Mrs. Maguire locked the door behind her and put the key in her pocket

“What does Brigid do in there, Philip?” The tone was studied and verging on insulting, but Philip had been calmly fending off questions designed to irritate him for nearly an hour and he had no intention of allowing himself to be provoked into providing any information about his sister that the rest of their family didn’t already posses. He could have refused to meet with their doctor but had considered it easiest just to waste the man's time and then send him on his way, which he would be doing in no more than quarter of an hour.

“When she locks the door behind her it is for privacy when she talks to Michael and Baby Siobhan. Some times it is for days, but she comes to the door for her meals and a cup of tea when we knock. We respect her privacy” It was clear that Philip was implying, as you and your employers do not.

“But Michael has been dead for over sixty years, has he not?”

“Sixty-four years, Doctor. Siobhan too. And Brigid knows that, but it’s certainly not a sign of insanity for an Irish Catholic to believe souls go to heaven. My sister’s not away with the mixer despite what others in the family who haven’t spoken to her for fifty years will tell you.”

“You know the rest of your family want her sectioned and committed? They say she has no idea who she is because the servants say she only answers to the name of Mrs. Maguire, but that Maguire is her maiden name. Her married name they tell me is O’Toole.” The doctor was clearly becoming desperate for something, anything, his employers could use and was getting to the heart of the matter he’d so far skated round.

“That is true, except she does know who she is. She was married for three months before she was widowed at seventeen, and to use Michael’s name upsets her. There are hundreds of thousands of widows and divorcees who have reverted to their maiden names, and no one is suggesting they are locked up. Why pick on her?”

“You have to admit she’s a bit odd and has peculiar habits.”

“And I can see you have a nervous tic and suffer from OCD, Doctor, so are we going to lock you up too?”

“Point taken, Philip. What are you proposing?” Philip considered the doctor to be over familiar in his informality. He called him doctor and anything other than Mr. Maguire at such a meeting he considered to be gross bad manners, but it was he thought probably deliberate.

“I’m not proposing anything. You are the one set on creating a problem that needs a proposal to cure it. There is no problem, so no need of anything proposed to cure it. As long as Brigid lives here she’ll be fine. She sees to all her personal requirements herself. Mary does virtually nothing for her, no more than any sister would do for another, certainly far less than both of them did for Mum towards the end. To Mary she is a sister, not a sister in law. Brigid does her share of the private housework and looking after my grandchildren too.”

“So what’s in that room that only the three of you have ever entered?”

“Nothing sinister, and it’s rooms not room, Doctor. Brigid’s suite includes a bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, a living room with a balcony over looking the river and a sitting room. Her sitting room is like a shrine to Michael and baby Siobhan, but it’s no more than many Catholics have on open display in their front rooms. Brigid and Mary do all the house work required in Brigid’s rooms as they do in Mary’s and my private rooms. The servants are not allowed in either suite. Brigid only locks the door behind her when she is overwhelmed by her memories, and she’ll unlock it when she can face them again. We have ways of knowing she’s all right, and that’s all I’m going to say concerning that.”

“No one will tell me exactly what caused her to change. Will you?”

“It’s really a very simple thing, but a tragedy. Michael worked as a carpenter and was killed by a faulty Hilti gun. A gun that fires nails through wood to anchor it to masonry. It was his favourite gun and had been labelled not to be used till repaired and serviced. Because it was his favourite the inquiry concluded he had removed the label and the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. The implication being it was Michael’s own fault.”

“Your sister took it badly then?”

“She has never accepted the finding of the inquiry or the coroner’s verdict. Patrick, a workmate of Michael’s had been chasing her since long before she met Michael. She wasn’t interested in him, but even after her wedding he continued chasing her. She believes Patrick removed the label and Michael was unaware the gun was faulty.”

“Surely the inquiry would have found the truth of her contention?”

“It doubtless would have done had Patrick not been crushed by an earth mover three days after Michael’s death. My sister maintains that was divine justice and proves her contention. I knew Patrick and it was just the sort of spiteful, childish thing he would have done.”

“And that changed her to what she is now.?”

“I don’t like the way you put that, Doctor, but she became a little reclusive when Michael died. She was pregnant with his baby when he died. Her pregnancy doubtless accounted for some of the changes in her behaviour. Michael died unaware she was pregnant and she feels guilty she hadn’t told him. When she lost the baby, whom she was going to name Siobhan, she retreated in to a state of melancholia for a few months which she falls back into from time to time. That’s when she locks herself in her rooms.”

“I see. So there’s nothing I can do for you, Philip? Something to settle Brigid’s nerves perhaps?”

“No, Doctor. Brigid’s nerves are not unsettled, and there is no way I am going to allow my relatives at some point in the future to go into a probate hearing saying my sister was not fit to manage her own affairs on the grounds that you prescribed her sedatives of some sort. All she needs is peace.”

“Your family—“

“My family are not welcome here and have no say concerning what happens here. Brigid refused to see you because she didn’t wish to. She is under no obligation to explain herself to you or to anyone else. And you certainly do not have the right to inflict yourself on her. My family are gold digging, again. They already know they are not going to gain anything from Brigid’s estate, and that they’ll receive the same from mine. Brigid has a home here till she dies. She is eight years older than I, but in the event I predecease her I have made arrangements for her well being and ensured her freedom too, neither of which I have any intention of discussing with anyone. I’ll shew you to the door now if you don’t mind. Please do not return because lackeys of my family are not welcome here, and you are not my sister’s doctor. I don’t know where you practice, but her doctor has chambers in Harley Street, so I suspect you are out of your depth here.”

Completely ignoring the insult, the doctor continued, “Your family are naturally concerned about your arrangements.”

“Agreed, Doctor. They’re worth nothing and live in terraced houses, and I and my sister are worth millions and live on this estate. They’re concerned all right. I gave them the same opportunity to invest in the company when I had nothing that I gave Brigid. It must really gall them that the fifty pounds she gave me when it was all she had has made her a multi millionairess. I’ll give you some advice, I suggest you do no further work for them till you have been paid for today, and I wouldn’t take a cheque if I were you. Now the door please.”

After Philip had escorted the unctuous doctor, who’d clearly been on a fact finding mission but had learned nothing Philip’s relatives didn’t already know, off the premises, Mary came in and asked, “I know you are both happy with the financial arrangements for after you’re gone, but I could see that horrible little man upset Brigid, even if he couldn’t. How is she, Philip? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this low before.”

“She’ll be fine, she was smiling as she shut the door. We’d better listen every couple of hours, Love, so we know when to contact Seamus. Brigid has always said,‘I’m going to talk to Michael and Siobhan now, Philip.” This time she said, “I’m going to join Michael and Siobhan now, Philip.”

There were tears in Mary’s eyes as she said, “I’ll get her wedding dress ready, Philip.” Philip just nodded, for, as he’d promised Brigid decades ago when he was still a child, she would be buried in her wedding dress ready to meet her husband and child.