A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne Page B

being hurt in the game, and as if she found this exciting. Simone was not absolutely sure what a hanged man was, except that it had something to do with murdering people.
    She was not sure who was being murdered or whether it was only a game anyway, but she thought it might all have something to do with the men who came to inspect the children, and who were so extremely bad and cruel, even though they looked normal and ordinary.

    â€˜Think of them as normal and ordinary,’ said Martin Brannan on Mel’s next visit. ‘It’s what they are, you know. You’ll see that when they’re born. It’ll be a C-section, of course. You’re all right with that, are you?’
    â€˜If that’s the best way.’ Mel did not mind how the babies were born providing they could be born safely and with the best possible chance of surviving.
    â€˜It is the best way. We’ll probably do it at thirty-seven weeks. Full anaesthetic as well, I think, rather than just a spinal epidural. You’ll go to sleep quite comfortably, and when you wake up it’ll all be over, and a cup of tea waiting at your bedside.’
    â€˜You can’t make it a gin and tonic, I suppose?’
    â€˜That’ll come later.’
    â€˜In a minute you’ll pat my hand and say, Trust me .’
    He gave her the smile that seemed to hold such intimacy and liking, but that he probably used on all his patients. ‘I don’t need to. You do trust me. You’ll have to come into St Luke’s a few days before the procedure. That means everything will all be calm, and nicely planned ahead. It’s a very civilized way of giving birth. I wonder now—’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜I wonder if it would help you to know a bit more about other cases of conjoining,’ he said, speaking slowly as if he was considering the idea for her.
    â€˜You mean, like the real Siamese twins?’ Mel had been trying not to use this word, but she used it now. ‘The first ones?’
    â€˜Chang and Eng. Yes. They led an odd life, those two, but they were quite separate personalities and they achieved a degree of normality, even in their time. That was the early eighteen-hundreds. They died in eighteen seventy-something, as far as I can remember it. They were never separated, but they both married and fathered several children.’
    Mel said cautiously that this must have been a bit bizarre for all parties, and Martin Brannan said, Yes, and bizarre was hardly the word was it. This time the smile was more of a mischievous grin, sharing the small joke with her. It was remarkable to think that this man already knew her body more intimately than anyone else ever had or ever would, and that in a few weeks’ time his hands would be inside her womb, cutting and slicing, and detaching two tiny living creatures… It was something you ought really to share only with your husband, that intimacy. She wondered if Martin Brannan had any children, and then she wondered whether he was married, and supposed he was.
    â€˜There’s a wealth of stuff written about these cases,’ said Martin. ‘Oh, listen, though, keep off the medical side, won’t you? It’s graphic and distressing at times, and you won’t have the necessary detachment. And it can be confusing. Concentrate on the personalities and the successes. The twins who were separated and lived normal lives—even the twins who weren’t separated and still lived reasonable lives.’
    â€˜I’d quite like to do that,’ said Mel thoughtfully. ‘If I knew about other cases—other parents—I don’t think I’d feel so isolated.’
    â€˜Mel—’ In some subtle way they seemed to have travelled beyond the Mrs Anderson/Mr Brannan stage by this time, although Mel had not quite ventured to call him Martin yet. ‘Mel, you aren’t isolated,’ he said. ‘Nor are the twins