Lady of Hay: An enduring classic – gripping, atmospheric and utterly compelling

Jo took Tim’s arm. ‘You shouldn’t make comments like that, Mr Heacham. It could get you a reputation, you know,’ she said, laughing. They waited side by side for a gap in the traffic before crossing the road then sprinted between a taxi and a Bedford van. ‘Perhaps we’d better get you regressed. Find out what you were in a previous life.’

‘No fear.’ Tim stopped abruptly at the foot of the steps and took her hand. ‘Jo, love. Can you bear in mind that this chap is a friend of a friend? Go easy on the put-downs.’

‘I’m not going to put anyone down, Tim.’ She hitched her thumb through the strap of the bag on her shoulder. ‘I’m going strictly as an observer. I shan’t say a word. Promise.’

The front door was opened by a woman in a long Laura Ashley dress, her fair hair caught back in an untidy pony-tail. She had a clipboard in her hand.

‘Mr Heacham and Miss Clifford?’ she confirmed. ‘The others are all here. Follow me, please.’

The dark hallway was carpeted wall to wall with a thick brown runner which muffled their footsteps as they followed her past several closed doors and up a flight of stairs to the first floor. There, in a large room, facing onto the long narrow gardens which backed the houses, they found Bill Walton and some dozen other people, already seated on a semicircle of upright chairs.

Walton held out his hand to them. ‘How are you? As you requested, Tim, I’ve told everyone that a lady and gentleman of the press will be here. No one objects.’ He was a small, wizened man of about fifty, his sandy hair standing out in wisps around his head. Jo looked apprehensively into his prominent green eyes as she shook hands.

Somewhere outside children were playing in the evening sunlight. She could hear their excited shouting and the dull thud as a foot connected with a ball. In the room there was a muted expectant silence. She could see the two girls seated side by side at the end of the row. Both now looked distinctly frightened. Next to them a man in a roll-necked sweater whispered to his companion and laughed quietly.

The room was a study – a large, comfortable untidy room, the wall at one end lined with books, the opposite one hung with a group of Japanese prints mounted on broad strips of fawn linen. Jo took her place on one of the remaining chairs whilst Tim slipped unobtrusively behind her, perching on the arm of a chair by the fire, removing the lens cap from his camera and putting it quietly down on the seat beside him.

Walton moved to the windows and half drew the curtains, shutting out the soft golden glow of the evening. Then he switched on a desk lamp. He grinned at the small audience before him.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, first let me welcome you all. I hope you are going to find this evening instructive and entertaining. Let me say at the outset that there is nothing whatsoever to be afraid of. No one can be hypnotised who does not wish it.’ He glanced at Jo as, quietly, she slipped a notebook out of her bag. She rested it, still shut, on her knee. ‘My usual procedure is to make a few simple tests initially to find out how many of you are good hypnotic subjects, then from amongst those who seem to be suitable I shall ask for volunteers to be put into deep hypnosis and regressed if possible. I should emphasise that it does not always happen, and there have been occasions when I have found no one at all suitable amongst my audience.’ He laughed happily. ‘That is why I prefer to have a dozen or so people present. It gives us a better choice.’

Jo shifted uncomfortably on the wooden chair and crossed her legs. Beside her the others were all staring at him, half hypnotised already, she suspected, by the quiet smoothness of his voice.

‘Now,’ he continued, hitching himself up onto the desk so that he was sitting facing them, his legs swinging loosely, crossed at the ankle. ‘Perhaps you would all look at my finger.’ He raised it slowly until it was level with his eyes. ‘Now, as I raise my hand you will find that your own right hand rises into the air of its own accord.’

