A Garland of Marigolds

by Isobel Chace

  But Camilla was not so easily dissuaded.

  “How many days is it until the last concrete block is placed on the dam? That will be when she decides to go, you’ll see!”

  I must say I hoped that Camilla was right, but it seemed very unlikely. Julie spread her possessions about the house, like a spider wrapping up its victim. Nothing escaped her soft sweetness or her cloying endearments.

  I met her on my way to the village.

  “Are you going out again?” she asked.

  I smiled and nodded. “Have you seen Gideon?” I countered. Her expression didn’t change, but she became still and watchful. “He doesn’t want to see you just now,” she said at last. “He’s busy with other things.”

  “I see,” I said. “Perhaps you’d tell him that the rice needs weeding at the top of the valley?”

  “I’ll try to remember,” she smiled. “Have you thought any more about going back to England?”

  “Not yet.” It was very difficult to be pleasant to her when I wanted to throw her out of the house, to destroy the pretty image she maintained. I turned to look at her. “Would you like to walk down to the village with me? It isn’t raining at the moment.”

  She retired into herself, looking small and rather pathetic. “Oh no, I couldn’t! The mud would ruin my shoes!” She smiled her secret smile. “I’m not tough like you,” she added, her voice tinged with malice.

  “No,” I agreed comfortably, “you’re not.” And without waiting to see if the shot had gone home, I started off to the village. In the few minutes between downpours of rain everybody had come outside to shop and gossip with neighbors. Lakshmi’s sister came running across the street and touched my arm. We smiled and greeted one another.

  The gentlemen of the panchayat were waiting for me in the metalsmith’s small shop. We went through the shop, with its shavings of copper, tin and other metals and that inimitable smell of hot metal, and into the living space where one of the more venerable of the old men lived. My host greeted me with gentle courtesy and I was surprised to see that Gideon was seated beside him.

  “You’re late!” he said to me with a grin.

  “I was waiting for it to stop raining,” I explained. Try as I would I was quite incapable of sitting comfortably on the floor, but Gideon seemed to manage it, his broken leg sticking out in front of him.

  “We have heard from the government,” our host told me in tones pregnant with awed complacency. “They are coming to see our dam. They are coming to see for themselves what can be done to preserve water!”

  I looked around at their solemn faces and felt rather proud of our achievement. Gideon was grinning and I smiled back at him.

  “When are they coming?” I asked.

  The old men stroked their beards in renewed ecstasy.

  “On the day of the new moon.”

  “Next Saturday,” Gideon supplied. They all nodded, their eyes shining with excitement, and I was terribly glad that, for the moment at any rate, I was one of them. This was my village and I was extremely proud of it.

  “Will it rain on Saturday?” I asked.

  A very old man, his wrinkled face hidden behind an enormous white beard, cackled with laughter.

  “No, it will not rain then,” he assured me. “The sun will be out. People from many villages will be here. It will bring much honor to our doors and to the door of the research station. We will all rejoice together and the gods will be pleased.”

  As soon as I awoke on Saturday I pattered over to the window and raised the blind to see what the weather was like. The red soil was transformed by the sudden green growth of plants that had suddenly sprung forth from the earth. The trees looked clean and shining and the whole world smelled of the brightness of the sun. It was going to be a lovely day, and I wondered how the old man had known, but perhaps wishing had made it so, just for once, a tiny miracle for one of my last memories of India. For I had to go, I knew that now. I could no longer listen through the nights for Julie to come to bed, nor could I smile any more when she teased and scolded Gideon at mealtimes. Clearly she had his approval and—I had to face it some time—his love.

  I stood at the window and thought back to the day Gideon and I had walked back from the metalsmith’s shop.

  “You look pale,” he said. “Is there something wrong?”

  I swallowed.

  “We can’t all be beautiful!” I responded miserably.

  He looked me straight in the eyes and said: “I have always believed that beauty was largely in the eye of the beholder. Wouldn’t you say that, Miss King?”

  Miss King again!

  “No, I don’t!” I had exclaimed bitterly. “I think some people can always attract by their looks no matter what they are, and others—and others can only stand by and watch!”

  He looked rather pleased with himself and grinned.

  “Are you hinting at something, Suki?” he asked.

  “I should have thought it was obvious!” I said. “But you know your own business best! I should have thought she was most unreliable!”

  And he grinned all the harder.

  “Now would you indeed?” was all he said, and I hadn’t seen him alone since then.

  I sighed and turned to wake up Camilla. She gave a grunt of dismay when she saw the time and leaped out of bed.

  “I promised Joe I’d help him with the bunting,” she explained as she tore into her clothing and fussed over her makeup. “Suki, did you know there’s to be a proper ceremony and that you’re to be the center of it?”

  “Well, a ceremony,” I amended. “But it’s only someone from the government who is coming to inspect it.”

  Camilla applied her lipstick with care.

