India Dark (31 page)

She sat up and looked at me, her face a portrait of misery. ‘No it won't, Poesy. It will only get worse. Arthur is mad, determined that he's going to win, but how can he?'

‘It's not about winning or losing. He only has to let us go.'

‘Is that what you came for? To ask me to take your side?'

‘No, I came to see if you were all right. I've missed you. I've missed you ever since Bombay.'

She wiped her face dry with her hands. ‘It's been awful. Simply awful. Pondicherry was a nightmare. Arthur made us travel in a bullock cart because he'd lost so much of his money. It was vile. Hours and hours of hot and dusty travel. And then when we got there, no one spoke English, only French or all those different mumbly-jumbly Indian languages. It was simply me and Lionel and Arthur. And Lionel was there constantly or I was all alone. We stayed in a horrible little guesthouse and everything was broken. I cut myself . . .'

Her face grew clouded. I took her hand and saw where a wound was healing across her palm.

‘How did you get that?' I asked, touching the red line very tenderly.

Eliza looked confused. ‘We were having an argument. I can't remember what we were arguing about. Everything and nothing. And then I smashed the lamp. I couldn't stay in the room a minute longer. My hand throbbed and I ran to the beach.

‘I stood on the sand and there were black rocks and a black, black horizon and I stared out across the water. That's all that's between us and home, you know. That water. I tried to push down my sobs but the hot air seemed to feed them, I felt I was suffocating. I was choking on the heat, on the loneliness.

‘Everything has changed. Everything and everyone is awful. The people in Pondicherry didn't know any better but they kept calling me Madame Percival, as if I was Arthur's wife.'

‘But you will be, won't you?'

Lizzie looked at me and her blue eyes grew hard. ‘How can I know? If “she” won't divorce him, how can I ever be his wife?'

‘Perhaps you don't want to be,' I said. Because despite everything, despite all the proof of her actions, I couldn't believe she loved him. I had to hear her say it myself.

‘It's all I want,' she said flatly. ‘It's all I've ever wanted.'

55

SORCERER'S APPRENTICE

Poesy Swift

Reporters came and went from the Castle Hotel. We weren't meant to talk to them, though they sat at the back of the court day in, day out, writing down every word that was said. I tried not to meet their eyes. I was frightened they might look into my heart and see my terrible confusion.

The worst thing about those long weeks in Madras was not being able to perform. I kept thinking if only we could sing, if only we could be in front of an audience that looked at us with pleasure, rather than the busybodies and reporters that flocked to the trial. Mr St John had tried to secure us a performance at the Madras Club in Mount Road where he was a member, but it was a stuffy old men's club where children weren't welcome. Finally, his wife arranged an invitation for us to perform a ‘benefit' at the Adyar Club. It was a clever way of getting around the fact that we weren't allowed to sell tickets to shows because of the court case.

We were lounging about on the verandah of the Castle Hotel when Ruby and Tilly decided we should keep on with a different version of the revue and try to make it more like vaudeville.

‘Here's your chance, Charlie,' said Tilly. ‘You can do your magic.'

Charlie sat in a cane chair, flicking through a magic catalogue. He looked up at Tilly briefly and then back at the catalogue.

‘Perhaps,' he said.

Tilly rolled her eyes. Charlie had become so morose, no one could talk to him. As the court case dragged on, he grew more and more miserable. I knew he was thinking of Lionel.

‘C'mon,' I said, pulling him out of his chair. ‘We're going for a soda.'

It was the best thing about not having Mr Arthur around. No one was paying attention to our comings and goings, nobody watched over us.

I was glad to see Prem sitting at the Elphinstone Soda Fountain. He lit up when he spotted Charlie, though he was still rather shy of me. We sat in a booth together and ordered a soda each.

‘Charlie's going to do a magic show. At the Adyar Club,' I told him.

‘No I'm not,' said Charlie. ‘I can't do a show without Lionel. I don't have an assistant.'

I bit my lip. ‘I could be your assistant.'

‘Oh yes, Miss Poesy,' said Prem. ‘You would be a most fine assistant.'

‘See,' I said. ‘Prem thinks it's a good idea.'

Charlie looked up uncertainly.

