Read Online The Red Pavilion by Jean Chapman - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jean Chapman
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to see her eagerness to have them gone.
‘Anna, don’t worry, we’re going.’ Blanche reached out and touched the woman’s hair in a tender and uncharacteristic gesture. ‘I’m sorry we meet again in unhappy times.’
Liz stooped to kiss her, silenced now by the many implications of what had been said — and what not. All she asked her mother as they returned to the jeep was, ‘Do we tell Sturgess? And if we do, could it makes things worse for Anna?’
Blanche looked at her soberly. ‘I’m not sure,’ she murmured as they approached the jeep which Sturgess had pulled in under the shade of the trees.
‘Shall we just say Anna seemed afraid?’
Blanche nodded. Both realised they were already willy-nilly involved in the conspiracy of silence and terror that was spreading like a contagion over the whole of Malaya.
Sturgess watched the two women coining back. ‘Straitened circumstances’ was the phrase that always came to his mind when he dealt with people who were unable to open their hearts, minds and mouths to the truth — and these two, he thought, were becoming more straitened by the minute.
He wondered if their old nurse had died. They looked as if they had heard bad news, and as he watched their approach and the way their eyes stayed on him while they talked to each other, he knew they were not going to tell him whatever they had found. Reflecting that he had wasted some seven years of his life and several thousands pounds because his wife had not bothered to tell him things, he slipped in behind the steering wheel and started up the engine.
The women exchanged curious glances at his seeming lack of interest.
‘We found our amah,’ Liz volunteered. ‘She seemed frightened.’
He laughed. ‘Really, you surprise me!’ He paused to change up the gears and swing out on to the road. ‘The bad news came to this place before we stopped here.’ He had made a mental note of the name, and of the layout of the main houses. He felt he might well be back here with troops before long.
Chapter Five
‘The communists rarely take prisoners, Mrs Hammond.’
Liz felt the police officer had chosen his moment carefully to make the point. They had gone to Ipoh as being the nearest centre of authority and been received with sympathy and understanding.
Smart in the khaki short-sleeved shirt and trousers of the Perak force, Inspector Aba had listened carefully, nodding from time to time, aligning his fingertips in a carefully spaced arch one after the other as if putting their story together point by point.
‘Could he have gone somewhere by himself?’ the Malay asked most respectfully but for the first time seeming a little diffident as he expanded, ‘I mean, even in troubled times we all have our own private lives.’
‘Do you mean, has he another woman?’ Blanche asked, making Liz feel totally naive for she had been thinking the man was a bit of a fool because surely his wife and daughters were her father’s private life. She might have felt more affronted by the policeman, had he not been totally embarrassed by her mother’s frank response. The dapper Malay rose and paced his first-floor office with erratic speed, uneasy with this outspoken English mem and out of harmony with the ponderous ceiling fans stirring the hot air above their heads.
‘I suppose you have to ask,’ Blanche began, ‘but it would have been very easy for my husband to have kept me at home in England. Hardly a propitious time for anyone to start philandering — while his wife and daughter are in the air flying halfway around the world to join him. If nothing else, Neville has more sense than that!’
Liz remembered the telegram, then was annoyed with herself — sow a seed, grow a tree. Of all men, her father was not like that, was he? He might be impetuous, overgenerous at times to the wrong people, but he was devoted to his family, loved her mother.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Hammond.’ The inspector stopped pacing, went
‘Anna, don’t worry, we’re going.’ Blanche reached out and touched the woman’s hair in a tender and uncharacteristic gesture. ‘I’m sorry we meet again in unhappy times.’
Liz stooped to kiss her, silenced now by the many implications of what had been said — and what not. All she asked her mother as they returned to the jeep was, ‘Do we tell Sturgess? And if we do, could it makes things worse for Anna?’
Blanche looked at her soberly. ‘I’m not sure,’ she murmured as they approached the jeep which Sturgess had pulled in under the shade of the trees.
‘Shall we just say Anna seemed afraid?’
Blanche nodded. Both realised they were already willy-nilly involved in the conspiracy of silence and terror that was spreading like a contagion over the whole of Malaya.
Sturgess watched the two women coining back. ‘Straitened circumstances’ was the phrase that always came to his mind when he dealt with people who were unable to open their hearts, minds and mouths to the truth — and these two, he thought, were becoming more straitened by the minute.
He wondered if their old nurse had died. They looked as if they had heard bad news, and as he watched their approach and the way their eyes stayed on him while they talked to each other, he knew they were not going to tell him whatever they had found. Reflecting that he had wasted some seven years of his life and several thousands pounds because his wife had not bothered to tell him things, he slipped in behind the steering wheel and started up the engine.
The women exchanged curious glances at his seeming lack of interest.
‘We found our amah,’ Liz volunteered. ‘She seemed frightened.’
He laughed. ‘Really, you surprise me!’ He paused to change up the gears and swing out on to the road. ‘The bad news came to this place before we stopped here.’ He had made a mental note of the name, and of the layout of the main houses. He felt he might well be back here with troops before long.
Chapter Five
‘The communists rarely take prisoners, Mrs Hammond.’
Liz felt the police officer had chosen his moment carefully to make the point. They had gone to Ipoh as being the nearest centre of authority and been received with sympathy and understanding.
Smart in the khaki short-sleeved shirt and trousers of the Perak force, Inspector Aba had listened carefully, nodding from time to time, aligning his fingertips in a carefully spaced arch one after the other as if putting their story together point by point.
‘Could he have gone somewhere by himself?’ the Malay asked most respectfully but for the first time seeming a little diffident as he expanded, ‘I mean, even in troubled times we all have our own private lives.’
‘Do you mean, has he another woman?’ Blanche asked, making Liz feel totally naive for she had been thinking the man was a bit of a fool because surely his wife and daughters were her father’s private life. She might have felt more affronted by the policeman, had he not been totally embarrassed by her mother’s frank response. The dapper Malay rose and paced his first-floor office with erratic speed, uneasy with this outspoken English mem and out of harmony with the ponderous ceiling fans stirring the hot air above their heads.
‘I suppose you have to ask,’ Blanche began, ‘but it would have been very easy for my husband to have kept me at home in England. Hardly a propitious time for anyone to start philandering — while his wife and daughter are in the air flying halfway around the world to join him. If nothing else, Neville has more sense than that!’
Liz remembered the telegram, then was annoyed with herself — sow a seed, grow a tree. Of all men, her father was not like that, was he? He might be impetuous, overgenerous at times to the wrong people, but he was devoted to his family, loved her mother.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Hammond.’ The inspector stopped pacing, went
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