Barbara Cleverly - The Damascened Blade

‘Just before midnight. I put on a dark dress and a pair of sandals and I crept out. I didn’t disturb anyone. I got into the garden and decided to hide in the almond trees. Well, I didn’t want to appear to be the first to get there – you mustn’t seem to be over keen, you know.’ Lily fell silent again.

‘And?’ Joe prompted gently.

‘He didn’t turn up. I thought I must have misunderstood the meaning of the poem at first and then I thought he might be praying or giving orders to his men or doing something military so I hung on. I mean, how would I know how these guys pass their time? I guess I waited until, oh, it must have been half-past midnight at the earliest. And then I heard quiet laughter. Someone was coming into the garden. Someone who didn’t want to be heard. I stayed where I was just in case it wasn’t Zeman. But it was. It was Zeman but he was hand in hand with someone else. They went to the pool and they took their clothes off and slid into the water and then they, they, oh!’

‘S.c. occurred?’ Joe finished for her.

She nodded miserably and Joe felt desperately sorry for her. He felt a stab of anger too with Zeman for playing with the girl’s fantasies. ‘Good Lord! A scene like this could twist an impressionable girl’s views of men for evermore,’ he thought.

‘Well, what was I to do?’ she went on. ‘Look, I was never taught to handle anything like this! I came through Miss Dana’s Academy with flying colours. I can parse a sentence, I can quote the Lakeland poets, I know algebra, astronomy, and chemistry. I know how to flirt. I can pick up a handkerchief without showing my underwear. I thought I knew everything but – do you know? – if it hadn’t been for Dr Holbrook explaining what went on in the military… ’

‘Who was with Zeman, Lily?’ Joe asked.

It was no surprise to him when she replied, ‘Iskander. It was Iskander.’

‘Did you, er, watch the event unfold?’ he asked carefully.

‘Well, no! I should just think not! I shut my eyes of course. But I could hear. They were laughing and sort of… horsing around, you know? Grace was right. It does go on.’

‘Look, Lily, I know I must be the thousandth person to tell you that the ways of the frontier are different from our own but in this case they really are,’ said Joe, who had decided on the line he was going to take. ‘It’s easy when two good-looking young men like Zeman and Iskander speak our language fluently and have spent many years of their lives living in our society to think that they are of our culture. They are not. Their formative years were spent here in these hills living the life of their clan. And I believe that they are very dual. They know how we live and think, they find themselves reacting in Western ways to much of what goes on and I think they themselves are sometimes torn between the two demands on them. Pathan men do form close friendships. So do Englishmen. We express our friendship in different ways, that’s all. Pathans often walk around hand in hand. It signifies nothing other than friendship. They probably think James and I are rather strange in that we never hold hands.’

Lily began to smile at the picture he was drawing.

‘And they are young men. What would you say? – twenty-two? three? Not much older than you, Lily, but a good deal younger than me in age and experience. And boys horse about. Especially in swimming pools at midnight when they’ve both had a brandy or two they shouldn’t have had! I think it all sounded much more sinister to you than it should have done because they were trying to splash about without drawing attention.’

Lily was looking at him with a good deal more brightness in her expression. ‘I guess you could be right, Joe. But, well, whatever the truth of that, Zeman still broke his date with me!’

‘And now you’ll never kiss a Pathan!’ Joe teased gently. ‘But look, realistically, you were never going to. He would never seriously have expected you to meet him in the garden, Lily. In his world women go about veiled or even wearing a burkha. Their faces are seen only by other women or the men in their immediate family and their marriages are arranged for them by their parents. Zeman knows that things are done differently in the West but he would never have thought that you would agree to a clandestine meeting with him unchaperoned in the garden.’

‘I suppose you’re right, Joe.’

‘But, shocking though it was, I’m thinking your midnight encounter has an even more sinister significance.’

‘Too right! You see it, don’t you? Thought you would! If Zeman was alive – and he was – at the time Dr Holbrook says he was dead or dying, then she’s either an incompetent doctor or she’s telling a deliberate lie. Dr Holbrook? I can’t believe it! And is James aware of this? And Betty? What’s going on here?’

‘You were aware of this inconsistency all the time we were deliberating and enquiring and you said nothing? Lily, that was a very, what shall I say?… mature decision.’

‘Aw, thanks! You people keep telling me not to rock the boat, light any fuses and ruffle any feathers – “this is a delicate situation we have here on the frontier.” I thought I’d better keep my mouth shut and go with what James and Grace were stitching up between them. I figure they must have a good reason. And anyway, I’d rather no one knew about my experience in the garden. But you do see the significance, don’t you?’

Joe nodded thoughtfully. ‘It’s not only you who knows that the timing is all wrong… ’

‘Iskander! He knows! I had to wait in the trees until they’d finished whatever they were doing in the pool sometime between half-past twelve and one o’clock. But it wasn’t over then. They sat on the marble bench drying off and talking for… it seemed ages but I guess it must have been about ten minutes – no more than a quarter of an hour.’

‘Talking? What sort of talking were they doing?’

‘Pushtu talking… couldn’t figure out a word… but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t understand some things.’

Joe waited and she went on, ‘It wasn’t exactly a lovers’ tiff but things did seem to turn a bit sour as they talked.’

Lily frowned in an effort to remember clearly her impressions. ‘Zeman sounded kind of light-hearted whereas Iskander was threatening him… telling him off? He was certainly hissing at him a bit. I’d say they’d started off their evening adventure in high spirits but finished off not too happy with each other. No idea why. But anyway, by the time they drifted off to their rooms it must have been gone one o’clock.

‘Iskander knows that his friend went to bed in perfectly good health just when the medical expert is saying that he died. He’s going to draw conclusions, has already drawn conclusions and I’m not happy when I think about them.’

The gravity of the implications had been creeping up on Joe as she had revealed her story. ‘Iskander seemed very prepared to accept Grace’s version of events, even to the extent of smoothing her path and having all verified as above board by his officers. I thought he was as concerned as we were that there should be no charge of foul play.’

‘He was,’ Lily confirmed. ‘I was watching him. He was happy with the decision and relieved, I think. But then, right at the end, he asked about the time of death and Grace’s reply blew the top off the jam jar. He gave her a chance to change her mind or adjust her finding but she stuck to what she’d said and that’s when his attitude changed.’

‘You seem to have been keeping a close eye on him?’

‘I spend a lot of time watching Iskander,’ said Lily.

‘So, where do we go from here? Shall I confide your evidence to James and question him on the stance he’s taken?’