Promise Made

by Linda Sole

  ‘You are worried about your sister,’ Vane said, coming to stand by Emily’s side as she stood near the window that evening. It was Christmas Eve and a huge tree stood at one end of the long room, decorated with glass balls and candles, a pile of gifts surrounding its base. Behind them the laughter and chatter was evidence that the party was a success. ‘I am sure she will be all right, my dear. The hospital will look after her.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Emily said and smiled at him. ‘I just keep thinking that it is Christmas and she is in hospital and all alone …’

  ‘She has her family to care for her,’ Vane said. ‘You should ask her to come here, Emily. You know we have plenty of room and she would be very welcome.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Emily said. ‘You are always so generous.’ She touched the choker of lustrous pink pearls at her throat. ‘I wanted to thank you for my gift, Vane. They are lovely. I shall always treasure them.’

  ‘I wanted to give you something special this year,’ Vane said. ‘I am glad you like them, my dear – but you haven’t got a drink. May I pour you something?’

  ‘Just lemonade, thank you,’ Emily said. ‘I need to be up early in the morning. We have a big day at the home tomorrow. Some of the patients who left us are coming for a reunion dinner with their relatives. It should be very pleasant.’

  ‘You know that I would be willing to stand in for you if you wanted to go to your sister?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be fair because everyone is expecting me to be there,’ Emily said. ‘Besides, I want to be here when Robert opens his presents in the morning. He would be upset if I wasn’t here. No, I am sure you’re right. Frances will be well cared for in hospital and I shall go down and see her as soon as Christmas is over …’

  Frances half opened her eyes to look at the three men standing by her hospital bed. She was feeling drowsy and not at all well, her mind still hazy after the effects of her attempt to end it all. She wasn’t sure how long she had been in hospital, though she thought it must have been a few days. She vaguely remembered the nurses singing carols, but that seemed a long time ago.

  ‘Mrs Frances Danby,’ one of the men said to her. ‘We would like to talk to you for a moment. Are you feeling well enough to answer some questions?’

  Frances nodded. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, especially doctors, but if she said yes to whatever they wanted to know perhaps they would go away and leave her alone.

  ‘Yes …’ she whispered.

  ‘Why did you try to kill yourself, Mrs Danby? Was it because you felt guilty because of your son’s death?’

  ‘Yes …’ Frances answered without really understanding the question. ‘Charlie is dead … don’t want to live … nothing to live for …’

  ‘Do you feel responsible for his death?’

  ‘Yes …’ Tears trickled down Frances’s cheeks. ‘My baby … too late … too late …’

  ‘She neglected him and then tried to kill herself because she knew it was her fault,’ a voice she dimly recognized as Sam Danby’s said harshly. ‘What more do you need? She murdered my grandson and then tried to escape just retribution. She knew I would have the police look into the matter.’

  ‘That isn’t quite what she is saying,’ another voice objected. ‘I think she is still too ill to know what is happening – or what she is saying.’

  ‘No, Dr Renton,’ the first voice said. ‘I agree with Mr Danby. She probably neglected her son because she was under strain after the death of her husband. And she tried to kill herself while the balance of her mind was disturbed. I think she would benefit from a period of incarceration in a mental institution. We should both sign the order, Dr Renton.’

  ‘I’m not sure, sir,’ the younger man said. ‘This isn’t a proper examination. We ought to do more tests … speak to her when she is fully conscious.’

  ‘I daresay you have not experienced too many cases of severe melancholia before, Dr Renton. By virtue of my superior experience in these cases I must tell you that without the proper treatment Mrs Frances Danby will remain a danger not only to herself but also to others.’

  ‘Yes, well, if you say so …’ The younger man looked unhappy as he signed the paper thrust in front of him. ‘But she should only be there for a temporary period. She looks ill and sad to me rather than dangerous.’

  ‘Yes, well, she will be under my care,’ the first voice said. ‘I shall do my best to help Mrs Danby recover her spirits – and when I consider that she is fit to be released I shall arrange it.’

