Oriental Hotel (58 page)

‘The War Cemetery?' She sounded surprised, as people always did.

‘His father – my great-grandfather – thought it would have been his wish.'

‘I am quite sure it would have been.' Her voice was firm and strong as she raised her head and their eyes met. ‘Thank you for coming. And thank you for returning my locket after all these years.'

He smiled. ‘The pleasure is all mine. It has been …'

The unexpected sound of wheels on gravel and a highly tuned car engine made them both turn towards the window. For a moment Elise Sanderson's face wore the surprised expression of someone recalled from a great distance, then her brow cleared.

‘Oh, it's Katy – my grand-daughter! What a lovely surprise!'

Stuart stood up. ‘If you have someone else coming to see you, I must be on my way.'

‘Oh, don't rush away!' She sounded genuinely regretful. ‘Stay to meet Katy first.'

‘I really should be going. I have an appointment later with someone from Roydell …'

‘But it's thanks to Katy that you're here. She is the one whose photograph you saw – the one who looks like me in the locket.'

Stuart hesitated, glancing at his watch. His deal with Roydell – the reason for his being in Bristol – was not yet complete. Grantly Hedges would be waiting for him at this precise moment, sliding backwards and forwards between window and desk, hand hovering between telephone and whisky tumbler. Well, let him wait! The more anxious he became, the better the deal Stuart should be able to make for Cormorant. And besides …

Through the wide bay window Stuart saw a pair of suntanned legs emerge from the driver's door of a red MGB. A slim rounded body, clad in a soft green towelling playsuit, followed; shorts brief enough to show the full length of those legs, top exposing smooth tanned shoulders over which her hair fell in a honey-brown sweep. Then, as she straightened, he saw the fine bones of her face, as clear-cut as the photograph had led him to expect, though her eyes were hidden by an enormous pair of sunglasses. She was not only a beauty but also exuded a kind of vital attraction, so Stuart thought again: Let Grantly Hedges wait!

The car door slammed and the girl disappeared from view; in those few brief moments before she reappeared he glanced at Elise Sanderson and saw the pride in her face. She quite clearly adored her grand-daughter and, thought Stuart, no one could blame her for that.

‘Katy lives in London – I wasn't expecting her here today. But then, perhaps being unexpected is one of the most predictable things about her!'

The door opened and the girl whirled in.

‘Granny – are you in there? Oh …!' She checked as she realised Elise was not alone. ‘I'm sorry. I didn't know you had a visitor.'

‘It's all right, Katy.' Elise's smile was indulgent. ‘Stuart, this is my grand-daughter. Katy – Mr Stuart Brittain.'

Brown eyes flecked with hazel met his and a generous mouth curved upwards.

‘How-do-you-do.'

‘Stuart is here from Hong Kong. He is a relative of someone I knew a very long time ago.'

‘When you and Grandpa lived in Hong Kong?' Katy asked.

‘Yes. And he is particularly interested to meet you because …' Her voice tailed away and Stuart read the sudden expression of dawning horror on her face.

‘When you and Grandpa lived in Hong Kong'said it all, somehow. There must be quite a story behind the locket, the photograph and the obvious love that softened the older woman's face whenever she mentioned his great-uncle's name. But it would hardly be the sort of story that was told at family gatherings. His own family had pleaded ignorance of the woman in the locket – no doubt hers was as much in the dark. Now, caught unawares, she had put herself in the position of having to explain something, which might have been better kept hidden, as it had been for forty years.

‘It's nice to meet you, Katy.' Stuart stepped swiftly into the breach, but he need not have worried. Katy, too, had noticed her grandmother pale suddenly and with almost disconcerting single mindedness she turned all her attention to her.

‘Granny! Are you feeling all right? You ought not to overdo things in this heat.'

‘I'm quite all right, darling.' Elise hand held steadfastly to the back of the chair.

‘Well, I'm not so sure that you are. I was worried about you when you came up to town yesterday – that's why I'm here now. And I shall stay until I am quite certain that you're taking proper care of yourself.'

‘Katy!' Elise laughed a little. ‘This heat, as you put it, is nothing compared with what I was quite used to in the East …'

‘But you were much younger then!'

