Tears sprang to Fleur’s eyes. ‘Oh please, Truss. Try to understand. It’s not that I wouldn’t love to have you sleep with me. It’s simply a matter of principle. I know that in the past I behaved like a slut, but one doesn’t have to remain one all one’s life. I only want to do the decent thing by him until I’ve made up my mind whether I really must make a break and leave him.’
‘And when will that be?’
‘I’ll let you know when we reach Trincomalee. Honestly I will. Please bear with me till then. If I have decided to leave him, and you feel you don’t want me after all, I can always go back to England and try to start a new life there.’
Releasing his hold on her he took a step away from the bed, and said a shade ungraciously, ‘O.K. Have it your own way. But your holding out on me like this doesn’t indicate that you’ve the feelings for me that I’d hoped you had. And I’m not the guy to play second fiddle to Douglas Rajapakse just because you don’t hit it off with his family.’
‘Oh, Truss!’ she cried, stretching out her arms. But he had already turned on his heel and, without a backward glance, he walked out of the room.
The following morning the party spent two hours visiting more of the most interesting remains at Polonnaruwa, then set off on the sixty-odd-mile drive to Anuradhapura. They passed many of the smaller ‘Tanks’ and two that were the size of great lakes. Here and there on the bright blue surface floated big patches of red lotus, open in the midday sun; wild pigs wallowed in the mud of the banks, herons and kingfishers skimmed the waters.
The area covered by the ruins of Anuradhapura is of even greater extent than that at Polonnaruwa for the city measured more than eight miles from side to side. After lunching at the rest house they went out to see some of its staggering remains.
Of these the four great dagobas are the most impressive. They are huge white domes rising direct from the earth and crowned with a spire, which were built to hold relics of the Buddha. Their vastness can be imagined from the fact that the largest was higher than the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral and that it has been estimated that with the bricks used in it eight thousand houses could have been built, forming a town the size of Ipswich.
But Anuradhapura had many other unique sights to offer. Among them were the Sacred Bo-Tree grown from the branch sent from India and said to be the oldest tree in the world; the Eight Places of Worship to which thousands of pilgrims come every year; the Queen’s Pavilion with its beautiful carvings; the enormous Elephant Stables, and the Brazen Palace, built by the great King Dutugemunu.
This last was a monastery. It rested on one thousand six hundred granite columns in forty rows each forty columns long. It had nine storeys and in each of them were one hundred apartments. The outer walls were plated with silver, the roof covered with copper tiles, and it was embellished both with jewels and festoons of leaves made of gold that tinkled in the breeze. The upper storeys, being made of wood, had disintegrated, but the forest of twelve-foot-high granite pillars still stood to be marvelled at.
They slept at Anuradhapura on the Saturday night and, there being so much to see, did not leave on their eighty-mile drive to Trincomalee until five o’clock on the Sunday afternoon. Then, when they were still twenty miles from the city, misfortune overtook them. On coming round a sharp bend in the road they came face to face with a herd of buffalo. Truss, who was driving, braked hard then swerved sharply to one side in an attempt to avoid the animals. He got past the nearest, only scraping its side, but he had had to run partly off the road and the car was brought to an abrupt halt by hitting an old tree-stump submerged in the coarse grass. When he attempted to back away it was found, to their consternation, that the stump had broken a steering rod.
Three-quarters of an hour elapsed before a motorist came by who promised to have help sent to them from a garage in Trincomalee; then for another hour and a half they kicked their heels impatiently until at last a mechanic arrived in a small van. As it would take a day or more to repair the damage, they decided to leave the car to be towed in next day and, crowding into the mechanic’s van, had him drive them into the city.
They had expected to arrive there at about half past seven but, as a result of the delay, it was not until half past ten that, tired and hungry, they reached the Welcome Hotel. By the time they had had a wash and a drink and eaten the ham and eggs that the manager had knocked up for them in lieu of dinner it was getting on for midnight; so the obvious move was to bed.
Although Truss had not made any actual arrangement with Fleur he had intended to take her for a walk after dinner, and she too had expected that evening to be able to tell him of the decision she had come to; but they now had no option but to go upstairs with the others.
