Mr Scarletti's Ghost (19 page)

‘Oh, not at all!' exclaimed Mr Clee, with some alacrity. ‘In fact rather the reverse. After the last séance Miss Eustace observed to me that the figure of Phoebe has never been more brilliant or more clearly displayed or lasted so long. I have given this very careful thought and I believe that what we experienced was an etheric power that acts like electricity. Some individuals can exert either positive or negative forces and if they are placed in the right position they may become a human battery. The great majority of persons exert no force at all, and negatives are quite common, but positives like Miss Eustace are most rare. I have found that I am a very strong negative, and there may have been other negatives present at the last séance, but you, Miss Scarletti,' he beamed, ‘you are a positive and you completed the arrangement. The forces that you were subjected to were too powerful for one so inexperienced, and it was this that made you stumble. It is our belief that you may, unknown to yourself, be a medium of most extraordinary power!'

There was a long silence. Mina was not sure how to react, in fact she was not sure how she was expected to react. Should she show fear, modesty, pleasure? Certainly amazement was called for. ‘You amaze me,' she said at last.

‘Is that all you can say?' snapped her mother.

‘You take the news most calmly, if I might say so,' said Miss Eustace with a smile. ‘When I was first told I was a medium I refused to believe it at all.'

Disbelief, thought Mina. That was the option she had failed to consider.

‘Are you quite sure this is correct?' she said. ‘There was nothing suggestive of this at the first séance I attended.'

‘I believe,' said Mr Clee, ‘that your abilities have stayed hidden but it was your presence at the first séance that brought them out, only to be displayed at the subsequent event.'

‘This is very like what Mr Bradley told me,' said Louisa. ‘I don't know if you have met the gentleman, but he conducts meetings for the purposes of prayer and healing, and the spirits make themselves known through him.'

‘I have heard him mentioned very often, but we have never met,' said Miss Eustace. ‘He has been invited to attend a séance but declined.'

‘Perhaps he is one of these positive people,' said Louisa. ‘He is of the opinion that were he even to be in the same room as yourself, the powerful forces that he attracts might harm you, and thus with considerable regret he must stay away.'

‘He is a gentleman I would very much like to observe,' said Mr Clee, ‘and there can be no harm in
my
attending his healing circle.'

‘I am sure it would be possible to arrange that,' said Louisa patting the brooch in her hair yet again. ‘I suppose you are acquainted with what the Reverend Vaughan has been insinuating about Mr Bradley, that the spirits he brings to heal us come not from Heaven but quite another place. Not that we believe that for a moment. If his eyes could only be opened, what a wonderful thing that would be!'

‘All will come in time,' said Miss Eustace, gently. ‘Those who commune with God will one day come to understand that the spirits are sent by Him as ministering angels.'

Simmons had gone to the refreshment table and picked up a plate of small cakes to offer to the company. No one had especially noticed her, but she suddenly dropped the plate and gave a little scream, then stepped back with both hands clasped to her face.

‘What is it, Simmons?' asked Louisa.

Simmons, trembling with fright, extended a finger. ‘The table!' she exclaimed. ‘It moved!'

Everyone turned and stared at the table, which looked disinclined to repeat the demonstration.

‘Nonsense, Simmons, you have got yourself overexcited by all this talk of séances and probably knocked it with your foot,' said Louisa. ‘And now you have made such a mess of crumbs!'

‘But it moved! I promise you it did!' insisted Simmons.

‘If I might comment,' said Mr Clee. ‘It is possible, since we know we have two positives and one negative in this room, that Miss Simmons might be another negative and thus complete the circle.'

Louisa was about to ring for Rose, but turned to Mr Clee in astonishment. ‘What can you mean?'

‘Miss Simmons, if you could return to your place, and sit very quietly I will see if I can detect any disturbance in the ether,' said Miss Eustace.

Simmons crept back to her chair in the corner but could not avoid glancing at the table as if afraid of it.

‘Ah,' said Miss Eustace after a brief interlude, ‘yes, I do feel it! Mr Clee, I believe you are correct.'