Jo felt her fingers close convulsively around her pencil. Her hands remained firmly in her lap. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the hand of the man next to her as it twitched slightly and moved, then it too fell back onto his knee. She noticed his Adam’s apple jump sharply as he swallowed. She looked back at Walton, who was watching them all with apparent lack of interest. ‘Fine. Now I want you all to sit back and relax against the back of your chairs. Perhaps you would fix your eyes on the light behind me here on the desk. The light is bright and hard on the eyes. Perhaps if you were to close your eyes for a few moments and rest them.’ His voice had taken on a monotonous gentle tone which soothed the ears. ‘Fine, now it may be that when you try to open them you will find that you can’t. Your lids are sealed. The light is too bright to look at. The darkness is preferable.’ Jo could feel the nails of her hands biting into her palms. She leaned forward and stared down the line of seated people. Two were blinking at the light almost defiantly. The others all sat quietly, their eyes closed. Walton was smiling. Quietly he stood up and padded forward over the thick carpet. ‘Now I am going to touch your hands, one by one, and when I pick them up you will find that you cannot put them down.’ His voice had taken on a peremptory tone of command. He approached the man next to Jo, ignoring her completely. The man’s eyes were open and he watched almost frightened as Walton caught his wrist and lifted the limp hand. He let go and to Jo’s surprise the arm stayed where it was, uncomfortably suspended in midair. Walton made no comment. He passed on to the next person in the line. Behind her Jo heard the faint click of the camera shutter.

A moment later it was all over. Gently, almost casually, Walton spoke over his shoulder as he returned to his desk. ‘Fine, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. You may lower your hands and open your eyes. And may I suggest that we all have some coffee at this stage while we consider what is going to happen next.’

Jo licked her lips nervously. Her mouth had gone dry as she sat watching the man next to her. His hand had returned slowly to his lap, completely naturally, without any effort of will on his part, as far as she could see. She glanced over her shoulder at Tim. He winked and gave a thumbs-up sign. Then he subsided into his chair. As if at a signal the door had opened behind them and the young woman reappeared wheeling a trolley on which sat two large earthenware coffee pots. Unobtrusively she moved up the line of chairs, never speaking, nor raising her eyes to meet those of anyone in the room. Jo watched her and found herself wondering suddenly whether it was to stop herself from laughing at their solemn faces.

When they had all had their coffee Walton sat down once more. He was looking preoccupied as he stirred the cup before him on the desk. Only when the woman had left the room did he speak.

‘Now, I’m glad to say that several of you tonight have demonstrated that you are susceptible to hypnosis. What I intend to do is to ask if any one of those people would like to volunteer to come and sit over here.’ He indicated a deep leather armchair near the desk. ‘Bring your coffee with you of course and we’ll discuss what is going to happen.’

It was several minutes before anyone could be prevailed upon to move but at last one stout, middle-aged woman rose to her feet. She looked flustered and clutched her cup tightly as she approached the chair and perched on the edge of it.

Walton rose from his desk. ‘It’s Mrs Potter, isn’t it? Sarah Potter. Now, my dear, please make yourself comfortable.’ His voice had dropped once more and Jo again found herself sitting upright, consciously resisting the beguilement of the man’s tone as she watched the woman lean back and close her eyes. Walton gently took the cup from her and without any preliminary comments began to talk her back into her childhood. After only a slight hesitancy she began to answer him, describing scenes from her early schooldays and they could all plainly hear the change in the quality of her voice as it rose and thinned girlishly. Tim stood up and, creeping forward, dropped on one knee before the woman with his camera raised. Walton ignored him. ‘Now, my dear, we are going back to the time before you were born. Tell me what you see.’

There was a long silence. ‘Back, further back into the time before you were little Sarah Fairly. Before, long before. You were on this earth before, Sarah. Tell me who you were.’

‘Betsy.’ The word came out slowly, puzzled, half hesitating, and Jo heard a sharp intake of breath from the people around her. She gripped the notepad on her knee and watched the woman’s face intently.

‘Betsy who?’ Walton did not take his eyes from her face.

‘Dunno. Just Betsy …’

‘You were lucky this evening.’ Walton looked from Jo to Tim and back with a grin. ‘Here, let me offer you a drink.’

The others had gone, leaving Tim packing his cameras and Jo still sitting on her wooden chair, lost in thought. ‘Three subjects who all produced more or less convincing past lives. That’s not bad.’

Jo looked up sharply. ‘More or less convincing? Are you saying you don’t believe in this yourself?’

She saw Tim frown but Walton merely shrugged. He had poured three glasses of Scotch and he handed her one. ‘I am saying, as would any colleague, Miss Clifford, that the hypnosis is genuine. The response of the subject is genuine, in that it is not prompted by me, but where the personalities come from I have no idea. It is the people who come to these sessions who like to think they are reincarnated souls.’ His eyes twinkled roguishly.

Tim set his camera case on a chair and picked up his own glass. ‘It really is most intriguing. That Betsy woman. A respectable middle-aged housewife of unqualified boringness and she produces all those glorious words out of the gutter! I can’t help wondering if that was merely her repressed self trying to get out.’ He chortled.

