Read Online A Sahib's Daughter by Nina Harkness - Free Book Online Page B

the same process of adjustment, knew exactly what she was talking about and burst into tears, too.
    “I’m not. I promise. It’s still the same old me.”
    “I don’t ever want to grow up and be an old woman,” Rachel wailed. “I want everything to stay the same!”
    The girls put their arms around each other and sobbed for their lost childhood. It was not easy, having to part for long periods and then being expected to take up exactly where they had left off. The last time they were together, they were climbing trees and riding bicycles, both of which seemed like childish activities now. Suddenly, they were one of the older girls. They didn’t want to join in the children’s games any more. The adults were busy playing tennis, golf or cards. What was one supposed to do with oneself when one was thirteen years old?
    Samira, looking at Rachel, was also aware for the first time of inexplicable differences between them, differences she had never noticed before that were far more intangible than the difference of not wearing a bra. It was not about appearance or maturity but something about attitude. Something she could not quite pinpoint yet in her thirteen-year-old mind.
    “I know,” she said, “Let’s go to the ladies room. Caroline won’t find us there.” Although they both knew that Caroline was not trying to find them.
    Rachel continued the charade. “Okay. Race you!”
    The girls sped off noisily, their burden of maturity momentarily forgotten.
    They loved the elegant ladies room and would sit and whisper and giggle endlessly on the pink chaise lounge to the annoyance of the ladies who wanted to gossip and powder their noses in private. The room was very grand in their eyes. There were pink silk curtains in the windows and across each of the changing cubicles and pink floral upholstery on the wicker chairs. They sat and viewed themselves from all angles in the three mirrors on the pretty, white dressing table in the center of the room and played with the gilt brushes and cotton-wool balls, pretending to powder their noses, speaking in society ladies’ voices until it was time for afternoon tea.
    They wanted to sit with the adults at the table on the verandah, not on a rug on the grass with the children. Ramona looked sternly at Samira.
    “Please, Mother,” Rachel begged Lorna. “We’re not children anymore.”
    “And besides,” she added, “Caroline is sitting at the adult table.”
    “Oh, all right.” said Lorna, smiling at Ramona. “as long as you both promise to behave like grown-ups.”
    Everyone had brought homemade offerings for tea. There were cucumber and chicken sandwiches, chocolate éclairs, meringues, shortbread and cake. Rachel and Samira were on their best behavior, balancing their cups of tea and mindful of not talking with their mouths full, under Ramona’s watchful eye. Rachel was sipping her tea with one finger in the air when suddenly her cup slipped and she spilled tea all over herself. She gasped in horror, and Samira stifled a giggle. Suddenly, they were both giggling and snorting so uncontrollably that they had to leave the table and scamper back to the ladies room.
    “Oh, no!” cried Samira, wiping away tears of mirth. “We are going to be in so much trouble!”
    “Did you see your mother’s face?” Rachel was convulsed with laughter as she tried to dry her dress with a towel.
    “They’ll never allow us to sit with the grown-ups again!”
    “And do we really care?” Rachel asked.
    “What do you think they’ll do to us?” said Samira. She was a safe distance from the box room.
    Fortunately for the girls, most of the adults had seen the funny side of the situation, and Anita Dutt had come to their rescue, sensing their predicament.
    “Don’t be too hard on Samira,” she said to Ramona. “She’s at a difficult age. The girls are too old to sit outside with the children. They’ll learn soon enough.”
    Lorna smiled across the table at Greg. They saw so