Chapter Seven

‘Where am I?’

‘Nurse she’s coming around,’ shouted the care assistant.

‘How are you feeling?’ asked the nurse.

‘Not so bad, but where am I?’

‘You’re in hospital Verity,’ said Sheila.

She didn’t say psychiatric hospital; it tended to frighten most new patients.

Marcus had returned home in the morning to find his wife slouched by the safe, and speaking in tongues he couldn’t understand. The hospital called the psychiatrist, and she was sectioned to Monks Hill for assessment and treatment.

‘How are you today?’ asked Dr Calder.

‘How long have I been here?’ responded Verity.

‘Five days.’

‘Someone must tell my husband,’ said Verity.

‘Don’t worry, he already knows,’ said Calder.

‘And Alain?’ she asked.

‘Whose Alain?’ asked Sheila, whilst wrapping the blood pressure cuff around her arm.

‘Oh it doesn’t matter,’ replied Verity.

She didn’t want to get him into trouble, but he was the best to person to help her; she couldn’t put her finger on it, but Dr Calder looked a little slimy.

‘BP’s fine,’ said Sheila.

‘How’s she been?’ asked Calder in the office.

‘Coffees?’ interrupted the new care assistant.

‘Yes please,’ said Sheila. Calder nodded.

‘Delusional most of the time, and extremely agitated,’ said Sheila.

‘Aggressive?’

‘No.’

‘Grandiose ideation, paranoia?’

‘Well when she stops speaking Chinese, she has been known to warn us that someone called Heshen is watching,’ said Sheila.

‘Who is?’ asked Calder.

The new care assistant, Yi Peng, put their coffees on the desk.

‘The Emperor’s tax collector,’ said Yi.

‘And who are you?’ asked Calder looking him up and down with his eyes screwed.

‘Yi Peng.’

Sheila interrupted him, to prevent what would be a rather unpleasant dressing down.

‘He’s new on the ward Doctor Calder,’ she said.

‘Yes, I can see that.’

‘But Verity was genuinely scared,’ said Sheila.

‘Alright,’ said Calder. ‘Well go on young man.’

‘The name’s Yi.’

‘Quite, but do continue,’ said Calder.

‘Heshen was a corrupt tax collector in Imperial China, a very devious and dishonest man.’

‘And this relates to our patient because...,’ said Calder deliberately pausing.

Sheila looked at Yi.

‘Go on, tell him,’ she said.

‘Verity believes she has heard him, and the Emperor too,’ said Yi.

‘Does she now,’ said Calder.

‘And what does her husband do Sheila?’ he asked.

Dr Calder already knew this from his visits to Treetops rehabilitation clinic, if not his long acquaintance with Marcus.

‘He’s an art dealer,’ she replied.

‘Dealing in? he asked.

‘No idea,’ said Sheila bluntly, disappointed she hadn’t dug that deep.

‘Chinese antiquities: It looks like one of his books fell on her head.’

‘What about the Chinese?’ asked Sheila.

‘She’s obviously picked it up from somewhere. But just how good is her Chinese?’ asked Calder looking at Yi.

‘Perfect Mandarin,’ said Yi.

‘Well she obviously had a very good teacher at one time or another,’ said Calder.

‘Thanks for your help Yin,’ said Calder.

‘It’s Yi.’

‘Of course it is.’

And he gave him a look that said never interrupt me again. No one stole the thunder of Dr Lawrence Calder.

‘I’m writing her up for risperidone, and doubling her PRN,’ said Calder scrawling in Verity’s drug card.

PRN was the ‘as and when required’ medication, and normally for patients who disrupted the system. But Yi had put him in a bad mood, and he knew the husband wouldn’t complain.

‘Diagnosis doctor?’ asked Sheila.

‘Alcohol induced psychosis,’ he said, puffing out his chest.

Calder stopped at the staff notice board on his way out.

‘There’s your Alain,’ he said tapping at the name.

Alain Fontaney was on the staff board as tonight’s agency nurse.

‘I suppose you were going to tell me she met him in ancient China Yin,’ said Calder smirking.

He closed the door behind him.

‘I never said anything about Alain,’ said Yi, scratching his head.

‘Don’t worry he’s like that with everyone,’ said Sheila.

‘And Yi, ask Sue to give Verity a bath. I’m going to ask her husband visit this evening.’

‘How have you been keeping?’ asked Marcus.

‘The last few days have been rather a blur,’ said Verity.

‘I did come earlier, but the nurses said you were too unwell to see anyone.’

‘Thanks Marcus.’

‘Here, I’ve brought your favourite pyjamas, and some chocolates,’ he said.

‘Any news on the vase?’ she asked.

