The Royal Ghost Read online

  ‘You have not seen the ghost yourself?’

  ‘I have never in my ten years as an attendant here seen anything of the kind or heard of anything of that sort occurring.’

  ‘Well that is very disappointing,’ said Mina.

  They proceeded to the Chinese gallery, which, said their guide, was famed for the beauty and delicacy of its design, and was said by those who had seen it in the days of the old King to be one of the most superb apartments that Art and Fancy could produce. While still glorious to the eye, like a visual garden of bamboo and peonies, it contained only a few of the original ornaments since so much had been removed when the Queen had decided to no longer favour the Pavilion with her presence. Later refurbishments carried out at the town’s expense had, however, maintained the essential oriental flavour. ‘Am I correct,’ asked Mina, ‘in thinking that there were once, in the time of the late King, life-sized statues standing in the niches clad in Chinese costume?’

  The guide paused with a look of surprise. ‘That is correct.’ This scenario was deliciously rife with potential for a tale of horror and Mina again made a note.

  The next wonder they beheld was the enormous banqueting room, dominated by a cut crystal chandelier said to weigh more than a ton. Mina could only worry at the safety of such an item despite the robustness of the gold chains by which it was suspended. When she commented on this, the attendant revealed that Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV, had actually had nightmares in which it had fallen, crushing members of the court. This prospect had so terrified her that she had prevailed upon the King to have it removed, and it had not been replaced until the time of the present Queen. Mina again wrote in her notebook: ‘Chandelier falling – banquet? ballroom? theatre?’ This, she was reminded, was the very room that Mr Hope had said he would hire for the performance of a séance by Miss Eustace. Mina glanced up at the giant chandelier again, but thought it was too much to wish for that it might descend at the very moment that Miss Eustace was underneath it.

  The examination of the South Drawing Room, once known as the Green Drawing Room due to the prevailing hue of its draperies, alerted Mina to a passage in An Encounter when the ladies had been confused at entering a room they had once thought to be green but now found it had a peculiar blueish coloration. While feeling sure it was the same room, due to its dimensions and the positioning of the columns, they also saw that it was no longer lit by crystal gas standards but a large number of Chinese lanterns. Their account had simply suggested to Mina that since every room in the Pavilion was different in character the ladies had wandered into another room and become confused, but comparing their description with the room she was standing in, she began to wonder.

  ‘These valances are a delightful shade of green,’ she commented.

  ‘The only remnant of its former glory,’ agreed the attendant with a sigh. ‘It was once a very elegant apartment, but little remains to suggest it. Note, however, the fine painting of the ceiling panels, and the beautiful gas lamps and ceiling flowers which were installed by the town authorities and have greatly improved the illumination and ventilation.’

  ‘How was it formerly lit?’

  ‘I believe by oil lanterns as so many of the apartments were.’

  ‘And was it always green?’

  ‘Well, now you mention it, no. It was once known as the ‘Blue Drawing Room’ but that was very many years ago. This whole suite of rooms has undergone substantial changes mainly dating from the time of King George.’

  They moved on through the apartments, and although these were splendid to the eye, the party was assured that what they saw was as nothing to the original beauties of the interior, which had been most dazzling. It had once been the pinnacle of luxury and taste, but with most of the original furniture and decorations having been distributed to other palaces one could only wish that by some magic it might all be restored. Mina was especially curious to see the King’s Apartments, assuming that these would be extremely opulent, but discovered that they were no longer so, and the rooms were now available to be hired for private meetings of local societies.

  ‘It all looks rather too grand for me,’ said Richard, regretfully. ‘A room large enough to hold a play would be an expensive proposition.’

  ‘You may be right,’ agreed Mina, but she asked the attendant about hire fees all the same, and he advised her to contact the Pavilion committee.

  Their tour done, Mina purchased a slim guidebook, which gave a little of the Pavilion’s history and what the modern visitor might expect to see, but she was troubled. She had expected to find that the authors of An Encounter had simply described the Pavilion into which they had wandered during their ghostly experience, either as they had seen it, or as it was described in the guidebook, but they had done neither. Nowhere in the guidebook was there mention of the life-size Chinese figures or the South Drawing Room being blue and not green.

  Their guide had gone on to greet the next party, one of whom was a very voluble lady with a loud voice. It was impossible not to hear her demanding to be shown the ‘ghost room’. The guide was apologetic but told her the same as he had told Mina. ‘Are you sure?’ bellowed the lady in surprise. ‘You have never seen the ghost? But you must have done, surely; my mother told me it is not the first such sighting in the Pavilion, and she is never mistaken about such things.’

  Mina looked around.

  ‘Careful my dear,’ murmured Richard, ‘your ears are waving so much that I will catch a chill in the breeze.’

  ‘Take me for a walk,’ said Mina, putting her hand on his arm, and they approached the lady and her group a little closer.

  ‘I assure you, Madam,’ the guide was protesting, ‘I have been an attendant here for ten years and no such matter has ever been reported.’

  ‘Oh, it was far longer ago than that,’ insisted the visitor, ‘I believe it was a single lady who saw the Prince. It was the subject of some gossip at the time, but I do not know if she wrote a book about it.’