Nevertheless, when Fleur got into bed she had put no night cream on her face, and made no attempt to go to sleep. Instead she kept her bedside light on and tried, without much success, to concentrate on a book. Three-quarters of an hour later, when the hotel had become entirely quiet, her expectations were realised. The door opened and Truss slipped into her room.
Smiling, he walked over to the bed, sat down on the side of it, took one of her hands in his and said in a low voice:
‘Now; have you made up your mind, honey?’
She returned his smile. ‘Yes. Have you made up yours?’
‘Sure. For me you’ve always been the tops in women—ever since I was a kid. This week with you has brought it all back, and stronger than ever. You’ve dealt yourself a rotten deal so far. Now, you’ve just got to let me take you away and make it up to you.’
‘Dear Truss.’ Her eyes were shining and she put up her free hand to stroke his face. ‘I’m so glad and that’s what I want. You are right, too, about this week we’ve been together. I couldn’t go back to Douglas and life in Colombo after that—even if you didn’t want me.’
He gave a low laugh. ‘Bless you, sweetie. You must get free of him just as soon as you can. Then we’ll have great times. Start life again all bright and new, as though we were a couple of eighteen-year-olds.’
‘You mustn’t be too impatient,’ she said seriously. ‘It’s not as though I were leaving a husband who had been mean and beastly to me. I couldn’t bear to hurt him more than I have to.’
‘Yes, he’s a decent guy,’ Truss admitted. ‘Though he ought never to have asked you to marry him in the first place. He was old enough to know there was a big risk that it wouldn’t work out. Still, there’s no point in going into that again. We won’t have much chance to talk in the morning, and we’ve got to make some sort of plan.’
‘As far as I’m concerned it’s made already. When I get back to Colombo I mean to tell Douglas that I feel that I must have a holiday in England; then when Uncle Simon returns from this trip he is going on with you I shall get him to take me home when he leaves with Greyeyes. Directly I get there I shall write to Douglas, tell him that I have definitely made up my mind not to return to him and ask him to send me evidence that will enable me to divorce him. He may not want to, but he will realise that, if I don’t mean to come back, the only way he can keep face with his family and friends is not to admit that I’ve run away from him, but lead them to suppose that I found out that he has been having an affaire with someone else while I was away on holiday.’
Truss nodded. ‘Clever girl. That’s certainly doing the best you can for him. Now, what about us?’
She smiled. ‘That’s up to you, darling. Both England and the United States are a long way from Ceylon. No-one here is likely to learn how I was behaving myself in either. So if you like I’ll willingly become your mistress until the divorce comes through.’
‘Thanks a lot, honey. That’s fine by me, and I’ll just love showing you the high-spots in New York. I mean to be mighty careful of your reputation, though. Still, that’s no great problem. I’ll fix it for you to stay as a guest in the apartment of a middle-aged widow I know. She’s been left badly off, but she’s a good sport and will be glad of the money to act as a complai
sant chaperon.’ For a moment he was silent then, with a grin, he added:
‘But do I have to wait until you get to New York?’
‘Darling, no! Why should we?’ Fleur threw back her head and laughed up at him. ‘From now on I’m all yours to do as you like with. Take off your things and hop into bed.’
As he cast aside his dressing gown, she pulled her nightdress off over her head.
Just four minutes later the door opened again, and Lalita d’Azavedo walked into the room.
18
The Sword of Damocles
At the sound of the door opening Truss pulled away from Fleur. Both of them sat up in bed. Giving a gasp of dismay she swiftly jerked the sheets up to cover her naked breasts. For a moment they stared at Lalita, who had been followed into the room by a woman and a sergeant; then Truss roared:
‘Who the bloody hell are you? Get right out of here!’
‘Security Police,’ replied Lalita. Turning, he pushed the Sergeant out of the room and shut the door. Then his thick lips forming into a grin that extended almost from ear to ear, he said:
‘Very surprising, this I come on. Mrs. Rajapakse make out she like Caesar’s wife, even before married. Cold like icicle. Now I find in bed with big American friend.’ Suddenly his expression changed and he added viciously, ‘For me how good. With what pleasure I see face of husband Rajapakse, who ruin me, when I tell him wife unfaithful.’