  “Joseph says—” she began, her eyes twinkling. “No, perhaps I’d better not tell you what he said! But look out for Julie’s wrath won’t you? Something tells me she’s not going to enjoy today very much.”

  “I don’t suppose she will,” I said. “Do you think Gideon will want her to be on the platform?”

  Camilla flicked her hair into position and made a face at herself in the mirror.

  “I’m beginning to wonder if he cares what happens to her,” she said flatly.

  “But he must!” I exclaimed.

  Camilla threw me a brief kiss as she departed.

  “I don’t see why! He’s no fool, my brother. Hadn’t you better get ready? Don’t forget that on this occasion it’s you who is to be queen of the ball!”

  Still sitting on the edge of my bed I watched her disappear out of the door. Then I shook my head. It was too much to hope that Gideon would see through Julie. But Camilla’s warning made me feel uncomfortable all the same.

  Joseph had already gone to the railway station to pick up that government official when I made my appearance on the verandah. Gideon rose slowly to his feet and came towards me.

  “Very nice!” he said quietly, for my benefit alone.

  I blushed, and he smiled at me. Julie stood up also and came languidly across the verandah.

  “My dear!” she began in a soft, drawling voice. “Do you think that hat is quite suitable?”

  “I wouldn’t have it on if I didn’t,” I retorted with a sudden spurt of temper.

  She pouted. “We-ell, if you really think so...” She paused, slowly pulling on her gloves. “My parents are coming to see the fun,” she told me. “Gideon invited them!”

  “Is it time to go?” I asked.

  The village band was already in position, sitting on the bank of the reservoir and playing all the best-known songs in answer to the various requests from the onlookers. And there were so many onlookers! They stretched all the way from the concrete heart of the dam to the banks that we had so laboriously made and across the muddy, newly planted fields.

  “They’ll trample the crops!” I said in dismay.

  Gideon grinned at me.

  “They won’t do much harm. They’re all farming folk.” He turned and took me by the hand. “You’d
better take your place on the platform. They’re waiting for you.”

  Julie stepped down from the jeep ahead of me. She put her arm possessively around Gideon’s, pulling him away. With infinite patience he released himself.

  “Sorry, Julie. You’d better find your parents and see that they’re comfortable. I’m on duty today and so is Susan. I’ll see you later.”

  Julie gave me a spiteful look.

  “She shouldn’t be here at all!” she protested. “I think it’s ridiculous to make all this fuss over her. You’re the man behind it all!”

  But Gideon only ignored her.

  “Are you ready?” he asked me grimly. I took his hand and jumped down beside him and, without a further glance in Julie’s direction, he led me toward the official space that was reserved for us.

  “Do you think we ought to leave her alone?” I asked anxiously.

  Gideon’s hand tightened on my elbow. “Why not?” he replied briefly.

  With fierce determination he hurried me up the bank toward the dam. I could hardly keep up and was breathless as well as anxious by the time we reached the top of the bank. I looked back over my shoulder and to my relief Julie waved.

  “She’ll be all right,” Gideon said roughly. “Don’t worry about her. I’ll see she doesn’t bother you.”

  “But—” I protested.

  He stopped and looked down at me with a gentle expression on his face.

  “I told you not to worry,” he said.

  I have to admit that I forgot all about her as we reached the little clearing on the top of the bank. The old men of the panchayat stood in a little semicircle overlooking the rapidly filling reservoir. We greeted them individually, putting the palms of our hands together in the traditional Indian greeting and then shaking hands. We were only halfway through this little ceremony when the Swami came striding through the crowd toward us. He sank to the ground, apparently oblivious to everyone around us, and contemplated a small patch of ground in front of him. No one paid the slightest attention to him. They knew he would join us when he was ready.

  I could see the jeep approaching. Joseph and Camilla had decorated it with scarlet bunting and the Indian flag flew from the windscreen, proudly declaring that this was an official occasion. The crowd silently made room for the vehicle to pass. I found myself as eager as everyone else to see the official.

  “Where’s Camilla?” Gideon asked me urgently.

  I peered down at the jeep coming toward us.

  “Isn’t she with Joseph?”

  He shook his head.

  “Never mind, we haven’t time to look for her now. I’ll go down and welcome our guest if you and the Swami will wait here and keep things moving.”

  The Swami awoke from his dream and stood up. He came over and stood beside me, smiling gently.

  “I think this is as much your great day as it is the village’s,” he commented gravely. “You have made yourself very much one of us. A lot of people would be sad if you were to leave us now—Lakshmi particularly. She tells me you were instrumental in her becoming engaged to some young man?”

  I blushed. “Hardly,” I replied, embarrassed by his approval. “All I did was to mention it to Gideon.”

  He smiled his acknowledgment.

  “And that was enough,” he agreed. “Nevertheless she is very happy at the outcome.”

  He turned away to chat to the old men around him, but at that moment Julie came running up the bank toward us, her face white and frightened looking.

