The Khedive did, indeed, withdraw, in a huff, to Constantinople, but Nuri did not go with him. This was Paul’s doing. He had run across Nuri at a Consulate reception and done his best to dissuade him.
‘But, my dear Nuri,’ he had said, ‘it is a reforming government!’
‘Reform? Excellent!’ said Nuri.
‘But is it? They believe in redistributing wealth, you know. Including yours.’
‘But I haven’t got any!’ cried Nuri.
‘And will have still less,’ said Paul.
On reflection, Nuri thought it prudent to stick with the devil he knew.
The war between Turkey and Italy came to an uneasy end soon after. It was replaced almost at once, however, by war between Turkey and various Balkan countries. This was all right with Owen, who thought that since they would be bound to be fighting anyway, the important thing was that they should do it far away from him.
Zeinab, however, announced that she was volunteering to serve as a nurse on the Balkan front.
‘After all,’ she pointed out, ‘that was where Florence Nightingale won her reputation. Roughly.’
‘They won’t have you,’ said Owen. ‘They’ve got the wrong idea about women.’
‘They’re not the only ones,’ said Zeinab pointedly.
Owen decided that Zeinab was trying to tell him something. Perhaps it was time to take action.
‘We can’t go on letting things drift,’ he said.
‘Quite so,’ said Zeinab.
‘There’s a police inspectorship in the Seychelles—’
Zeinab did not warm to a police inspectorship in the Seychelles.
They consulted the appointments columns together. As a result of his reading of the foreign newspapers Owen began to take rather more seriously the possibility that there could be another, more major, war over the horizon.
‘You know,’ he said worriedly, ‘perhaps I ought to rejoin the army.’
‘And get killed!’ said Zeinab, losing her temper completely this time. ‘What bloody use as a husband would you be then?’
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A Cold Touch of Ice Page 23