Only then did Fleur recognise him as the man who, two and a half years before at Olenevka, had tried to buy her kisses by offering her a jewel, and the woman behind him as Mirabelle de Mendoza. In a hoarse whisper she said to Truss, ‘This is Colonel d’Azavedo. You have heard Greyeyes and the others talking about him.’
‘I certainly have!’ Truss cried. ‘So this is the dirty little crook who’s been trying to cheat the Duke out of his inheritance.’
‘Have hold on your tongue!’ snarled Lalita, pulling his pistol from its holster and pointing the weapon at Truss. ‘It is he who have cheat me. I learn this yesterday. He say my claim to Olenevka is forgery. Also he have stole my jewels. To get back I come here. Your father plan to smuggle out in aeroplane; is it not? Aeroplanes private owned can have many hiding places. But he not risk sending jewels through post for one of crew to hide; that certain. No, he bring with. I come to hotel tonight; make search of whole party. One of you have them. Soon I find out which.’
‘You’ll have no luck here,’ Truss snapped. ‘Nor with the others. We haven’t got your jewels and don’t know a thing about them. You can search till you’re blue in the face.’
‘You tell lies. One of you has stones. I find; then prison for all as gang of thieves. Also I make mocking stock for everyones of lawyer Rajapakse by telling his wife found in bed with big American.’
‘No!’ cried Fleur. ‘No! I beg you not to. You have nothing to gain by doing that, and it would hurt him terribly.’
Lalita grinned. ‘For me pleasure to hurt. All blame he become my enemy his. If he not start trouble Olenevka still property of my father, and he alive. Also we robbed of hims lifework; fortune in stones. This most good luck opportunity to make lawyer Rajapakse eat mud before family and all peoples known to him. English wife proved bitch. No honour. Whore to white man who says lie down on back for him.’
Fleur’s face, already red, went almost scarlet as though she had been smacked hard on both cheeks, and she lowered her eyes. Truss had gone white with rage at these insults to her. He was prevented from jumping out of bed and attempting to strangle Lalita only by the fact that the automatic was pointed at him, and the knowledge that the villainous little man would not hesitate to use it because he could say afterwards that his victim had resisted arrest. Striving to control his fury, Truss sought desperately to think of some way to help Fleur save both herself and her husband from this horrid scandal. After a moment he swallowed hard, and said:
‘Surely there’s a way we can settle this? You say you’ve been robbed of your fortune; so you must need money. How much do you want to forget that you caught us here tonight?’
The scowl faded from Lalita’s face. ‘Now perhaps we talk,’ he said in a quieter voice. ‘I learn yesterday that Olenevka made present to Mrs. Rajapakse. She give me back and all forgotten.’
‘You must be crazy!’ Truss cried angrily. ‘The estate is said to be worth nearly two hundred thousand Ceylonese rupees.’
‘No matter. That my price.’
‘Then you can go to hell! I had in mind offering you a thousand or two to stop you wagging your tongue. But this colossal blackmail—not on your life! I’d see you damned before I’d allow Mrs. Rajapakse to agree to it.’
Fleur, now feeling terribly guilty at having exposed Douglas to what he would regard as indelible shame, and anxious to protect him at almost any cost, hesitantly said to Lalita, ‘I … I couldn’t make Olenevka over to you anyway. How could I possibly explain my doing so to my husband? But I might be able to arrange for you to receive a share of the profits from the mine when it starts to pay again.’
‘How you manage to do without your husband find out, eh?’ Lalita asked dubiously.
‘I … I don’t quite know … but there must be some way I could do it. I have my own bank account. When the profits start coming in from Olenevka I could tell him that I’ve decided to save them and instead send a sum every few months to you.’
Lalita shook his head. ‘Not good enough. If Olenevka belong me I make mine pay. As long as it is run by de Zoysa no guarantee it ever pay.’
‘Very well, then,’ Fleur replied desperately. ‘I’ve a little money of my own. I’ll pay you something every month out of that.’
