Mr Scarletti's Ghost (15 page)

‘Do not be afraid!' whispered Professor Gaskin. ‘But above all I beg you not to touch the apparition unless it touches you. It is Miss Eustace's spirit guide, assembled into a form that we can see using energy drawn from the medium's own body. Any attempt to take hold of it would result in Miss Eustace's death, for it would melt the substance of the form in an instant, and it would not then be able to flow back into her.'

‘But where is Miss Eustace!' exclaimed Mr Clee.

‘She is still behind the curtain, but she must not be disturbed.'

‘I must see!' He leapt to his feet.

‘Please, no, that would be very dangerous!' cried Professor Gaskin, but before he could do anything, the apparition approached Mr Clee and extended a hand in a soft fluid movement, laying a light touch upon his arm.

‘Oh!' exclaimed Clee. ‘It is a wondrous thing!' To his astonishment, the apparition took him by the hand and began drawing him towards the curtained corner, and he, as if mesmerised, followed.

‘She approves,' said Professor Gaskin. ‘Do not be afraid, but go with her. You may look behind the curtain but you must be very careful and above all, do not disturb the body of the medium.'

Mr Clee approached the recess and cautiously drew back the curtain. The most powerful source of light in the room was the glow of the apparition's garments. It did not re-enter the recess but stood to one side and with a gesture indicated that Mr Clee should go in. Everyone craned forward, and it was just possible to see the form of Miss Eustace, her shawl drawn over her head, slumped in her chair. Mr Clee hesitated, then passed through the curtains, which closed behind him. A few moments elapsed, during which Mina wondered if he would ever return, then the curtains parted once again and he emerged and faced the company, his face, bathed in the glow of spirit light, pale with awe.

‘It is she,' he said, in a voice that trembled with emotion, ‘undoubtedly she, living and breathing, but in a trance.'

Gaskin rose and took the astonished and visibly shaken young man by the elbow and led him back to his chair. ‘The apparition before us is Phoebe,' he said, ‘the creature of radiant light, whose brilliance casts out doubt and ignorance. All who see her must believe.'

‘I believe!' exclaimed Miss Whinstone, and there was a general chorus of assent, in which Mina joined.

Phoebe seemed to enjoy this approbation, for she showed no signs of wanting to depart. She was an accommodating spirit, and tripped lightly about the room turning her head this way and that so that all present were favoured with her filmy gaze.

‘Does she speak?' asked Mrs Mowbray.

‘Yes, ask her to speak!' exclaimed Mrs Bettinson.

‘She might at least nod or shake her head in answer to questions,' said Mina's mother. ‘Or why else has she come before us?' she added tetchily.

‘Tell us, Phoebe,' said Professor Gaskin, ‘does the spirit world you inhabit have houses and churches such as this one?'

Phoebe slowly nodded her head.

‘And will all of the faithful have homes there?'

Another nod.

‘Are all those who dwell there happy?' asked Mrs Gaskin.

Not unexpectedly there was an emphatic nod.

‘And do they love and worship the Lord God?'

The graceful spirit held her arms open to them all and nodded again as if to demonstrate that they were all embraced by the great love of God. She moved about them once again, holding a hand over the head of each person present, as if imparting a blessing, then she turned and walked back towards the curtained recess.

‘She tires,' said Professor Gaskin. ‘Ask no more of her, I beg you. This is the longest she has ever appeared and we are truly favoured today!'

As Phoebe walked past Mina she felt a sudden impulse. She rose stiffly to her feet and sighed and groaned aloud as if in pain. She was easily able to slip her left hand from Dr Hamid's clasp and such was the surprise of her movement that she was even able to escape her mother's hand.

‘Mina? What is it? Sit down at once!' urged Louisa, and Dr Hamid started up to assist, but Mina staggered, throwing out her arms, and her weight, such as it was, fell against the glowing apparition. She had been hoping to do no more than gain some sense of how solid or otherwise the thing might be, but to her amazement, while she was careful not to fall to the ground, the radiant Phoebe, unbalanced and surprised, toppled and fell to the floor with an audible thump.

Mrs Gaskin cried out, Miss Whinstone screamed, and more importantly Phoebe gave a gasp that sounded very like ‘Ooof!'.