Louisa seemed very taken aback by this, and not best pleased, since, thought Mina, her mother undoubtedly believed that anything remarkable in the household should repose in herself, not Mina, and most certainly not in her companion.

‘With your permission, Mrs Scarletti,' said Miss Eustace, ‘we might try to conduct a test. Scientists nowadays are so insistent on tests for everything, and I am sure that I don't mind that at all.'

‘Professor Gaskin would be most interested in the result,' said Mr Clee. ‘Of course if you are concerned that you might offend Mrs Gaskin by our making important discoveries here and not within her circle—'

‘I am sure that Mrs Gaskin will be happy for the cause of science and is not looking for any credit for herself,' said Louisa quickly. ‘What must we do?'

It was soon arranged that for the sake of safety the table should be cleared of any moveables. Louisa rang for Rose who tidied up the spilled cakes and removed the tray. Everyone watched her very carefully as she did so, and there was a tangible sense of relief when she had departed.

‘Your maid is neither positive nor negative and she has not therefore created any disturbance in the energy,' said Mr Clee, approvingly. ‘I suggest now that the four of us gather around the table.' Louisa stood, but he smiled regretfully and said, ‘My apologies, Mrs Scarletti, but in this instance you can only be an observer and not a participant.'

Louisa sat down. ‘Very well,' she said, concealing her ill grace as best she could.

Mr Clee jumped up and began arranging chairs so that four persons might sit around the little table, then with a gesture he invited Mina, Miss Eustace and Simmons to be seated.

‘Will we need to turn out the lights?' enquired Louisa.

‘We will try it in the light first,' said Miss Eustace. ‘We should begin by all placing both hands palm down on the table top.'

Mina complied. She was seated opposite Simmons who was staring down at her hands afraid, as if they might jump up and do something she could not control. ‘If we close our eyes it will assist concentration,' said Miss Eustace.

Simmons's eyes snapped tightly shut, but Mina simply lowered her eyelids to give the impression that they were closed. The table was so small that she could see from between her lashes not only her own hands but the left hand of Miss Eustace and the right of Mr Clee on either side of her.

‘What must we do now?' asked Simmons tremulously.

‘We need only wait and pray silently,' said Miss Eustace. ‘No one must move, and our hands must touch the table only very lightly so that we cannot unconsciously influence it by muscular pressure.'

Mina feared that her mother was not much given to silence. When not the centre of attention she tended to fidget until she was, and there was a very real risk that she would pretend some spirit visitation in order to prove her credentials and enter the thus far forbidden circle. Fortunately there was not long to wait. The table, which was not at all heavy, gave a little shudder, and then rocked gently from side to side. There were some soft tapping sounds, like little clicks.

‘Are you there?' asked Mr Clee, eagerly. ‘If you are, dear friends, give three taps for yes.'

There were three soft clicks.

‘Do you recognise a powerful medium in the room? You may give three taps for yes and one for no.'

Three clicks and then a pause and three more.

‘Is that to mean that there are two?'

Three clicks.

‘Is one of them Miss Scarletti?'

Three clicks.

‘Miss Scarletti,' said Mr Clee, ‘you may ask the spirit a question if you wish.'

‘I hardly know what to ask,' said Mina. ‘Does the spirit know everything?'

‘It does, but it may choose what is right to impart to the living,' said Miss Eustace.

‘I would like to know who the spirit was when alive,' said Mina.

‘Then ask.'

Mina paused. ‘Are you the spirit of my sister?'

One click.

‘Are you the spirit of my father?'

Three clicks.

Despite herself, Mina found that she was trembling. Whether this was from the renewed sharp awareness of her loss, or anger that she was being so manipulated, or even the foolish hope that somehow her father was really in the room with her, she could not say.

‘Ask him if he is with God,' said Louisa. Her voice was muffled as if she was holding a handkerchief to her face.

‘I need no séance to tell me that,' said Mina. ‘But how do I know if this is indeed my father and not some false spirit come to delude me?'

‘You are too strong for false spirits to work through you,' said Miss Eustace, ‘as am I.'

