“Take a look back … across the bank. Doesn’t it look romantic? Not much like the hospital we know. In this light it looks like a caliph’s palace, don’t you think?”
He was smiling at me half ironically. He looked secretive, I thought.
But then he always did.
“It looks quite different, I admit.”
“You will also admit that it is something you will never forget.”
I turned away. Henrietta and Philippe were no longer in sight.
He looked around him.
“It is so easy to lose people in the crowds.
We’ll find them. “
But we did not find them.
We made our way along the waterfront. Dr. Adair looked at me in what I fancy was mock dismay.
“Never mind,” he said.
“I think I know where Lablanche was planning to go.”
“Did he tell you? I didn’t hear him.”
“Oh … I know his favourite haunt. Come, we’ll go there. Leave it to me.”
He led me to one of the carriages which was waiting to be hired. They were drawn by two horses and we sat side by side, as we began our drive through the city. It was most romantic, especially by night. I was still getting over the shock of finding myself alone with him. He talked rather nonchalantly but knowledgeably about the architecture, in which subject he appeared to be well-informed comparing the mosque built by Sulyman the Great with that of Sultan Ahmed the First. We had by this time crossed one of the bridges to the Turkish part of the city.
“Here I think we may find our friends,” he said.
“If not… we must make do with each other.”
I said: “If you would prefer it, Dr. Adair, I can go back to Scutari.”
“Whatever for? I thought you’ were bent on dining out.”
“I had accepted Monsieur Lablanche’s invitation but as I have lost him”
“Never mind. You have another protector.”
“Perhaps you had other plans.”
“Only to dine out. Come. Let us go in. It may well be that the others have forestalled us.”
We alighted and he led me into the restaurant. It was darkish and there were lighted candles on the tables. A man in very splendid livery of blue and gold with a gold-coloured cummerbund came towards us. I did not understand the conversation between them but the liveried man presumably a head waiter was most obsequious.
Dr. Adair turned to me.
“Our friends have not yet arrived. I have asked them to find a table for two, and there we will wait for them. When they do he will tell them at once that we are here. If they do not, I am afraid. Miss Pleydell, you will be obliged to make do with me.”
We were taken to a table in an alcove, somewhat secluded from the rest of the room.
“A little seclusion is so much better if one wants to indulge in conversation,” he said.
I was feeling uneasy and yet at the same time exhilarated. I had come a long and devious way to find this man and here I was actually seated opposite him. It was success indeed.
“I hope you are ready to experiment with Turkish food. Miss Pleydell.
It is rather different from what you have at home . or hospital fare. But one has to be adventurous, don’t you agree? “
“Yes, of course.”
“You don’t seem very sure. Are you adventurous?”
“Surely one must be to come out to the Crimea, to war?”
“Up to a point, I agree. But you are a dedicated nurse and would doubtless go to the ends of the earth if your profession called you there. Would you like caviar? Otherwise there is a very tasty dish of meat stuffed with peppers which have been treated in all sorts of sauces.”
“For fear of being judged unadventurous, I might try that,” I said.
“Good, and after that I suggest this Circassian chicken. It’s cooked in a sauce of walnuts.”
“Don’t you think we should wait for the others?”
“Oh no …”
“But I was supposed to be Monsieur Lablanche’s guest.”
“He has the ebullient Henrietta to entertain.”
“Do you really think they will come here?”
“There is a possibility. I am not sure of the number of these eating places in Constantinople, but at least this is one of them, and a renowned one … so there is a possibility that they might come here.”
“I thought you were sure they would come, that it was a favourite place of Monsieur Lablanche.”
“He is a man of discrimination so he will certainly know of this place.”
“You are not very direct. You gave me quite a different impression a little while ago.”
“We make our own impressions. Miss Pleydell, but why bother ourselves with such a trivial matter? Here we are dining a deux. It is a good opportunity for us to talk.”
“Do you think we have anything to talk about?”
“My dear Miss Pleydell, it would be two very dull people who had nothing to talk about just for one brief evening. We have worked together … You have formed your impressions of me…”
“And you of me. That is, if you have ever noticed me.”
“I am an observant man. I miss little, you know.”
“But surely some things are too insignificant for your notice.”
“Certainly not. Miss Pleydell.”
The liveried man in the cummerbund was approaching our table with a waiter slightly less splendidly clad than himself, and the order was given. Dr. Ad. air chose a wine and in a very short time the first course was brought to us.
He lifted his glass.
“To you … and all the nightingales who left home to come across the sea to nurse our soldiers.”
I lifted mine.
“And to the doctors who came, too.”
“Your first protege will now be on his way home,” he said.
“Oh, you mean Tom. Yes, he is on the way home with Ethel. They are going to be married.”
“And live happily ever after?”
“That is what is hoped for. There is a farm and Ethel is a country girl.”
“And your second?”
“You mean William Clift who is recovering slowly.”
“That was a near thing.” He looked at me steadily.
The Circassian chicken arrived at that moment and there was silence while it was served.
“I am sure you will find it delicious,” said Dr. Adair. He filled my glass.
“Yes,” he went on, “I wanted to talk to you about William Clift.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“You look surprised.”
“I am surprised that you should think me worthy to discuss a patient with you. I fancied you thought nurses should remain in their places and should merely run hither and thither at the doctors’ command and be consigned to the menial tasks.”
“Well, should they not? That does not mean that I should not want to discuss William Clift with you. His wounds are healing. He was brought close to death, but he survived … and in due course he will be quite fit and probably live to a ripe age. He could so easily have been dead, you know.”
“Yes, I do know that.”
“Those bullets were deeply embedded. They had started to fester. It was touch and go.”
I looked at him. I thought: I was right about him. He wants praise.
All the time he wants glory for Dr. Adair.
“You will remember I used unorthodox methods. It was fortunate that I did. If I had not, Miss Pleydell, William Clift would not be alive today.”
“You gave him something to drink …”
“More than that. I put him under hypnosis. That method is not always approved of by medical opinion at home. But, Miss Pleydell, my methods do not always fit in with conventional ones and therefore I am not a conventional doctor.”
“I know that.”
“I believe that pain retards recovery. A patient must be freed from pain whenever possible. When the body suffers pain, restoration is delayed. I would use any method to eliminate pain.”