Louisa smiled. ‘I really have no idea. But why should it matter, in any case? Why should it not be true, and no blemish upon the lady? Just because a martyr has been burned at the stake or torn apart by lions it does not make their cause any the less holy, indeed, it becomes more so. I had heard the story from somewhere, and did not trouble myself to enquire further.’
Mina was content. She knew that the seed she had planted would grow, and perhaps in time bear fruit.
Richard did not trouble himself to write to the newspapers in defence of Miss Foxton, but it was with Mina’s second and third letters that interest in the rivalry between the mediums was fully aroused. Professor Gaskin, in his role as Miss Eustace’s patron, wrote to deny in the strongest possible terms that she had written the first letter. Its composer was unknown to him, as was Miss Foxton, and his protégée was too kind and gentle an individual to become embroiled in such unpleasantness. His was not the only letter, however; there were several others supporting A SPIRITUALIST’s contention that Miss Foxton’s exhibitions were indecent, some who agreed with BRIGHTONIAN that the author of the first letter was undoubtedly from the phrasing, female, and a rival who had chosen to offer anonymous insults, and others who agreed with A BELIEVER that the production was that of the ‘fawning acolyte’, who was known to creep into the séances held by his favourite’s rival. While the debate raged through the mails, this was as nothing to the rumours that flowed around Brighton borne by that most ephemeral and rapid means, the spoken word. Mina soon heard her own rumours return to her, but this time she was told with great certainty that Miss Eustace and Miss Foxton had met in the street and almost come to blows, and that the cause was not so much professional jealousy as the fact that both ladies were in love with Mr Clee.
Her mother felt impelled to add her voice to the general furore, and decided that the best mode of protest was for the adherents of Miss Eustace to compose a joint letter to the newspapers and possibly even present the lady with a memorial to show their appreciation. It was for this purpose that a small assembly was arranged in the Scarletti drawing room, to which all interested parties were invited.
Miss Eustace, being the subject of the meeting, was not present, but the throng included Mrs Bettinson, Miss Whinstone, Mr Clee, Mrs Parchment and Mr Bradley, who while prevented from attending séances had expressed himself an admirer of the lady in question. Miss Simmons occupied her usual corner, but instead of the downcast eyes and humble demeanour of a servant, she attended to the proceedings with some interest, as if she was one of the invited guests.
‘You may or may not know this,’ said Mr Bradley, evoking a strong desire in Mina to take one of her dumb-bells and throw it at his head, ‘but spirit mediums are often denounced by the ignorant, who envy their abilities and their fame.’
‘We cannot educate those whose minds are closed to the truth,’ said Mina’s mother, ‘rather I wish to console Miss Eustace that those of greater understanding support her unreservedly.’
The persons of greater understanding populating the room all nodded with expressions conveying relentless wisdom.
‘I hope,’ said Mrs Parchment, ‘that we will be able to dispose of that foul slander on Mr Clee.’
‘Oh indeed!’ said that gentleman with a laugh. ‘Why, I have never even met Miss Foxton, and you are all aware that my admiration for Miss Eustace is as pure as it is sincere. I have no attachment to either lady.’
‘There are also some unpleasant rumours in town concerning an incident in London,’ said Mina, ‘events which are attributed to Miss Eustace, but which must have concerned another person entirely. I know nothing of the detail but it seems to have involved a spirit medium being sent to prison.’
‘Well, I can assure you,’ said Mr Bradley, with a broad smile, ‘that I have never heard anything to the lady’s detriment.’
‘Nor I,’ said Mr Clee. ‘And recall that I have been until recently a most pronounced sceptic concerning mediumistic powers. Why, I used to read everything I could to support that prejudice. I was living in London at the time of that incident, and would most certainly have heard if Miss Eustace had been accused of any wrongdoing.’
‘But these rumours will persist,’ said Mina, ‘and I am concerned that they may do harm to the lady’s reputation. It is nothing short of slander, and must be stopped. I would suggest that our best course is to discover all we can about what occurred in London, and then when we know for certain the identity of the person involved we can publish our proof of Miss Eustace’s innocence, and demand that the whispering stops.’
