‘Not at all,’ Mina protested. ‘Mrs Vardy wrote to me asking for an interview, without realising that I was unwell. She wants my advice. She has a concern that is very unusual. Miss Cherry’s behaviour has been exemplary, but she keeps reading to me about butterflies and embroidery, subjects in which I have no interest. If I have too little stimulus in my life it will not help my recovery.’
He snorted with annoyance. ‘So despite all our efforts to protect you, to prevent you sapping your energy so you can apply it solely to the recovery of your health, you have found yourself a mystery to solve.’
‘Yes, I have,’ Mina admitted. ‘Or at least it found me.’
‘And what has Mrs Vardy charged you with? If you don’t tell me at once I will be sure to ask her myself. You see, I can make enquiries too.’
‘Her elder son Franklin thinks that he sees the ghost of his father. Mrs Vardy read about me in the newspapers and they made her think that I was a sensitive who might be able to see and perhaps even question it.’
He looked alarmed. ‘I trust you informed her that you could not assist her.’
‘I can’t, not in that way, of course, but it would be a nice thing if I could study the case and see if I can find an answer that would alleviate the family’s suffering.’
‘From your sick-bed?’ he exclaimed.
‘Why ever not?’
He sat back in the chair, shaking his head in exasperation. ‘And was your enquiry about Dr Crosier a part of this?’
Mina toyed briefly with a number of explanations but decided that the truth was simplest. ‘Yes, it was. He was the doctor who gave Mr Holt a certificate of health for his policy of life insurance.’
‘I dare not ask how you came to know that. So you are dragging me into your schemes! Again! Without even telling me what you were doing.’
‘I am sorry,’ said Mina, trying to sound penitent. She was obliged to admit to herself that she had more than once asked him to go very close to the limit of what a doctor ought to do.
Dr Hamid rose from the chair, folded his arms and paced about the room. ‘You are one of my most difficult patients. I hardly know what you will be up to next. You know you need to take good care of your health, but you insist on risking it at every turn.’
Mina watched him as he walked and thought his way through the dilemma.
He spun around to face her, accusingly. ‘The visit from Mr Phipps, that was a part of it, too? I know he has helped you before.’
‘Yes,’ she conceded.
There was a long silence as he gazed at her. ‘Well, at least I can see that you are none the worse for all this activity. If you were, if I thought for one moment that it was harmful to your health, I would insist that you be watched carefully night and day and receive no visitors apart from your family and myself. As it is ….’
‘As it is,’ said Mina, ‘on your own admission, I look all the better for it.’
He sat down once more, controlling his irritation into calm and practicality. ‘Very well. I will not prevent you from receiving visitors, which I can see will only make you more agitated, and even if I try, I suspect that you will still manage to find a way to flout my instructions, but I need to guard against your doing anything more dangerous than you have done so far. Please at the very least, promise me that you will obey very strictly all the most important rules that I have set for your recovery.’
Mina capitulated. ’I promise,’ she said.
‘First, and I insist on this, you must not go outdoors until I say that you are well enough to do so. The weather is still very inclement, and a chill may cause a serious relapse. Do I have that promise?’
Mina nodded, meekly.
‘You will not try to get out of bed unassisted, and in any case not at all until both I and Miss Cherry agree that it is in order. Then, you will go no further than a chair beside the bed.’
She nodded again.
He took a deep breath. ‘If you obey, but only if you obey, I will, within what is permitted by the rules of my profession, assist your enquiries. I will do so mainly because I think that you will become distressed if I prevent you.’
‘Thank you,’ said Mina, relieved. ‘Does that mean you can tell me something about Dr Crosier?’
‘Are you sure you want to go into this now?’
‘Yes, I am.’
He looked uncomfortable. ‘The name is familiar to me, but I will say no more of him until I am sure of my ground. I assume that Mr Holt was given a certificate of good health, or he would not have been granted the policy.’
‘Yes, he was insured by the Brighton and Hove Insurance company, after being examined by Dr Crosier but he only paid one instalment before he disappeared.’
‘I remember the scandal, of course. The company refused to pay. Quite rightly, too.’
‘But he told the boat owner, Mr Sutherland that he had been advised by his doctor to take the sea air for his health.’
‘That would not be unusual. Men of business who overwork themselves are often so advised. All they require is peace and quiet to restore themselves. It does not necessarily mean that he was suffering from any disease. It would not prevent him being granted the certificate for the insurance company.’
‘I see. That does explain it. And as it later transpired, Mr Holt had serious business troubles he had confided to no-one, so he may well have been working hard, and must surely have been unsettled in his mind. Mrs Vardy told me that the family doctor is called McClelland and he called in a Dr Fielding from London to examine the son.’
Dr Hamid nodded thoughtfully. ‘I know Dr McClelland; he is a highly regarded practitioner in Brighton. Fielding of London, you say? There is a doctor of that name who has a clinic for the treatment of insanity. He is considered a great authority on the subject. Given the nature of the son’s indisposition, I am not surprised that a man of his expertise was consulted. But these are all medical matters. I really don’t think it is a situation in which you can provide any advice or assistance to Mrs Vardy.’
‘It may just be that having a sympathetic ear will bring the lady some comfort,’ said Mina.
Dr Hamid considered her again. ‘You do look and sound much more like your usual self, and I am pleased with your progress, but I am not yet ready to allow you more freedom of movement. Too much exertion could prove harmful. Your lungs are not yet fully recovered. I will, however, advise Miss Cherry and Rose that some easing of the regime I prescribed is in order.’
‘Thank you. I would like to be allowed to see any reading material I require.’
‘You shall.’
‘But I do miss my visits to the Baths. And I am afraid — ‘
‘Yes?’
‘I have heard of people who spend much time in bed and forget how to use their limbs which are almost wasted away from lack of use. And my limbs were never very large to begin with.’ Mina looked at her hands, which now she thought about it were even thinner than she remembered them, like the claws of a small bird.
‘A week or two of rest will not harm you, but if you are concerned, I will ask Anna to come and see you tomorrow morning and bring her massage oils.’
With that promise, Dr Hamid departed, but he was shaking his head as he went.