The Mandelbaum Gate (41 page)

After breakfast with Suzi
he had gone to see how Barbara was. He said to her, ‘You know, if we put you in
the Embassy at Amman — send for them to fetch you — they’ll look after you and you’ll
be quite safe. Don’t you think you should do that, and cut out all this
pilgrimage lark?’

She
said, ‘What would you do in my place?’

To his
later horror, he said, ‘I’d be inclined to stick it out, personally. I’d hate
the idea of these fellows getting the better of me.’

That’s
exactly how I feel,’ she said. ‘Now I’m in it, I’m going to stay in it.’

‘Of
course,’ he said, ‘I’m not a half-Jew and I haven’t got scarlet
fever. So I don’t want to encourage you to take these risks. On the other hand,
if you do manage to lie low for a couple of weeks, and then get up and put on
those widow’s weeds again, and get around the country, it would be rather a
triumph for
us.’

‘That’s
what I’ll do. The only thing I dread is the boredom. Is there anything to read
in this house? Is there a wireless or something?’

‘I
wouldn’t have a wireless on if I were you,’ Freddy said. ‘You might attract
attention. I’ll see if I can find you some books, or Suzi will get you something
to read. But don’t move from this room and don’t make a noise. By the way, Joe
Ramdez is in the house. He’s supposed to be leaving tomorrow, but I’ll wait
till he leaves, so don’t —’

‘My
God, he may be looking for me! Everyone must be looking for me after that piece
in the Israeli paper.’

‘Suzi
has warned him to keep away from this part of the house. He thinks you’re a
Moroccan dancer, just arrived from Tangier with scarlet fever. Are you
frightened, though? Because —’

‘No, I’m
not frightened. The danger doesn’t seem so very real to me, somehow. It’ll make
a lovely story to tell afterwards.’

‘Yes,
that’s what I was thinking, too,’ Freddy said. He thought Barbara Vaughan was a
jolly good sport, and it was the one solid opinion he formed during his lost
days in Jordan that he retained ever afterwards.

She
said to Harry later, when she was safe, ‘I honestly couldn’t swear that I went
through all that from a determination to pray at the Christian shrines. It’s
true I’d set my heart on the pilgrimage. But, to be perfectly honest, I might
have taken refuge at the Embassy — Freddy did suggest it — only in fact, I
could see he really wanted me to be a good sport. And Freddy was so very nice,
I sort of couldn’t let him down.’

‘To
hell with Freddy,’ said Harry.

‘Oh no,
Freddy’s nice. He got me out of the convent. I thought highly of him for that.’

‘You
thought he was a good sport.’

‘Well,
yes, that’s about it. A jolly good one.’

‘He was
off his nut, though.’

‘Well,
I wasn’t to know that. And really, he wasn’t all that mad. You would like
Freddy if you knew him.’

‘I
know. He sounds all right. Tell me — suppose you’d been killed — what’s the
technical Catholic difference between a martyr and a jolly good sport?’

Joe Ramdez was standing
patriarchally by the well in the forecourt talking to Suzi in Arabic when
Freddy came out into the sunny morning air.

He
turned to Freddy with affable arms. ‘Welcome to my home. Have you slept well?’

‘Delightfully,
thank you.’

Suzi
had a haunted look. She said, ‘I drive Mr Hamilton out for a day to see the
general view of Jericho, Elisha’s Fountain, the Mount of the Temptation in the
Wilderness and the beautiful Greek convent there, also the River Jordan, the
Allemby Bridge, and —’

‘Allen-by,’
said Ramdez. ‘You always say “Allemby” like a Cockney corporal of the General’s
army. It is Allenby, may he rest in the Bosom of God.’

The
Allenby Bridge and through the hills of Judaea to the Dead Sea. We go also to
Bethany, the Tomb of Lazarus that was raised from the dead, and the Inn of the
Good Samaritan. Then we —’

‘She
does not stop talking once she has started. Suzi is the worst of all my women
in my household for talking,’ Ramdez said to Freddy. ‘Only on the first times
of meeting a new person she keeps quiet, but that is her trick, she’s a clever
one. When she meets a nice gentleman, he thinks she’s a quiet good woman, but
soon she is talking.’

