Mr Scarletti's Ghost (8 page)

Mina picked up the paper on which was inscribed a pious wish for the good health and fortune of those in attendance. ‘The spirits have very poor handwriting,' she observed, ‘or perhaps they cannot see in the dark.'

‘I do not know how the writing is produced,' said Mrs Gaskin. ‘It may be that the force exerted by Miss Eustace is as yet insufficiently refined to allow a more elegant hand.'

‘Has she given you no clue as to how it is done?'

‘None at all. She is always quite unable to recall anything of what has passed, and least of all is she aware of how her powers are exercised.'

Mina, while not wanting to appear to be making an obvious search for trickery, moved about the little alcove, sure that if there were any cords or strings she would encounter them, but she was aware of nothing other than what she could see. ‘Miss Eustace is most remarkable,' she said, ‘and I profess myself to be full of wonder at what I have seen today.'

Mrs Gaskin smiled indulgently. ‘I have seen even more remarkable things, and if you come to us again I am sure that you will see them, too. As our numbers grow and the spirits gain strength from the favourable energies that surround them so they will grant us more powerful manifestations.'

Mina was intrigued by the idea that the spirits were more powerful in the presence of devoted believers. Was Miss Eustace more inclined to perform miracles in front of her most ardent supporters? Or did it mean that believers were more likely to see what they were supposed to see? And what about unbelievers? Supposing someone, a stage magician for example, was to come for the sole purpose of exposing deception? Would he be a source of unfavourable energy, assuming there even to be such a thing? All these were matters that Mina felt she ought not to pursue with Mrs Gaskin; she merely offered her gratitude for the invitation and the hope that she might be allowed to come again. Mrs Gaskin's sturdy whalebones creaked and strained with the sincere humility of Mina's appreciation.

The excitement over, the company had in the meantime settled down to tea and conversation. Miss Eustace had withdrawn, or at least Mina assumed she had done so and not vanished in a puff of smoke, and Dr Hamid had arranged for Miss Whinstone to be conveyed to her home in a cab in the company of Mrs Bettinson. As Mrs Gaskin went to join her guests, Mina crossed the room to where the water glasses on the sideboard had been disturbed, but could see nothing to suggest how they might have moved without human agency. That part of the room smelt slightly of the candle and matches, but nothing more.

‘You are new to these gatherings,' said Dr Hamid, appearing by her side.

She turned and looked up at him. He was not at all discomfited by recent events and seemed to be the kind of gentleman that one could always rely upon to deal with any emergency without either fuss or self-aggrandisement. ‘Yes,' said Mina, ‘my mother has taken a very great interest in them and I determined to come and see for myself.'

‘This is my third visit,' he said, ‘and thus far all we have had was a great deal of noise and a few lights. You have been favoured with some unusual manifestations.'

There was a hint of caution in his voice, a little doubt, perhaps, thought Mina, or at the very least a desire for further enquiry. Hopeful that she had at last met someone capable of exercising a proper sense of proportion, she was emboldened to make a frank declaration, if only to see what would be the result.

‘To be truthful, I am not sure of what I have seen and heard today,' she said. ‘Certainly nothing I have witnessed has convinced me of the existence of mischievous spirits or of powers that extend beyond the human form, or the necessity of founding a new principle of science. If someone was to come to me and demonstrate that it was all a conjuring trick I would be neither surprised nor disappointed.'

He was a little taken aback at the suggestion, but not repelled. ‘Miss Whinstone informed me that she recognised the shade of her late brother,' he observed.

‘Miss Whinstone is in such a state of nervousness she would have recognised a mop wearing a false beard as her late brother,' Mina replied, drawing a smile from the doctor. ‘And I for one do not accept Professor Gaskin's reasons as to why the performance had to be held in the dark. If it had occurred in a bright light I would have been more willing to accept that there was something in it. For all his protestations, darkness is the best means of concealing a fraud, though how it was worked, I cannot say.'

