Mr Scarletti's Ghost Read online

  Three doors led from the vestibule, one for the gentlemen’s bathing facilities, one for the use of ladies, and another unmarked door, which was presumably an office.

  The lady nodded as she read the card, and operated a bell-pull. ‘Please be so good as to follow the signs, and Miss Hamid will be waiting to receive you,’ she said.

  Mina opened the door to the ladies’ baths and found herself at the head of a corridor, where the walls were decorated with prints of tropical plants and birds. A room to her left was a comfortable salon, where some ladies were reposing on couches sipping mineral water and reading periodicals. A large window faced the sea and the room was golden with sunshine. A lady with a spotless white wrapper over her gown, and undoubtedly from her appearance, Miss Hamid, was arranging a pretty bowl of fresh flowers, but as soon as she saw Mina, she came to greet her.

  ‘You must be Miss Scarletti,’ she said. ‘I am so pleased that you have decided to come. Daniel – my brother – told me that he hoped you would call.’

  ‘I have never experienced a vapour bath before,’ said Mina, ‘or indeed the shampoo massage, which I think might be more vigorous than is suitable for me.’

  ‘You have nothing to fear,’ said Miss Hamid with a comforting smile. ‘The vigour or gentleness of the massage is adjusted precisely to the tolerance and the age and health of the patient. Come.’ Miss Hamid was, thought Mina, just a little older than her brother, and as tall, which meant that she was above the common height for a woman. She had a round face with a small chin, and very dark eyes, and her greying hair was simply dressed. Mina, aware that the lady performed the shampoo massage, noticed that Miss Hamid’s hands were well formed and looked very strong.

  As they walked, Mina looked about her, and was obliged to comment that the establishment, while delightful, was not quite as she had expected. Miss Hamid gave a little laugh. ‘You refer to the absence of gilded domes, and portraits of eastern potentates?’ Mina was obliged to confess that she did mean something of the kind, but Miss Hamid, so far from being offended as she had feared, was amused. ‘We believe,’ she said, ‘that where it comes to Oriental opulence, that Brighton already has a sufficiency.’

  By the time they had reached the door of a compartment Mina felt that her companion had somehow seen into and understood the anxieties in her mind, and every discomfort in her body. She was ushered to a small dressing-box where she was to disrobe entirely and wrap herself in a large sheet. A towel fashioned like a turban was provided to cover her hair and there were several pairs of little wooden shoes of different sizes so that she might select the one that would best fit her bare feet. ‘Do you require any assistance?’ asked Miss Hamid.

  ‘Thank you, but that will not be necessary,’ said Mina, who had arranged with her dressmaker to provide gowns specially designed so that she would be able to dress and undress herself.

  ‘When you are ready,’ said Miss Hamid, ‘enter the next room, where the vapour bath will proceed. After fifteen minutes it will be complete and then I will bring you fresh dry sheets and take you to the massage room. If you require anything at all, please call, I will be nearby.’ She left Mina alone.

  Mina proceeded to divest herself of her clothing, and then wound the sheet about her body, where it was held in place by linen tapes, and arranged the turban on her head. Any resemblance between herself and the wife of a sultan lounging in an eastern harem, was, she felt, undetectable. Not without some awkwardness, she tried the little wooden shoes, found a pair that fitted, and slipped them on to her feet. She discovered with some surprise that they were very comfortable, being moulded so as to cradle her soles, and easy to walk in. Nevertheless she still felt apprehensive as she went into the vapour room. This was a chamber some eight feet square, lined with pretty blue and white tiles, and with an opening at the top, presumably to allow a free circulation of air. There was one high window, but no danger of being observed, since it was of stained glass with panes of green and blue, admitting only a subdued light. She detected a very faint but pleasing scent of flowers or herbs, which she could not readily identify. In the centre of the room was a simple wooden chair draped in a thick soft towel. Mina sat in the chair and looked about her, but could not see where the vapour was to come from. In just a few moments she understood. The floor of the room, which was tiled in a latticework design, was not a continuous surface but admitted little diamond-shaped gaps, and it was from these gaps that a vapour began to arise. It rose around her like a soft perfumed cloud and gradually began to fill the room. Any apprehension she might have felt was quickly dispelled by the deliciousness of the scent, and the feeling of warmth that stole over her. She closed her eyes, wondering where the vapour, which must already be condensing to spangle the cooler walls, must be going, since she hardly expected to find the room awash with water when she was finished. Wherever the vapour went, she felt sure that there was some ingenious method for its efficient removal. Even the floor had been specially designed so as not to offer a slippery surface underfoot. Dr Hamid seemed to think of everything.

