‘Shut your filthy mouth!’
‘I speak only the truth. You must get Bella away.’
‘To India?’
‘To anywhere. But why not India? Ships leave more often for India than England. Dr Walker will help you to get home.’
‘How am I supposed to get into Rangoon with a nine-year-old? Carry her on my back?’
Robbie’s eyes blazed with eagerness. ‘Whatever you have to do, you will do. I’m going. He’s touched me for the last time. You can come with me or you can stay and take your chances.’
‘Leave me alone, Robbie. I need to think.’
‘Well, don’t think too long. And don’t miss a meal either. I’m sure Brent doesn’t trust us. He knew we were lying today.’
Supper passed uneventfully. Ned did turn up for the meal of rice served on a banana leaf with soured beans and a few softly spiced chunks of meat that he didn’t recognise. He lowered himself to the floor next to Bella. It no longer shocked Ned to eat on the floor, or to use his fingers rather than cutlery. Privately he enjoyed indulging in what seemed to be the height of bad manners from a British perspective. He’d been warned on the ship by a well-meaning Englishwoman that the local savages ate with their fingers. ‘And you never know where those fingers have been,’ she had tittered. But now that Ned had watched the locals eating, he noticed how neat their hand actions were. It was quite a skill to roll a pinch of rice, some of the curry, a bit of pickle into a small, delicious mouthful. And what’s more, the palm of their hand was never touched by the food. Watching Robbie and the children, Ned had been determined to master it.
But right now he wasn’t hungry. Instead he reached for his cup of water and as he raised it to his lips he caught Brent, who’d joined them this evening, watching him with keen interest. The eyes, though small and deep set, missed little. The water stuck in Ned’s throat as he imagined what his friend had lived through all these years. And he thought of those fat sausage fingers reaching for Bella and felt sickened.
‘Aren’t you hungry, Ned?’ Bella asked softly, rice clinging to her fingers.
‘You go ahead,’ Ned choked out, glad that his sister was hungry enough to eat. Her cherubic features had given way to a gauntness this past fortnight. She was a shadow of the child who had squirmed next to him in the car that fateful morning of their arrival in Rangoon.
She leant forward to help herself to thin pickings, for Bella did not enjoy the food of the east. Over the top of her bent head Ned caught Robbie’s glance and nodded – just once. Robbie understood that Ned had just agreed to attempt escape.
Ned reminded himself to remain composed. He forced himself to pile a few meagre scoops of rice onto his own banana leaf. The meat dish was dry – the Burmese did not favour much gravy – but while Bella struggled to find any interest in side dishes, adding only some sliced fruit to her rice, he rather liked the spicy accompaniments, especially the salty soured beans. Nevertheless, it was a struggle to force any food down his gullet this evening. He kept talking, entertaining the youngsters around him with a story. Robbie kindly translated with lots of animated gestures that had the little ones giggling; he even managed to make Bella smile a few times, but all the while he felt Brent’s gaze burning on his turned cheek.
11
Robbie rolled over in his camp cot. The only light in the boys’ dormitory was a single tiny tea candle burning some spices to keep the biting insects at bay.
It didn’t deter the constant scuttle of lizards in and out of cracks in the wall and small openings in the windows, Ned noticed. A crowd of moths banged uselessly on the window above the low candlelight, determined to get in.
Robbie guessed it was close to ten-thirty; all the children were in bed and the few adults who remained on site would have retired to their huts or sleeping quarters. Experience told him that all but one would be snoring by midnight. Dr Brent was a ‘night owl’ as he’d heard it described. Just then a lonely owl’s low, haunted cry sounded in the distance, as though echoing his thought. He knew Ned would be wide awake, awaiting his signal that they could now hatch the next part of their plan.
Robbie took a moment to savour the enormity of what he had set in train. No longer was the escape just about him; now there was Ned, and Bella. Bella had stolen his heart. It was ridiculous – he knew it – but he had convinced himself that she was indeed a gift of the gods. Because of her he would change his life; because of the peril of her situation, he would take responsibility for his own and make the change he’d been promising himself for years.
