Return to Mandalay (37 page)

‘First love … It takes some beating,’ her father said. Gently, he stroked her hair.

Rosemary nodded. She swallowed. He was right. First love took some beating. ‘Hard on number two though,’ she said.

‘I reckon so.’ But his voice was faint and she realised he was drifting off again. Back to sleep or back to the past. The two seemed entwined into each and every day.

‘Hard on number two,’ she murmured. She eased herself off the bed without disturbing him. Smoothed the quilt. Touched his hand. And left him to it.

*

At the supermarket, Rosemary paid for her purchases and
wheeled the trolley out to the car. She wound her cashmere scarf more closely around her neck. All these years she’d blamed him. And yet … How much better was she?

‘Ssh, lady!’ The man swore, pushed past her and was gone, racing towards the stairs.

What the hell? ‘Hey!’ Eva yelled after his retreating back. ‘Stop that man! He’s a thief! He’s—’ But no one was listening; no one was around. And the man was already out of sight.

Eva ran over to the phone, quickly dialled reception. Her hands were shaking. The phone seemed to ring and ring.

At last someone answered. ‘There was a man,’ she said. ‘He was in my room. I walked in and … He should be there any second. He’ll be coming down the stairs or in the lift or—’

‘Excuse me, madam,’ The girl on reception spoke slowly and clearly as if Eva were either deaf or insane. ‘Please repeat?’

Eva repeated. But she knew it was useless. By the time she got the message through, he’d be long gone.

‘Was anything taken?’ the girl asked her. ‘Valuables? Jewellery? Money?’ Her voice was friendly, but not overly concerned.

‘I don’t know.’ Eva sat down on the bed. She felt … violated. She looked around at the disarray in the room. Fortunately, she carried all her money with her, and she’d been wearing her pearls and her diamond daisy ring. But … Who
would have done this? Hadn’t she been assured that there was very little crime in Myanmar, and especially against tourists? And how had he got into her room?

‘Please check,’ the girl said. ‘I will send someone up. Please answer the door.’

The door, Eva saw, was still wide open. ‘Yes. Thank you.’ She got to her feet, hung up and strode over to the door. Slammed it shut and locked it. Leaned on the back of it, trying to control her breathing. When she saw him, she hadn’t had time to be scared. But now, she couldn’t stop shaking.

After a few minutes there was a frantic hammering on the door.

Eva flinched. She had made a cursory check of her stuff and even put most of it back in the chest of drawers. Nothing seemed to be missing. ‘Who is it?’ She could hear the tremor in her voice. Once more she felt the sensation of being alone.

‘It’s me, Ramon. Eva, are you OK?’

Ramon. Relief flooded through her at the sound of his voice. In that moment, he certainly didn’t feel like the enemy. She unlocked the door and was immediately wrapped in his arms.

‘What happened, Eva?’ He sounded angry.

‘There was a man.’ Her voice was muffled into his shoulder. She took a deep breath. And a step away. She was unhurt. She had to regain control of her emotions.

‘What man?’

‘I don’t know what man …’

Ramon spoke rapidly in Burmese to one of the hotel staff
now hovering behind him. ‘You need some brandy,’ he said. ‘And water.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Come. Sit down.’ He took her arm and led her over to the bed. ‘Tell me what happened.’

She sat down and began to explain.

His expression grew darker and darker as he paced the room. A boy came back with a bottle of brandy and Ramon poured a generous measure into a glass. He handed it to her. ‘But you are not hurt?’ he asked. ‘He did not touch you?’ His hand rested on her arm.

‘No, no.’ In fact he had run away like a rat up a drainpipe. No one had been hurt, or even threatened. Someone had been ransacking her room, but that was all. Eva sipped the brandy. It slipped down her throat like a flame. She supposed she was just suffering from the shock of it.

Ramon turned on the bedside lamp and flicked the switch of the main light off so that the room was suffused with a warmer glow. Eva was grateful. Her eyes were hurting. ‘Do you want me to call the police?’ he asked.

‘No.’ She didn’t want to involve the police. What was the point if nothing had been taken?

He swore softly. ‘They will not get away with this.’