  These enquiring thoughts were set aside as she inhaled the sweet medicated cloud, inducing a delightful sense of tranquillity, while a pleasing perspiration bathed her body. The sheet around her became warm and moist; it clung to her skin, infusing her with its own heat and scent. Pain, indeed the concept that pain might even exist, was somehow washed away, time was washed away, and she felt at peace. It was with some regret that she noticed, after a while, that Anna Hamid had entered the room and that the vapour was dispersing. The last threads of moisture were beading the walls and running down into a narrow tiled gully around the perimeter.

  ‘Stand very slowly and I will help you,’ said Miss Hamid, and there was nothing in her voice to suggest that Mina might need any more help than another person whose body had acquired a beautiful soft suppleness from the medicinal steam. She wrapped Mina in a warm fresh sheet, and drew her to the next room, which was a haven of scented and soothing heat, and laid her on a couch, then oiled her hands and, with the most exquisite care, ran her fingers over the contours of Mina’s back. Miss Hamid was a strong woman with powerful shoulders, but years of applying her hands to the work of untying the knots in strained muscles had given her a perfectly directed firmness and an understanding delicacy of touch. Her hands exerted a gentle pressure on Mina’s back, further warming the already relaxed muscles, and her thumbs located the seat of the shoulder pain and began to smooth it away.

  ‘You seem to know exactly where the discomfort lies,’ said Mina. ‘You must have other patients with a similar condition.’

  ‘There have been some,’ said Miss Hamid, ‘but the chief of those is my sister Eliza.’

  ‘Oh!’ said Mina, startled. ‘I have not seen any lady in Brighton who is like myself.’

  ‘Eliza rarely goes from home,’ said Miss Hamid, sadly. ‘Her case is far more advanced than yours. Her spine became curved when she was a very small child, when her bones were weaker and more pliable, and there was no opportunity for her to obtain the help that a child would certainly receive now.’

  ‘I am sorry to hear it,’ said Mina.

  ‘It was her predicament that led Daniel and me to make a special study of scoliosis and other conditions affecting the spine, and devise our own methods of helping patients. Perhaps,’ said Miss Hamid, diffidently, ‘I could prevail upon you to call on Eliza. I know that she would appreciate your company.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Mina. ‘I am only surprised that when I met your brother he did not mention her to me.’

  ‘You encountered him at the salon held by Professor Gaskin, I believe?’ asked Miss Hamid, her fingers exerting a delicate tapping and fluttering like tiny feet running up and down Mina’s back.

  ‘I did. It was a very curious evening.’

  ‘Do you believe that Miss Eustace’s powers are genuine?’ asked Miss Hamid, with a note of caution in her voice that inspired Mina to take her into her confidence.

  ‘I saw
nothing that convinced me that I had witnessed anything more than a clever magician,’ she said, boldly, ‘and I fear that people are being duped, but I cannot prove it.’

  ‘Daniel has told me that he is not entirely convinced that Miss Eustace’s demonstrations are genuine,’ said Miss Hamid. ‘If you do not mind the question – what drew you to visit her?’

  ‘I think that is a very important question,’ said Mina, ‘and I have no objection to answering. I went because my mother goes and I do not want her to be exposed to the machinations of a charlatan. My mother goes because she was widowed a year ago and seeks solace, and, I rather think, novelty.’

  Miss Hamid began to explore the muscles in the soft angle between Mina’s neck and shoulders. ‘I think Daniel would not mention Eliza in such company in case they should seize upon her and offer her false hope of a cure,’ she said. ‘He knows of the terrible machines and even worse operations that a well-meaning doctor will recommend, but someone who claims to be in concert with the spirits can do as much evil.’

