Part 27 (1/2)
”William has his own ideas for the house,” I said. ”My opinion hardly matters.”
”Really?” Millie stepped away from the marble samples. ”But you went to Goupil's so often this spring.”
I had to turn away as a burst of bitterness came upon me. ”He didn't like my choices. He particularly disliked the Gerome.”
”Oh? Well, you knew he would. He did say landscapes, Lucy.”
I saw Victor's shoulders tense. I wondered what he thought Millie was saying, why it mattered to him. When I looked back to Millicent, I saw she had followed my glance, and her own expression was a.s.sessing, faintly worried.
”In any case, Charles says he drove by your new house the other day, and it looks nearly complete.”
I thought of the walls looming against the sunset, the dark stone, William's enthusiasm, and I nodded, fingering a swatch of multicolored tapestry. ”I've invitations to send out for the opening. William wants a grand ball.”
”How wonderful. Alma Fister was saying the other day that jewels would make such an elegant supper theme. Can you imagine? A pearl supper or an emerald one. Which would you choose?”
I felt the dull start of a headache. ”William's planned something already. I have no idea what it will be.”
”William?”
”He's much more dedicated to the house than Lucy is,” Victor said. His interjection was so out of turn that both Millie and I went silent.
”It's true, you know, Millie,” I said. ”Victor is only saying what we already know. I prefer the Row.”
”I know that was so once. But I'd thought-”
”I'd rather be here at Newport.”
”Perhaps you won't feel that way once the house is finished.”
”I cannot imagine.”
”Lucy,” she said. She bent close, as if she did not want Victor to hear. ”You should at least feign interest. No one will understand why you care nothing for it. And William has been so good to build it for you.”
I stepped away from her. ”He's built it for himself, Millie.”
She frowned. ”But I thought-” She glanced again at Victor. ”You said your doctor had worked miracles.”
I worked to keep from looking at Victor. ”He's quite brilliant.”
”Yes.” She said the word slowly, as if by lingering she could make herself believe it.
Victor straightened from the rolls of wallpaper and came over to us. ”You seem skeptical, Millie,” he said.
Millicent fingered the small gold dragonfly at her collar. ”You must forgive me if I speak bluntly. It's just that I've known Lucy for so very long, and these last years have been so difficult for her. There have been so many doctors, and none has effected a cure. I'm happy that she feels so much better, but it seems so closely tied to you, Victor, that it gives one pause.”
He smiled his charming smile. ”I'm simply Lucy's guest for the summer. It also happens that I'm a doctor, so I'm available to help her should she require it.”
”Victor specializes in nervous disorders,” I said. ”He won't say it, but I know you're already aware that Victor is more than my guest. He's the doctor I've been seeing-the one I told you about-and he's been most kind to stay here with me this summer.” As I spoke, I touched Victor's arm.
Millie's gaze went to my hand. ”Your doctor,” she said softly. The doubt did not leave her expression as she looked at Victor. ”You must truly be a genius, then. No other doctor has been able to help her.”
”No other doctor has bothered to understand her,” Victor said. ”None of the others have been trained in neurology.”
”Neurology?”
”The study of the mind.”
”Ah. You're an alienist, then?”
”I'm a scientist,” Victor said. ”Unlike most alienists, I'm not concerned with asylum problems but with the true understanding of the brain and nervous system.”
Millicent did not look enlightened. She seemed impatient, even angry. She said, ”Would you mind, Victor, if I had a word with Lucy alone?”
”Certainly not,” he said, but he was slow to leave.
Millicent waited until he was gone, then drew me to a corner of the room, next to a potted fern, as far from the doorway as we could be.
”I know what you say, Lucy, but there's something more here,” she whispered urgently. ”It's only a matter of time until everyone else sees it too.”
I frowned. ”What are you talking about? He's my guest for the summer. It's not at all unusual. Look at Leonard Ames-he spent all of last summer with Alma. No one questioned it.”
She shook her head. ”This is not the same as Leonard Ames with Alma Fister. Victor is no charming, harmless bachelor, Lucy, and you are too attached to him. You've hosted dinners together; he hovers around you as if he can't bear to leave you alone, and you're no better. You watch him constantly. People have noticed.”
”You're being ridiculous, Millie.” I backed away from her, loosing her hand.
”I'm not, and you know it,” she said. ”I remember when you were a child, Lucy. You've always been so pa.s.sionate about everything. Too much so. Once you found something to engage you, you grew too involved. Nothing else mattered. I see it happening with him. You must send him away before everyone else sees it. They'll destroy you, Lucy. You've already caught their attention. You've changed, and they'll blame him when they see-don't you understand?”
”He's my doctor, Millie. Nothing more,” I insisted-a little too desperately, I thought, and she noticed that too.
”Perhaps not yet,” she said thoughtfully. ”But I know you, Lucy, and I see what's happening, if it hasn't happened already. Send him away. Please. Don't ruin yourself or William.”
”But I'm so much better.”
”There are other doctors. It's unhealthy the way he controls you. It's as if he has you under his spell.”
Her words shook me: They mirrored my own thoughts. ”That's absurd,” I said, though I heard my lack of conviction.
”I've seen what kind of power he holds,” she said. ”I've seen what he does.”
”That's simply medicine.”
”No it's not.” Millicent grabbed my arm again, pus.h.i.+ng me into the fern so its fronds brushed my shoulder. ”Give him up.”
The very thought made me ill. ”I won't. I've found my life again. He's shown it to me. I'm happy for the first time in years.”
”Happiness is not the most important thing. If we all did as we pleased, where would the world be?”