There was a slight pause, during which Mr Clee seemed about to say something, but restrained himself.
‘That is not an easy thing to do,’ said Mr Bradley, maintaining his smile with an effort. ‘You may or may not know this, but—’
‘Well, since you have both resided in London,’ interrupted Mina’s mother, ‘perhaps you can tell us all if indeed there was any such incident as has been rumoured.’
‘I am not aware of it,’ said Mr Bradley, firmly.
‘Nor I,’ said Mr Clee, with equal conviction.
‘Then that is our proof,’ said Mina’s mother. ‘There is no need to try and find out more if the thing did not happen at all.’
‘I think,’ said Mr Clee, ‘that anyone who is acquainted with Miss Eustace will know that she is incapable of carrying out a dishonourable act. That, I think, should be the whole tenor of our message.’
This was agreed and the meeting fell to discussing the wording of a letter to the press, and whether there should be a memorial or even a pamphlet.
Mina made no contribution to this, since she had her answer. When spreading the rumour of Miss Eustace’s imprisonment she had said nothing about the date of the incident, yet Mr Clee had said he was living in London ‘at the time’. It was a significant slip, which showed that he knew more than he was telling.
The next day Mina visited the reading rooms where she knew that a set of post office directories was kept, including those of both Brighton and the capital. Here she was able to discover a listing for the London business of the Theatrical Novelties Company, proprietor Benjamin Clee, costumiers and suppliers to the trade. Mr Benjamin Clee had been in this business for over twenty years and Mina wondered if he could be the father of Miss Eustace’s new young admirer.
On her way home she thought carefully about the first séance at which Mr Clee had appeared, and the levitating table, and as soon as she was at her desk she drew a circle representing the table on a sheet of paper and marked on it from memory where all the members of the company had been seated. She thought that a great many conjuring tricks were effected by means of black silk threads and thin wires, but the table trick, because it had risen vertically and not tilted, could not be done by a single person. It followed that Miss Eustace had had an accomplice, and that both of them had come prepared with the apparatus they needed, perhaps hidden in the cuffs of their garments. Mr Clee had been seated exactly opposite Miss Eustace, at the furthest distance from her, supposedly to protect her from the interference of a sceptic, but this had actually positioned him where he needed to be to help her. When the table rose, the other sitters had moved back in alarm, but only Mr Clee, the very person who had suggested the test to begin with, had appeared to be holding his hands over its surface.
Mina was now certain that Mr Clee had never been a sceptic; he had been Miss Eustace’s creature from the beginning. The two had probably been acquainted and in compact for some little time. The scepticism and the sudden conversion had been a pretence meant to add a touch of drama to the evening and increase the medium’s fame. Mr Clee, Mina felt sure, was an accomplished conjurer, which explained how he had been able to perform all the mysteries that had appeared at Eliza Hamid’s séance.
The next morning Mina received a letter from Mr Greville. He had found a small paragraph in a newspaper in October 1869 stating that a spirit medium and her husband had both been imprisoned for three months
after claiming to have produced the ghost of a client’s deceased child, which had proved to be a real child in white draperies. The fraud had been discovered because the tiny phantom had been unable to maintain the composure proper to such an occasion, gone into a fit of giggles, and dropped the spirit ‘baby’ he carried, which turned out to be a bundle of cloth. The client, outraged at the cruel deception for which she had parted with the sum of five guineas, would not be mollified by any explanation and had brought a prosecution. The medium had practised under the name Madame Peri, but her real name, the court had been told, was Clee.
Mina was unsure what to do with the new information, but decided, after some thought, to take it to Dr Hamid, whom she hoped had not lost his ability to reason. It was some encouragement to her that after she had described her discoveries and the conclusions she had drawn from them, he thought long and hard and even noted down what she had said.
‘So,’ he said at last, ‘it is your contention that the lady called Clee who was sent to prison, presumably a Mrs Clee since the article states that she is married, is none other than Miss Eustace.’
‘Yes,’ said Mina. ‘And since I can make a convincing case that she was well acquainted with and in collusion with Mr Clee long before they went through that theatrical ploy of his conversion to her cause, he must be her husband.’