‘I think you have the strongest nerves of anyone in this room,' said Dr Hamid, ‘and as a man of science, I have to confess that I am still unsure of the foundation for these events, although I would not wish to offend our hosts by saying so.' He slid one of the glasses on the sideboard across the polished wooden surface. It moved with barely a touch of his fingers.

‘Where there are simple rational explanations, I prefer them,' said Mina, ‘and I am suspicious of anyone who professes to be in possession of a new truth for the good of mankind and then uses it to fill their purse or elevate themselves in society.'

‘I hope,' he said, with an unforced humility, ‘that you will not see me in that light. I offer treatments for the afflicted, but I must also necessarily be a man of business, since we must all earn our bread or starve.'

‘You will not be surprised to know,' Mina told him, ‘that I view all medical men with suspicion, and that is not from prejudice, but experience. I hope you are not offended but I must speak my mind on that point.'

‘Not at all,' he said, gently, ‘and I can well understand what events might have led you to that opinion.'

‘But thus far,' she admitted, ‘I have heard only good of you.'

‘You are too kind.' He hesitated. ‘Miss Scarletti, if you do not mind my commenting, I can see that you are suffering some pain.'

Mina frowned. She had no objection to anyone mentioning either her appearance or its consequences; the thing she could not abide was the offer of false hope.

‘I am sorry if I have distressed you,' he said, ‘but I am very familiar with the presentation of
scoliosis
. There is an ache which starts in the shoulder from the strain placed upon the muscles – just – if you will permit me –' he reached out and touched her shoulder with his fingertips, ‘just here.'

With some surprise Mina was obliged to acknowledge that he had touched the exact spot from which the pain was spreading.

‘I trust you will not be offering me a cure?' she said wryly.

‘The man who claims he can correct the curvature in your spine is either ignorant or a charlatan,' he assured her. ‘But what I can offer is relief for the pain in your back. My sister Anna attends to the lady patients, and would, I know, wish to see you. I promise you that there will be no metal braces, no plaster of Paris waistcoats, no narcotic mixtures and above all no knives.'

Mina was not yet willing to admit this to be a serious conversation. ‘And she will not tread on my spine and wrap my arms about my head and make my joints crack?'

‘Only if she deems it necessary,' he said solemnly, and Mina realised that he was teasing her. He produced a card, wrote something on the back with a pencil, and handed it to her. ‘That is my promise that if you present yourself at my establishment, you will receive your first treatment gratis,' he said. ‘Please do come, I know you will feel the benefit.'

Mina did not look at the card; she looked at the man. ‘I will,' she heard herself say.

I
nevitably, and to a degree monotonously, Mina was often told by well-meaning folk about wonderful ‘cures' for her condition. Often, she was not directly addressed; rather the subject was introduced into a general conversation at which she was present, but it was always very clear that the information was being imparted for her benefit. Sometimes these messages would be passed to her mother, who was expected to impose her wishes on Mina as if her daughter was not a sensible adult able to make her own decisions. On other occasions, Mina would be quietly taken aside and advised in an embarrassed whisper to try Brill's tepid sea-water baths for ladies, or drink Dr Struve's German mineral waters. Each of these helpful advisors was under the impression that she – and it was usually a she – was the very first person ever to make such a suggestion.

Mina was also regaled with stories of the wonder cures of the past such as Dr Dean Mahomed's Indian medicated vapour baths and hot and cold douches, which had been vouched for by nobility and even royalty. Dr Mahomed had died almost twenty years ago, and his establishment on the King's Road, whose walls had once been ornamented with murals of richly dressed Moghul Emperors and displays of the abandoned crutches and spine-stretchers of his delighted customers, had fallen into disuse. Only last year it had been demolished for yet another hotel. It was Dr Hamid who was now considered to be Dr Dean Mahomed's natural successor in the provision of oriental medicine, and Dr Hamid who, with some apprehension, Mina was about to visit.

The doctor did not command a large property, but it occupied a good position on the seafront where Manchester Street met the Marine Parade, close to the site of Mr Brill's original bathhouse, a rounded protuberance that had once encroached on to the Grand Junction Road and had gone by the unflattering name of Brill's Bunion.