‘Oh I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you.’

‘What have the doctors said?’ he asked.

‘Alcoholic psychosis,’ she replied.

‘Well perhaps this will finally stop you drinking.’

What really would have stopped her drinking years ago was Marcus forgoing his infidelity.

Yi knocked on the door.

‘Visiting time is nearly over,’ he said.

‘Still you’re looking a lot better than when I found you,’ said Marcus.

Verity wanted to tell him about the voices, about the Emperor and Heshen, but she really didn’t trust him. After all he’d brought her here, and god knows how many mistresses were waiting for her to be permanently locked up.

‘Sorry times up,’ said Yi putting his face around the door.

Verity did a double take. She couldn’t place him, and yet he seemed so familiar.

‘Are you alright dear, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost,’ said Marcus.

‘Fine,’ said Verity lying.

‘Anyway I shall see you soon,’ said Marcus buttoning up his coat.

‘When?’

‘Soon,’ he said again, and Verity knew all too well what that meant, he was entertaining a girlfriend.

Alain was still taking the handover, and couldn’t wait to see Verity when one of the night carers rushed into the office.

‘Verity’s spinning around on her bed babbling.’

Sheila was still on the ward, and rushed in to give her a shot of tranquiliser.

‘There that should quiet her down for a while,’ she said.

Alain sighed; no one would believe him either. He just had to get Verity to play the game.

‘How is she?’ asked the woman filing her nails in the BMW’s passenger seat.

‘Fine,’ said Marcus.

‘Is she coming out soon?’

‘Let’s hope not,’ said Marcus laughing.

His companion looked like a younger version of Verity, apart from the emptiness in her eyes. She was the perfect rubber doll.

‘Can’t you keep her away for good baby,’ said Jennifer purring.

‘Unlikely, but let me have a word with my old friend Lawrence Calder.’

He’d seen her husband twice on the ward. Marcus Forster had smiled and he back, but he felt tremendously guilty. And Verity was wearing her wedding ring, unlike the time at the funeral when he could no longer resist her. But how would she react now? And how would he?

It was the middle of the night when she finally came around. The nightmarish wails of another had interrupted her beauty sleep. Alain was still at her bedside when she awoke.

Verity rubbed her eyes, both pleased and a little embarrassed.

‘I’m not at my most glamorous tonight,’ she said.

Alain looked over his shoulder at the door.

‘Don’t worry I’ll be discreet,’ said Verity. ‘Besides you’ll probably want to throw me now.’

Alain smiled, and even before he spoke she knew he was just as besotted. He’d heard of her admission from Margaret at Treetops, and got an agency shift as soon as he could.

‘So what are we going to do Alain?’ she asked.

‘First we need to get you out of here.’

‘Don’t you believe the doctors? I’m mad you know.’

‘Psychotic actually, schizophrenic probably: If you believe the labels.’

‘And you?’ she asked with a tender look in her eyes.

‘I’ve learned never to trust the establishment,’ he said.

She smiled, that’s all she had ever done. But both Marcus and Dr Calder were very much part of the establishment, and Marcus was well, Marcus, and Calder gave her a very uneasy feeling indeed.

‘So tell me about the voices?’ he asked.

Alain learned about the vase, and Verity did mention its real value. She’d heard the voice of the Qianlong Emperor Chien-lung, his favourite official Heshen, and somehow wondered if she was Wa Yu the disgraced concubine.

‘You don’t seem surprised?’ she asked smiling.

‘I have my own theories about voice hearing,’ he said.

‘Meaning?’

‘I think it’s bound up with reincarnation.’

At least a patient wouldn’t laugh, and especially Verity, who looked just as gorgeous under the hospital lights as he’d ever seen her. She leant against his arm.

‘Alain one of these people is here, someone from the past.’

‘Who?’

‘The Chinese carer who was on the afternoon shift,’ said Verity.

‘Perhaps it’s the same spirit reborn,’ said Alain stroking the back of her hand.

Did he mean it she thought, or was he playing a game? Was she really crazy? Is that why the Emperor and Heshen sounded just like Marcus and Dr Calder, or were they incarnate souls?

‘We must get you out of here Verity,’ said Alain.

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ she replied.

‘So you’ll have to convince them you’re well,’ he said.

‘Don’t respond to the voices?’

‘Precisely.’

‘But how?’

‘With concentration.’

‘That could be easier said than done.’

‘I’ll teach you,’ and after checking the door once more he kissed her tenderly on the lips; something Marcus hadn’t done in years.

She whispered in his ear, and after checking the carers were still asleep Alain returned. Verity had removed her ring, and he was as quiet as he could be; all was fair in love and wards.