Part 25 (1/2)

William squatted down beside me and kissed me lightly on the head, while I suppressed a shudder, and then he looked at Victor. ”Why, h.e.l.lo, Victor. I see you managed to tear yourself away from the city.”

Victor smiled at him. ”A pity you can't do the same.”

”Yes, well, most of us must work during the week. How lucky you are that your work is here.” William threw a glance at me.

”You've a charming home,” Victor said.

”Enjoying yourself, are you?”

”Immensely.”

”The weather to your taste?”

”It's been clear every day.”

”I a.s.sume Lucy has been seeing to your needs adequately.”

I could not look at him. Or at Victor. I squinted at the clouds in the sky, trying to find a shape, but they were frayed and loose and would not coalesce into anything I recognized.

Victor laughed. ”To be honest, William, it's the other way around. I'm at her beck and call, as is so often the case with patients. But she's doing better these days. I a.s.sume you've seen the difference.”

”Oh yes,” William said. I could not decide if there was sarcasm in his tone. ”No more fits, no more moods. Cook has finally decided to stay-she was threatening to quit twice a week. You've worked wonders with her, Victor.”

”I am sitting right here,” I said. ”There's no need to talk about me as if I were some piece of horseflesh.”

”You see? Delightful.” William looked to me. ”What have you been doing this week, my dear? Busy planning parties and such?”

”So few people are here yet,” I said. ”And I've spent quite a bit of time with Victor, of course.”

”Still the hypnosis?” William asked.

Victor said, ”It's best to continue the suggestion until it's firmly planted in the unconscious.”

”Is that so? How long must this 'planting' continue? Do we expect a harvest anytime soon?”

”Not before the summer is over, I would think,” Victor said.

”That long, then? Nine months? A child takes as much time.” William squeezed my shoulder. I stiffened.

”Victor tells me there are some patients who must be treated for years,” I put in.

”Oh, I should hope not,” William said. ”Surely not that long.”

”Lucy is making great strides, but the mind is an impossible thing to predict. We don't understand it fully even now.”

”Yes, yes, so you've said.” William was impatient. ”But we're not talking of just any mind, we're talking of a woman's. Lucy's. How complex can it be?”

I began to rise. ”I think I'll see about tea.”

”Thus far, I've seen little real evidence that a female brain is simple,” Victor said.

”But certainly more primitive, isn't it?”

Victor shrugged. ”Perhaps. Certainly they don't seem capable of specialization in the same way as a man.”

”You see?”

”Yes,” I said wryly. ”I'll just see about the primitive necessity of food.”

”Call Sadie,” William said. ”Where's the bell?”

”The bell? I haven't used it since we've been here.”

”How are you calling the servants, then?”

”I've been walking into the house to find them,” I said. ”Really, William. The bell seems so insensitive, don't you think?”

He looked at me as if I had fallen into a fit before him. ”You're the lady of the house,” he said. ”Their job is to serve you.”

”Yes, but it seems so ludicrous when it's just as easy for me to-”

”Sadie!” he called. ”Sadie!”

Victor was watching us with interest, and I was embarra.s.sed. ”Please, William.”

”Sadie!”

She came hurrying onto the porch, fl.u.s.tered. ”Yes sir, Mr. Carelton? Is there something you're needing?”

”The service bell, for one thing,” William snapped. ”Mrs. Carelton is not to rouse herself. She is your mistress.”

”Please, William, there's no need for this.”

He ignored me. ”Where is the bell?”

”On the piano, sir, where it's been since last fall.”

”Bring it to me.”

Sadie began to turn back into the house.

”No,” I said. I spoke more sternly than I had intended.

Sadie stopped. William looked at me in surprise. ”What?”

”I don't want the bell. Sadie, please leave it where it belongs.” I turned to my husband. ”I'm not an invalid, and I won't be treated like one. If my mind is so primitive, William, my body is not. I can walk. I can skip and jump too, if I care to. I won't be catered to like some delicate flower.”