  ‘I do not seek a cure,’ said Mina, ‘since none exists. I am content with that because I must be. Neither do I believe in the kind of spirits that Miss Eustace purports to show us. The world of the spirit is closed to the living; we will meet it soon enough.’

  Miss Hamid gently drew Mina’s arm across her back to raise her shoulder blade and used her fingertips to seek out clenched and sore muscles with a firm but not unpleasant pressure that made her patient gasp.

  ‘Although Daniel is a man of science, he nevertheless feels some hope, as all of us must do, which induces in him a need to explore and enquire,’ said Miss Hamid. ‘He is of course aware that there are many things we understand today to have a foundation in fact which only a hundred years ago would have seemed to be impossible. I expect you know that he is not long a widower. He and his dear wife Jane were very devoted to each other. She died three months ago after a painful but mercifully short illness. They had been married for twenty-two years and he feels her loss very keenly.’

  ‘What does he seek?’ asked Mina. ‘Surely he does not hope to communicate with her spirit?’

  ‘I think,’ said Miss Hamid reflectively, ‘that he looks only for some sign, some certainty that the spirit, the intelligence, the soul – call it what you will – of an individual will survive entire. If he can be assured of this, he will be content, because he will know that one day they will be reunited.’

  Mina thought of her father and Marianne. ‘We all hope to be reunited with our loved ones in Heaven,’ she said. ‘But I do not think the Bible said anything about the dead speaking to the living, or playing on tambourines.’

  ‘The Bible teaches us that we all sleep until the Day of Judgement and then, and only then, do we rise again,’ said Miss Hamid. ‘I see no reason to doubt it.’

  ‘Then perhaps,’ said Mina cautiously, ‘your brother should comfort himself with that. Miss Eustace’s demonstrations are little more than a sideshow on the pier, like Madame Proserpina the fortune teller, only I fear, very much more expensive.’

  ‘I can see that this worries you greatly,’ said Miss Hamid. ‘Your neck and shoulders grow more tense under my fingers as you think about it. But now I would beg you to have only pleasurable thoughts.’ She anointed her hands with more scented oil and smoothed them over Mina’s back. Mina sighed and gave herself up to the sensation. When the massage was done she felt more supple than she could remember ever having felt, with a lightness and freedom from pain that she would have thought impossible.

  When Mina was dressed, Miss Hamid brought her a cushion shaped like a door wedge, which she could put underneath one hip to right her posture as she sat, and asked if she had ever been prescribed exercises.

  ‘Only deportment classes,’ said Mina. ‘I was required to walk in a circle with a bag of shot on my head while juggling oranges. I was not their best student.’

  Miss Hamid smiled. ‘I believe that oranges are better when the flesh is eaten and the peel dried for its scent. I would like you to undertake some suitable exercises, but I do not wish you to attempt them alone, not yet. Some of the movements, known as callisthenics, would be very beneficial to you, but only if performed correctly. Others, however, are best avoided. If you would like, then the next time you come here I will show you what to do. You need to strengthen your weaker side, but take care not to neglect the other, and also work on expanding the chest to help your lungs and heart. We will begin slowly. You must be patient and avoid over-exertion which can be harmful.’

  Mina smiled, because Miss Hamid knew, and she also knew, that she would return. ‘I would like that,’ she said.

  ‘Young women are often dissuaded from exercising, as if weakness was a desirable state,’ said Miss Hamid. ‘But it is not. You can be strong; stronger than you might imagine, stronger than anyone would expect of you. Your mind is already very strong, but your body can be as well.’

  Mina had never thought of herself as a creature of the body, but began to see that she had spent the last nine years merely trying to exist with her condition, and find an occupation for her mind that would distract her from it. Miss Hamid had offered her not a cure, which was not within her powers, but a means of alleviating the symptoms, and perhaps also making herself into something better than she was.

  With an agreement that she would call on Eliza Hamid in two days’ time, Mina departed for her home. As she stepped into the open air she felt that she took with her some of the scent of herbs and flowers in which she had bathed and whose delicious savour she had inhaled. The sun seemed brighter, the sky more glowing, the air softer, the people more colourful, the season more charming than they had been before.

