in the bathhouse premises was now devoted to assisting patients with careful exercise, and was furnished with all the items that one might need, including a ladder of wooden bars that had been fastened to the wall. Mina had to perform a set of stretches while holding on to the bars, and under Anna's eyes found the heights that were best for her, sometimes grasping with one hand a little higher than the other to try and align her obstinate spine. In time, said Anna cautiously, she might even progress to lifting her feet from the floor and hanging her full weight from the bar, but not yet, she warned, and not without supervision.

The date and location of Mrs Apperley's funeral had been announced in the newspapers, and at the appointed time Mina joined the large throng who attended the service at St George's Kemp Town to give thanks for a long life spent in the service of others. It was not hard to identify the small grouping of people who were the family of the deceased, and Mina's request to be allowed a brief interview with Lady Dunkley was quickly agreed to, it being assumed from her appearance that she was one of Mrs Apperley's charitable cases who wished to offer her personal appreciation.

‘Lady Dunkley,' said Mina humbly, ‘it is very kind of you to spare a little of your time to speak to me.'

‘Not at all,' replied that lady, who had a ready smile. ‘Were you well acquainted with my aunt?'

‘It is my great regret that I was not,' Mina admitted, ‘but of course here in Brighton, she was generally famed and revered for her devotion to the poor and afflicted. There was, I have learned recently, another more unusual matter that concerned her, and I hope to be able to continue her work in that area.'

‘That is very good of you, and it would be much appreciated,' said Lady Dunkley, supplying a small card. ‘Please do let me know if there is any way in which I can assist.'

‘Thank you,' said Mina. ‘For the moment, I require only one small piece of information. Mrs Apperley very recently expressed her doubts about the activities of spirit mediums here in Brighton, who she felt were preying on the bereaved and doing great harm. In the case of one such lady whose name it might not be politic to mention, she thought she had encountered her once before, in London. Did she perhaps mention this to you?'

‘I am afraid not,' said Lady Dunkley. ‘We have been abroad for the last six months and I have not seen my aunt to speak to her in that time. In London, you say?' She shook her head. ‘My aunt did not in any case visit London very frequently. After she passed eighty travel was very difficult for her. The last time to my knowledge that she was in London was almost two years ago for the christening of my grandson.'

‘If I may be so bold,' asked Mina, ‘when precisely did that take place?'

Lady Dunkley was clearly a little startled at the way the conversation had turned. She hesitated, and the ready smile faded, but after a few moments, as Mina had anticipated, accommodated the wishes of the little woman with the misshapen body who stood before her. ‘It was in the early part of September 1869.'

‘Do you think it possible that your aunt did go to a spirit medium during that visit?' Mina asked.

Lady Dunkley was even further taken aback by that question, and Mina feared that her boldness had made her venture too far. ‘I can only say,' replied the lady, carefully, ‘that it was a subject she did once mention to me as a great curiosity, in that it was a subject of conversation in society, but I am afraid I cannot advise you further.'

Mina thanked the lady warmly and departed. Once home, she packaged up the manuscript of her recently completed story to send to Mr Greville, and included a letter advising him that she had been reading about spirit mediums with the idea of writing a new story to feature one who was guilty of a terrible crime. She had been told of a scandal in London regarding a lady who had been conducting séances in the capital, most probably in September 1869 and had been detected in fraud and sent to prison. Unfortunately she did not have the lady's name, but hoped Mr Greville might know of, or be able to discover something about the incident.

Since Eliza's death Mina had not seen a great deal of Dr Hamid, although they occasionally met briefly when she visited the baths. After the confidences they had shared, which had seemed to add warmth to their friendship, he had made no more attempts to initiate a conversation, and she wondered if he had regretted his openness. On her next visit to the baths Mina mentioned this to Anna, saying that she hoped she had said nothing to offend her brother. Anna smiled sadly.

‘The fault is not yours,' she said. ‘I am sorry to say that Daniel has been receiving visits from Miss Eustace, two so far and I believe another is planned.'

‘You mean he has paid her for private consultations?' said Mina, both concerned and disappointed.

‘I am afraid so. I would prefer it if he did not, but I could not dissuade him.'

‘Do you feel he takes any benefit from these consultations?' asked Mina. ‘They may all be fraud, but if he finds some comfort in them then maybe – just for a short while –'

‘It is hard to be sure,' said Anna, although her worried expression betrayed her feelings. ‘You may imagine how it was for him to lose both a wife and a sister within months of each other. He looks for hope and it is hard to reason with him. He knows I do not approve and declines to speak to me on the subject. I think he knows very well that you would be of the same opinion as I, and it is for that reason he avoids speaking to you.'

‘I am pleased to hear it,' said Mina, after some thought. ‘It shows that he still retains a healthy doubt in what he is doing. Had he been convinced that he was right he would have been so armoured with certainty as to be impregnable to all argument and would be eager to try and convince me, too.'

‘I am wondering if he has been warned that you are a bad influence best avoided,' said Anna, awkwardly.

‘Oh, I do hope so!' said Mina. ‘What could be more fascinating? I shall see him at once.'

‘What will you say?' asked Anna.

‘If you will permit me, I will be bold with him and ask what messages he has received,' said Mina. ‘Miss Eustace in her private consultations convinces people that she is genuine by providing personal details of the departed, things which it would seem only their closest family and friends know. Everything else Miss Eustace does, be it ringing bells or raising tables off the floor, can be put down to conjuring tricks. Even the believers in such phenomena who put them down to a supernatural force are not convinced that there is an actual guiding intelligence causing them; they think it is some form of energy produced by the medium, and not the actual spirits of the dead. The private séances, however, leave us with only two possibilities – that Miss Eustace is genuinely bringing messages from the departed or that she is an outright fraud with some secret means of finding out information. Perhaps there might be something in what your brother has experienced that will help us decide.' She paused. ‘I do not wish to add to his burdens; only tell me I am wrong and I will go.'

‘You are very welcome to try,' said Anna. ‘What you learn may do good. Sometimes people will confide in friends what they will not tell their most intimate family.'

‘That is true,' said Mina. ‘My mother claims to have seen my father's ghost and received messages from him of a private nature, but will tell me no more than that. Perhaps I should interview her great friend Mrs Bettinson, or her dressmaker, who will no doubt have all the details.'

When Mina knocked on the door of Dr Hamid's office she was careful not to speak, since if he was avoiding her, hearing her voice would have given him the opportunity to plead some other appointment. She knew that he was kindly and would not thoughtlessly turn anyone away even if he was busy, and as she expected, he bade her enter. As soon as she saw him, his little guilty hesitation tainted with poorly concealed dismay showed that her surmise was correct; he was ashamed of himself for consulting Miss Eustace, but was unable to give up the visits, and thought that Mina was there to scold him.