  ‘There are royal ghosts everywhere in Brighton, just now,’ chimed in another lady visitor. ‘We held a séance at my house only last night, and Mrs Fitzherbert herself made the table tilt and then she wrote a message on a piece of paper.’

  ‘She peered from behind a curtain in my house,’ said another, ‘and she looked exactly as she does in the portraits.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ sighed Mina. ‘Let us go home.’

  ‘You are not about to try and persuade all these people that they are imagining things?’ asked Richard.

  ‘No, for I would fail.’ As with her earlier conflict with the mediums, Mina knew that she could not save everyone from themselves, and if someone was determined to be duped against every argument there was nothing she could do. ‘All I wish to do is prove that the supposed encounter was either a mistake or a fraud. That would calm the concerns of Dr and Miss Hamid and help them with their patients, and knock some of the ground from under Mr Hope’s campaign to free Miss Eustace.’

  ‘The ladies said they saw the Prince and his inamorata in the costume of their youth,’ said Richard, thoughtfully. ‘Was no one performing or rehearsing a play at that time?’

  ‘No, I have studied the newspapers and the only entertainment taking place in the Pavilion which required a special costume of any kind was a series of concerts by the band of the Inniskilling Dragoons.’

  ‘A set of fine fellows no doubt,’ said Richard. ‘I am sure that many of them could be mistaken for bold young Prinny, and who knows, one or two might even be mistaken for Mrs Fitzherbert.’

  Once home Mina began drafting ideas for some new stories, called ‘The Golden Dragon’, ‘A Chinese Mystery’ and ‘The Crystal Phantom’, then, when she was sure she would not be disturbed, she took up the dumbbells and worked until her muscles felt warm and ached pleasantly. She was hoping that as she did so some inspiration would appear and show her a way out of her dilemma, but when at last she rested, she remained unenlightened.

  Fourtee
n

  Mina was not expecting a second letter from Mr Greville quite so soon, so when one arrived the next morning she opened it with curiosity.

  Dear Miss Scarletti

  I was not anticipating having to write to you again on the question of the book An Encounter, which you mentioned to me recently, but circumstances have changed quite unexpectedly and now it is I who must ask if you know any more of the matter. Mr Worple, the printer who was so very satisfied with the situation only a few days ago, has, in view of the enquiries I made on your behalf, just come to see me in a very anxious state. He has been approached by a Brighton solicitor who demanded to know the real names and address of the authors of An Encounter, and refused to believe that he does not have that information or is unable to obtain it. Mr Worple has been given to understand that an action is being contemplated against the Misses Bland for plagiarism. It is beyond him to know what publication it is claimed is being plagiarised and my enquiries have come to nothing. Unfortunately, the solicitor has not chosen to reveal his hand at present.

  I should mention that Mr Worple is of the opinion that nothing will come of this action. The book has been extremely successful and, in his experience, when that occurs jealous persons who see some slight similarity between a popular work and one of their own which has not enjoyed the same number of sales make threats of court action hoping to achieve a quick settlement with little trouble and some profit to themselves.

  If there is any information you have which might clarify the mystery I would very much appreciate your advising me, assuring you of course of my complete confidentiality.

  Mina composed a letter to Mr Greville. She was obliged to tell him that she had no further insights as to the identity of the authors, but had recently learned that Mr Arthur Wallace Hope fervently believed that they were powerful but undeveloped mediums. She also advised him that the Misses Bland’s tour of the Pavilion must have taken place on 17 October 1870, giving her reasons behind that opinion. She described her own visit and the fact that an attendant with ten years’ service had been adamant that no ghosts had ever been sighted there. Without warning, however, Mina, whose pen seemed to be taking on a life of its own, found herself promising Mr Greville that she would do her best to discover more.

  As she sealed the letter Mina reflected on her experience of the Pavilion, and recalled the lady visitor who had been so stridently insistent that the royal ghost had appeared there before. The guide had said he had heard nothing of it in the last ten years, but the lady had countered this argument by declaring that the earlier haunting was longer ago than that, citing her mother as the authority. Mina had thought at the time that this was no more than a piece of town gossip, but now she had to wonder – what if the gossip was based not on mere rumour but an actual publication? If it was, then perhaps this publication was the very same one that had stimulated the legal action?

  It was the faintest possible chance that the two events were actually connected but Mina decided to amuse herself by imagining that they were, and considered what she might deduce from that position. First, it meant that the supposedly pirated account had been published more than ten years ago. She doubted that it was written by a noble or royal visitor to the Pavilion during the time it was owned by the Crown. The Queen, she saw in her guidebook, had effectively abandoned the Pavilion in 1845. A book written by a titled individual would have been prominent in the library and widely read – no one would have dared plagiarise it, and the last royal person to write a book about the supernatural was King James I, although his chosen subject was witchcraft. If the author was a member of the public then the work must have been written after 1850, when the building, then in the process of being acquired by Brighton Corporation, was first opened for viewing.