  She returned to find that an important package, which she had requested by letter from Mr Greville, had arrived. It was an unbound advance copy of the report of the special committee of the London Dialectical Society regarding their investigation into the question of spiritualism, the report that Professor Gaskin had spoken of in such exultant terms.

  Six

  Fortunately Mina’s mother, nesting in the parlour amongst an array of periodicals and pamphlets, was too preoccupied with her own concerns to be curious about the delivery, which did not excite any comment. Mina passed on the message she had been given by Mr Bradley, and Louisa received the news with pleasure and informed Mina that she expected her to attend the healing circle on the following day. It would be a meeting of important and fashionable individuals and quite the most glittering event of the season to date. Mina, expecting no more than the usual gathering of bored widows, quickly agreed and took the parcel up to her room as soon as she was able. The size and weight of the package had suggested to her that it might contain other works, too, since she had expected the report to be a slim bundle of papers, but on unwrapping it she was astonished to find only the report, a work that ran to almost four hundred pages.

  It did not, however, take very long for Mina to discover that Professor Gaskin, who claimed to have read the report, had made two very significant errors of judgement. Professor and man of science he might be, but he was as vulnerable to bias as anyone else. He had, first of all, chosen only to see those areas of evidence that might favour his own viewpoint, interpreting them in a manner that supported his contentions, while ignoring not only the other possible and indeed more probable interpretations of events, but also additional evidence and points of view which were not favourable to his cause. The man who pitied the closed minds of others did so, thought Mina, with a mind that was in itself closed. He had also made the fatally dangerous assumption that no one present at Miss Eustace’s séance would take the trouble to read the report and compare its findings with his description.

  Mina settled herself at her desk, raising her hip with the new cushion, which was a wonderful improvement on the old one, and started to read.

  Even a small and seemingly harmless falsehood invited suspicion from the outset. Professor Gaskin had implied that the report was to be publi
shed by the Dialectical Society, but this, Mina saw at once, was not the case. The Society had appointed a committee to investigate spirit phenomena in January 1869, which had reported its findings in July 1870, in the hopes that the Society would publish them. The Society had noted the committee’s report but had declined to publish, a refusal that suggested to Mina a lack of trust in either the conduct of the investigation or its conclusions. The committee members had therefore taken the decision to publish the report themselves.

  During the course of the enquiry, six subcommittees had been created, each of which had held meetings and séances. The committee had also collected statements from non-members, all of whom were believers in supernatural phenomena, having failed, for reasons it was unable to explain, to obtain evidence from anyone who attributed the phenomena to fraud and delusion.

  Mina was less interested in opinions than results and so studied the reports of the six subcommittees with especial interest.

  Two of the subcommittees reported that no phenomena at all had occurred during their meetings, and another was conducting séances with Mr Home, who, since he was a cheat with money, was in Mina’s opinion likely to be a cheat in other things, too. She decided that these three subcommittees had failed to prove anything.

  Two subcommittees had heard rappings and witnessed the movement of a table, but this occurred only when certain individuals were taking part. The presence of these persons was undoubtedly essential to the results but whether this was due to their supernatural powers or the ability to deceive was not, in Mina’s mind, established beyond doubt.

  The most extraordinary performances were at meetings that took place at the houses of two members of the Dialectical Society where, to avoid any suspicion of fraud, the gatherings did not include anyone claiming to have mediumistic powers. Not only did rapping and table moving occur but, by giving the meanings ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to numbers of raps, or even spelling out words when one of the party named a letter of the alphabet, it was possible to establish a free communication with the spirits who had produced the manifestations. These cheerful entities expressed a friendly regard for those present and were able to provide correct answers to questions and personal information. The subcommittee members had no doubt that they had been in communication with spirit intelligences, but reported that they had inevitably failed to obtain any manifestations without the presence in the party of the wives of the two members of the Dialectical Society. Mina was left weighing up two possibilities, one being that the party had been conversing with the spirits of the dead and the other that the two ladies had been mischievously providing their friends with some novel entertainment.