‘You have no portrait of this Mrs Clee,’ Dr Hamid pointed out,’ so the identification rests solely on the word of Mrs Apperley, and neither do you have the name of the lady she saw, but even if she did see this Mrs Clee, and that is far from certain, she last saw her two years ago. Mrs Apperley was then eighty-four years of age. More recently, when she was in a state of failing health that led to her death soon afterwards, she concluded that Mrs Clee and Miss Eustace were one and the same. I cannot see a court accepting evidence of that nature. And, of course, Mrs Apperley cannot now be consulted on the matter.’
Mina was tempted to mention that Mrs Apperley’s standing as a recently deceased person ought not in some people’s minds be an obstacle to the lady being questioned, but restrained herself from commenting. ‘But is it not a remarkable coincidence,’ she said, ‘that the medium who Mrs Apperley said resembles, indeed is Miss Eustace, was actually called Clee? That is not a common name. And then we have Mr Benjamin Clee of London, who is in the very profession that suggests the family has an intimate knowledge of the stage.’
‘It is certainly possible,’ admitted Dr Hamid, cautiously, ‘that Mr Clee is a member of that family, but the connection may not be a close one. Even if he is the son of Benjamin Clee, that proves nothing. He may well once have been a sceptic but later became convinced. And this Mrs Clee need not be a wife, but a cousin or some other relative, or even not related at all. You don’t know if it is her real name.’
‘But Mr Clee has lied to us,’ said Mina. ‘Whatever the connection he has with Miss Eustace, he has concealed it, represented himself as a new acquaintance and colluded with her in a piece of trickery which they had arranged between themselves before he even came to the séance. If he has been engaged in that dishonesty, what else is he hiding from us?’
Dr Hamid nodded, and for a while Mina hoped that her arguments were having some effect. She could see in his face the struggle that was taking place in his mind. ‘I can understand what you are saying,’ he said. ‘If the levitation of the table was done as you suggest, with some apparatus concealed in the cuffs, then it does need two people standing opposite each other to perform it, and we might view it more as a theatrical demonstration than a communion with the spirits.’
‘Exactly!’ said Mina.
‘But,’ he continued carefully, ‘I would maintain that what we see at the séances performed before an audience is different from what takes place at a private consultation.’
‘In what way is it different?’ asked Mina. ‘We have caught them out in a deception. I know that some people claim that mediums sometimes perform conjuring tricks to please the faithful when their powers temporarily desert them, but do you really believe that?’
‘Perhaps,’ he suggested, ‘we might regard the public séances as if they were only a means of advertising the private ones. Perhaps we cannot blame the medium too much for a little – I would not go so far as to call it fraud –’
‘I would,’ said Mina. ‘The rappings and rattling tambourines and spirit faces made of nothing more than rags dipped in some phosphorus material are all trickery which Miss Eustace wants us to believe proceed from the spirits of the dead.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t believe she has ever made that claim,’ he said. ‘Even Professor Gaskin thinks that these phenomena come not from some spirit intelligence, but are a manifestation of the medium’s own powers; some force within her own body which she can mould and use.’
‘But the lifting of the table –’ Mina protested.
‘I can see that it is possible that Mr Clee did assist in that, and you may be correct, he may be a relation, but even if he did help, he might have done no more than augment the powers that were already there. Perhaps Miss Eustace was unable to perform it alone. Mr Clee has said he is a strong negative and he might have been needed there to complete the circle.’
Mina stared helplessly at the unhappy man before her. ‘What does Miss Eustace charge for a private séance?’ she said at last.
He looked startled. ‘She asks for nothing,’ he said.
‘Not directly, perhaps, but I know that she does receive payment from grateful clients. I have heard the sum of two or even five guineas mentioned. That is a goodly fee for an evening’s work. Miss Eustace is on her way to becoming a rich woman. How much do you give her?’
He frowned. ‘That is a private matter,’ he said.
‘Then you do give her money.’
‘What I choose to give,’ he said, with some annoyance, ‘– voluntarily you understand – is my concern. Now, if I may, I must return to my work. I have a patient I must see in a few minutes.’
