Zemindar (115 page)

The breaching guns at the Kaiser Bagh, which were to cover our retreat, had been thundering all morning, but we had become so used to the sound of gunfire that I had not noticed them until Kate drew my attention to the noise.

‘Well, sure and I’m glad to see you! We thought you’d gone for good; wherever have you been? Those guns are driving me mad! Everything’s ready but I don’t seem able to collect myself at all. Now what are you doing in that calm way, just sitting down as though you’ve all of time before you? We must be up and moving. See, Jessie and I have everything prepared.’

‘There is no point in hurrying,’ I told them. ‘You should see the press trying to get out of the Baillie Guard. We are to move off in small groups, it seems, a delay between each; so it will be hours before everyone is through.’

‘Och, but they’re away already!’ Kate nodded her head in the direction of the Bonners’ deserted rooms. ‘Such a to-do. The
ayah
, the sweeper and poor little Minnie all hung about with boxes and bundles, and herself seated in a
doolie
almost invisible among her possessions, and grumbling all the time, she was, at Sir Colin and his ill-bred lack of consideration for the necessities of the “genteel”. I’ll tell you and truly, woman dear, that ould besom has been more of a trial to me than all the pandies in Oudh put together!’

‘I saw them,’ I laughed, ‘and many others even more loaded down with worldly goods. Where has all the stuff come from? Maria Germon had to be helped on to her horse by two strong men; she has put on so many layers of clothing, every layer lined with pockets full of her treasures, that she is completely spherical, and on top of everything else she is wearing a worsted hat tied on with a woollen scarf. Such a sketch! Even her horse is alarmed by the sight she makes. But it will be hours before we can get away, so we might as well wait here as in the dust and the crowd.’

‘And we’re to be the last?’ Kate’s sharp eyes took in my anxious face.

‘No—not the last. But a little longer, Kate, please? A little longer?’

‘He’ll come by, your man, Miss Laura. We’ll bide a whiles and he’ll come by.’

‘I’ve never managed to hide anything from you two, have I?’ I smiled.

‘Not much, woman dear, not much. He’ll be no more happy at your going than you are. He’ll come, I’m sure of it.’

So, contrary to our expectations, we ate one more meal in that small, dark room so full of associations. Kate produced some salt biscuits and a packet of dates given her by one of the ‘Shannons’, and for the last time we poured ourselves tepid water from the earthenware jar in the corner, fishing out the mosquito larvae before we drank.

The guns of the
Shannon
, battering the great red walls of the Kaiser Bagh, increased in power and frequency, and idly I wondered if it were true that a party of English prisoners were still held fast in some room of that vast palace. Poor creatures: to run the risk of death from their own guns after so many months in the pandies’ hands! I hoped that if the story were true, the unfortunate sufferers were already dead.

We were dusting the crumbs from our laps, when Toddy-Bob appeared on the verandah, grinning from ear to ear.

‘Tod! Where have you been all these days? We’ve seen nor hide nor hair of you for ages,’ cried Kate.

My heart in my eyes, I looked beyond Toddy’s small form, but his master had not come with him.

‘Busy,’ Tod said shortly. ‘A mite busy the last days ’ave bin, what with one thing and another. But now, we’ve a nag for you!’ he announced with pride and backed on to the verandah, beckoning us to follow. ‘A rotten ol’ bag o’ bones and an insult to the name of ’orse—but yours!’ He flourished a hand and we were rewarded with the sight of an extremely tall, extremely thin piebald mare, tied to a post by cracked reins.

‘Toddy! It’s a miracle!’ I exclaimed in delight. ‘How on earth did you manage it? … No, I’m not going to scold.’

‘Well now, miss, and I don’t know as ’ow the Guv’nor would care for me to answer that question, but what I can say is ’ow we been after that there animal for two nights and a day, neglectin’ all our duties into the bargain.’

‘God bless you all for it,’ said Kate fervently. ‘And tell your Guv’nor we don’t care a damn how he came by it. We thank him heartily.’

‘Yes’m,’ responded Toddy demurely with downcast eyes.

‘We … we will see Mr Erskine won’t we, Tod? Later?’ I enquired timorously.

‘Can’t say, miss—things being what you might call uncertain like.’

‘But surely he will see us before we leave for the Dilkusha?’

‘P’raps,’ he said doubtfully.

‘Toddy, how is he? I have been thinking he might have been injured, we haven’t seen him for days.’

