India Dark (13 page)

‘Why didn't
you
tell me, Poesy?' she said. ‘Why do you have to be so prim and proper?'

I said I didn't want to talk about it and then I went and asked Lo to shift me to another room. I was hoping she'd let me share with Lizzie again but Lo said Pearl Kelly was happy to swap places with me. Pearl didn't want to share the same room as her older sister, Ruby. Unwittingly, I jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. There were six of us in my new room. The big girls, Tempe, Clarissa and Ruby, had their beds on one side while I pushed mine onto the other side close to May and Iris.

Every day after lunch we were sent to bed to sleep for two hours before the show. Miss Thrupp would come to each room and admonish anyone who wasn't lying down. ‘Even if you can't sleep, you must lie still and rest your body.'

We opened the windows and turned the fans up so they spun as fast as they could, but our bodies still felt sticky against the bedding.

Ruby always fell asleep within minutes of lying down, her petticoat hitched up and her long legs creamy against the white sheets. Everyone was drowsy that afternoon, except Tempe. She stood at the window, watching the laneway that ran behind the hotel.

‘He's here,' she hissed, her face flushed.

‘Should I wake Ruby?' asked Clarissa, dressing quickly.

‘No, better with just us two,' said Tempe.

I sat up in my bed and pushed the mosquito netting aside. ‘Where are you going?' I asked. That was my mistake. I should never have asked.

Clarissa and Tempe looked at each other and then back at me.

‘It's too hot to sleep. We're going downstairs,' said Clarissa.

‘But we have to stay in bed,' I said.

‘We're not babies,' sighed Tempe. ‘We're going motoring.

We're going into the jungle and it will be cool and lovely. Mr Tolego, that nice man who gave me flowers the other night, is taking us for a ride in his car.'

‘Not another stagedoor Johnny.'

‘He's not a stagedoor Johnny. He's a gentleman.'

‘But you'll get into trouble. Mr Arthur says talking to gentlemen is “improper” if you don't have a chaperone.'

‘Shut up, Poesy. We'll only get into trouble if you tattle.' She paused for a moment and put one finger to her chin, as if considering me more closely. ‘You can come along, if you like. Then it won't be “improper” at all, because you'll be our chaperone.'

I didn't really want to go with them but I couldn't think what else to do. If Miss Thrupp asked me where they were, I'd have to tell the truth. As I pulled on my dress and pinafore and laced up my boots, I told myself I was saving them from disgrace. I hated lies. But sometimes I told lies to myself.

As we tiptoed along the hall, Valentine poked her head around the door of her room. ‘Where are you lot off to?'

‘None of your beeswax,' said Clarissa.

‘Can I come? I don't mind where you're going. Everyone's asleep in here and I'm bored.'

Tempe rolled her eyes. ‘In for a penny, in for a pound. Come along, then, you can keep Poesy company.'

We were almost at the top of the stairs when little Flora called out. ‘Where are you
going
?' No one answered. ‘Take me with you. There's nothing to do when Daisy is sick.'

‘Oh for heaven's sake,' said Tempe. ‘Just what we need. We'd better take her along too. At least, if we get caught, we can say we're giving all the littlies a treat.'

She ran to the end of the hall and grabbed Flora by the arm.

‘Oh good,' said Flora. ‘Are we going on an outing?'

Valentine and I held Flora's hands. She skipped along merrily between us as we followed the big girls through the foyer. Mr Tolego's car was parked out the front, long and sleek and black as a panther. We climbed into the back, four girls squashed in a row and Flora sitting on my lap, with Mr Tolego in the front seat all by himself. He turned around and smiled at us and his teeth were very white and ferocious-looking in his swarthy face. He had a strange accent and I felt too shy to listen closely to him when he spoke to us. Tempe leaned forward to hear his conversation as the car made its way slowly through the crowded Kuala Lumpur streets. We drove past strange buildings with little golden hats and spires, down sleepy streets with tumbledown shops. Finally, when we were out of town and on a long stretch of road lined with palm trees, Tempe giggled and climbed over the seat to sit beside Mr Tolego.

If I'd been a proper chaperone I would have put my arms around her waist and hauled her back from the precipice, but I was afraid she'd jeer at me for being prudish. I'd never been motoring before and the thrill of it all must have muddled my thinking.