‘Your
daughter’s a splendid guide,’ Freddy said.

Ramdez
said, ‘She is splendid also, for an insurance agent. Suzi —did you explain Mr
Hamilton the proposal forms and the opportunities?’

‘Yes,
Father, and Mr Hamilton will get the medical test all right.’

Freddy
said, ‘As I told Abdul, I must wait till I have a reply from my lawyers in
London. They look after all that side of things.’

‘Lawyers
are no good,’ Ramdez said. ‘Listen to me, lawyers are robbers.’

‘Oh, I
know that. I quite agree.’

‘We
have in this insurance scheme many diplomats from Britain and also from
America. Mr Scriven is one, Mr Pole is two, Mr Carson is three, Mr Macintyre,
who is gone from here and now in West Indies, is four, Mr Gardnor is five, Mr
Redding, six —naturally, I do not remember all the names on the record, but
these diplomats are all investors in Middle East Visitors’ with great benefits.’

‘Really?
A very impressive list,’ Freddy said. Scriven was a filing-clerk in the office
at Tel Aviv; Pole was secretary in the Post Office in Amman; Carson he didn’t
know — probably someone in the American Embassy; Macintyre he remembered as the
name of a chap who had been recalled from Israel two years ago for some
misdemeanour with a girl; Gardnor, yes, Gardnor; Redding, he couldn’t place. So
much for the diplomats.

‘You’ve got Gardnor?’

‘Yes,
Freddy, it’s all right. He’s coming across with it nicely today. Not that he
was much trouble yesterday, but he probably thought it over during the night,
and today we’re getting the lot. He says he feels liberated, in a way, now that
it’s all out.’

‘Well,
you might take a look into Scriven at Tel Aviv and a chap called Pole in Amman.’

‘Yes, I
believe we’re working on Scriven and Pole, and a few others on Ramdez’s list.’

‘You’ve
got hold of his list?’

‘Yes,
it cost us an absolute fortune. And I don’t believe it’s worth a penny to us.
No big security risks except Gardnor; only chaps who’ve made fools of
themselves with girls and so on.’

Scriven
… Pole … Macintyre … In the forecourt at Jericho Freddy looked out at the
Judaean wilderness and said to Ramdez, ‘An impressive list.’

‘So you
must join also.’

‘One’s
salary doesn’t amount to much in the Foreign Service,’ Freddy said. ‘One has to
make ends meet, you know. I’m afraid we’d better be on our way if we’re to see
all those delightful scenes that your daughter described.’

The
cars were parked across the forecourt and Suzi started to move. Ramdez said, ‘Wait,
I have a favour to ask of Mr Hamilton.’

Suzi
looked miserable and embarrassed, as she had on that first day that Freddy had
seen her, in the Cartwrights’ garden. ‘You ask so many favours, Father, and Mr
Hamilton has paid in advance for the pilgrimage-tour inclusive,’ she said.

He had
not in fact paid anything in advance, but was to settle the bill with
Alexandros. Three weeks later, when the events came back to him, he did so, and
meantime Alexandros had held his peace, not believing for one moment the rumour
that Freddy was suffering from a lapse of memory, but rather assuming that
Freddy had some good private reason, perhaps connected with his career or his
social reputation, for choosing to regard the episode as non-existent.

‘This
is one small favour,’ said Ramdez, ‘which I am sure you will oblige with, Mr
Hamilton, since it concerns a lady of your country. I have brought with me a
very nice tourist who is on a pilgrimage and also has paid in advance. But I
have now business to attend to in Amman today. So you take this nice woman
along with you in the car today, returning with you this evening, and Suzi will
adjust the small difference for one day’s private tour for one, and one day’s
private tour for two; it makes a bit cheaper. But this would be a favour as
this lady is so greatly distressed. She has followed from England to look for a
lady-friend and maybe you will find the friend on your route.’

“Well,
that should be all right,’ Freddy said. ‘Quite all right. Is she ready to come?’

‘I’ll
go and summon her now from her room. By the way, do you know Miss Barbara
Vaughan?’

‘Oh
yes, she’s saying at my hotel in Israel. But surely she isn’t the
lady who’s going to accompany us? She—’

‘Oh no,
she is the lady that my client, Miss Rickward, is looking for. Do you know
where she might be?’