‘Oh, I am so very sorry,' Mina exclaimed, ‘how clumsy I am! Please allow me to help.' She reached out to the figure on the carpet and offered to assist Phoebe to her feet, but before she could do so, an enraged Mrs Gaskin had seized hold of her by both arms and pulled her roughly away.

‘Do not touch her!' she cried. ‘Who knows what damage you have done!'

Phoebe appeared unhurt; indeed in her fall she had acquired a new nimbleness to her movements and jumping up, she hurried into the recess before anyone else dared to try and help.

The table had been abandoned and everyone was now on his or her feet. Someone turned up the gas, revealing a great many shocked, flustered and angry faces. ‘Please, everyone remain calm!' said Professor Gaskin.

Dr Hamid came forward. ‘With your permission, Professor, I would like to tend to Miss Eustace and ensure that she is well.'

Professor Gaskin threw up his arms in despair. ‘I dare not permit it, sir, I dare not!' he exclaimed. ‘No one must disturb her now, not by sight or touch. The form of Phoebe is made from Miss Eustace's own body. While it appears, the lady is in a very fragile and weakened condition, hovering between this world and the next. It takes fully two minutes, sometimes more for the substance of Phoebe to be reabsorbed into Miss Eustace's body. If that process is interrupted then Miss Eustace will surely die.'

‘Would it help if we all sang a hymn?' asked Mr Clee. ‘Only the Lord can help her now.'

‘Yes!' exclaimed the professor, seizing upon a straw of comfort. He addressed the company in a voice breaking with emotion. ‘Ladies and gentlemen all, we must sing, sing as loud as we can, as if our lives depended on it, as indeed Miss Eustace's very well might.' He began to bellow out, ‘Praise My Soul the King of Heaven,' and everyone quickly joined him.

Dr Hamid, seeing that he was not wanted to attend to Miss Eustace, extricated Mina from the infuriated and painful grasp of Mrs Gaskin and drew her to a seat.

‘Was that well done?' he asked quietly when the singing had stopped and Professor Gaskin had sunk into a chair, panting with effort.

‘I believe so,' said Mina, calmly. ‘Why, even Mrs Gaskin may in time find it in her heart to forgive a poor cripple. My mother will not forgive me, but then she never does. But I know now that Phoebe is as solid as I am, and speaks and breathes.'

‘You have taken a very great risk,' he said.

‘The greatest risk was damage to myself,' said Mina.

He looked concerned. ‘Are you hurt?'

She smiled. ‘Only from contact with Mrs Gaskin. I have had worse pain and greater bruises. I will recover without any attention.'

‘And what of Miss Eustace? You are not anxious for her?'

‘Oh, I am sure she is unharmed and will very soon emerge triumphant.'

Mrs Mowbray hovered nearby. ‘That was a very fine thing to do!' she exclaimed, sarcastically, ‘but I suppose poor thing, you could not help it. Now we must hope that Miss Eustace lives, but I daresay even if she does, you will not be invited here again.'

‘I fear that may be correct,' said Dr Hamid. Mrs Mowbray tried very hard to place herself where he had no choice but to admire her, but on discovering that there was no position where that might be possible, she scowled at Mina and drifted away. She was soon in conversation with Mr Clee.

Mina, resting under Dr Hamid's watchful eye, saw her mother bearing down upon her, and was bracing herself for the consequences, when she was alerted by a great gasp from the other members of the company as Miss Eustace reappeared from behind the curtains. The medium seemed exhausted, and held her hand to her forehead, staggering as though she might fall. Dr Hamid rose to go to her, but Professor and Mrs Gaskin hurried to offer their support, and shunning all other help, quickly conducted their stricken protégée from the room.

Mr Clee took it upon himself to fully pull back the curtains and reveal to the company that the recess was exactly as it had been before the séance, except for the fact that someone or something had written ‘Praise be to God' on the paper.

‘Well,' said Louisa, staring down on Mina with barely concealed fury, ‘you have not killed Miss Eustace, that is some comfort. You silly girl! I had intended to invite her to our house to conduct a séance there, but she will not come now! It would not even do to send you away, she will be sure to say you are a bad influence and that the spirits will not come.'