  Mina knew that she could not assume that the publication was a book. It might have been a chapter included in a collection of essays, an unbound pamphlet or a contribution to a journal or magazine. It was not an unpublished letter or no action for plagiarism was possible. Nothing had been said about it before now, which suggested that it had not enjoyed a wide distribution, and few if any copies remained. With no title, no date, no author, no place of publication and no guarantee that what she sought even existed, Mina needed more clues. How she wished she had taken more notice of the lady, and would be able to find her again and recognise her, but there had been nothing distinctive about her appearance that she could recall.

  Mina wondered if Mr Hope knew about the action for plagiarism, and suspected that he did not. He had had only one meeting with the authors, which must have taken place before the accusation. If neither Mr Worple nor Mr Hope knew the identity of the authors and the plaintiff’s solicitor had been unable to trace them, then it was possible that the authors did not know of the action either. The solicitor would have to advertise for the information and employ detectives, and in the meantime Mr Worple, if he had any sense, would print no more copies of An Encounter.

  That morning’s edition of the Gazette included a review of Mr Hope’s recent lecture, which Mina read with interest, though she did not know how well the newspaper reflected the views of the town. The portion of the lecture describing his adventures in Africa was dealt with very fairly and the writer said many appreciative things about Mr Hope’s undoubted courage and spirit of philanthropy. Addresses were provided to enable readers to send donations to the Viscount Hope funds for the relief of Dr Livingstone and assistance for disabled veterans of the Crimea. On the question of spiritualism, however, the writer took a sterner tone. It was to be regretted that the noble explorer had ventured away from matters in which he was undeniably an expert into areas that were still with good reason unpopular in Brighton. Many of those in the audience were shocked to learn that Mr Hope was an advocate of a certain book, which featured unseemly events in the Royal Pavilion, and had even sought to interview its authors. He had also intimated that he planned to give a lecture on spiritualism in the near future, a subject the Gazette suggested he would be best advised to leave well alone until a certain trial was concluded.

  Mina looked forward to reading what the paper would write when it received news of the action for plagiarism. She had hardly finished reading when Enid came fresh from her morning toilette eager for glowing words of her new hero. As she read the Gazette’s reservations, so her expression of pleasure darkened and finally she threw the paper down saying that the writer didn’t know what he was talking about. She made a great performance out of settling to read African Quest, which she had been making valiant efforts to enjoy, but it was not to her usual taste and it was hard work for her to conceal the fact that she found it tedious.

  Mina decided that the best place for her to seek more information about the previous ghostly sighting was the Royal Pavilion itself. Richard was nowhere to be found, so she decided to venture there alone, posting her letter to Mr Greville on the way. Someone, she hoped, would have more information than the stuffy attendant she had spoken to regarding both the haunting and the publication she sought, and would be more forthcoming. The more she thought about her tour, the more she became convinced that something in the guide’s manner suggested that he knew more than he was willing to say.

  Fifteen

  Mina began her enquiries at the Pavilion by spending some time at the bookstall to see if there was anything that recommended itself to her as a possible source of the Misses Bland’s story, but all the books and pamphlets had been published in the last ten years, and were either histories of Brighton and the Pavilion or studies of art and design. None of them mentioned a royal spectre. There were, unsurprisingly, no copies of An Encounter on display.

  ‘May I assist you?’ asked the lady attendant, seeing Mina hesitating over the array of publications. She looked too young to be able to offer advice on old hauntings.

  ‘There are almost too many books to choose from,’ said Mina, with a little sigh. ‘I will return later to decide which one to purchase.’

  ‘Are you here for
a tour?’

  ‘I enjoyed a very interesting tour of the Pavilion quite recently and my guide was very helpful and informative. He told me that he had acted in that capacity for ten years. I suppose he must be the longest serving gentleman here.’

  ‘Very nearly so. But our Mr Merridew has been here rather longer, I believe.’

  ‘Then I would very much like to speak to him. Where can he be found?’

  ‘He should be in the ticket hall if he is not conducting a tour at present. He is very distinguished looking, and you will know him at once by his bald head.’

  Mina thanked the lady and returned to the octagonal hall, where she lingered for a while until the gentleman she sought came into view. He was bidding his tour party farewell with extravagantly polite gestures when she approached.

  ‘Mr Merridew?’

  He turned to her. She knew how she must look, with her tiny lopsided body, tilted hip, and shoulders at a peculiar angle, but she saw in his eyes neither repulsion nor pity, only welcome. ‘That is I,’ he announced as if speaking to a great crowd, the voice rich and resonant, ’Marcus Merridew at your service.’ He made a dignified obeisance. ‘How might I assist you?’

  Merridew was, thought Mina, in his fifties, with an elegant carriage and smiling blue eyes. His face was adorned by an iron-grey beard trimmed to a perfect point, and his head was domed, quite hairless, and smooth as an egg. Although he was much taller than she, he did not, as so many tall persons did, try to tower over her in an intimidating fashion, but adjusted his posture so they could converse more comfortably.

  ‘I am very interested in anything I might learn from you concerning the Pavilion, since I have been told that you are the most knowledgeable attendant here.’