Walton nodded. ‘I find myself wondering that frequently. But there are occasions – and these are the ones of course which you as reporters should witness – when the character comes out with stuff which they could in no way have prepared, consciously or unconsciously. I have had people speaking languages they have never learned and revealing historical detail which is unimpeachable.’ He shook his head. ‘Very, very interesting.’

Jo had stood up at last. She went to stand by the bookcase, still frowning slightly.

Walton watched her.

‘Did you know, Miss Clifford, that you are potentially a good hypnotic subject yourself?’

She swung round. ‘Me? Oh no. After all, none of your tests worked on me.’

‘No. Because you fought them. Did it not cross your mind that the fact that you had to resist so strenuously might mean something? I was watching you carefully and I suspect you were probably one of the most susceptible people here tonight.’

Jo stared at him. She felt suddenly cold in spite of the warmth of the room. ‘I don’t think so. Someone tried to hypnotise me once, at university. It didn’t work.’

She looked into her glass, suddenly silent, aware that Walton was still watching her closely.

He shook his head. ‘You surprise me. Perhaps the person wasn’t an experienced hypnotist. Although, of course, if you resisted as you did today, no one could –’

‘Oh, but I didn’t resist them. I wanted it to happen.’ She remembered suddenly the excitement and awe she had felt on her way to Professor Cohen’s rooms, the abandon with which she had thrown herself into answering all his questions before the session started, the calm relaxation as she lay back on his couch watching Sam standing in the corner fighting with his notepad whilst outside the snow had started to fall …

She frowned. How strange that the details of that afternoon had slipped her mind until this moment. She could picture Sam now – he had been wearing a brown roll-neck sweater under a deplorably baggy sports jacket. When they had been introduced she had liked him at once. His calm relaxed manner had counteracted Cohen’s stiff academic formality, putting her at ease. She had trusted Sam.

So why now did she have this sudden image of his tense face, his eyes wide with horror, peering at her out of the darkness, and with it the memory of pain …?

She shrugged off a little shiver, sipping from her glass as she glanced back at Walton. ‘It was about fifteen years ago now – I’ve probably forgotten most of what happened.’

He nodded slowly without taking his eyes from her face. Then he turned away. ‘Well, it might be interesting to try again,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Would you like to?’

‘No!’ she answered more sharply than she intended. ‘At least, not yet. Perhaps when my research is a bit further advanced …’ Warning bells were ringing in her mind; Sam’s face was there again before her eyes, and with it she heard Nick’s voice: ‘There is something you don’t know, something you don’t remember …’

Shakily she put down her glass, aware of Tim’s puzzled eyes upon her. Furiously she tried to get a grip on herself as she realised suddenly that Bill Walton was addressing her whilst he straightened some papers on his desk.

‘And were you pleased overall with what you saw this evening, Miss Clifford?’

She swallowed hard. ‘It was fascinating. Very interesting.’

‘But I suspect that you are going to debunk the reincarnation theory in your articles? My wife is a great fan of yours and she tells me your style of journalism can be quite sharp.’

Jo grimaced. ‘She’s right. If she told you that it’s very brave of you to be so open with me.’

‘Why not? I’ve nothing to hide. As I told you, the hypnotism is real. The responses are real. I do not seek to explain them. Perhaps you will be able to do that.’

He grinned.

Jo found herself smiling back. ‘I doubt it,’ she said as she picked up her bag, ‘but I dare say I’ll give it a try.’

4

‘Why did you do it, Judy?’

Nick pushed open the door of the studio and slammed it against the wall.

She was standing in front of the easel, once more dressed in her shirt and jeans, a brush in her hand. She did not turn round.

‘You know why. How come it’s taken you nineteen hours to come round and ask?’

‘Because, Judy, I have been at work today, and because I wasn’t sure if I was going to come round here ever again. I didn’t realise you were such a bitch.’

‘Born and bred.’ She gave him a cold smile. ‘So now you know. I suppose you hate me.’

Her face crumpled suddenly and she flung down the brush. ‘Oh Nick, I’m so miserable.’

‘And so you should be. Telling Jo in front of all those people what Sam and I had talked about in confidence. Telling her at all was spiteful, but to do it like that, at a party – that was really vicious.’