‘I don’t wish to argue with you,’ said Mina, sadly. ‘I have had losses too and know how you feel. We may disagree strongly on this matter but let us at least be friends.’
He looked relieved that the questioning was over. ‘Yes, of course. I am sorry if I spoke harshly. I did not mean to.’
‘After all Mr Jordan and Mr Conroy can be friends and even business partners despite their differences.’
He gave a faint smile. ‘If I might change the subject of our conversation,’ he said, ‘Anna tells me you have been very diligent in your exercises, and I can see that you move more easily than you did.’
‘Yes, I shall soon be like an ape who hangs from the branches, or a man in a leotard who lifts weights, and astonishes the crowds. I shall take a booth on the West Pier and charge sixpence a show like Madame Proserpina.’
He laughed, and it was the first time she had seen him do that in some while.
Twenty
Mina’s next call was on Mr Jordan, who with his watch-cover snapping like a hungry alligator, was bustling with energy, supervising an extended display of fashionable garments and fabrics in the recently opened ladies’ emporium. Mr Jordan was, as ever, a smartly dressed and perfectly groomed man, but that day Mina detected something more. He had made himself into a walking advertisement for gentleman’s summer clothes, and all about him was new and fresh. He wore a flower bud in his buttonhole, a sparkling pin in his cravat, and there was more than a sufficiency of cologne.
‘The very latest fashions for the summer months,’ he said, proudly. ‘French-woven striped silk is all the rage, and there can never be too many bows or flounces. The court train, too, is quite the thing just now; there is nothing better to be had in London!’ He drew her quietly to one side. ‘I can assure you of our utmost discretion. Our ladies are very highly skilled in fitting every variation of the female form, and I know you will find something to please you. We also, of course, have a mourning department and our demi-mourning fabrics are both pleasing and ta
steful.’
‘That is very kind of you,’ said Mina, ‘and I will pay great attention to your display. But my visit today was on another matter. May we speak privately?’
He looked surprised, but after another consultation of his watch he agreed to allow her a few moments of his time and conducted her to a small office.
Mina explained to Mr Jordan the discoveries she had recently made about Miss Eustace, and asked what he thought ought to be done. She had expected him to be very interested in what she had to say, excited that his initial suspicions had been borne out, and eager to progress his campaign. To her surprise and disappointment he was none of those things, and instead appeared worried that some action was expected of him that he was unable or unwilling to perform.
‘Mr Jordan,’ said Mina, ‘please tell me that you have not gone over to the spiritualists!’
‘Oh no, not at all,’ he said hastily, ‘but you must know that my business partner Mr Conroy and his lady wife are very firm in their belief, and my opposition has caused some unnecessary friction between us. I have decided therefore to withdraw from the fray, and attend to my business. If people wish to be duped then they must take the consequences. I have done all I can, but I believe nothing can save them from their own folly.’
Mina decided to waste no more time on Mr Jordan and returned home, to find a scene of chaos. Rose met her at the door as soon as she arrived. ‘Oh Miss Scarletti, I am so glad to see you – I didn’t know what to do for the best! Mrs Scarletti rang for me and she is in such a state! She’s in the parlour now.’
‘Is she unwell?’ asked Mina, hurrying as best she could to attend to her mother. ‘Where is Simmons? Have you fetched her?’
‘I think she is more upset than unwell,’ said Rose, ‘and Miss Simmons is upstairs packing her bags.’
Mina’s mother, whose studied fragility had provoked a dramatic collapse under shock, was draped on the chaise longue like a discarded shawl, while the more robust figure of Mrs Parchment stood over her, alternately flapping a lace kerchief in her face and offering whiffs of smelling salts. ‘Oh, Mina!’ exclaimed her mother, extending her hand as if the weight of her arm could be supported only with a struggle. ‘Where were you when I needed you?’ Mrs Parchment, looking even grimmer than usual, stood back and allowed Mina to sit by her mother. A rapid glance showed Mina that there was, thankfully, no black-bordered envelope or telegraph message nearby.
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