He had always thought English girls were plump, but Bella was petite and her movements graceful – more like the Indian girls he admired. Robbie loved the pale translucence of her skin and the light sprinkling of freckles on her arms and face, as though the gods had sent a gentle drizzle of gold to rain down over her. From the moment he’d seen her he’d wanted to touch her fair hair, and he’d known instantly that she would attract the worst sort of attention from Brent.
‘Don’t ever be a victim,’ he recalled his mother murmuring on her deathbed. It hadn’t made sense to him then but her words had begun to resonate in recent times, especially since the Sinclairs’ arrival.
Brent’s attraction to Robbie had diminished after the rains had come last year; the monsoon had coincided with the arrival of Robbie’s body hair. Now Brent tended to use his slobbering mouth and fat fingers simply to remind Robbie that he still had power over him. He had on many occasions told Robbie that should anyone ever find out about their ‘special friendship’ Robbie would be killed. And no one would ever find his corpse, Brent assured him, except the vultures that would pick over his bones.
But Robbie was no longer frightened of the vultures. The real one was here, running the orphanage. His life was a living death. Now, his only goal was to extricate Bella from Brent’s grasp. If he died achieving it, then he would give his life gladly.
‘Ned,’ he whispered.
‘I thought you were asleep. I know it’s not time yet, but —’
‘Ned. We can’t do it tonight,’ Robbie blurted.
‘What?’
‘Shh.’
‘This was your idea, you —’
‘Listen to me,’ he hissed. Robbie reached over and banged the side of Ned’s bed. ‘Brent knows.’
‘Really? How?’
‘He was watching us tonight, far too closely. Of course he doesn’t know our plans, but he’s cunning, Ned. You have to trust me. He won’t sleep tonight. He’ll be waiting for us to do something. That’s why he turned up at supper tonight – he was letting us know he was watching us.’
‘Have you forgotten I’m being sent away tomorrow?’
‘No,’ he pushed Ned back down. ‘Don’t sit up. Trust me. He is out there waiting for us to try something. I know it. He shouldn’t even see our shadows moving.’
‘I hope you have another plan.’
Robbie turned it over in his mind. ‘I do, but it means you have to trust me with Bella.’
‘Go on.’
‘You must leave and go into Rangoon as Brent wants.’
‘No. I cannot leave Bell.’ Ned turned angrily onto his back, his hands behind his head.
‘Ned, just hear me out. Go tomorrow. You must work out your own escape at the other end. Leave the same day. It will be your best chance when you are new and everyone is trying to be kind and welcoming. They’re bound to give you some time alone. Do it as soon as you can.’
‘And go where?’
‘Did you ever see the markets at the end of The Strand?’
‘Yes, vaguely.’
‘Go there. Find a way. The school is in Rangoon city, so get your bearings and make for the hotel area, then head for the bazaar. I’ll find you. I promise.’
Ned was silent for a few moments and Robbie held his breath.
‘All right,’ Ned finally said. ‘I don’t know how but I’ll be there.’
‘Go to the wet section, where the food is sold. Walk through that un
til you see the flowers. Bella will find it less scary there.’
‘Which brings us to how you imagine you’ll get my sister away from here and safely into the city.’
‘Ned, I told you, you have to trust me.’
‘How do I know you —’
‘You don’t!’ Robbie said in an urgent growl. ‘But I will bring her to you, I promise. She trusts me. You’ve got to trust me as well.’
‘What will we tell her?’
‘Leave it to me. Make sure you just look helpless tomorrow, when you leave. Make Bella all the promises you want – all the usual stuff. And she’ll cry, Ned, you know she will, so be prepared for it. But go. He’ll make you anyway, so it’s fine to look upset and torn … even angry, but go. At least that’s one of us in the city.’