‘Not injured, no, miss. But in a filthy black temper like I never seen ’im in afore, and more longer lastin’, too!’ He looked at me with undisguised accusation.

‘He is?’

‘Yes, miss. Fit to be tied ’e is. Cussin’ and swearin’ at nothin’ at all, nearly took ’is fist to me yesterday and ’e even yelled at Ishmial, and y’know, miss, ’e never yells at no blackie what can’t answer back. Says it ain’t proper.’

‘Aye! That would be his arm,’ Jessie said consolingly to me. ‘He’s the sort o’ man who’s unco’ set on doin’ all for himself, and when he finds himself hampered, nae doubt he’s like to be a wee bit thrawn.’

‘Maybe,’ allowed Toddy with scepticism. ‘But I’m thinkin’ ’is trouble is otherwhere.’

My cheeks flushed under the direct gaze of the black eyes, and I walked away to pat the horse, which stood with its nose in a nosebag and regarded me mildly as it chewed.

‘Now look here, Tod!’ Kate was peremptory. ‘We must see Mr Erskine before we go. We want to thank him for his kindness in sending us that … that creature. And we must make arrangements for when we meet in the Dilkusha. Nip along smartly now and ask him to come up here before we leave. Miss Laura says it will be some time before we move, but hurry. I suppose you are accompanying us, as we have no
syce
?’

‘No, sorry, ma’am. You’ll have to manage by yourselves. We’ve all to wait where we are until word is given us to move. Can’t come with you. Orders!’

Orders had never yet kept Toddy in line. I knew he was only putting his master’s needs before ours, and loved him for it.

‘Well, that’s a pity. We could have done with your company, Tod. But never mind, hurry back and ask Mr Oliver to come and speak to me. Please?’ Kate almost pleaded.

‘I’ll do me best, ma’am, but I ain’t promisin’ nothin’. Like I say, ’e’s that difficult, and me askin’ ’im to do somethin’ don’t mean ’e’ll do it.’

‘We understand, but do try.’

‘Right!’ and Toddy was away without a word of farewell.

He had not been gone five minutes when we were discovered by an officer whose duty it was to see that the Thug Gaol was vacated. He ordered us to prepare for departure.

‘But we are waiting for someone, to say goodbye!’ I protested frantically.

‘Can’t help that, young lady. You should be with the other families now, should have been an hour ago, matter of fact. You might get left behind.’

‘Oh, nonsense! I’ve seen what it is like up there. We’ll be ages waiting, and the noise and the dust will be bad for the baby.’

‘Come along now, miss. I’ve no time to waste. Your friend can find you on the parade ground. Mount up now, and a safe journey to you all.’

We had already drawn straws to determine which of us would be the first to ride the horse and hold the baby, and Jessie had won.

We pushed her up on to the saddle, tied our bundles to the pommel with string and bootlaces, and then handed her the child. It was the first time Jessie had been on a horse, but once up she sat as imperturbably as a figure on an equestrian statue, only her face, frozen into immobility by her novel situation, betraying her nervousness.

I led the beast by the bridle. Kate, carrying her umbrella, brought up the rear. Slowly we walked down the alley away from the long low building.

At first glance it seemed that none of the women could yet have left the entrenchment, so many of them still crowded the space before the Resident’s House, with their children, servants, possessions and conveyances. On looking down the slope through the Baillie Guard, however, I could see a long, interrupted straggle of carriages, litters and small parties on foot, making towards the far end of the extended perimeter.

For more than an hour we waited in the midday sun, Jessie aloft, still as a statue, or as much so as the querulous baby would allow her to be, Kate and I losing energy by the moment as we tried to keep our positions near the horse, while the jostling throng pushed and heaved around us. How I wished I had drawn the shortest straw and sat where Jessie now sat, in a position to search the faces of the crowd. It was not hot; but anxiety, glare, dust and noise soon had me longing for the dim little kitchen in the Gaol, or if not that, then just to be moving at last. I knew that had Toddy managed to persuade Oliver to come to us, they would have found us on the parade ground without much difficulty. The fact that neither of them had appeared after this considerable length of time served only to heighten my disquiet.

When Charles joined us, full of last-minute instructions and advice, I nodded dutifully, not really listening, my eyes scanning the restless crowd.

We were to keep together, he said, whatever happened, to do exactly as we were told by the officers in charge of the route, and he would see us in the Dilkusha in a couple of days’ time.