  The voices drifted away, becoming fainter until they ceased altogether. Frances opened her eyes and looked at the one man who remained by her bedside. The other two had gone now and she wasn’t sure what they had wanted from her, but at least they had left her in peace. She looked at the man still standing by her bed, recognition that it was Sam Danby coming through the mists at last. She jerked up in bed as if suddenly aware of danger.

  ‘What have you done?’ she asked, coldness spreading through her. ‘Who were those men? Why did you bring them here?’

  ‘They have just committed you to a mental hospital, where you belong,’ Sam said, a cruel sneer on his mouth. ‘No one will believe your stories now, Frannie. You’re mad … a victim of melancholia. That’s why you neglected your son and then tried to kill yourself.’

  ‘No! I didn’t harm Charlie and I’m not mad.’ Frances was filled with sudden terror and tried to sit up. ‘I’m going home. You can’t do this to me. I’ll tell Rosalind and …’

  ‘Nurse!’ Sam called to the nurse approaching with a metal bowl in hand. ‘She is becoming hysterical. You had better give her that medication now.’

  ‘No!’ Frances cried out in alarm as she saw the syringe the nurse was carrying. ‘Don’t believe him. I’m not mad. He’s wicked and evil and he wants to put me away so that I can’t tell anyone what he is …’

  ‘Now then, Mrs Danby,’ the nurse said kindly. ‘You are under a terrible strain. You’ve been ill and you need help. Fortunately for you, Mr Danby brought in a private doctor to take care of you. Dr Marsham is just the right person to oversee your treatment. In a few months you may be well enough to go home again …’

  ‘No …’ Frances struggled but Sam held her down while the nurse plunged the needle into her arm. ‘It’s a lie …’

  She fell back as the blackness claimed her. Unaware of anything that took place shortly afterwards, she did not know when she was put on to a stretcher and carried from the hospital ward, nor did she see the private ambulance waiting to take her away …

  ‘They told us that Frances was suffering from acute melancholia and needed special treatment. It seems that she has been taken to a private hospital for the mentally ill,’ Daniel said when he rang Emily that evening. ‘We went in expecting to see her and were told she had gone. No one seemed to be quite sure where – except that it was a private clinic and the transfer had been arranged by a relative.’

  ‘Oh, Dan,’ Emily exclaimed. She was shocked and distressed by what he was saying. ‘How could they do that? Frances isn’t mad. I know she has been acting oddly for a while, but anyone would if they had been through what she has recently. I can’t believe they’ve put her away … It must be to do with Sam. If she is in a private clinic he arranged it, and he didn’t do it for her benefit, believe me.’

  ‘Are you saying he has had her locked away maliciously?’

  ‘Yes,’ Emily said in a firm tone. ‘I don’t know how or why but I know he did it and I intend to find out where he has taken her. I’m coming down there to ask a few questions – and if I find that he had her committed out of malice …’

  ‘Just be careful,’ Daniel said. ‘If he did this – and I’m not convinced of it, because the sister at Addenbrooks told me two doctors signed the section form. I don’t see how Sam could have forced them to sign if they didn’t agree.’

  ‘Can’t you?’ Emily was scornful. ‘I can. Money is a great persuader, Dan.’

  ‘You’re saying he
bribed them?’

  ‘Well, how else would he get a doctor to commit a woman who is perfectly sane to a mental hospital? It’s wicked! We can’t let him get away with this, Dan. Can you imagine how Frances feels being shut up in a place like that? I can’t bear the thought of it. I shall leave here in an hour or so – but I want to talk to Vane first. Sam Danby is a powerful man in his own little pond, but Vane can pull strings in places he has never heard of, and he will if I ask it of him.’

  ‘You have to be sure that Sam actually did something wrong first.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ Emily said. ‘But I am going to be asking a lot of questions, Dan – and I don’t intend to take no for an answer.’

  ‘Well, just be careful, that’s all,’ Daniel told her. ‘It might all be perfectly above board and … what Frances told you might be something that a deluded mind would dream up.’

