The two in the room fell over each other in their haste to be outside. Heng sneered, then picked up the cake from the cooling tray and broke it in half, pushing it into his mouth, spitting the browner almonds to the floor.
He was plundering the kitchen cupboards when the bravest of his men came back. The square-built Chinese did not report the escape of the garden boy, just that there was no sign of Josef.
‘You want us go search outside?’
Heng Hou considered that it was dangerous to linger too long in an area they had attacked; anyway, he knew where Josef would go sooner or later. All the man could ever think of was the plantation where his father had been manager. ‘No,’ he added, ‘we’ll just go wait for him near Rinsey.’
The square Chinese face split into a grin of appreciation.
When they were ready to leave, they fired the bungalow. They dragged the Englishman clear of the car and threw him by his dead wife. ‘Long dogs!’ Heng Hou growled, then laughed at the sight of these two, tall in life, long in death. His henchmen laughed too, more outrageously than their leader, and one lifted Aubrey’s arm and placed it around Joan, because they were all terrified of falling foul of Heng Hou.
The next second their leader’s face fell into its usual lines of discontent and he gestured them back into the car before the smoke from the bungalow grew large and aroused suspicion. He poked the driver, indicating the direction towards Rinsey.
Heng Hou pondered with all the hungry sagacity of the greedy predator. Josef had nowhere to go but back to his old home. No home for him in the jungle, no home for him in the towns. Heng Hou had already made sure Josef was a marked man, for he had not trusted him for a long time.
He growled under his breath again. The fact that the man had slipped away from a raid he was personally in charge of was another reason for the unrelenting hunt he would initiate.
*
‘Mem and Tuan Wildon not come yet,’ Anna commented as she added a bowl of floating fragrant frangipangi blossoms to the long-prepared dining table.
‘I’m hoping they’ll arrive before any of the army. Think I may need some moral support.’ Blanche paused, watching as Anna went on making tiny adjustments to the mats and cutlery. ‘What do I say, Anna?’
‘You say,’ Anna said with great emphasis, ‘little as possible.’
‘In case it incriminates me,’ Blanche agreed.
‘In case gets you in trouble.’ Anna nodded vehemently. ‘You no see go, no know where gone. Just gone!’
‘I’m sure you’re right. I just wish Joan would come first so I could unburden my soul by telling the truth first.’
‘You like baby need comforter.’ Anna pretended to suck her thumb. ‘You eat, feel better. Friends not mind.’
‘No, I’ll wait. I’m just so worried about the girls.’ Next moment she swore as they heard vehicles approaching and then Chemor’s loud, harsh challenge.
‘Even the British army doesn’t get by George’s man,’ she commented.
She went to the front door to meet Sturgess. She saw there was a team of men plus a Dyak tracker. Sturgess came towards her with a slightly smaller man, who managed to look dapper even in army jungle issue. ‘Dr James Wright, Mrs Blanche Hammond.’ As the two shook hands, Sturgess announced, ‘We’re going to make a start today, get straight off. The girls will know where their Sakai is, I suppose.’
There was a pause as he registered the expression on Blanche’s face. The last time either she or Anna had seen the girls was about nine o’clock the night before, she told him, and neither of them had actually seen the Sakai at all.
‘You mean you’ve let your daughter go off into the jungle? Why, I ... I can hardly believe such — ’
‘Such what?’ Blanche prompted, her natural assertiveness at last coming to her aid, overwhelming the guilt.
He was going to say ‘such carelessness’ and that was really what he felt, such casual disregard for Elizabeth’s safety. He substituted ‘foolhardiness’.
‘Lis is enamoured of this young man. One tends to go halfway round the world for that kind of foolhardiness.’
‘She thinks she is ... ’ Sturgess could not bring himself to say the word. ‘Whereas I know it has to be just calf-love, moonstruck calf-love.’
‘You know! How would you know?’ Blanche was at once astonished and furious. ‘I presume you will allow that I know more about my daughter than a comparative stranger.’
‘We all know more about Elizabeth than strangers do,’ he agreed.
‘Do we indeed! I had assumed I knew more about my daughter than you did.’ She was furious to have got herself into such a stupid argument and astonished to see that he did not realise she meant he was the stranger. ‘Unless there is something I am not aware of?’
He frowned. ‘Well, no ... not at all.’
‘I can assure you my daughter is for better or worse in love with this young guardsman, and I have no doubt she is at this moment fighting her way through whatever jungle hazards lie between her and him. I am not saying I wouldn’t be happier if you, the doctor here and all your men were with her. I am saying I understand the feelings that made her take off secretly, without waiting for you.’
The doctor nodded agreement. ‘You have daughters?’ she asked.
‘And sons,’ he replied, his eyes twinkling.
‘Behave like dogs when a bitch is on heat sometimes, I guess,’ she said, watching to see how much the remark chosen to shock Sturgess succeeded. It obviously staggered his sensibilities, whereas the doctor gave a great hoot of laughter at the unexpected comment, but did not risk an answer.
‘They are at least half a day’s travel ahead of you,’ she stated pointedly, ‘though I see you have a tracker.’
‘The girl’s gone too, I suppose, Lee Guisan?’
‘Your witness is with my daughter. That is my consolation, that and the knowledge the Sakais have of the jungle in all its moods’. She paused as thunder again echoed around the nearby hills. ‘Lee and Liz are closer than most sisters.’
‘They haven’t seen or had contact with each other for years,’ Sturgess commented.
‘The deep bond was immediately renewed, I assure you,’ Blanche replied coldly to the sardonic remark.
Sturgess did not speak again but marched outside.
‘Makes me feel he’s never without a mental cane to slap in the palm of his hand,’ the doctor commented ruefully, watching him go. ‘But he’s a good officer, perhaps because of that.’
Blanche pushed a long and mild gin sling into the doctor’s hand, then stood by his side to observe Sturgess instructing his Dyak tracker. ‘Someone’s drilled all the humanity out of him.’ She shook her head sadly. He looked as if he was drilling a troop of men at the Guards Depot at Caterham Barracks. The Dyak obviously felt much the same for he gave a fair imitation of a good Guards’ salute, longest way up, shortest way down. Although they had issued the tribesman with army shorts and shirt, his blowpipe and quiver made the ritual ludicrous.
‘The modern army,’ the doctor quipped, adding ‘Cheers!’ as he downed his drink and promised to keep a good lookout for both the girl and the young man.
The major came back some minutes later and it seemed to Blanche there was some kind of petulant satisfaction in his voice as he said, ‘It will all take longer now, of course.’
The doctor was beginning to show less and less liking for his officer’s company. ‘Shall I go and tell the men to stand by?’
Sturgess nodded brusquely. ‘Right!’
Left alone, they avoided each other’s eyes in an uneasy silence. ‘Can I offer you a quick drink? Or tea, or whatever?’ Blanche asked formally.