‘So far
as I know she’s still in Israel —’ Joe Ramdez clapped his hands over his ears
at the repeated word ‘Israel’; he smiled, but not very sweetly.

‘—
Occupied Palestine,’ Freddy said with deference ‘… I know she was thinking of
coming here but I believe she changed her mind. Anyway, she’s either still in
Occupied Palestine or on her way to Rome to join her fiancé, who is there at
the moment. A very nice person, Miss Vaughan.’

‘Ah,
thank you. I will tell Miss Rickward what you say. Wait, excuse me, half a
moment.’

Freddy
said, then, to Suzi. That settles that. And I’ll see that a notice goes into
the Israeli paper tomorrow morning.’

‘In
Amman,’ she said, ‘it is possible they have a list of every name that has
passed through the Mandelbaum Gate from Israel. And my father will find it.’

‘Then
we must make sure they understand she’s left the country — gone to Rome. Let’s
wait and see how much your father discovers.’

Ricky
bustled out with him, very voluble on the subject of Freddy’s niece, who was a
pupil at her school, and through whose mother Ricky had met Freddy’s mother at
Harrogate one day. ‘It was only when your mother told me of the bits in your
letter concerning Barbara Vaughan that I knew she was engaged to the man. Then
she—’

‘Let us
go,’ said Suzi, ‘and you talk about the friend in the car. But I tell you this,
that if you look for an English visitor in our country, you have to look well,
since they are under every olive-tree and in every cave of the hills, and there
is no stopping their curiosity for adventure everywhere.’

‘My
friend is on a pilgrimage. A Roman Catholic pilgrimage. That narrows it down,
my dear,’ Ricky said. She looked yearningly at Joe, who kissed her hand and
placed her carefully in the back of the car. He evidently expected Freddy to go
in beside her, but Freddy got in the front at the wheel, leaning to open the
door beside him for Suzi.

‘My
daughter should drive,’ said Joe, as Suzi got in beside Freddy. ‘It is her job,
and you should come back here to be comfortable with Miss Rickward.’

Freddy
beamed at him. ‘Mr Ramdez,’ he said, ‘a businessman like you should know that
when one pays in advance one never gets full value.’ He started up the car
while Joe Ramdez leaned over the back window to say softly to Miss Rickward
that he would be back from Amman, promptly, that evening. As Freddy drove off,
Joe went over to his own car, then seemed to change his mind and returned to
the house.

Freddy
drew up a few yards from the house. ‘I’m so very sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll have to
go back for my sun-glasses.’ He manoeuvred the car to a turn. His sun-glasses,
which he wore only when absolutely necessary, were actually in his pocket, but
he wanted to see what Ramdez was up to. He was uneasy about Barbara’s being
left without friends with that man on the premises. ‘Stupid of me,’ Freddy
said.

Ricky
had moved from her position behind Freddy to the position behind Suzi. Now,
when they had turned round, she moved to the middle of the seat. ‘While you are
indoors,’ she said, ‘I would be so very grateful if you find me a cushion.’

‘Are
you not comfortable, Miss Rickward?’ Suzi said. ‘Would you like to change with
me?’ The car was a well-sprung, fairly new Chevrolet. The back seat,’ Suzi
said, ‘is usually the more comfortable place.’

‘No,
no, a cushion will do. Yes, it is more comfortable at the back, I’m sure. It’s
only that I have a slight touch of cramp. It’s probably due to the strain of
travel. A cushion would be very satisfactory.’

The
phrase ‘very satisfactory’ gave Suzi immediately to think of her father, who
used it a lot when speaking to the British. And the live wires of her mind gave
instantaneous connexion from her father to Ricky’s fidgeting in her seat. As
Freddy drove up to the door, Suzi, attacked by the complete answer, put her
hand to her mouth to suppress the burst of laughter which more or less
spluttered forth. She jumped from the car and said, ‘I get a cushion. Excuse me
that I laugh at Freddy for forgetting his sunglasses, he is so like all the
Englishmen, they never get away from a place but have to return.’

‘Stay
here, I’ll get the cushion,’ said Freddy, as he got out. ‘Just tell me where —’