‘She didn’t turn a hair, Nick. She’s so confident, so conceited. And she didn’t believe it anyway. No one did. They all thought it was just me being bitchy.’

She put her arms around his neck and nuzzled him. ‘Don’t be angry. Please.’

He disengaged himself. ‘I am angry. Very angry indeed.’

‘And I suppose you followed her last night?’ Her voice was trembling slightly.

‘No. She told me to go to hell as you well know.’ He turned away from her, taking off his jacket and throwing it down on a chair. ‘Is there anything to drink?’

‘You know damn well there is.’ She retrieved her paintbrush angrily and went back to her painting. ‘And get me one.’

He glared at her. ‘The perfect hostess as ever.’

‘Better than Jo anyway!’ she flashed back. She jabbed at the painting with a palette knife, laying on a thick impasto of vermilion.

‘Leave Jo alone, Judy,’ Nick said quietly. ‘I’m not going to tell you again. You are beginning to bore me.’

There was a long silence. Defiantly she laid on some more paint.

Nick sighed. He turned and went into the kitchen. There was wine in the refrigerator. He took it out and found two glasses. He had not told Judy the truth. Last night, at midnight, he had gone to Cornwall Gardens and, finding Jo’s flat in darkness, had cautiously let himself in. He had listened, then, realising that there was still a light on in the kitchen, he had quietly pushed open the door. The room had been empty, the draining board piled high with clean, rinsed dishes, the sink spotless, the lids on all the jars, and the bread in the bin, when he had looked, new and crusty.

‘What are you doing here?’ Jo had appeared behind him silently, wearing a white bathrobe.

He had slammed down the lid of the bread bin. ‘Jo, I had to talk to you –’

‘No, Nick, there is nothing to talk about.’ She had not smiled.

Staring at her he had realised suddenly that he wanted to take her in his arms. ‘Oh Jo, love. I’m sorry –’

‘So am I, Nick. Very. Is it true what Judy said? Am I likely to go off my head?’

‘That’s not what she said, Jo.’

‘Is that what Sam said?’

‘No, and you know it isn’t. All he said was that you should be very careful.’ He had kept his voice deliberately light.

‘How come Judy knows so much about it? Did you discuss it with her?’

‘Of course I didn’t. She listened to a private phone call. She had no business to. And she didn’t hear very much, I promise. She made a lot of it up.’

‘But you had no business to make that call, Nick.’ Suddenly she had been blazing angry with him. ‘Christ! I wish you would keep out of my affairs. I don’t want you to meddle. I don’t want your brother to meddle! I don’t want anything to do with either of the Franklyns ever again. Now, get out!’

‘No, Jo. Not till I know you’re all right.’

‘I’m all right. Now, get out.’ Her voice had been shaking. ‘Get out, get out, get out!’

‘Jo, for God’s sake be quiet.’ Nick had backed away from her as her voice rose. ‘I’m going. But please promise me something –’

‘Get out!’

He had gone.

Nick took a couple of gulps from his glass and topped it up again before going back into the studio.

Pete Leveson was standing next to Judy, staring at the canvas.

Nick groaned as Pete raised a hand. ‘I thought I’d find you here. Has anyone told you yet that you are five kinds of shit?’

Nick handed him one of the glasses. ‘You can’t call me anything I haven’t called myself already,’ he said dryly.

Judy whirled round. ‘All right, you guys. Stop being so bloody patronising. I’m the one who said it all, I’m the one who told her, not Nick. If you’ve come here to reproach anyone, it should be me, not him.’ She put her hands on her hips defiantly.

Pete gave a small grin. ‘Right. It was you.’

‘Was Jo very upset later?’ she was unable to resist asking after a moment.

‘A little. Of course she was. She didn’t believe anything you said, but you chose a pretty public place to make some very provocative statements.’

‘No one heard them –’

‘Judy.’ Pete gave her a withering look. ‘You were heard by virtually every person in that party, including Nigel Dempster. I’ve been on the phone to him, but unfortunately he feels it was too juicy a titbit to miss his column. After all, he’s got a job to do much like mine when you think about it. “Well-known columnist accused of being a nutter by blonde painter at Heacham party …” How could he resist a story like that? And he was there in person! It’ll be in Friday’s Mail.’

