Mrs Barnham allowed herself an indulgent smile. ‘No, but then my sitters do not have such elevated connections, and they ask questions concerning their own families.’
‘I confess that you have greatly excited my curiosity,’ I said, breathlessly. ‘How do the spirits pass on their wisdom? Do they appear before you? Do you and your sitters see them and hear them speak?’
‘I regret that bodily manifestations only appear in very special cases. Neither do I or my sitters hear voices. No, the spirits send me messages. When they first started to come through there were simply raps or movements of the table. At first, they could only give us answers of yes or no, but then I devised a means of spelling out words. I would call out the letters of the alphabet one by one, and the rap or tilt would occur when I spoke the correct one. The method is slow, but the results are good. Some ten years ago, however, I gave a sitting to an American gentleman and he told me of a device he had seen, called a spiritoscope, which received the messages with much greater speed and clarity.’
‘Clarity,’ interrupted Mina when Mr Merridew reached that point in his account. ‘She used that word?’
‘She did indeed, most distinctly.’
Mina nodded, recalling the name given by the anonymous letter writer to the Gazette who had praised the virtue of Mrs Vardy. ‘It is a very good word. Please do go on.’ Mina glanced at Richard, who seemed only mildly interested and sat fumbling with the cigar case in his pocket. ‘If you wish to smoke, Richard, you may do so, but not in here.’ He took the hint and the last of the cake.
Mr Merridew continued, and it occurred to Mina that he, in his own way was a kind of medium, since his tone and gestures conjured up before her the face form and voice of Mrs Barnham.
‘My husband,’ said Mrs Barnham, ‘was a maker of ship’s instruments, and he was most interested in the device and asked the gentleman to describe it to him. From this description he was able to prepare a drawing of how it was constructed. Once the gentleman had left, he declared that such a device was very easy to make, and he built one for me. I have used it ever since.’
I glanced at the cloth-covered table with its mysterious disk in the corner of the room. ‘Mrs Barnham, you would earn my eternal gratitude if I could see this device perform its miracles.’
She helped herself to more rum punch. ‘Then you must call upon me at six o’clock tomorrow evening when my circle of friends gathers. You would be very welcome.’
‘And so,’ said Mr Merridew triumphantly, ‘I am now persona grata at Mrs Barnham’s select soiree, which I shall attend tonight, and which promises to be very fascinating. I will be your eyes and ears, but you must provide me with some clues as to what I am to observe. Surely you do not suspect the venerable lady of some crime? I am sure she does receive payment by some means or another, little gifts and favours, but her circumstances do not suggest that she is rich, far from it. And she must be more than eighty, now. Prison would not be kind to her.’
While Mina was considering her response, Rose came to remove the tea-things and since there was no more to eat, Richard removed himself.
Mina was about to protest that she had no interest in Mrs Barnham’s séances other than curiosity about the spiritoscope, but that would not do. Mr Merridew was no fool, he would know if she deceived him and Mina felt she hardly had the energy to maintain the fiction any further.
‘I do not suspect Mrs Barnham of wrongdoing,’ said Mina. ‘She may be genuine, she may be a fraud, but she brings comfort to her friends and appears to ask for nothing in return. What I would like to hear is your observations of those persons in her circle. Especially the ladies. I want to know more about them.’
‘A study of character. Of those with tales to tell. Secrets perhaps,’ said Mr Merridew with a conspiratorial smile.
‘Perhaps,’ said Mina.
‘Character study,’ said Mr Merridew, ‘is my speciality.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
Mina, impatient to hear Mr Merridew’s account of Mrs Barnham’s séance, used the interlude to make the necessary arrangements for the next stage in her enquiries. There was an exchange of notes, the result being an appointment for Miss Cherry to have a free half day on the following Monday afternoon, so that she and Mrs Phipps could become acquainted. Mina suggested that it would be an opportunity for Miss Cherry to demonstrate her reading skills by taking her copy of The Young Woman’s Companion for the entertainment of Mrs Phipps, reassuring the nurse that she could manage without it for a few hours. Miss Cherry instructed Rose on how to attend to Mina during her brief absence and prepared for the interview by purchasing a new bonnet.
Mina, meanwhile, composed a letter to Mrs Vardy.
Dear Mrs Vardy,
My health is very much improved, and I will be pleased to receive you on Monday afternoon at 2pm. I wish to keep our discussion confidential and I would therefore suggest a small and harmless deception to ensure secrecy. I hope you are agreeable to this.
When you call, please could you bring a business card of Saltmire and Vardy together with some samples of porcelain mourning brooches. I will tell my maid to expect a Miss Saltmire.
Yours in confidence
Mina Scarletti
Richard liked to call on Mina several times a day, if only for a respite from his mother’s melancholy. Louisa Scarletti’s doleful outpourings were particularly torn between Mina’s close brush with death and Enid’s forthcoming confinement, which she saw as tantamount to the same thing, but her mood always lightened when she clung to the arm of her handsome younger son, declaring him to be the best of the family, and their meetings always ended with tears of maternal pride and a small monetary donation.
On the morning after Mr Merridew’s visit, however, Richard did not appear at Mina’s side after breakfast and when his absence continued throughout the day she began to worry. Which was worse, she wondered, having him idling about the house or out in the town where she had no idea what he was doing?
Her worries were interrupted by the arrival of a letter from Mr Merridew.
Dear Miss Scarletti,
I could, if I were so inclined compose a sensational novel or a drama regarding my attendance at Mrs Barnham’s circle last night. I am engaged for this afternoon and early evening, but if it is not too late, I will call on you at 8pm and tell you all.
Respectfully,
Marcus Merridew
As Mina replied to Mr Merridew’s letter, she was doubly anxious for her brother to be home so she might converse with her visitor unencumbered, so it was to her considerable relief that Richard returned in time for dinner, and when he called on Mina he was all smiles.
‘Mina my dear girl, you will be so proud of me,’ he said.
They were alone since Miss Cherry had gone to get her dinner in the kitchen, and Richard took the opportunity to sit beside Mina on the bed which he would not have dared do under the nurse’s sharp eye.
‘You must never again say that I don’t listen to your advice. Today, I have been all over Brighton, walking here and walking there, in the most desperate of weather, to see what employment can be offered to a man of my talents. The air is still far too chill for you to venture out of doors but there are a host of fashionable persons out strolling or driving whenever the sun chooses to appear and the whole effect is very colourful. And I have something for you.’ He handed her a copy of the Gazette. ‘There is nothing very interesting in it, I am sorry to say. Now that that awful poisoning woman has been declared insane, and we are disappointed of a hanging, the newspapers have wrung the case dry of all excitement and turned to politics. So that is Brighton scandal done for the year.’