Julia sat abruptly down on the foot of her bed. Her brows drew together, and she shook her head as she considered what Cecilia told her. “It was our understanding,” she said slowly and carefully, “that Mr. Montgomery was single, that he’d never married.”
Cecilia sat down by the window in the room’s lone chair. “The story is more convoluted than that.”
“If you mean about the multiple people he believed himself to be? Most everyone here knew about them and indulged him.”
“Is that how you saw them, as people he believed himself to be?”
“Yes, a way for him to express his emotions. When he was angry, he believed himself to be someone named Archie, a most vile person who gave him liberty to act outrageously. I told him on several occasions that pretending to be another person does not absolve him from his behavior and he should be ashamed of himself.”
“What was his reaction to your scolding?” Cecilia asked.
She laughed abruptly. “He’d merely bow his head and say, of course, I was right, and apologize—not that that ever stopped him from pretending to be Archie!”
“Did you ever say anything to Dr. Worcham about this inappropriate behavior?” Cecilia asked carefully.
“Several times! Dr. Worcham said that was part of Mr. Montgomery’s affliction, the inability to control himself. He encouraged all of us to endeavor to see we did nothing to cause Mr. Montgomery to take up that character. We didn’tmind Gregory when we met him. He was a polite sort, acting like a butler, or majordomo, doing for others in a subservient manner.”
Cecilia nodded, now wondering,what was the truth?When she thought of Mrs. Montgomery relating to her and James the night he found himself lusting for his own daughter, she feared the ‘others’ residing within him was more likely the truth of his illness.
A knock at the door interrupted them.
“Come in!” called out Julia.
“Lady Stackpoole, have you seen…Oh! Lady Branstoke, here you are,” said Mildred, the matron who’d showed Cecilia to her room earlier. “I came to wake you for dinner and show you to the dining hall. I was rite concerned when I couldn’t find ya and your door bein’ open.”
“My apologies, Mildred. I woke and walked out into the hall where I met Lady Stackpoole. We just started talking and came in here,” Cecilia said.
“All right then. Would you like me to take you to the dining hall to get you oriented?”
“I’ll do that, Mildred,” Julia offered. “Imagine! She has met my son, so we have had a comfortable coze discussing him.”
“I guess that’s all right then,” the matron said slowly, frowning.
Cecilia cocked her head to the side. “Why wouldn’t it be?” she asked.
“Mr. Turnbull-Minchin doesn’t like patients in other patient’s rooms, is all.”
“Since when has that rule come about?” Julia asked. “On this floor, we have always visited each other, and I have visited the north dormitory to see Miss Dorn on several occasions.”
The matron shook her head. “That may be in the past; but, in the future he says as how as we are to discourage such visits.Visitin’ only to happen in common areas. But seenin’ as Lady Branstoke is new, it will be all right for now.”
Julia compressed her lips. “We shall see,” was all she said. She looked over at Cecilia. “Let’s go down to dinner. There are a couple of people I would like to introduce you to.”
“Dr. Worcham has ordered a light dinner for you, milady,” the matron told Cecilia. “Said yur to go straight to bed after dinner, too. Doesn’t want too much excitement for ya yur first night here. I’ll see that it’s brought to where ya sit with Lady Stackpoole.”
“Thank you,” Cecilia said.
The dining hall surprised Cecilia. It was one half of the former monastery chapel, a wall dividing it down the middle through where the altar would have been. It made for a pleasant dining room as the wide, tall chapel windows were not all stained glass. At their arched peaks were stained-glass biblical stories while the rest of the window glass was beveled clear glass that let in light and provided a view of the east Camden House grounds and, further, over the canal to the fens beyond.
“This is a pleasant room for a dining hall,” Cecilia observed.
Julia agreed. “In the morning,” she said, “the stained glass that’s at the top of the window arches can glow with the morning light, if it is sunny, and reflect color on the opposite side of the room. A very nice breakfast and wake-up room. But not so much,” she added with a laugh, “if it is a gloomy day.”
“What’s in the other half of the chapel,” Cecilia asked as they took a seat.
“The chapel dormitory. It’s a men’s dormitory,” Julia said. “Don’t get used to this service,” she added as women came around with plates of food to serve all. “Mr. Turnbull-Minchin says this is a luxury that other sanatoriums don’t have. As of next week, our food service will be buffet style.”
“I understand from things Mr. Stackpoole told my husband and me, and from what you have said, that Mr. Turnbull-Minchin has made many changes since he arrived here.”