‘Miss Eustace is as we have seen a good and forgiving person,' said Mr Clee, who had a bright and engaging smile when he was not scowling with suspicion. ‘Why, I now see that I was most insulting to her when I came here, and yet when I repented she forgave me and granted me the blessing she gives to her most devoted admirers. Perhaps, Miss Scarletti, your sensation of faintness and your fall was only because you were overcome with the power exerted by Miss Eustace, something for which you can scarcely be blamed.'

Louisa gave him a derisive look, but said no more on the subject.

There was a little more desultory conversation, but Mina did not wish to discuss the event with Dr Hamid while others were present, and Mr Clee had taken some of the wind out of her mother's sails. The maid arrived with tea, but the Gaskins did not reappear and shortly afterwards everyone departed.

As they travelled home in the company of Miss Whinstone and Mrs Bettinson, Mina, with the mark of Mrs Gaskin's fingertips still burning on her arms, was enveloped in the thundercloud of her mother's displeasure. Since Louisa did not address Mina directly but spoke exclusively to her friends about her difficult daughter as if she was not there, Mina felt entitled to assume that she was not expected to join in the conversation. She still felt that she could not believe in the reality of what she had seen. It was not that she did not believe in the existence of the immortal soul, but she could not imagine that the souls of the dead would come to earth and play crude tricks. Perhaps there were genuine mediums who received messages from the dead, but Miss Eustace was not, she thought, of their number. Mina was unable to explain how the table had risen, although she thought it to be a trick within the abilities of a good conjurer. She was in no doubt, however, that the radiant Phoebe, as advised by Professor Gaskin, was indeed composed of material from the medium's own body, though not in the manner he had implied.

Once home, she avoided her mother's lecture by pleading that she was in pain and needed rest. She took two oranges and went up to her room. There, clasping an orange in each hand, she did her exercises.

M
ina did not want to upset her mother, and had deliberately made her attempt to unmask the apparition appear to be an accident, as anything else would have been a far greater embarrassment. Her failure – and she could only see it as such – did, however, give her the opportunity of making one task serve two purposes, both soothing Louisa's displeasure and acquiring more information. She arranged to call upon Professor Gaskin the very next day, and informed her mother of her intention. Louisa was astonished, and protesting that Mina was only attempting to cause more trouble, forbade her to go. Mina explained that her purpose was to offer her very sincere apologies for what had occurred and she was hoping that her contrition would smooth the way to Miss Eustace being admitted to their home. Her mother was temporarily mollified.

Mina was unsure if Mrs Gaskin would intrude upon her interview with the professor and wished that she was strong enough to resist future violent assaults upon her person, but as it so happened, that lady was addressing a meeting of a charitable society and could not be present.

Mina was shown into the parlour of the Gaskins' lodgings, which while not arranged very differently from the way it had been furnished for the séances, nevertheless appeared to be a quite commonplace room. The table was now in the centre and covered by a cloth, and the dark curtains in the corner had been fully drawn back, to reveal that all that had lain behind them had been removed.

The window curtains were open, and since it was a sunny morning, Mina was able for the first time to see the room bathed in a strong natural light that would surely have revealed any imperfections suggestive of trapdoors and the entrances to secret passages. She saw nothing to excite her suspicions, and as she reflected on this she could feel an idea for a new story rapidly forming in her mind.

Mina was not entirely sure how best to present herself, but hoped that all she really needed to do was say little and allow Professor Gaskin to talk freely. He was, she had observed, a gentleman who took enormous satisfaction in imparting his wisdom to others, sometimes at great length, scarcely pausing to allow them to make their own ideas known, since it was with him a predetermined fact that he knew more on his subject than his listeners. He might have allowed another professor to state his opinions, but not a young woman.

They were seated, but Professor Gaskin chose to perch on his chair like a man just about to rise from it, and Mina took this as an indication that their interview would be a short one.

‘Delighted as I am to receive you, Miss Scarletti, I can assure you that an apology is not necessary,' he said when Mina had expressed her remorse for the untoward incident. ‘I could see that it was merely an unfortunate accident brought on by a paroxysm of emotion to which ladies are so often prone. Mrs Gaskin, I might say, is of the same opinion.'