Secret for a Nightingale (38 page)

“Anna …”

“We have to get away,” I said.

“How …?”

A man appeared at the top of the stairs. Our captor spoke to him and he stood aside. They talked together excitedly for a few seconds; then the man who had brought us here took our arms and forced us into a corridor.

We were pushed into a small dark room, heavily curtained, with divans along the walls; and the door shut on us.

I ran to it and tried to open it. I could not do so, for it was locked.

“It’s no use,” said Henrietta.

“We’re prisoners.”

We stared at each other, each trying to pretend that we were only half as frightened as we felt.

“What does it mean?” asked Henrietta.

I shook my head.

“We were idiots. Why did we get lost? These wretched earrings ..”

“I thought the others were with us.”

“What is going to happen to us?”

I saw the thoughts forming in her mind. She said: “I’ve heard of this sort of thing. There have been many cases of women … taken … made into slaves … in harems.”

“Oh no!”

“Why not? That’s how the sultans live, isn’t it? They have women in all those harems. They take them captive during wars and they become slaves.”

“These are our allies. Don’t forget we are fighting their war.”

“Would they mind that? That man was following us. Perhaps it was all arranged … those boys to surround us and he came along and rescued us to bring us here. Do you think this is a sultan’s palace?”

“It’s certainly not Topkapi.”

“Oh, Anna, I hope they don’t separate us. I’ve been longing for something to happen all through these dreary days. I was so sick of the smell of blood and disease and all the horror. I prayed for something to happen … anything, I said, to get me out of this place and now this. I wonder what it is like in a harem?”

“Somehow I don’t think that is the answer. Just look at us. We’re hardly objects of desire. These uniforms … Look at my hair.

Somehow I can never wash it properly here. We both look pale and tired. Scarcely prizes for a sultan’s seraglio. “

“We’d seem different, though. There might be an allure about us because we are foreign; and when we’ve been bathed in asses’ milk and decked out in jewels we could be very fascinating.”

She laughed but I could hear the note of hysteria in her voice.

“Stop it, Henrietta,” I said.

“We’re going to need all our wits. We have got to look for a way of escape. Watch out.”

She gripped my arm.

“We’ve got to stay together. Because you’re here I’m not afraid … at least not so much afraid as I should be if I were alone.”

“Whatever happens we’ll try to keep together.”

“What will they be thinking back at the hospital?”

“That we disobeyed orders and left the party.”

“It was the party which left us! Do you think they will send someone to look for us?”

“Of course not. They’re all needed for more important things.”

“Anna, what will become of us?”

“We have to wait and see. Be ready. We’ve got to get out of this place.”

“How? And if we do, where are we?”

“We could find our way to the waterfront. That’s all we have to do.

There are caiques all over the place. Listen. “

The door opened. We sprang towards it. It was our dark captor.

“Come,” he said.

“Where are you taking us?” I demanded.

He did not answer.

Henrietta and I looked at each other. We were waiting for that opportunity. When it came we must be ready. Holding us firmly, he took us up a flight of stairs. Only then did he release Henrietta that he might scratch on the door with his fingers. A voice from within said something and our captor opened the door and pushed us in.

The heavy curtains were drawn. I saw a table and on it was an ornate lamp which gave a glimmer of light to the room. A man was reclining on the divan; he wore a turban and there was something immediately familiar about him.

I thought: It can’t be, and yet . And when he spoke I knew.

“A pair of nightingales,” he said.

“Dr. Adair!” stammered Henrietta.

“I knew there would be trouble bringing out a parcel of women.”

“What does all this mean?” I demanded. The fear of the last hour was rapidly vanishing and in its place was an exultation and a tremendous excitement.

“We have been insulted … brought here against our will. We have been led to believe …”

I looked at Henrietta. Her mood had also changed. I saw the sparkling excitement in her eyes.

“The meaning is simple,” he said.

