Property of a Lady

‘Yes. I don’t ‘spect he’ll come to see me again, do you?’


‘Definitely not,’ said Nell. ‘Beth, why did you say you weren’t the one he wanted? That man?’

‘I don’t know, not ezzackerly,’ said Beth, frowning. ‘Might he have told me?’

‘He might. Yes, that’s very likely. Perhaps you look a bit like somebody else and he got mixed up.’

‘He really wanted Elvira,’ said Beth, and Nell looked at her sharply.

‘Who’s Elvira? Darling, who’s Elvira?’ Because if there was another girl somewhere, a girl called Elvira who might be in danger . . .

Beth hunched her shoulders. ‘Don’t know,’ she said. ‘There’s no one at school called that. It’s a silly name, I think. Oh, did I tell you I’m having fruit trifle for supper? The nurse said it was today’s pudding. And scrambled eggs first. They won’t be as nice as the ones you make, of course,’ she said, confidingly. ‘But I’m ’strordinarily hungry.’

Nell smiled for the first time in twenty-four hours. That had been one of Brad’s expressions. ‘I’m extraordinarily hungry,’ he used to say. Beth had picked it up, and Nell liked hearing her say it. It’s all right, Brad, she said in her mind. We’ve got her back. She’s safe.

‘She’s checking out fine on all scores, Mrs West,’ said the young Indian doctor while Beth was tackling the scrambled eggs with reassuring enthusiasm. ‘We’ll keep her here overnight, just to be sure, but we can’t see any real cause for concern.’ He frowned slightly. ‘As to what happened – who can say? Temporary amnesia is a possibility. The trauma of her father’s death . . .’

‘I thought she was coping with that,’ said Nell quickly.

‘Again, who can say? One thing we are fairly sure of though, and it’s that she wasn’t in that churchyard very long. There was no hypothermia, no slowing of the body’s metabolism. If she was abducted, she was kept somewhere. Oh, and there were no traces of any kind of drugs,’ he said, clearly anticipating Nell’s next question.

‘The police are going on the assumption that she really was abducted.’

He spread his hands. ‘Police deal in facts. My belief is that this is something of the mind. Your daughter was somewhere during those hours, but you might never know where. She might not know, either. But she may have instinctively gone somewhere she felt safe. Even into the church. Are you a churchgoer? Was your husband?’

‘Not especially.’

‘I’ve talked to the on-duty psychiatrist – just in general terms. But we can book an appointment for Beth to see her properly if you wish.’

Nell had no idea if this would be a good thing or not. She said, carefully, that she would think about it.

‘My advice – also that of the psychiatrist – is that it would be better to let this episode fade gradually and naturally,’ he said.

‘I think so, too.’

‘If it happened again, that might be different, of course. But the mind heals itself in odd ways. We can do deeper tests later – for epilepsy, for disorders of the brain . . .’ Nell flinched, and he put out a reassuring hand to her shoulder. ‘There are no indications at all of anything wrong there,’ he said. ‘But I suggest we make an outpatient appointment for her – two weeks ahead, let’s say – and if we think it necessary then, we can arrange some scans. But I don’t think it will be,’ he said quickly.