Robbie watched Ned smack at his own face. ‘Bloody mosquitoes,’ he snapped. ‘Why can’t we have nets? Have you seen Bell’s legs with all those bite marks?’
‘She’ll get used to it,’ Robbie whispered with a silent sigh. He turned on his back, rarely troubled by the insects that whined around his head most nights.
‘What about malaria? Our mother had quinine tablets the size of horse pills she said we’d have to take.’
‘Malaria is the least of your problems right now.’
‘Robbie, when will you get out?’
‘By tomorrow evening, Ned, we’ll all be together.’
‘I don’t know what to think,’ he replied.
‘Don’t think anything. Just go to sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.’
12
Ned woke early. In truth he hadn’t slept well, simply dozed fitfully, worrying about what the day would bring. He stared at the dingy, mildewed ceiling of the boys’ dorm. His sheets were damp and he could feel the itch of fresh mosquito bites around his ankles.
He longed for the comfort and gentleness of home – suddenly he craved an icy chill on his face, a scarf around his neck. Scotland. Would he ever see it again? It felt a long, long way away.
‘Robbie?’ he called.
‘Yes?’ He didn’t sound sleepy either.
‘I hope you made the right decision.’
‘I did. Now, you stick to the plan. You have to be convincing. Give nothing away, especially not to Bella.’
Ned sat up. A gecko scurried away from his toes and disappeared. ‘You just worry about your part,’ he warned sourly and moved to the ablutions block.
Later, over a breakfast of rice that had been fried with some sort of pea he didn’t recognise, Ned sipped the bitter but fragrant green tea he was getting used to, but it didn’t stop him missing the taste of a good brew of black tea with sugar and milk. He looked at his sister, who hadn’t eaten much.
‘Did you sleep all right, Bell?’
‘Not really. Matron is acting like Mummy now.’
‘What do you mean?’ he asked, blowing on his tea.
‘She made me sleep in her house last night. But I like it better being with the children.’
Ned felt a thrill of fear pulse through him. ‘You slept in the Brent bungalow?’
She nodded. ‘It was just as uncomfortable as the dorm. When are we leaving here, Ned? I don’t like it. I think we should go home.’
Ned’s mind was racing. Brent wasn’t anywhere to be seen. ‘Bell, did you see Dr Brent last night?’ He could barely breathe, waiting for her answer.
‘No. I slept in the same room as Matron.’
Ned ran a hand through his untidy hair, anxious. He had to tell her what was happening.
‘Listen, Bell.’
She stared up at him, trusting.
‘I’m going into Rangoon today.’
‘Can I come?’
‘No, darling. I’m going to take a look at a school.’
‘But you’ve already finished school.’
‘That’s true, but everything’s changed now. You know that. They’re going to see about helping me to get some work, just until we know what’s actually going to happen.’ He hated himself for being part of this lie. ‘The school is where they might accommodate me temporarily.’
‘But that means I’ll be here and you’ll be in the city.’
‘Not for long, I promise.’
Her eyes filled with tears. ‘But, Ned —’
He didn’t want a scene here. He grabbed her hand and led her away from where the children were finishing their morning meal as gently as he could. ‘Now, Bell, you have to pay attention and you have to trust me. Do you?’
She nodded but he could see she was deeply unhappy. He hoped she wouldn’t cry. Tears were only ever a second away with Bella, not that he could blame her. She wouldn’t survive much longer here.
‘Do you trust Robbie?’
‘I trust you both,’ she said, all but stamping her foot.
‘I need to know that you’ll do everything Robbie tells you to.’
‘Why?’
‘Because we’ve a surprise for you,’ he said, desperately reaching for the lie that would ease this plan through.
Bella brightened. ‘A good surprise?’
‘Yes. But you mustn’t tell anyone, all right?’
Her eyes shone. ‘Deal!’ she said and it made him think of his father’s expression whenever he struck a bargain.
He grinned sadly at the memory. ‘Good girl. So, I’m going to leave this morning and I know it’s going to make you sad but this is the surprise … you and Robbie are going to slip away from here and we’re going to meet up in Rangoon.’