‘Hell!’ Nick hit his forehead with the flat of his hand. ‘They’ll crucify Jo. She’s trodden on too many toes in her time.’

‘She’ll be OK,’ Judy broke in. ‘She’s tough.’

‘She’s not half as tough as she makes out,’ Nick replied slowly. ‘Underneath she’s very vulnerable.’

Judy looked away. ‘And I’m not, I suppose?’

‘We are not talking about you, Judy. It is not your sanity that is going to be questioned in the press.’

‘She can always sue them.’

‘If she sues anyone, it would be you. For defamation or slander. And it would serve you right.’

Judy blanched. Without a word she took the glass out of Nick’s hand and walked with it to the far end of the studio where she stood looking out of the window to the bare earth and washing lines of the garden below.

Pete frowned. ‘Just how much truth is there in any of this story?’ he asked in a low voice.

‘None at all. Judy misunderstood completely.’ Nick compressed his lips angrily. ‘Squash the story if you can, Pete. It’s all rubbish anyway, but if it wasn’t –’ he paused fractionally, ‘– if it wasn’t, think how much damage it could do.’

Pete nodded. ‘I had a reason for asking. You are sure that hypnosis can’t hurt her in any way?’

‘Of course not.’ Nick gave an uncomfortable little laugh. Then he looked at him sharply. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘No reason. No reason at all …’

Pete drove straight to Cornwall Gardens from Judy’s studio. It was nearly seven and almost certainly Jo would be at home. He scowled, thinking of the news he must break: probably the lead story in next morning’s Mail Diary. He leaned his forehead against the steering wheel for a moment as he paused at the lights in Brompton Road. If Nick preferred that red-haired cow to Jo it was he who needed his head examining. And soon.

He backed the car into a parking space in three fluid movements and climbed out, stretched his long legs for a moment, then sprinted across the road.

There was no answer. He tried again, louder, but still the flat was silent. Cursing quietly to himself he felt in his pocket for a pen and, tearing a page from the back of his diary, he scribbled a note and put it through her door.

‘Come on, Jo. There’s something wrong, isn’t there?’

Tim put a double Scotch on the table in front of her and sat himself down in the chair facing her.

Jo summoned up a tired smile. ‘I’m exhausted, Tim, that’s all. This’ll put me right.’ She picked up her glass. ‘Thanks for arranging everything this evening.’

‘But Walton worried you, didn’t he, and not just because you thought he was a fake?’

She shook her head slowly. ‘He wasn’t a fake. At least, I don’t think so. A telepath perhaps – I don’t know –’ She was silent for a minute. ‘Yes, he did worry me, Tim. The stupid thing is I don’t know why. But it’s something deep inside me. Something I can’t put my finger on, floating at the edge of my mind. Every minute I think I’m going to remember what it is, but I can’t quite catch it.’ She took a sip from her glass and grinned suddenly, her face animated. ‘Makes me sound pretty neurotic, doesn’t it? No Tim, I’m OK. I think I’ve been letting Nick get to me more than I realise, with his fearsome warnings. He’s a bit paranoid about hypnosis. He told me once that he has this fear of losing consciousness – even on the edge of ordinary sleep. I think he thinks hypnosis is the same – like an anaesthetic.’

‘And it is true he’s been on to his trick-cyclist brother about you?’ Tim asked gently after a pause.

She drew a ring on the table with her finger in some spilled beer. ‘I could kill Judy.’ She looked up at him again and gave a rueful grimace. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if what she said was true. Nick told me he’d been in touch with Sam.’

‘You knew Sam well of course.’

She nodded. ‘He became a friend after –’ She hesitated. ‘After they tried to hypnotise me, he and his boss, in Edinburgh, that first time. But we were never lovers or anything. The coup de foudre came with his kid brother.’

Tim raised an eyebrow. ‘And the foudre has not yet run to earth, has it?’

‘Oh yes. After last night it has. Finished. Caput. Finis. Bye bye Nicholas.’ She bit her lip hard.

Reaching over, Tim touched her hand lightly. ‘Poor Jo. Have another drink.’ He stood up and picked up her glass without waiting for her reply.

She watched him work his way to the bar, his tall, lanky frame moving easily between the crowded drinkers. She frowned. Tim reminded her of someone she had known when she was a child, but she could not quite remember who. Someone she had liked. She gave a rueful grin. Was that why she could never love him?