  ‘Oh no,’ Emily said. She was fierce in defence of her sister. ‘Don’t you dare say that, Dan – don’t even think it. I spoke to Frances a few days ago and she was as sane as anyone I know – but very unhappy.’

  ‘She tried to take her own life,’ Daniel reminded her. ‘The doctors might have had good reason for thinking she was on the verge of a breakdown.’

  ‘I know it was a stupid thing to do, and I know she shouldn’t have done it,’ Emily said. ‘But she is my sister and I’m damned if I’m going to let Sam Danby get away with this!’

  Emily was frustrated and angry when she replaced the receiver. How could Daniel even think that Frances might need to be shut away in a place like that? What she needed was love and care, not incarceration in a mental institution.

  She turned her steps in the direction of Vane’s study. He would be there now, working at his desk. She needed his advice, because he would know exactly what she ought to do and he had never let her down. She was comforted by the thought of him, knowing that she could rely on his strength.

  Frances moaned, her head moving restlessly on the pillows. She had been dreaming such horrible things, but in a minute she would wake up and it would all be gone. Her eyelids flickered and she opened her eyes, staring up into the face of a stranger.

  ‘Ah, so you are coming back to us,’ the man said, his voice oddly familiar, though she was certain that she had never seen him before. ‘I was beginning to think you might be lost in the fog …’

  ‘Who are you?’ Frances asked, becoming aware that she was very thirsty, and that her mouth tasted awful. ‘Where am I? Have I been ill?’

  ‘Don’t you remember what happened to you?’

  ‘No …’ Frances wrinkled her brow because everything seemed hazy and far away. ‘Have I been ill?’

  ‘Yes, you have been ill. You are still ill, Mrs Danby. You are in a hospital – a special clinic where you can receive the treatment you need.’

  ‘What kind of treatment?’ Frances asked. ‘My mouth is so dry. May I have some water please?’

  ‘Yes, of course. A nurse will come in a while, but you must have your medication. Last time you tried to refuse it.’

  ‘Did I?’ Frances stared at him. ‘I can’t remember …’

  ‘It is often the case in disorders like your own. Do not concern yourself, Mrs Danby. In a few days we shall begin a course of electric shock treatment. It will make you feel even more confused for a while, but after that you will begin to remember the things you should remember.’

  ‘No …’ Frances wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but she sensed that it was unpleasant. ‘I don’t need that … I don’t want to be made to forget …’

  ‘You have been very unhappy. Trust me and I shall make the pain go away. You will feel calm and soon you will be content …’

  He was asking her to trust him, but instinctively she knew that she must not let this man give her the treatment he said she needed. She did not know why she feared him, but deep down inside her she sensed that something was wrong. He meant to harm her not to help her.

  ‘No …’ she said. ‘I don’t want to have your treatment. I want to go home. I want Emily. Tell her to come and get me. I want to be with my sister.’

  ‘I am sorry but you cannot leave here until you are well again,’ the man said. ‘I had thought you might be sensible, Mrs Danby, but I can see that we shall have to keep you under sedation for a while longer – just until you are ready to do as you are told.’

  ‘No … please don’t give me that again,’ Frances said as she saw him preparing the syringe, but he ignored her and even though she tried to resist as soon as the needle touched her arm she felt herself falling back into the darkness.

  ‘I think we told your brother that Mrs Danby had gone to a private clinic for treatment,’ Sister Norton told Emily when she invited her into her office that afternoon. ‘I was not on duty that morning, but it must be in the relief nurse’s notes. Ah yes, here it is …’ She frowned as she read what her colleague had written. ‘Mrs Danby was seen by two doctors who decided that she needed specialist treatment for melancholia. A relative was present at the time.’

  ‘Who was that?’ Emily asked.

  ‘Mr Samuel Danby …’ Sister Norton looked at her. ‘Is there some problem?’

  ‘Yes, I am afraid there may be. My brother and I are her nearest relatives and we were not consulted about having my sister sectioned. Indeed, neither of us would have agreed to it. The man who arranged this is her father-in-law.’

