I went on the offensive. ‘Who’s Nora?’
‘Nora? Nora Donlan. Poor do.’ Her mouth puckered. The same surname as Agnes. Mother or sister?
‘Is Nora related to Agnes then?’
‘Sister. We don’t talk about Nora.’
‘What happened to Nora?’ I persisted.
She mouthed carefully in a whisper, ‘They put her in Kingsfield. Terrible business.’
The penny dropped. And Agnes’ flu made some sort of sense.
‘Is she here now?’ And what would ‘now’ mean to Lily? Were we still in the war, or before that, during her courtship?
‘No, she’s not here, she’s in the asylum.’
Oh, help. ‘Lily, what’s the date today?’
‘It’s August the fifteenth.’
‘What year?’
A look of terror descended on her. Her eyes grew wide, her mouth split in a grimace of fear. ‘Where’s George? I can’t find George? What have they done with him? George? George?’ She resumed her pacing, beating her fists against her thighs. Gasping for air.
I went in search of a nurse. There were two in the dayroom. The nearest was helping a patient with a drink.
‘I’ve come to visit Mrs Palmer,’ I said. ‘She’s getting quite upset.’
‘I’ll see to her just as soon as I can.’
‘You don’t know if her son made it yesterday?’
‘Sorry. I wasn’t here, I’m on the bank. I cover if they’ve a lot off sick.’
I went back to say goodbye to Lily. At first I thought she’d left the room. I heard a snuffle from the corner. She was crouched there behind the bed. Hiding.
‘Lily, are you all right?’
She looked up and across at me. ‘They’re taking it all,’ she said, ‘everything. Thieving from me. They want my soul, you know. And poison. They give me poison.’
‘Lily…’ I wanted to comfort her but the step I took made her flinch.
‘Go away!’ she cried. ‘Don’t you touch me!’
I swallowed, my throat tight. ‘Bye-bye, Lily. I’ll get the nurse. I’ll try and bring Agnes next time.’
She hid her face in the crook of her arm.
In the dayroom the nurse was just wiping the patient’s face ‘I’ve not forgotten,’ she said cheerily. I waited till she went through to the bedroom.
‘Now, Lily…’
I left her to it.
Preoccupied, I reversed out of the parking space. A loud horn blasted. I slammed my foot on the brake, narrowly missing the Audi behind me. The driver glared at me. I shrugged, though my heart was batting and a sheen of sweat had erupted all over my body. I moved back in and let him go past.
Driving home I let my thoughts clatter against each other, not trying to concentrate on anything in particular.
Nora was Agnes’ sister and she’d been taken into Kingsfield. Was she still there? Didn’t Agnes ever visit? Was guilt the reason for her aversion to going to the hospital? Or had Nora gone long ago? Was it simply memories of bad times that made Kingsfield such a daunting prospect? ‘We don’t talk about Nora,’ Lily had said, ‘terrible business.’ What had she done? Was Lily referring to the stigma of mental illness or was there something else?