The car had dark burgundy leather seats with little buttonholes and Flora put her fingers in the dimples and laughed. I laughed too but it sounded as though it was the laughter of a different girl, not me. The town gave way to rubber plantations and rice paddies and then jungle, until there was absolutely no one in sight. Parrots called out from the dark, leafy greenness. Monkeys shrilled in the jungle canopy above us. The air was cool and moist, and smelt of earth and growth and things rotting. It made my nose tingle and my skin felt swollen with the sound and the moisture.

‘Where are we going?' I asked, feeling anxious. I remembered Yada's warnings to be careful of strangers, and Lizzie talking about the white slave trade, saying that white girls were captured and sold by traders to be slaves to wicked men. Suddenly, I was afraid.

Mr Tolego turned around in his seat. ‘It's cooler in the jungle. Once upon a time there were too many tigers for anyone to be safe here, but don't worry, you will be safe with me.' He grinned at us.

‘Tigers! Oh no!' Flora squealed. She squeezed my arm. ‘Tell him to turn back. I don't want to see a tiger.'

‘Charlie told me the last tiger in Singapore was shot at the Raffles Hotel,' I reassured her. ‘He said it was hiding under the billiard table and they killed it, so there are no more tigers.'

‘That was Singapore, Poesy-poo,' said Clarissa. ‘I'm sure there are tigers in Kuala Lumpur. Look at all that jungle – can't you imagine their stripes hidden in all the stripy light through the ferns?'

Flora began to make low, whiny sounds.

‘Don't listen to her,' I whispered into Flora's ear. ‘There are no tigers, only monkeys. You like monkeys.'

‘I don't like monkeys,' said Valentine, being particularly unhelpful. ‘The hawker outside the hotel has one on a leash and it bared its teeth at me. I wouldn't want to see a monkey that wasn't on a chain.'

Flora nuzzled her head against me and sobbed softly. We drove on in silence through the darkening jungle. The light was soft and dappled, as if it were already late afternoon.

Mr Tolego steered the car onto a tiny cart road and parked in a glade.

‘Isn't it getting on? Shouldn't we be turning back?' I asked. But neither Tempe nor Mr Tolego seemed to hear me. ‘Tempe?'

‘We're going to go for a stroll. Teddy says there's a lovely walk up here, a little stroll to a grove or something.'

I felt a leaden weight in my stomach. Mr Tolego opened the door on the passenger's side and held out his hand to Tempe, holding hers a moment too long. She laughed lightly and stepped away from him towards the jungle path.

Flora started to cry again. ‘I don't want to go for a walk,' she said, burying her head in my lap. I knew she simply needed to sleep. Why had we brought her with us? Why had I come along? My own choices were a mystery to me.

‘I'll stay here with Flora,' I said, hoping they wouldn't be too long.

Valentine shrank back in her seat and scanned the jungle nervously. ‘I'll stay behind too. I don't feel like walking.'

Clarissa climbed down from the car but Mr Tolego didn't offer his hand to help her. Her face was tight and closed and she fiddled fretfully with the bow of her hat.

Tempe turned and said, ‘Clarissa, perhaps it's best you stay too, so the little ones don't feel frightened.'

‘I won't be frightened,' I called out. But Tempe only laughed. ‘She's such a funny little creature, that Poesy. Valentine's afraid, so you had better stay with her.' Clarissa stomped back to the car, her face like thunder.

She didn't speak to us the whole time Tempe and Mr Tolego were in the jungle, but she picked away at the ribbon of her hat until the satin edge was shredded.

When Tempe and Mr Tolego came back along the path, Tempe's eyes were bright and feverish and she carried her hat crushed against her front with clenched hands. Her fawn dress was crumpled and her hair was frizzy from the damp heat.

‘Why were you so long?' demanded Clarissa.

‘Oh do shut up, Lissa,' said Tempe. She slumped in the front seat and watched Mr Tolego with a slightly wary, calculating look as he climbed in beside her and started the motor.

Mr Tolego said nothing on the drive back to town but his face seemed swarthier than ever. No one spoke. Only Flora was cheerful. She had slept in my lap while Tempe and Mr Tolego were in the jungle and she was happy to be heading back to the hotel.

‘We might be late for the evening show,' I said, worrying out loud.

Tempe was silent and Mr Tolego didn't once turn to speak to us. When I repeated my concern, Clarissa set upon me.