“Two foolish women allowed themselves to wander round the bazaars, were about to be robbed, were rescued and brought here. Thank your good fortune that you were in uniform. Those scarves you are wearing are your talismans. Scutari Hospital. Everyone knows where it is and that you come from it. It was for that reason that you were brought here.”

“To you?” I said.

“I have friends in this city. My connection with the hospital is known. So when two nightingales leave the nest and are discovered fluttering about in the sleazy quarters of the city they are snared and brought to me.”

“I can’t believe it,” I said.

“How else could it have been?” asked Henrietta.

“How else indeed? I am surprised that you were allowed to walk in the city.”

“We came with a party,” said Henrietta.

“And you mislaid the others?”

“They mislaid us. We stopped to buy something and then they weren’t there.”

“But what is this place?” I cried.

“What are you doing here? It’s not a hospital.”

“I do have a life outside hospitals,” he said.

“Why I am here is my own affair.”

“And dressed like a sultan!” said Henrietta with a little giggle. Poor girl, she had been truly frightened and I could see that hysteria still hovered.

“I am sure that you are both two well-brought-up young ladies and that your nannies told you many times that in the best society one does not ask impertinent questions.”

“I didn’t think it was impertinent,” began Henrietta.

I interrupted her: “Will you please tell us what is taking place?”

“Certainly. You were discovered in the streets by a friend of mine. He saw that you could easily walk into danger. He watched you for a

while and followed you to a spot where you were about to be robbed .. possibly harmed. He rescued you and because it was clear from where you came, he brought you to me. You have been very fortunate today. First in wearing your uniform and secondly that I happened to be here at the time. I dare say you will be reprimanded for your tardy return to the hospital and I hope you are severely dealt with. This should be a lesson to you. Never, never venture into these streets alone. This is not Bath or Cheltenham, and well-brought-up young ladies would not be allowed to wander alone even there. This is a foreign land alien to your home. Ideas are different here … manners, customs, everything. Remember it. I shall give you coffee now, for we are waiting for a friend of mine who will take you back to the hospital.”

“And you …?” I began.

He raised his eyebrows.

I stammered: “I … I thought perhaps you might be returning. The casualties are mounting. It seems …” I looked round the room and at him in his turban, which made almost a stranger of him. He looked darker, his eyes more luminous.

“You are reproaching me for my self-indulgence, I see,” he said.

“You are needed at the hospital.”

He was smiling at me oddly a smile which I could not understand in the least.

At that moment there was a scratching at the door and a man came in carrying a brass tray on which were coffee and cakes. Dr. Adair said something to him which I could not understand and he set the tray down on a table.

“You will need a little refreshment,” he said to us.

“This is how they drink coffee here. I hope you will like it.”

We were seated on the divan beside him and he served us with the thick sweet coffee and the little spiced cakes.

He looked at us solemnly and said: “I have no doubt that your adventure to the Crimea is becoming a little wearisome. That is the way of these adventures. They are never quite what one thinks they will be when one sets out on them. I dare say you had pictures of yourselves in crisp white aprons and

becoming gowns playing angels of mercy to grateful men. It is a little different, eh? “

“We did not expect it to be quite like that,” I said.

“We knew there would be hardship and suffering.”

“But such hardship? Such suffering?”

“We did see something of the sick at Kaiserwald,” said Henrietta.

“But I’ll admit you’re right. I never expected any thing like we found.”

“And if you had you would not have come.”

“No,” said Henrietta, “I wouldn’t. Anna would, though. Wouldn’t you, Anna?”

“Yes,” I said.

“I would.”

He looked at me with some scepticism.

“You are a young woman who would never admit she was in the wrong.”

“That is not true. I am often in the wrong.”

“About trivia, yes. But the big undertakings?”

“Not true again. I have undertaken important things and failed, and I have not deluded myself into thinking they were anything but my own failures.”

“Anna is a very unusual person,” said Henrietta.

“A rare person. I knew that as soon as I saw her. That was why I went to her when I decided to change my way of life.”

He looked from one of us to the other, nodding slowly.