‘… and we can discuss the state of my health at some other time! Mr Brittain hasn't come all this way to hear something so boring.'

‘All right. Granny – just don't think you can fob me off in that way,' Katy warned.

Then she turned to Stuart. ‘You actually live in Hong Kong, then?'

‘I am afraid so.'

‘Why afraid? My grandmother loved it, didn't you, Granny? I can't understand why she never went back after the war.'

‘Because I didn't think there was anything to go back for, Katy.'

Briefly she glanced down at the locket she still held in her hand and the sadness was there again, etched in the fine-boned face. ‘The business was finished,' she went on after a moment, ‘and your grandfather swore he would never take the chance on trying to build it up in that pan of the world again. He said that from then on he would concentrate on establishing himself in the UK. I suppose after four years of being a prisoner-of-war of the Japs, he felt he had seen enough of the East to last him a lifetime.'

‘Grandpa put Granny on a boat at the last minute, before the Japs came. It was touch and go, but she made it to the Philippines and then the Americans flew her out,' Katy said to Stuart. ‘But Grandpa was taken prisoner. He was in Stanley Prison Camp for four years and when he came out he was like a skeleton.'

Elise said nothing and Katy turned to her for confirmation.

‘It's true, isn't it, Granny?'

‘Yes,' Elise conceded. ‘He was very lucky to survive. There were many who did not. Poor food, contaminated water, no proper medical treatment – it was like living in a hot steamy sewet.'

‘And you were very fortunate to get away, weren't you, Granny?' Katy continued, her enthusiasm conveying the way she had fed on the stories along with Hans Anderson's tales and
Narnia
. ‘She had Uncle Alex with her – he was just a little boy – and she was expecting Mummy. Mummy was born at the US base in the Philippines, wasn't she?'

‘Yes.' The faraway look was back in Elise's eyes and Stuart looked at her sharply. There had been a baby in all this, then, a baby whose arrival had been imminent when his great-uncle had aided her escape – an escape which Katy wrongly attributed – uncorrected by Elise – to her grandfather.

‘You can hardly blame Gordon for not wanting to go back after what had happened,' Elise said now. ‘He had what was left of our things shipped over – and heaven knows, after the Japs had had the run of the place for four years there were few enough of them. They had used it as a bawdy house, I understand. Most things that were breakable, they broke, and what was small enough to pocket they stole or sold.'

‘They left this, though, didn't they?' Katy crossed the room to where an intricate bronze urn in the shape of a dragon stood on its rosewood plinth. ‘He frightened them off, I should think.'

Elise smiled, a warm glow that lit up her face. ‘My lion.'

‘
Dragon
, Granny,'

‘My Singa Pura lion.'

She did not elaborate, but her expression told Stuart that it held a special significance for her.

‘No, you're right, they didn't take him. One of the brightest moments of the whole sad business was when I opened the packing case and saw him glaring up at me.'

‘You lost practically everything else, though, didn't you?' Katy continued. ‘ Quite apart from what happened in Hong Kong, she was torpedoed, you know. How long was it that you spent in an open boat. Granny? More than a day, anyway. And all her clothes and possessions went down with the ship – including her mother's precious things which she was bringing home from Cairo.'

‘I have already told Stuart how I was torpedoed,' Elise said with a smile. ‘What I didn't tell him was that it was thanks to his great-uncle that I still have one of my mother's most treasured possessions – an oak chest. When he arranged my passage, he refused to allow me to take it with me. At the time I was furious, but afterwards I had cause to thank him. Throughout the war my mother's chest was safe in the vaults at the British Embassy in Cairo, and afterwards I was able to get it shipped home.'

‘I'm not surprised that after all that, you never wanted to go back to Hong Kong,' Stuart said.

She touched her lips thoughtfully with well shaped but unvarnished nails.

‘I wouldn't say I have never wanted to go back. There have been times when I have thought I would like to see it again – to see how everything has changed. And now you tell me …' Her voice ebbed away, then after a moment she nodded. ‘ Yes, there are things in Hong Kong I should like to see.'