‘Why?’
He couldn’t think of a single way to say it without it sounding dangerous. ‘We’re all going to have an ice-cream,’ he answered.
His answer had instant impact. ‘Really?’
‘You can’t tell anyone, though, especially not Dr Brent or Matron. Do you understand?’
She nodded seriously.
‘I mean it. Just do as Robbie says and I’ll see you later. All right?’
She shook her head, unsure, her hair frizzy and dull. ‘But won’t we get into trouble?’
‘No, because we won’t be caught. I hate us being separated, even for a moment. But it’s best I go into the city first and make arrangements.’ Ned shocked himself at how easy he was making it sound.
‘But why is it all so secret?’
‘Bell, if we tell anyone, everyone will want to come and I can’t see Dr Brent allowing all the children into Rangoon, can you? So, this is just a treat for you and Robbie.’
‘Can we see the grave?’
This was the question Ned had feared most. He, too, wished to spend some time at his parents’ grave, which the English community in Rangoon had kindly organised, but he suspected it would be one of the first spots Brent would look. No, they must avoid their parents’ final resting place.
‘I’m sure we can.’
‘Oh, then, I can’t wait. But how will we get back?’
‘It’s all planned. Don’t you worry about it. Right! I’d better go and let them know I’m ready.’
‘Ned —’
‘Go find Robbie before your lessons begin. He’ll tell you what to do. I’ll see you before I leave.’ He hugged her tightly. ‘Go on. You don’t want to be late,’ he said lamely and gave her a gentle push.
Reluctantly, Bella sped off and as Ned saw her joining the other children, her golden hair and pale skin so conspicuous in the group, he knew that neither of them belonged here. He would get her out of Rangoon and on a ship to some place where Brent couldn’t touch her, even if it killed him.
‘Ah, Edward, thank you for being prompt,’ Brent said smoothly.
Standing in Brent’s office was a tall, swarthy man whose black hair, combed back off his forehead, glistened with hair oil. He was neatly dressed in a lightweight suit.
‘This is Horace Foster.’ The English name was a giveaway. Foster was Anglo-Indian presumably.
Ned nodded at the stranger.
‘Mr Foster is the deputy head at the school and he has kindly offere
d to escort you back into Rangoon.’
Ned played along as politely as he could. ‘That’s very kind of you, sir. I’d like to see about finalising my electrician’s licence if that’s possible.’
Foster tipped his head from side to side in what was, Ned realised, an Anglo-Indian trait, as Robbie displayed the tendency. ‘We will certainly do our best to help.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ Ned replied, glancing at Brent. ‘Of course, I’d need to be able to see my sister regularly. I’m all she has left of family and …’
‘We understand, Edward,’ Brent said, his voice as oily as his companion’s hair.
‘Besides,’ Ned continued. ‘Mr Fraser will be contacting us very soon with details of how we will be getting back home to Britain.’
‘Of course,’ Foster replied, but the look that passed surreptitiously between them told Ned that neither held out any hope of that. Frankly, he didn’t either, but he had to keep reinforcing to all who felt they had power over his diminishing family that Rangoon was not where their future lay.
‘Well?’ Brent said brightly. ‘Let’s get you on your way, Edward. You’ve had some breakfast, I presume?’
‘I have.’
‘Good. Have you said goodbye to your sister yet?’
‘No. I don’t plan to either. I preferred to tell her I would see her soon.’
‘Of course, of course,’ he replied.
‘I would like to say a farewell to Robbie, though. He’s been friendly to us and I didn’t get a chance over break—’
‘Hurry up, then, lad. We’ll see you outside in five minutes.’
He nodded and left the relative cool of the office, made marginally more pleasant courtesy of one of the orphans operating a fan of reeds using his big toe. Ned was glad to escape for once into the oppressive heat outside. He noticed the horse and cart and assumed the driver was waiting for him. Emerging from around the cart was Robbie.
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