And how did he propose to find out who
they
were? A thought occurred to her. ‘But what are you still doing here?’ The brandy had revived her somewhat. Hadn’t Ramon driven home after he’d dropped her off at the hotel? How had he even known there was anything wrong? Eva didn’t like the
direction in which her thoughts were heading. He wouldn’t have had anything to do with this, would he?

He took the glass from her and refilled it. ‘I was still outside in the car. Thinking.’

Eva nodded. She knew very well what he’d been thinking about. That kiss.

‘And I was about to drive off when I saw a man running fast out of the hotel.’ He handed the glass back to her.

She frowned. ‘But why did you think he was anything to do with me?’

‘I did not. Not at first.’ He sighed. ‘And then …’

‘And then?’ She swirled the rich amber liquid around in the bottom of the glass. The scent of the brandy was strong, but somehow reassuring.

‘I thought I recognised him.’ He looked across at her. His eyes seemed to gleam in the light of the bedside lamp.

Eva’s throat went dry. ‘Who was he?’ But already, she thought she knew.

‘I think it was one of Khan Li’s men. One of those he asks to do his dirty work when he wants to keep his own hands clean.’ Ramon went into the bathroom and emerged with a glass tumbler. ‘May I?’

She nodded and he poured himself a brandy from the bottle the hotel had provided.

Eva recalled her conversation with Khan Li. So he had taken the bait, after all. She supposed it would have been simple to find out where she was staying. But what had he been trying to discover by having her room searched? The
name of her rich client who owned a certain Burmese decorative and jewelled teak chinthe perhaps? Or something else? The chinthe itself?

‘Eva …’ Ramon came and sat down on the bed beside her. He seemed to be considering how to continue. ‘I have told you these men are dangerous, yes?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, I know.’ And she knew that she should have been more careful. It had been too risky to go there alone, foolish to think that she could get the better of someone like Khan Li.

‘And I am aware you do not fully trust me.’

She made no answer to this. There wasn’t much she could say.

‘But you must now tell me exactly what happened when you went to Li’s showroom.’

Eva considered this. If he was as in league with Li’s as she suspected, then it would be very easy for him to find out anyway. And even if she couldn’t completely trust him … She couldn’t believe he meant her harm.

So she told him, every so often taking a sip of the sweet mellow liquid that had done its job of calming her down and was now making her feel pleasantly woozy.

By the time she’d finished, Ramon was shaking his head in disbelief. ‘I cannot believe that you said these things to Li, Eva,’ he said. ‘You were foolish. But also brave.’

She shrugged.

‘And did you tell him the name of your hotel?’

‘Of course not!’ She wasn’t entirely stupid.

‘So tell me this,’ Ramon said. ‘Why did you stop trusting me?’ He got up from the bed and now knelt beside her, his green eyes pleading. He had to be genuine, she thought. No one could be that good an actor.

‘I saw a crate in the truck outside your warehouse,’ she said. At least she should give him the right to reply. ‘It was being sent to the Bristol Antiques Emporium.’

He frowned. ‘But that is the company you work for, isn’t it?’

She nodded.

‘Impossible.’ He got to his feet. ‘I know the name of every company we deal with. You weren’t well. You must have imagined it.’

She watched him as he stood at the window, saw him flick back his dark hair with that irritated gesture of his hand.

‘I didn’t imagine it,’ she said.

‘But why did you not mention this before?’ He turned around to face her. ‘I could have shown you your mistake.’

She shook her head. There was no mistake and nothing would convince her otherwise. ‘Because of the logo I saw under your company’s stamp,’ she whispered. ‘It wasn’t your crate.’

He shook his head. ‘Eva, it has been a long and difficult evening,’ he said. ‘There has been …’ He spread his hands, ‘a revelation. And now a man has entered and ransacked your room.’ He smiled. ‘You have drunk a lot of brandy …’

She got to her feet. ‘It was a blue-and-gold peacock
insignia,’ she said. ‘I wasn’t mistaken, I wasn’t seeing things and I certainly wasn’t drunk.’

He came closer, put his hands on her shoulders. ‘A blue-and-gold peacock, you say?’

She nodded.

Abruptly, his hands dropped to his sides. He muttered something in his own language that she couldn’t understand. ‘It is late. You must be exhausted.’ He turned from her, went over to the door. ‘Get some sleep, Eva,’ he said, more gently. He opened it. ‘We will talk again in the morning.’