There were thankfully no bunions or indeed any unsightly signs and posters on Dr Hamid's bathhouse; it was a simple square building that announced itself as ‘Hamid's Indian Vapour Bath and Medicated Shampoo'.

Brill's new baths on East Street was a large and prominent presence in Brighton society, much favoured for pleasurable warm bathing, while offering the subtle suggestion that its waters induced a health-giving effect on the skin and organs of the body, but Dr Hamid's baths were different. With mysterious unnamed and specially imported Indian herbs infused in its soothing vapours, it was thought of not so much as a fashionable venue for salubrious repose and dismissing the cares of the world, but as a place of resort for the treatment of diseases such as rheumatism. It was therefore much favoured by invalids, the elderly and the afflicted. Mina had been told – another of those private whispers – that if she went to Dr Hamid's she need have no anxiety that she would be required to share a pool or a vapour room with another patient, as all treatments were given in individual compartments. When she had first been told this she had assumed that the confidence was intended to reassure her that she would not come into close proximity with anyone suffering from an unpleasant disease. On reflection she realised that she was actually being comforted with the knowledge that there would, when she undressed, be no one present who would gaze on her deformity. Mina thought that had she been a person much given to anxiety, which she was not, she would have other things with which to concern herself than whether another lady bather might catch a glimpse of her spine.

As she approached the entrance door, she was surprised to see a familiar figure emerge, Mr Bradley. She was not especially inclined to speak to him, but was somewhat curious as to the reason he patronised Hamid's, since it ran contrary to his claims to be a healer, and did not object when he tipped his hat and stopped for a conversation.

‘Miss Scarletti, are you here to take a vapour bath? I did not know you were a patient of Dr Hamid!'

‘This is my first visit, Mr Bradley, but I could say the same of you. I trust you are well?'

‘Oh, I am in the pink of health,' he assured her, ‘but channelling the powers of the spirits at my healing circles can be very exhausting, and I find the vapour quite restores me. You may or may not know this, but herbs are often held to have beneficial properties.'

‘Then I must anticipate my bath with some pleasure,' said Mina politely.

He paused. ‘I trust that Miss Whinstone is fully recovered from her recent episode? She spoke to me at church and told me all that had happened. I was quite astonished.'

‘Miss Whinstone was so alarmed that she has become an ardent devotee of Miss Eustace and means to go again and have still more experiences that will frighten her from her wits,' said Mina, who had been told this at very great length by her mother.

He smiled. ‘And what did
you
think of the demonstration?'

Mina was happy to express her suspicions and anxieties to her brothers and a fellow doubter like Dr Hamid, but if she had wanted to share them with another person, that person would not have been Mr Bradley. ‘I found it quite extraordinary,' she said guardedly. ‘It was impossible for me to explain what I had seen.'

He nodded knowingly. ‘I can see that you are also becoming a devotee; as most of Brighton will soon be, so I have heard.'

‘I can safely say that Miss Eustace arouses my very keen interest, and I shall be eager to see more of what she does, and learn more about her,' said Mina.

Mr Bradley seemed not to catch her meaning, but then she did not expect him to. ‘Would you be kind enough to advise your charming mother that I will call upon her to conduct the healing circle again tomorrow?'

‘I will certainly do so,' said Mina, trying to look as if the prospect was one that promised enjoyment.

They parted with the usual courtesies.

Mina paused in front of the doors of Dr Hamid's baths, but did not yet feel ready to enter. If she tried to explore her feelings she did not really know why she was there. It was not in the hope of a cure; that, she knew, was impossible. Perhaps it was because Dr Hamid had not promised her a cure, or even an improvement in her condition, and she therefore felt more able to trust him than any doctor she had previously consulted. She had also sensed that he had a genuine understanding of the restrictions imposed by her twisted body on her daily life. But perhaps she was there simply because her shoulder ached and she would like it to stop aching.