Without being told, he knew that she was thinking she would like to visit Brit's grave. How was it possible for him to understand her so well when he had never met her before? When there was still so much of her story that was shrouded in mystery for him? It was not that her thoughts were transparent either, just that what she said and did somehow formed an integral part of a pattern he had known and studied since he was a child.

Without thinking, he said, ‘I'm flying back tomorrow from Lulsgate in the Company plane. You are very welcome to come with me if you would like to.'

‘Good heavens!' Her eyes had opened very wide. ‘ That's a very generous offer, but …'

Sensing she was about to refuse, he leaped in with a swiftness which surprised even himself.

‘Not at all! It's a Lear jet – there is plenty of room and should be quite comfortable for passengers. I know it's a longish flight, but to someone who has travelled the world and spent a day in an open boat after being torpedoed, it would be nothing. You would sail through the journey with no trouble at all.'

She smiled again. ‘Do you know, you remind me of your great-uncle in more ways than mere physical resemblance, Stuart! But you must give me some time to think about it.'

‘You're not turning me down out of hand, then?'

‘I wouldn't be so foolish! This could be the best chance I will ever have to see Hong Kong again – maybe the only chance.'

‘I'm quite sure my grandfather would be pleased to put you up at Shek-o for as long as you wanted to stay.'

‘Oh no,' she said quickly, ‘I certainly wouldn't impose that far, kind though it is to suggest it. I could stay at the Peninsula – I would rather like to stay at the Peninsula Hotel.'

He sensed the excitement beginning to bubble beneath that cool façade.

‘Then it's yes? You will come to Hong Kong with me?'

‘I didn't say that. You mustn't rush me!'

‘Granny – think before you make rash arrangements,' Katy warned. ‘She is not a young woman to go rushing about nowadays, Mr Brittain.'

There was a determined set to the pretty face, a hint of character which was engaging, challenging and totally individual. As Stuart felt the wicked tingle of anticipation within him, he knew there had been more to his offer than a nostalgic trip for a fascinating lady.

‘All right, you come too and make sure she's well looked after!'

‘We will have to let you know,' Elise said. ‘ Don't try to stampede us, Stuart. Katy and I will talk it over. But I am very grateful to you for the kind offer, and also grateful to you for taking the trouble to look me up.'

Sensing the conversation was at an end, he moved towards the door.

‘As I said before – my pleasure! And don't forget, my offer is quite a genuine one. You can reach me at this number if you decide to take me up on it.'

In the doorway he paused, looking back at the two women: one young and vital, with the glow of youth; the other older but in her own way no less striking, with a pride in her bearing and a promise of hidden fire that made him feel suddenly envious of the great-uncle he had never known. Elise Sanderson was quite a woman, and she had passed on a great many of her attributes to her granddaughter.

With a sense of anticipation he crossed the gravelled drive and got in his hired car. He was extremely glad that he had come – and he was fervently hoping that Elise Sanderson would take him up on his invitation.

‘Granny, what was all that about?' Katy asked suspiciously as the hired car crunched away down the gravel drive. ‘Who was that man, turning up like that? You didn't tell me you were expecting him when you came to see me last night.'

‘No, darling, I didn't know about it then.' Elise felt as if she were spinning in a vortex. From the moment she had heard, on heir return the previous evening, that a Mr Brittain was coming to see her, her ordered world had turned topsy-turvy, and when she had seen him standing there on the doorstep she had felt as if she were being dragged down a time tunnel to forty years ago.

He had looked so like Brit! Even now she couldn't get over the likeness, although half an hour in his company had shown her the differences, too. But the similarity had been so great that for a wildly insane moment she had almost believed it
was
Brit – a Brit not only alive but unchanged by the years between. And he had evoked the same emotions – an echo of the charged attraction that had existed between them, the forbidden passion which had ripened into love.

Now, coming coldly back to the present, somehow she felt cheated, as if everything she had held dear had been snatched away from her for a second time; only now the grief was muted and shadowy, the emptiness filled – partially at any rate – by a lifetime lived without him. Yet she was also warmed by the contact – to know that part of her, the locket with her photograph – had been in his home in Shek-o all these years, pondered over and romanticised by a boy who looked so like him it could have been Brit reincarnated: a boy who had grown up with the determination to find her one day and piece together the story which had fascinated him.