At last our names were called and we moved into line, Pearl crying, Jessie clutching the child with one hand, the pommel with the other, while I tugged the reins to make the horse move. Then, having gained our place in the motley procession, there was another long wait while the parties ahead of us moved down the slope, through the Baillie Guard and over the broken ground to the palaces, with a considerable pause between the departure of each.

The last thing I remember, oddly enough, of the siege of Lucknow, is laughter.

Inching our way forward in that dull forced patience which long expectation brings, I heard Kate’s youthful laughter as she stood, her arms akimbo, in the dusty sunlight and said in the intervals of her mirth, ‘Don Quixote! It’s pure Cervantes! You, Laura, in your big straw hat are Sancho Panza to the life, Jess in her frozen, frightened dignity could well be the Crazy Knight, and the nag … but of course, the nag is the very ghost of Rosinante!’

‘Barry … Hewitt … MacGregor … Flood, infant. Forward!’

We had reached the head of the column.

‘Jessie! It’s us. Kate, come on … come on … it’s us!’ Caught almost unawares, I was suddenly panic-stricken that we should not get away. I grabbed Rosinante’s bridle and hauled her forward at a trot, while Jessie screamed and clutched the pommel, and Kate ran after us, still laughing, and waving her umbrella in farewell.

This time, at all events, and whatever might happen in the coming days, this time, for us, the Siege of Lucknow was over.

There was no time for nostalgic farewells as we moved for the last time down the slope to the gate.

Laughing at my anxiety, Charles ran up and took the reins from me, leading Rosinante through the Baillie Guard as I fell into step beside Kate, hurrying to keep up with the ungainly stride of the mare. A carriage pulled by two bare-ribbed hacks was so close behind us that I could feel their breath upon my neck if I slowed. While we had been waiting to move, a lucky pandy shell had ignited a ramp of earth-covered firewood forming part of the old defences, and billowing smoke mingled with the dust to dim the sunlight as we went. For a couple of seconds, passing beneath the arch of the gateway, we were in deep shadow; then, once again, we found ourselves in the yellow afternoon light, the dust, the smoke and the Baillie Guard behind us. A moment of darkness; a name we would never forget—a gateway that had led me to a life within my life. I remembered that as we had entered the entrenchment nearly five months before, Ishmial had knelt in the shadow of that arch and laid his forehead to the ground in prayer.

Now the noise of the guns, both our own and those of the enemy, was thunderous, and we needed no urging to make haste. We moved over the stretch of torn ground that had once been no-man’s land between the pandies and ourselves, and veered to the left, skirting the high walls of the riverside palaces until the Tehri Kothi was behind us. Halfway along the wall of the Farhat Baksh, we entered a gateway, and then continued eastwards through a maze of alleys, courts and cloistered gardens. The Farhat Baksh had held the throne-room of the Nawabs of Oudh, but now the huge halls of the palace, visible through lofty, shattered windows, were a scene of utter ruin, and at every window and balcony our own armed and curious soldiery stood guard over our progress. A breach in tile-coped wall led us into the park of the Chathar Manzil, through more gardens, across wide lawns running down to the river, past pretty enclosures full of defaced statuary and marble pavilions picked out with jade, jasper and lapis lazuli.

Progress was slow, for we were stopped often by mishaps suffered by those before us. A sudden thought occurred to me as we waited.

‘Charles, why isn’t Oliver with us? I mean, why hasn’t he left the entrenchment now, as others have? Oliver didn’t need to stay; he can’t even shoot a rifle, after all. Are you sure he hasn’t already set off?’

‘Quite sure. How can you doubt it? He wouldn’t be caught dead with the women and children, even if he’d lost both arms. Besides, he’s done pretty well with his pistol in the last few days. Toddy-Bob has been finding him ammo to practise with (illegally, naturally) and his aim is almost as good as it was. Last I saw of him, yesterday, he was sitting on a balcony near the Mess House, having a great time picking off pandies unwary enough to show themselves below him.’

‘Oh, Charles, no! I had no idea he was … he was fighting. I thought he was only in the mines.’

‘He’s all right, Laura.’ Charles showed his impatience at my concern by tugging Rosinante’s bridle so sharply that he nearly unseated Jessie. ‘He’s all right. By heavens, he’s managed to take care of himself pretty adequately so far; he’ll come to no harm now.’