The Book of Renfield by Tim Lucas

Author:Tim Lucas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books
Published: 2023-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

LATER—Morrison did not disappoint me; I had the transcript of to-day’s oral history in hand well before I was ready to leave my office.

Not long after I dictated my previous entry, I was surprised to receive a most unexpected visit from Arthur and his new fiancée. I have not seen or spoken with Lucy since the day she turned down my proposal of marriage, so our reunion might have been deucedly awkward—but they both greeted me with the utmost warmth of solicitation.

In point of fact, I was scolded by Lucy with mock-petulance for having made myself so scarce since the announcement of her engagement—’and after pledging to me your eternal friendship!’ she chided. I explained that I had not been intentionally neglectful, but was working very closely with a particularly demanding patient.

I took them back to my private quarters, where we seated ourselves in three intimately arranged and comfortable chairs. When I offered a cigarette to Arthur, Lucy startled me by reaching over the box and asking, ‘May I?’ There was no way I could refuse her, or would, but I must admit to being mildly perturbed by the sight of her perfect face drawing tobacco, the smoke of her exhalations dimming the glow of her cascading strawberry-blonde hair. Arthur himself was embarrassed enough to apologise, after a fashion, explaining that his own smoking habits were responsible for corrupting her. ‘She asked if she might try one of my cigarettes, and what was I to say? No? How can anyone say no to a face like that, to such a perfect pout?’

I knew exactly what he meant.

‘My husband-to-be smells of tobacco and tastes of tobacco,’ she reasoned most persuasively. ‘So why should I not smoke tobacco, especially when he is not to be around and I get so very lonely?’

Arthur patted the hand on the arm that was interlaced with his own, and explained that he and Lucy were going to be parted for some weeks—their first separation. Lucy and her mother were making plans to leave town for their annual vacation at their summer-house in Whitby, leaving Arthur behind to tend to the business affairs of his father, Lord Godalming, whose illness seems to be nearing its inevitable close.

Perhaps it was due to their impending separation, but as they sat there, side by side, there was an undeniable unity of spirit about them; if I was not entertaining a single entity, I was playing host to two entities inclining very much towards becoming one. Lucy looked somewhat less of an individual than she had been as I was courting her so miserably. Despite myself, I found myself reflecting back on that couple from Renfield’s past, the Griggses, the farmer who wasted away as his wife grew plump with child and possibly more than her husband’s seed—but in this case, it was Lucy who was lessened and Arthur who was looking hale and prosperous. I spent most of our visit deliberately focussed on Arthur, not wishing to weaken my own resolves by gazing too much at Lucy, and if she is half the girl I knew, she must have noticed this.

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