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The sound of John Sturgess’s voice as she approached the back door infuriated her and banished immediately any tears. How dare he still be here if he’d sent Alan away? She was about to burst into the kitchen and confront this Jekyll-and-Hyde character when she heard her mother’s raised voice.
‘Rape! For God’s sake!’
Liz stood transfixed, hand raised in the act of opening the door. Inside, her mother had also paused as if to try to understand what she herself had exclaimed, then repeated with terrifying anger, ‘Rape!’
Liz stepped away from the door. Is this what they believed? Was Alan in prison? Had he been arrested? Was that where he had gone? ‘No!’ she exclaimed and went quickly in, ready to defend and absolve her lover.
Her mother and John Sturgess both turned to look at her, but their eyes had that look of being focused elsewhere. She felt she just caught Alan’s defence in her teeth, as she realised there was no accusation for him, or for her. This was some quite other problem.
As if to reinforce her impression Blanche turned sharply away, walked across to the sink and threw the glass she held with some force into the washing-up bowl. Liz heard it crack. John Sturgess winced and held his teeth askew, obviously not quite sure what to say next for the best.
‘Rape? Did I hear the word?’ Liz asked.
‘Yes.’ Sturgess frowned and looked at his feet. ‘I’m sorry about that — ’
‘George Harfield has been arrested in Ipoh for rape!’ Blanche burst out. ‘Did you ever hear anything so bloody senseless in all your life?’
Chapter Thirteen
The extraordinary news so overwhelmed them all that Liz knew her own misunderstanding had passed u
‘The trouble is time. I have to make a quick visit to my headquarters, then we need a final briefing before our next operation, which must begin promptly or we’ll lose all the advantages of the raid on your amah’s village. We have more information than we dared hope for. I just ca
‘How can we help?’ Blanche asked.
‘All I know is the charge and that he was taken to Ipoh police station. I … ’
In the pause Liz thought he looked like a man doing his duty against the odds. An honourable pose? She wondered.
‘I know it’s an awful presumption, particularly at this moment,’ he went on, ‘definitely not a good time.’
‘Shouldn’t think there’s ever a good time to be charged with rape,’ Blanche retorted; then, looking at Liz, she nodded and confirmed, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll go. We’ll sort it out!’
‘Find out all you can. I didn’t know who else I could ask … ’
‘We’ll be glad to do something for George,’ Liz replied. With unpla
‘Cresswell!’ There was something between censure and surprise in the exclamation. ‘I do have to leave straight away.’
She nearly commented that he often seemed to have to rush off — when duty called — and take his men whether they were willing or not. ‘I’ll fetch it from my room at once,’ she said, turning away so he should not see her satisfaction. At least she had extracted the tacit information that the major was going to be seeing Alan again, so presumably they were going on the same operation.
Liz went to her room, her mind racing over what she could send to him and what it might mean if she did. Picking up a slim book titled New Zealand Poets, she found a clean flyleaf and swiftly in bold outlines she sketched the figure of an anonymous guardsman in jungle gear with rifle, standing in a far from anonymous empty room. As an afterthought she added, ‘Waiting to hear’ as a kind of caption. She dared do no more and take no more time. She slipped the book into an envelope and took it back to the kitchen where the major was preparing to leave.
She held it out. ‘Of course, if Mr Cresswell was coming back here, I need not trouble you?’
He reached for the book. ‘There will be no call for any of my men to be at Rinsey now you have your own guards organised.’
‘Thanks to George,’ Blanche said.
‘But I shall come again as soon as I’m able,’ he added.
Liz returned his coldly questioning stare without, she hoped, giving away her true feelings, but something flickered in his eyes like a camera lens as if he had registered an impression for future use.
He left as A
‘I do washing now, mem,’ she said. When Blanche protested, she said, ‘No, I want to, be busy, please, mem. You fetch towels and you,’ she said to Liz, ‘your dirties, please.’
‘I’m going to telephone for a car to take us to Ipoh first,’ Blanche said.
A
Liz embraced A
‘No time. Major no answer questions, no speak, only orders: Do this! Do that! Now!’
‘Thanks, A
A
‘What we’re getting, basically, is a taxi,’ Blanche said, coming back, ‘as far as Ipoh, anyway, then we can talk to the man at the garage ourselves and buy something.’
Liz nodded and the two exchanged looks which acknowledged the fact that they really had no man to advise them now.
‘A
A
‘Oh, A
‘We will always see you’re provided for,’ Blanche agreed, then asked, ‘Would you tell us more about all those years while we wait for this car?’
‘That boy Josef was always greedy for more and more,’ A
‘Into the bungalow?’ Blanche demanded, and A
‘Not the Japanese?’
‘Them too, later.’ A
‘Josef said his mother was a traitor in the war — ’
‘Josef traitor now,’ A