‘No!’ Truss cut in sharply. ‘Fleur, I’ll not let you commit yourself to anything like this. You’d never be free of a millstone round your neck. And a time might come when you couldn’t pay. Then he’d expose you and you would have been through months of hell for nothing. This will be hard on Douglas, I know; but that just can’t be helped. Far better face up to the worst now than have the constant fear that it may blow up on you at any time in the future.’
Turning to him she began to speak in rapid French. ‘But don’t you see that it’s not as though we were trying to buy some incriminating letters from him? He can produce this woman any time as a witness to how he found us. And if he had taken your offer of a cash payment down we would have had nothing but his word for it that he wouldn’t double-cross us, and vent his hate against Douglas as soon as he gets back to Colombo. Even if he didn’t it would only be because he hoped to squeeze more money out of me later. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Truss nodded. ‘Yes. I got the gist of it.’
‘Very well, then,’ Fleur went on in French. ‘My paying him a monthly sum will keep him quiet for the present, and won’t prove very costly. It’s not as though I mean to remain in Colombo. By the time I join you in America I can stop paying it. What I’m anxious to do is to protect Douglas until it becomes common knowledge that he is letting me divorce him. Then it won’t be half as bad for him if this comes out. He can save his face by saying that I did it to avenge myself because I’d already found out that he was having an affaire with another woman. People may not even——’
Lalita had been glaring at her and broke in angrily, ‘Speak English. I not allow you make talk I not understand, so you make plan to cheat me.’
Fleur shrugged. ‘My bank account is rather low at the moment. I was only asking Mr. Van Ryn whether he could arrange before he leaves tomorrow to have some money paid into it, so that I could do as we suggest for you until my next dividends come in.’
‘How much you pay me? How much each month?’
‘I think I could manage five hundred rupees.’
‘Not enough.’
‘I can’t make it more. If I did my bills would pile up until someone sued me. Then my husband would insist on going into my affairs and everything would come out.’
‘Not so. You say Mr. Van Ryn help you, so you ma
ke it more.’
Fleur then realised that the explanation she had used to cover what she had said in French had made her vulnerable to the blackmailer’s demands, and she looked unhappily at Truss.
He nodded. ‘Only fair that I should help out. Let’s say a thousand a month.’
Lalita remained silent for nearly a minute, then he said, ‘Money sweet but revenge sweeter. Seventy-five pounds English once month not to be thrown away. But with Colonel’s pay I not hard-up. To see lawyer Rajapakse made mocking stock for all Colombo very pleasant for me. But possible to have revenge on him quite different way. I have to think.’ Staring at Fleur through his thick glasses he asked, ‘When you plan go back to Colombo?’
‘It all depends what time the aircraft leaves tomorrow,’ she replied.
‘Soon I search. Find jewels with one of you and aircraft not leave. You all put in prison. If no stones here my men search aircraft very thorough. Just possible they already in it. Not likely but possible, and search take all day.’
‘Then, unless you arrest me, I should get back to Colombo on Tuesday night.’
‘O.K. I get back jewels, then revenge better than money. If not per’aps I take money. For few days I think over. By Saturday I decides. Mrs. de Mendoza, she ring you in morning to tell place for meeting. You come with first thousand rupees. Either she take, or tell you I make your husband mocking stock of Colombo. All peoples point and jeer—your wife Scarlet Woman.’
Having paused for a moment he went on, ‘Now we make search. No need I find for spare blushings of Mrs. Rajapakse. Not knowing I bring Mrs. de Mendoza. She do this room. Mr. Van Ryn, he come with me.’
If there was any blushing to be done it was now for Truss to do it, as he was naked and had to get out of bed to put his pyjamas and dressing gown on in front of Lalita and Mirabelle. She had remained a silent listener, regarding them the whole time with mild amusement. As Truss saw her fine brown eyes now fixed on him he angrily turned his back and hurriedly pulled on his clothes. Then raising a smile to cheer Fleur he said, ‘Don’t fret, honey. Be seeing you,’ and left the room with Lalita.
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