‘I suppose if it's at night, I could do some tricks with fire.'

‘That would be a very excellent way to begin,' said Prem encouragingly. ‘I could obtain some white phosphorus and some carbon disulphide for you.'

Charlie started to smile. ‘If you could get me some phosphorated ether too, I could do fire on the waves.'

‘Certainly,' said Prem eagerly. ‘You must do fire on the waves. Do you need me to procure some sugar cubes also?'

‘No, they have them in the dining room of the hotel.'

I was so relieved to see Charlie animated, I held my breath for fear the spell would break.

‘Maybe I should do second sight too,' he said. ‘It makes it look as though I know things in advance. You'll have to be in the audience, Poesy, while I'm on stage. You go down among the crowd and let someone pick a card.'

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards, fanning out a selection before me. ‘You offer them out, like this.'

I pulled out a Queen of Hearts and held it close to my chest.

‘Now, as you hand it to Prem, take note of which card it is and I'll know exactly what it is by the way you question me. See, if you say “
What
suit?” then I'll know it's Clubs. If you say “
The
suit?”, that means Spades. “
Which
suit?” is for Diamonds and if you simply say “Suit?” then I'll know it's Hearts.'

The catch was to only offer the audience face cards so there weren't too many choices. In the next hour we practised the trick over and over, using the same system for the value of the card as well. Charlie could tell which card it was by how I framed the questions. Finally, I swapped sides in the booth and sat next to Prem so we could use him as our practice audience. I saw Mr Dorai, the owner of the soda fountain, glance in our direction. He was smiling as if he thought we were terribly funny.

When I fanned the cards out for Prem, I held them under the table and for a minute our hands touched as he picked out the Knave of Hearts. I couldn't help smiling. We did make an odd threesome.

On Saturday evening our carriages trundled down Boat Club Road, through dappled sunlight, and turned into the gates of the Adyar Club. It was the loveliest club we'd visited the whole time we'd been in India, with tennis courts, a golf link and a smooth green croquet lawn. Mr St John said it was the best club in Madras for music because it was actually a ladies' club.

As we strolled across the lawns, Tilly and Ruby were almost drooling at the clothes the ladies wore. ‘Look over there,' said Tilly, ‘the lady in the blouse that's simply dripping with lace jabots. She must have mohair pads to plump her bosom and backside. See how snugly that bertha fits her? I love how she's nipped in at the waist.'

‘I'm surprised she can breathe in this heat,' I said.

‘Sometimes you have to suffer for beauty's sake,' said Tilly.

Everywhere I looked, there were women in lovely costumes. There were even some who'd come in low-cut evening dresses and white kid gloves with little pearl buttons. We were glad to be in our
Florodora
costumes and not our day clothes. It made us feel less like charity children.

We thought we'd perform on the terrace as there were people milling all over the lawns, but Mrs St John hooked her arm through Ruby's and Tilly's and led them down to the water. I followed behind. All along the water's edge, chairs and long benches were arranged as seating.

‘We thought a water fete would be just the thing on a night like tonight. When you've won your case against that wretched man, you'll be able to think of Madras fondly, as a city that treated you with care.'

All along the river, boats were hung with lanterns. The soft light shimmered on the river's surface. Twenty feet from the shore, festooned with garlands of flowers and hung with lamps, was a wide raft set up as a stage. Lascars stood waiting beside little rowboats to take us out to the floating stage. Two hundred people sat on the lawns watching as twelve of us climbed out of the boats as elegantly as possible.

I stood on the edge of the floating stage and stared at our faint reflections rippling on the surface of the river. We seemed very insubstantial – six girls in lacy petticoats, six boys in oversized dress coats and top hats. The stage was moored so it didn't move at all but I felt as though I had lost my anchor. For the first time, I felt a terrible stage fright. I was glad to be at a distance from the audience, the men smelling of gorgonzola cheese, relish and spirits, the women stinky with perfume that only faintly masked the ammonia they had dabbed beneath their arms to prevent sweat stains.

Once we started singing ‘Tell Me, Pretty Maiden' I became myself again. When I sat on Charlie's knee and sang ‘If I lov'd you, Would you tell me what I ought to do, To keep you all mine alone' he didn't look at me but at the audience.