‘Stop it, Poesy,' she said. ‘You are such a worry-wart. If you lot keep your mouths shut, no one will even know we were gone.'

The afternoon light had turned to gold by the time we arrived at the hotel. At the entrance, Mr Tolego finally decided to pretend to be a gentleman and he handed each one of us down from the back of the motor car, lifting Flora all the way to the ground. Valentine giggled and Flora did a little curtsey, as if he were someone special, someone to bother with rather than simply another stagedoor Johnny. But I kept my eyes downturned and followed the other girls around to the back entrance of the hotel. I couldn't bear to look at him. I hoped I'd never see his pirate's face again.

26

WHIPPING GIRL

Tilly Sweetrick

Was it Poesy's fault? Sometimes I wonder. She always seemed to be there when things went wrong, to be caught up in the worst of everything. I was sitting on the terrace finishing off a slice of cake when I heard the fight begin. Every girl looked up, like frightened deer. Miss Thrupp was on her feet in an instant, ushering everyone from the terrace, shooing us up the stairs and back to our rooms. Which was probably rather lucky, because from our balcony I saw everything unfold.

‘Temperance Jones,' roared Mr Arthur. His voice rang out along the dusty roadway. Tempe and Clarissa stood in a frightened huddle at the tradesmen's entrance to the hotel. They must have been creeping in from some naughty adventure. But Flora and Poesy and Valentine were there too, standing next to Mr Arthur. Poor little Flora burst into tears of confusion and dear Valentine was white with distress, while Poesy's face was contorted with horror, as if she had opened Pandora's Box. Clarissa and Tempe looked as guilty as sin.

Tempe flushed deep red and shut her eyes. Very slowly she spat her words out at Mr Arthur, like sharp little darts.

‘Don't call me that. Don't call me Temperance. My name is Tempe. Tempe Melbourne.'

She turned her back on him and started down the path that led to the street. Mr Arthur leapt off the verandah and pursued her. He grabbed her by the arm and spun her around to face him.

‘Temperance, of which you have none. Do you have no sense of what men like that want from you?'

‘He doesn't want anything from me that I'm not glad to give. I'm no different to Eliza. Or perhaps she doesn't give as gladly as I do.'

That did it. Mr Arthur raised his cane and brought it down hard across her face. A gash opened above her eyebrow where the cane had slashed but Mr Arthur didn't stop. As Tempe cried out and cupped her hands around the bleeding wound, Mr Arthur started to drag her back to the hotel. Despite her injury, Tempe fought him every inch of the way until he turned on her again and brought the cane down across her legs and back, again and again, blow after blow. Natives and Chinamen gathered at the back gate and stared at him. A crowd from the hotel spilled out from the side verandah to watch, but no one intervened. Mr Arthur kept beating Tempe until suddenly the cane snapped and the end piece went flying into the undergrowth.

Clarissa, stupid girl, stood wringing her hands. She didn't have an ounce of sense inside her feathery head. But I should have thought Poesy would have done something. Instead, she stood slack-jawed, clinging to Flora's hand. At least Valentine had the wit to scream.

It was Ruby who came to Tempe's rescue. She went pelting down the stairs and flew off the verandah. She grabbed Mr Arthur's arm and suddenly the two girls and the man became lost in a tussle of torn clothes and shouted abuse.

Finally, Mr Arthur dragged both girls up to their room and slammed the door on them. Clarissa, who had been loitering on the stairs, was forced inside too, to complete the wicked trinity. Then he took out his set of keys and locked them in. His shirt was drenched with sweat and he was breathing hard. Miss Thrupp and Eloise stood in the hall, staring at the closed door. From behind it we could all hear Ruby shouting swear words at the door, at Mr Arthur, at the whole troupe. We couldn't hear Tempe at all.

All the adults assembled in the corridor outside the girls' room: Miss Thrupp, Eloise and Eddie Quedda, even Jim McNulty, the carpenter, and Mr Milligan, the electrician, whom we hardly ever saw except at the theatre. Mostly they looked numb with shock. Only Mr Arthur had anything to say.

‘This is your doing, Miss Thrupp,' he said, his breath coming in short gasps. ‘Your disgrace. How did they leave the hotel without your knowing? You are employed to control these girls. And by God, if you can't, then you force me to measures most unpopular. Someone has to save them from ruin.'