Page 52 of The Sapphire Child
May 1934
Dear Andrew,
This card is just to wish you a very happy fourteenth birthday! I hope you have a great day. Are you going to come out to India for the summer holidays? I’m looking forward to going up to Gulmarg next week.
Love from
Stella
June 1934
Dear Stella,
I’m writing this at the end of prep. It’s still light outside and I can’t wait for the bell to go so that Ican go and play cricket with Noel. I’m on the Second Eleven already and I’m the youngest on the team.
How is everyone at The Raj?
The Langleys are well
Andrew hesitated, tapping his pen against his teeth. Should he tell Stella that he wouldn’t be coming out to India this summer? His mother had got upset when he’d raised the idea during the Easter holidays.
‘Oh, darling, this is our first full summer together! Do you really want to leave me and Mummy for the whole of your holiday?’
‘Well, no...’ Andrew had been alarmed at the sight of her eyes welling with tears.
‘It would break my heart!’
‘Perhaps just for half the holidays then?’ he’d suggested.
‘You couldn’t go all that way for a couple of weeks! No, it would have to be all or nothing. And I’ve been making plans – happy plans. I thought we could take your grandmamma to see your Aunt Grace in Switzerland – Mummy loves it there – and you’ve never met your Swiss cousins. It’ll be a big family holiday – yourTempletonfamily for once. But if you’ve made up your mind, I won’t stand in your way—’ She’d fumbled for a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes.
‘Please don’t cry, Mamma.’ He’d patted her shoulder. ‘I can go to India next year. I’d like to meet Aunt Grace and the cousins. It’s just...’
‘Just what?’
‘Well, I’ve half-promised Noel that he could come with me to India. He’s mad keen to visit and has been reading about the Mutiny and the Indian Army and—’ Just in time, he’d stopped himself from adding that Noel wished to meet Andrew’s dad so he could ask him all about the Peshawar Rifles.
His mother had looked aghast. ‘Honestly, Andrew! You shouldn’t have made such promises!’
‘Sorry.’
She’d relented a little. ‘Noel can come with us to Switzerland. I’m sure Grace won’t mind.’
Andrew had brightened. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course! The more the merrier.’ She’d smoothed back his uncombed hair. ‘Oh, darling! We’ll have such fun.’
Andrew had managed to mask his deep disappointment at not being able to return to Pindi and Kashmir. But Noel had leapt at the chance to visit Switzerland, and Andrew began to look forward to the summer break.
He looked at the half-written letter to Stella and sighed. He kept a photograph of her in his tuckbox which had been taken on the beach at Ebbsmouth by Noel’s grandfather on his Box Brownie. It showed Stella in her swimming costume, her arms draped over his and Noel’s shoulders, grinning at the camera. The photo – as well as receiving letters from an older girl – gave him kudos with the other boys in his house and on the cricket team. He’d told Stella to write directly to him at school – partly so he could show off her letters, but also because he suspected his mother had opened some of his home post and not sent it on.
He had never admitted to anyone his feelings for the Dubois girl. Her photograph was like a talisman. Whenever he was feeling homesick for India, he’d slip Stella’s image into his pocket and carry it with him, kissing her goodnight after the dormitory lights were turned out.
Refilling his pen with fresh ink, Andrew decided not to tell Stella that he wouldn’t be seeing her – or Gulmarg – this summer. That was something he was going to have to put in a letter to his father; a letter he kept putting off writing.
The Langleys are well. Noel sends his regards. Mamma and Grandmamma are going to come and watch me play cricket on Saturday. Please give my best wishes to your parents and Jimmy – and to all the friends at the Raj.
Love from Andy
