Page 143 of The Sapphire Child
Behind him, Major Maclagan chuckled. ‘You must still be a little light-headed from the malaria, Lieutenant. I have to take advantage while I can.’
They settled into wicker chairs and summoned drinks from the bearer.
John said, ‘The major has very kindly asked us if we’d like to accompany him up to Chakrata tomorrow and stay for a couple of days.’
‘Really?’ Andrew’s eyes widened in surprise.
The major nodded. ‘Your friend has shown such an interest in my work and I could show him around the spruce and fir plantations.’
‘I must say, I’m very keen,’ said John. ‘And we don’t have to travel back to Chota Nagpur till the end of the week.’
‘If you’re feeling strong enough?’ Andrew queried.
‘Feeling tip-top, Lomax.’
Andrew glanced at Stella and she smiled in encouragement, willing him to accept. She held her breath.
‘Then yes,’ Andrew agreed. ‘I can’t think of a more pleasant way to spend the rest of my leave.’
The resthouse at Chakrata was a simple whitewashed bungalow with blue wooden shutters and a tin roof, but with a breathtaking view through a break in the fir trees to far snow-peaked mountains. The slope in front was white with marguerites.
‘Margo and I sledged here before the war,’ Maclagan reminisced.
Stella saw Andrew’s expression of longing. ‘Does it make you think of Gulmarg?’ she asked.
Andrew nodded and Stella saw sadness well up in his eyes before he turned away from her.
That afternoon, the major hired local ponies for them all and a couple of hillsmen with mules to carry and cook their food and bring back any timber samples he wanted taking from the forests.
After a short explore around the nearby deodar forest, they retired to the bungalow for an early supper of rice and curried fowl, tinned pears and fruit cake, washed down with a local milk drink called lassi. By lamplight, Maclagan and Grant settled down to a game of chess and a tot of whisky while Andrew wrote home. Stella would have liked to talk further with Andrew but didn’t want to interrupt his letter-writing and so took herself off to bed, falling asleep to the murmur of the men’s voices.
Andrew got up from the table, abandoning the half-written letter to his mother.
‘Just going for a breath of air before turning in,’ he told the chess players.
The air was cool and smelt of the forest. The mountain peaks looked ethereal in the moonlight. The Himalayas – how he had yearned for them and was ecstatic to be finally among them. With soft lamplight spilling out of the whitewashed bungalow, he was transported back to the Gulmarg of his childhood. What a happy childhood it had been. In the clarity of the mountains, Andrew realised how much he had missed India and his family here: his dad, his Meemee...and Stella.
He couldn’t write a letter home feeling as he did now; it would have been too full of his joy at being back in the foothills of the Himalayas and in Stella’s company. Whatever he’d written he wouldn’t have been able to hide those feelings, and his mother would undoubtedly have guessed at the source of his happiness. She would probably have been upset and jealous too – and perhaps would have told Felicity.
Felicity and his life in Scotland now seemed so remote, so cold and dull, whereas the mountains and forests of India heightened his senses, making him feel alive and full of energy – and dangerously in love.
He looked at the bungalow and the curtained room where Stella was sleeping. The shock and delight of coming across her in Mussoorie – her beautiful face lit up in the sunset – had made him realise how foolish he had been to dismiss his feelings for her as just a boyhood crush. They went far deeper. Did she guess at them at all? And if so, what did he mean to her? He could tell that she enjoyed his company too – but then they had always got on well and perhaps it meant she would always just see him as no more than a good friend.
He felt weighed down with guilt. He must be careful not to do anything rash that would hurt either his fiancée or Stella.
Chapter 53
The next two days were spent riding through the forests and along ridges that gave spectacular glimpses of the mountains. Stella relished this chance to ride again.
Whenever they broke from the cover of the forests, the sun was intense and they would picnic by rivers or streams, pulling off their shoes and cooling their feet in the icy water. Stella noticed how Andrew encouraged John to chat to her and repeat anecdotes about their army life. John was an amusing and genial man, but it was Andrew’s company that she craved. She longed to have him to herself so that they could chat freely, but Andrew appeared to be avoiding such opportunities. It frustrated her. Then she chided herself for having such thoughts. No doubt he was missing Felicity, which was just as it should be.
‘Is there anywhere to swim around here?’ asked John on their penultimate day. ‘My friend Lomax likes nothing better than hurling himself into cold water.’
‘You can swim at Tiger Fall,’ said the major. ‘We must make sure you have the opportunity before you leave.’
But on the third and final day, they woke to thick mist.
‘Can’t see an inch in front of us,’ said Maclagan in frustration. ‘No point going far today.’