I knew he was waiting for the song to be over so he could do his magic, so I didn't mind. As soon as we'd finished, the lascars rowed the five other boys and all us girls back to shore while Charlie stayed behind. This was Charlie's moment. He stood alone in the centre of the floating stage, surrounded by a circle of unlit candles.

He set up a tiny folding card table beside him and on it placed three glasses of water. Then he stretched his arms wide. ‘Before I came to India, I imagined it a country of darkness. But in India I have found friendship and I have found Light.'

As he snapped his fingers, one by one the circle of candles magically lit themselves.

‘And in the light of India I have found the sweetness of fire.'

He held up two tiny white cubes beneath the glow of the lanterns so everyone could see that they were sugar-lumps. Then he put one into the first glass. Instantly fire appeared on its surface. Charlie held the glass up and it glowed a strange blue against the dark river. Gently, he blew on the glass until the flames looked like waves. Then he did the same with the other two glasses. And as he blew, first on one and then the other, the blue flames rose out of the glasses like waves. Then he flung the water onto the surface of the river where it flared for a moment before disappearing.

‘In India, my mind has become lit with magic,' said Charlie. ‘There are wondrous forces at play in the subcontinent that can turn a simple boy into a master of the invisible, a reader of minds. To help me demonstrate this gift, I call upon my assistant, Miss Poesy Swift.'

This was my cue to stand up and curtsey. There was a snicker from the Kreutz brothers, but the audience played along.

‘Miss Swift will offer you playing cards,' continued Charlie, ‘and through the power of magic I will enter your minds and all your choices will be revealed to me.' Charlie closed his eyes and waited as I offered the fanned-out cards to a lady. She picked the Queen of Hearts.

‘Suit?' I cried to Charlie. He put his fingers to his temples as if he were trying to draw the answer from the ether.

Little beads of sweat trickled down my neck, I was so nervous for him.

‘Hearts,' he replied at last.

The lady who'd drawn the card nodded to the audience and there was a smattering of applause.

‘Value?' I cried.

‘Queen,' answered Charlie. ‘The lady has drawn the Queen of Hearts.'

The woman stood up excitedly and waved the card at the audience. ‘That's exactly right,' she cried. ‘Isn't he clever?' And everyone applauded.

Once we'd provided a few more demonstrations of Charlie's cleverness, he drew two doves from his sleeves and sent them winging out into the hot night air. I was so glad to see them disappear across the water. I'd been worried that they might not survive being inside his jacket for so long in the heat.

As Charlie gave a bow, the Kreutzes were rowed out to the stage for their Tweedledum and Tweedledee battle and then Daisy sang Fifi Fricot's song from
The Belle of New York
. To close the evening, the whole troupe performed ‘When You Steal a Kiss'. Tilly sang the verse but everyone sang the chorus, twenty-four voices floating across the water to the crowd on the lawns. Behind the audience, the Adyar Club glowed like a temple.

I'd always thought it was a silly song but I found myself looking at Charlie every time we sang ‘turtle dove'.

Words are not the only thing when you are making love,
Your eyes are always whispering ‘Come be my turtle
dove',
Every time you take her hand she knows your love is
true,
And lips are only needed when you steal a kiss or two.

Suddenly, he looked straight into my eyes, as if he'd heard my voice above all the others. I felt a strange shiver course through me as we sang the next line. It was as if, for a fleeting moment, Charlie and I were the only two people on the Adyar River, the only two people in the world.

56

BENEATH THE BANYAN

Poesy Swift

Laughing and breathless with our success, we marched up the grassy slope to the ballroom. It had a beautiful dance floor that begged our shiny black shoes to tap out a rhythm and all the girls began to dance with each other.

I danced with Flora until I noticed something that made me feel awfully uncomfortable. They didn't have electricity at the Club yet, so there were two rows of little Indian boys tugging on the ropes of the punkahs with a hypnotic rhythm. One of them looked like Prem and it made me horribly uncomfortable. All my cheery feelings drained out through the soles of my dancing shoes and I remembered where I was. Tomorrow, we would be back in the courtroom. Tomorrow, the barristers would call for more of the children to repeat their statements to the judge.