“And you intend to stay the course?”

“If you mean until we are no longer needed, yes,” I answered.

“But I hope the war will soon be over,” added Henrietta

“They are saying Sebastopol can’t hold out and that it is the key to victory.

Once it has fallen the war will be over. “

‘ “They” often delude themselves. Optimism is a good thing and a great help but perhaps realism is more so. “

“Do you mean you think it will not fall quickly?” I asked.

“I think the Russians are fully aware of its importance and that they are as determined to keep it as the British and the French are to take it.”

“I don’t think I could bear years and years of this sort of thing,” said Henrietta.

“Then I should go home. I believe some of your people have.”

“Those who did not understand what nursing is, have left,” I said.

“But I believe that is nothing for us to regret.”

Again there was a scratching on the door. Dr. Adair called out something in Turkish, I presumed, and the man who had brought the coffee looked in and with him was another man. He was tall, brown-haired and brown-eyed, but he looked quite fair compared with the darkness of our host.

“Philippe!” said Dr. Adair.

“Good of you to come so promptly. Let me introduce you. Monsieur Philippe Lablanche, Miss Pleydell, Miss Marlington.”

Philippe Lablanche bowed.

“They have had the misfortune to lose themselves in the city,” said Dr. Adair.

“Will you take them back to Scutari?”

“It will be my pleasure,” said the gallant Frenchman, his eyes shining with admiration which I thought must be for Henrietta, who looked very pretty in spite of her uniform.

“I won’t offer you coffee,” went on Dr. Adair, ‘because they should be getting back without delay. ” He turned to us:

“Monsieur Lablanche is one of our inestimable allies. He will take good care of you.”

“I shall do my best.”

“There is a conveyance in the courtyard. It will get you to the shore.”

“We must depart then, ladies,” said Monsieur Lablanche.

We rose and I said to Dr. Adair: “We have to thank you.”

He bowed his head in acknowledgement.

“What we should have done without you …” began Henrietta with a shiver.

“It’s worthy of a little contemplation,” he replied.

“Look on it as a worthwhile experience and it will make you less rash in future.”

“I really had imagined our being drugged and taken off to someone’s harem,” she told him.

“I hope the disappointment was not too great.”

Henrietta burst out laughing.

“Well, it all ended most satisfactorily.

Thank you, Dr. Adair. Thank you a thousand times. “

“Once will be enough,” he said.

And we left.

As he said, there was a conveyance waiting in the courtyard. As we got in I could not help feeling exhilarated and not a little puzzled by the adventure. What was he doing there dressed like that, living like a Turkish pasha? What could it all mean? What a man of mystery he was!

He became more and more intriguing the more I knew of him.

Philippe Lablanche proved to be charming. He was very gracious and seemed especially so when compared with Dr. Adair. He pointed out the landmarks of the old city as we passed through it. It was dusk and from the minarets the faithful were being called to prayer. The city, beautiful and mysterious, seemed alluring yet sinister in the dim light. I looked at Henrietta. She was wide-eyed and excitement brought colour to her cheeks. She looked as though she were entranced.

Philippe Lablanche told us that he was attached to the French army and that Dr. Adair was a great friend of his.

“A wonderful man,” he said.

“I know of no one quite like him. He is what it is you say when a man is …”

“Unique?” I suggested.

“What is unique?”

“How one is if there is no one on earth like one.”

“That,” he said, ‘is Dr. Damien Adair. “

“Have you read his books?” I asked.

“But of course. They have been translated into French. So I read them.

But perhaps that is not so good. One day I read them just as Dr. Adair wrote them. “

“He is a man who likes adventure.”

“It is the breath of life to him.”

“You, too, must have an adventurous time. Monsieur Lablanche.”

“Yes, yes. But that is so with war.”

“I suppose,” went on Henrietta, ‘we should not ask questions about what you do? “

“How understanding you are.”

“Then,” went on Henrietta, ‘we will not ask. We will let our