  “It’s my father!” she gasped. She flinched away from the Swami and turned to me. “He’s fallen in the water,” she said. “It was all a joke! He only wanted to see that Gideon got his fair share of the credit. He didn’t see why you should be standing up here. He was going to make sure that the government man was taken around the other way so he couldn’t see you at all. And then Camilla pushed him in!”

  “Camilla did?” My first reaction was to laugh, and even the Swami looked amused. Julie stamped her foot at the two of us.

  “He can’t swim!”

  I caught some of her fright at that. I took off my high-heeled shoes and left them on the top of the bank and ran after her to the other side of the stream and up the other bank to where she thought her father was. A little knot of people had gathered at the water’s edge, giggling and nudging one another. I pushed my way through them and ran straight into Gideon’s waiting arms.

  “My goodness,” he said in an amused voice, “we don’t want to have two of you wet and dripping. Where are you going in such a hurry?”

  I tried to release myself from his clasp, but he didn’t appear to notice. In fact he held me all the closer as though he didn’t want to let me go.

  “I thought he might have hurt you,” I said at last in shaken tones.

  Gideon shook his head. “Not twice,” he said grimly.

  “But what happened?” I asked.

  A tiny, birdlike man, dressed in a dhoti and a Congress cap, came forward and shook my hand.

  “It was very sudden. This man tried to kidnap me, I am sure of it! He kept saying he wished to introduce me to Mr. Wait’s fiancée. Then this girl pushed him into the water!” He waved a hand at Camilla.

  Despite myself, I giggled. Gideon’s clasp tightened around my waist.

  “Suki, my love, take Mr. Singh and introduce him to the panchayat, will you? I’ll wrap Mr. Burnett in a blanket and Julie can take him home to his loving wife!”

  “I won’t!” Julie cried out desperately. “I’m staying here. You asked me to stay!”

  “And now I am asking you to go,” Gideon replied calmly. “Your father will be better off at home in his own dream world.”

  Julie said nothing at all. She tore at his arm and tried to pull him toward her.

  “I’m not coming, Julie,” he said.

  “But why not?” she demanded. She turned on me bitterly. “It’s because of you! Isn’t it? I suppose you think you can fascinate him forever with a few grains of wheat!”

  But somehow no one was listening to her. Gideon wrapped Mr. Burnett up in a rug from the jeep, pushed him into the vehicle and lifted Julie in beside him.

  “Drive them back to their car,” he ordered Joseph briefly. Camilla jumped up and down impatiently.

  “I’ll go with him and bring him back safe and sound!” she announced.

  Gideon grinned at her. “Okay,” he said. “Just so long as Suki stays here with me.”

  The band was still playing when we arrived back at our reserved positions. I felt a little self-conscious without my shoes and I was horribly aware of Gideon’s amusement when the Swami silently held them out to me. It was Gideon, though, who put them on for me.

  “Well, Mr. Singh,” he drawled as he stood up, “what do you think of our dam?”

  The government official beamed his approval. From somewhere in his dhoti he produced the notes of his speech.

  I have no idea what he said. Gideon and I stood a little behind him. He held my hand tightly in his and I stood in a dream, wondering what I had done to deserve such happiness.

  It seemed a very long time before Mr. Singh came to the end of his speech, but I didn’t care. Even when the clouds came rolling back and more rain threatened to spoil the brightness of the day, it didn’t seem to matter. And then, from nowhere, Mr. Singh produced a garland of marigolds and placed it carefully around my neck.

  “The marigold means much to us,” he said. “It is the color of the rising sun and the beginning of the dawn of understanding.” There were garlands for everyone. Splashes of orange spread through the crowd. The band began to play again and the crowds broke into song. It was very pretty and made me want to cry.

  “I think we can go,” Gideon whispered in my ear. “Will you come home with me?”

  I nodded. I couldn’t have spoken at that moment. It was as if I had never seen him before, and I knew with trembling certainty that he knew it, too. People stood aside as we slithered down the bank and commande
ered the first vehicle we saw. Gideon helped me in.

  “Darling, could you take that garland off?” he asked me humorously.

  I clutched it to me, admiring the clever way it had been made. “Why?” I asked. “I’m very proud of it!”

  He laughed. “I guess I am, too,” he admitted.

  He sat beside me and drove the jeep off at a great pace until the dam and the crowds were far behind us. The first drops of rain were beginning to fall again.

  “Darling,” he said, “do you love me?”

  But I couldn’t say it.

  “Was it a mistake to be kind to Julie?” he asked. “She was an awful nuisance to me the whole time she was here!”

  “I know,” I said. “I saw it in your face when you told her to go.” He pulled me a little closer to him.

  “And you love me?” he asked again. But he gave me no time to answer. His mouth came down on mine and I was lost in his arms. The pungent smell of crushed marigolds mixed with the rain.

  “Yes,” I said when I could. “I love you! I love you! I love you!”

  And he kissed me again.