  ‘Yes, that is slightly irregular,’ Sister Norton agreed. She looked at the notes again. ‘Dr Renton is on our staff but I don’t know the other name. Dr Marsham must have been brought in privately by Mr Danby.’

  ‘He had no right to do it,’ Emily said. ‘I should like to speak to Dr Renton – and I want to know where my sister has been taken.’

  ‘I can arrange for you to speak to Dr Renton,’ Sister Norton said. ‘But I’m afraid these notes do not give the name of the clinic to which Mrs Danby has been transferred.’

  ‘Then you had better arrange that interview immediately,’ Emily said. ‘My sister has been abducted without the permission of her family – and I am not prepared to let things stand as they are. Let me tell you that my father-in-law is Lord Vane and he knows the chairman of your board of governors. If my sister has been mistreated in any way I intend to sue. This hospital had no right to allow Mr Danby to bring in his own doctor without the agreement of Mrs Danby’s family.’

  ‘Threats are unnecessary,’ Sister Norton replied with dignity. ‘Had I been on duty personally it would not have happened. It seems that the ward was in the charge of a staff nurse at the time and she was busy. I daresay she thought it was all right because Dr Renton was a member of our staff.’

  ‘I should like to see him as soon as possible.’

  ‘Could you return in an hour? I do not know whether he is on duty or not this afternoon.’

  ‘Then perhaps you will find out,’ Emily said, an edge to her voice. She drew herself up proudly, her manner implacable. ‘Because I am going nowhere until someone explains to me exactly where my sister is – and why she was transferred without her brother’s permission.’

  Sister Norton looked at her face and saw the determination written there. It was obvious that Mrs Vane had every intention of making a fuss until she received the information she needed.

  ‘Very well,’ she said. ‘I shall make a few telephone calls. If you would wait outside my office?’

  ‘I think I would prefer to remain here. I don’t think you can have anything to say on this subject that I may not hear.’

  Sister Norton pulled a face but picked up her telephone and made a call. She replaced it almost at once and looked at Emily.

  ‘Dr Renton is on his way down. I really do need to get on now – if you wouldn’t mind?’

  ‘Of course,’ Emily said and smiled at her. ‘Thank you for your help.’

  She went out into the corridor and stood looking out of the window. The hospital was situated on a main thoroughfare, but across the road was a row of
cherry trees that would have looked delightful in the spring when the blossom was out.

  ‘Mrs Vane …’ Emily turned as a man’s voice spoke to her. ‘Sister Norton said that you wanted to talk to me?’

  ‘If you are Dr Renton?’ Her gaze went over him dubiously, because although tall, lean and attractive, he looked very young. ‘Have you been qualified long?’

  ‘No, actually just a couple of months,’ he said and there was a faint blush in his cheeks as if he were slightly embarrassed. ‘How may I help you?’

  ‘I understand that you were one of two doctors who certified my sister as being of unsound mind?’

  ‘Are you speaking of Mrs Danby?’ His brow creased in a frown. ‘I was asked if I would be present at an examination. I understood her family wished her to undergo private treatment for extreme depression.’

  ‘Her brother and I knew nothing about it,’ Emily told him. ‘The man who brought the other doctor in is her father-in-law – and he hates her. It is my belief that she has been abducted in order to cause her some harm.’

  Dr Renton let out a low whistle. ‘So that is why they picked on me. I did tell Dr Marsham that I didn’t consider myself to have enough experience of melancholia disorders to give an opinion – but he insisted that all he needed was another signature.’

  ‘Didn’t you think that it seemed a little odd?’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact I did. Actually I was reluctant to sign, because I felt Mrs Danby ought to have been given more time to recover her senses. However, in view of her suicide attempt I believed that she might be a danger to herself if allowed to simply return home. Dr Marsham told me that a quarter of all failed suicide attempts are superseded by a second successful attempt within a few weeks.’

  ‘My sister had recently lost her husband and then her only son died in this very hospital. I think that explains why she tried to take her own life – but I shall not allow it to happen again. I want my sister released into my care and I give my pledge that she will not do it again.’