Eva felt a sliver of fear returning and he seemed to sense it. ‘He will not come back,’ he said. ‘I will have a word with reception on the way out. For one thing, I want to know how he got into your room. After I go, make sure you lock the door from the inside. You will be quite safe for now.’

‘And tomorrow?’ She realised she wouldn’t feel safe here anymore.

He put his finger to his lips. ‘We will talk tomorrow,’ he said. ‘You must not worry. I will pick you up at midday.’

She nodded. ‘Alright.’ She was exhausted, it had been a long day and she could hardly think straight. She wanted to trust him, she wanted to rest her head on his shoulder and close her eyes. And when they talked tomorrow, she would, somehow, make him tell her everything.

Maya lay in her bed that night but she did not sleep. It would come; it always came, she must be patient.

She had relived so much of the war sitting at the restaurant table tonight, and now she recalled that one experience which she had talked of to no one. It had happened in the hospital when Cho Suu Kyi was still a baby …

Upper Burma, 1943

Maya had jumped with surprise. She had been doing some sorting in the hospital storeroom and had not expected to be disturbed.

The man who strode into the room as if he owned it was immaculately dressed in the uniform of a Japanese officer. His boots were polished and rose to his thighs and he carried a large sword at his side, one hand resting on the hilt.

‘Can I help you?’ she asked. But her mind went into over-drive. She was thinking, as she always was, of Cho Suu Kyi.

‘Show me what food you have,’ he said stiffly. He had arrived with one other soldier this afternoon. She guessed that they were an advance party, sent ahead to reconnoitre the area. So far they had been civil to herself and Matron
Annie and even to the inmates of the hospital. But they had also been guarded. And she didn’t trust them.

Maya bowed her head. In the corner of the room little Suu was sleeping and she didn’t want her to wake and be noticed. If the officer looked closely, he might see and he might suspect. Maya could not risk it. However, neither did she want to give the Japanese their precious food.

She opened the cupboard. ‘We have very little,’ she murmured. Pray to Buddha that he did not find their emergency store of condensed milk, soup and rice. ‘What we have is for the sick.’

The officer turned up his nose in distaste. ‘Why do you stay here in this town?’ His gaze roved around the room. ‘A woman like you?’

Maya moved quickly, placing herself between him and the corner of the room in which the baby was sleeping. What did he mean,
a woman like you?
‘It is everyone’s duty to do something,’ she said. ‘And I like to help the wounded.’

‘British soldiers?’ he sneered.

‘Any soldiers.’ She looked him straight in the eye. ‘We have Indian soldiers here and Chinese. And civilians too. Refugees. We do not differentiate.’

‘Then you are fools.’ He spat. ‘You should learn where you will be looked after. If you can nurse, we need you at our hospital, not here tending to traitors.’

Maya thought quickly. ‘I am not a nurse,’ she said. ‘Just an ordinary woman doing what she can.’

His gaze raked her from head to toe. ‘Not so ordinary.’ He licked his lips.

Maya felt her throat go dry and her legs weak. She had been warned of this. They both had. When the colonel had left, he had given her a .38 pistol with which to protect herself and she had it even now, tucked into the belt of her
longyi
at the back, hidden under the loose blouse she wore. But would she have any idea how to use it?

‘Come.’ He beckoned her closer.

Maya took a small step towards him, though all she wanted to do was run. In the next room, the ward, she would be safe for a while. He would not try anything when there were other people around. But how could she run anywhere when her baby was in here? She could not leave her. And anyhow, she would not be safe for long. She understood the mentality of the Japanese soldiers by now and she knew how they felt about honour and respect. If she humiliated this man in any way, he would never forget it. He would seek her out and she and the baby would never be safe. But if she complied …

He reached out, tilted her chin, sharply, and Maya looked up and over his shoulder.
Do not wake, my child …
He ran his fingers over her blouse, lingering at the buttons on the neck and then down towards her waist and the belt of her
longyi
. What if he felt the gun? She thought her heart would stop beating. ‘Not here,’ she whispered.

He cocked his head, surprised. Maya guessed that many women would die rather than be raped, especially by the
enemy. She wasn’t sure she counted herself in that category. She felt differently about her own survival since she’d had her child; the survival of each was linked. But her first priority was to get him out of the storeroom.