‘I cannot be so sure of that,' said Mina. ‘And whatever question I was to ask would tell me nothing, since both a true and a false spirit would know the answer.' But not, she thought, a fraud. ‘Father dear,' she said, after a pause, ‘can you tell me the last words you spoke to me on the day that you passed into spirit?'

The table was obstinately still. Several minutes elapsed, but there was no more.

‘Oh, I am so sorry, but the spirit has gone,' said Miss Eustace. ‘Do not be downcast, Miss Scarletti, if you try again I know he will come, and better and stronger than before!'

The séance, thought Mina, angrily, had been a charade from start to finish with the table acting under the slender fingertips of Miss Eustace. No doubt the lady had first undertaken to frighten Simmons by somehow moving it with her foot, easily done under the cover of her heavy skirts, or even a carefully laid black thread. The medium dared not answer Mina's question as she did not know the answer, and had employed the pretence that the spirit had left. Henry Scarletti, had he been present, would undoubtedly have seen the bleak humour of Mina's question, and either chided his daughter or made something up. Only Mina and her mother of all those in the room knew that for the last week of his life Henry Scarletti had been unable to speak. There were no words on his last day alive.

‘Oh,' exclaimed Louisa, ‘it is just too much to bear! Henry was such a dear man and Mina has frightened him away with her silly questions. Miss Eustace, would you consent to see me privately one evening as you did Miss Whinstone?'

‘Of course I will,' said Miss Eustace, reassuringly. ‘And very soon.'

Mr Clee put the table and chairs back in their accustomed places, conducted Miss Simmons back to the safety of her corner, and then turned his attention to Mina with all the extravagant passion of the recent convert. His new devotion to the cult of Miss Eustace was, she thought, like that of a man who had once been addicted to drink, and had become overnight a champion of and learned authority upon temperance.

‘You cannot fail to be curious as to what the spirit world has to offer,' he said. ‘So many others with only a small part of your natural ability have been ambitious for advancement, and sought it, yes, and achieved it too. They have striven night and day for knowledge and perfection and purity. They have conquered their basest instincts and become as creatures of the light. You, Miss Scarletti, have hidden faculties that others can only dream of, which have hitherto lain dormant in your soul. Only liberate and develop them, and you will have powers that will grant you unimaginable freedom. You will soar to the dazzling heights, and find true happiness and contentment in the service of the Lord. The path is there before you! Will you follow it?'

In the face of this exhortation, it would have seemed churlish for Mina to make the reply that immediately sprang to her lips which was ‘No'.

‘I am overwhelmed with wonder,' she said, carefully. ‘There is so much for me to learn and understand. Do you really think I am equal to it?'

‘I have no doubts! Oh
please
say that you will!' His eyes were very compelling, and the colour of sea mist. She wondered if he was entirely sane.

‘I will pray,' she said firmly, ‘that is what I will do, I will pray for guidance. I am sure that the good Lord will give me the answers I need. And I will hope also that the spirit of my father will come to me again, perhaps when I am alone with my thoughts, and he will speak to me and tell me what I must do. When he does, I promise that I will listen to him.'

‘But will he come again?' said her mother, uncertainly. ‘Do we not need all these positives and negatives Mr Clee has told us about?'

‘Oh but I may do it alone, now; the power has awakened in me, Mother, I can feel it!' said Mina, with her sunniest expression.

Louisa looked alarmed. ‘Please don't go tipping tables, or you will break everything in the house,' she said. ‘And if Henry should come again, ask him what I ought to do about Mrs Parchment who I think is an ungodly influence.'

‘Our tenant, who my mother suspects of atheism or worse,' Mina explained to Miss Eustace with a smile, ‘but she is, I believe, merely a lady who enjoys her own company and walking in all weathers.'

More refreshments were offered, but Miss Eustace and Mr Clee, saying they had other important calls to make in the town, took their leave.

‘That was a nonsense question you asked,' said Louisa, before Mina could escape back to her room. ‘There could have been no answer as you well know.'

‘And there was none,' said Mina.