Nearing Bahrain
Bahrain is beginning to be visible as a smudge on the horizon, as Margaret shakes out a skirt clearly split for riding, and equally clearly not for herself. She beckons Esperanza over, and hands it to her with a smile. “There, my dear. Now you have two of them. I’d suggest you pack one, and wear the other when we go ashore.” Esperanza trots off with her new finery, looking quite pleased.
Then she walks over to stand next to Shirley, who is leaning on the rail with very little of the relaxed, drowsy posture of the past several days. She looks around to be sure none of the sailors are in earshot. “Shirley?” she says enquiringly, and when he looks down at her goes on, “We’ve talked of ‘cabbages and kings,’ but I’m afraid our difficulties are about to intrude again. We’ll be landing fairly shortly. I know you were in communication with the authorities before we left Alexandria; have they given you any idea where they think Addison might strike next? It would help immensely if Esperanza and I knew when to be most upon our guard.” Her expression is also much more serious than it has been, and she is keeping her voice very quiet. Before he can demur, she goes on “I’m not planning anything rash, so you needn’t worry. But I really do need to know.”
“You would not have asked otherwise,” Shirley acknowledges. “Harston said that Scotland Yard’s forecast for Addison was India. He told me nothing of how they arrived at that conclusion. Nor, frankly, do I think it means much, as Addison has never been the only piece on his side of the chess game, much less the king. I plan to be very careful in Bahrain.”
She nods thoughtfully.
“I am sure I need not say this, but—for heaven’s sake do not let on that you are moving on the chessboard as well, Queen Margaret. I rather suspect that the only way they will allow me to continue to accompany you is if I can protest both your utter ignorance and my complete faith in my ability not to endanger you.”
“Yes, I understand that. Obviously, though, I would be aware of the reports in the Times. That would indicate that I am not ignorant of the dangers, only perhaps that you are serving in any capacity. As for danger,” she shrugs slightly, “you are not the one endangering anyone; it’s Addison. And they can’t control him.”
“I should not be so sure of that if I were you,” Shirley answers soberly. “Obviously I do not mean to endanger you; equally obviously, I may do so without meaning to. It would not precisely be the first time.”
“You refer to Jimmy,” she says, with absolute certainty. “Shirley, you did not endanger him half so much as he endangered himself by his associations. Think about it! He accepted a commission to go warn someone off by knocking them on the head. He must have known he wasn’t keeping the safest company.”
“That makes no difference!” Shirley snaps. “It is my job to keep people like Jimmy away from precisely the sort of trouble he died of! Such a little inconvenience—not even that—on my part would have kept him alive! I appreciate your reassurances, I genuinely do, but let us not pretend that I am wholly guiltless.” He turns on his heel and walks a few paces away from her, standing a little time with his back to her and a clenched fist against his lips.
When he comes back, he takes both her hands in his. To an onlooker, he might have been offering her endearments; only she sees the grim, fixed stare of his ordinarily cheerful brown eyes, feels the hard grip of his hands. “See here, Doctor Byrd, you are here with me only because I cannot rid myself of you. I know you yourself decided to come, and my only grace is that I have allowed that decision to be an educated one. Do not think that your presence, however pleasant I find it, does not weigh on me. If you come to harm, I shall not forgive myself. Therefore you had better not, do you understand me? I suppose, though,” he says, brightening, “that we could always leave separately and join up again later. In that case—I was going to try to find a ship to Panaji. Smaller than Bombay, but much closer to Madras.”
Margaret’s response to that suggestion is a succinct “no.” She goes on, “You are assisting me in locating reliable transportation in an area of the world where a woman is at a great disadvantage, and preventing me from ending up in some pasha’s hareem. I am assisting you with my skill at languages. That is all they need be told. But we will not travel separately.” She adds prosaically, “But the route you’ve chosen sounds good to me.”
Shirley looks at her, elects not to argue. He means to travel with her if he can. If he cannot, either the necessity will present itself so strongly that even she cannot dispute it—or he will make shift to disappear under her very nose. If he must.
She tells him, a bit less forcefully and very soberly, “I really am afraid of Addison and his minions, you know. Only a fool would not be, and I try not to be foolish. And I am afraid of disappearing in a part of the world where no one will even know to begin looking for me. But I also think the greatest safety for both of us lies in acting jointly. I think I should be in greater danger where someone might act without a witness who would realize something was amiss… and so would you.”
He shakes his head once. “I shall have half of Scotland Yard watching my back. You have only me. The situations are not parallel, as you perfectly well know. Howbeit, I have accepted, however reluctantly, that you are not to be dissuaded.” He looses her hands and steps back from her, already sorry for what he said and how he said it. “Now, Margaret, I—you know, it’s nothing to do with—it’s not because—”
For a moment, she just looks at him. She is not smiling at all, but her eyes, usually quite warm, have begun to glitter like grey agates. Her voice, when she does speak, is still very quiet, but crystal would be warmer. “Well. You have had so much to say, I hardly know where to begin! But the beginning is usually most organized, so I suppose I shall begin with Jimmy.
“You, sir, would have had to be omniscient to foresee Jimmy’s fate and omnipotent to prevent it, and if you think you are either, then your fall will be comensurate with your hubris! Your guilt already seems to be.
“As to my presence,” she continues, “it was an informed and thoroughly considered decision. My reasons for it, on my own behalf, were exactly those I gave; by your presence at my side, you protect me from some potentially very ugly situations. You saw that sailor eyeing Esperanza; had it been only I with her, I could not have prevented her from being accosted. A woman in this region unaccompanied by any man is fair game, considered only a step above a prostitute; do you understand that? I gave you my reasons on your behalf when you attempted to dissuade me from joining forces with you, because I really didn’t know you well enough yet to know what might sway you.
“As for my concern for you, it was and is quite genuine; you seem to have a very passion to sacrifice yourself. Now, far be it from me to interfere between a man and his free will, but if you expect me to patch you up at the end of the adventure, I strongly prefer to prevent the need for patching. You commented that you hoped I would not be far, in the event you should be injured. If that should happen, whomever is by will not wait a day or more to locate a particular European physician who is known to be travelling. You will be treated by whomever is there, and quite probably unmasked by someone both less concerned for your fate and less honourable.
“As for Scotland Yard watching your back, your logic fails. They know quite well who I am, and that I am another Ellipsoid. If I am with you, then they will be watching both our backs. Now, my presence is by my own decision, and you made certain the decision was not blindly made. I acknowledge that were you as unpleasant as Lord Percy, I should not have wanted to join forces. Otherwise, I might have made the same suggestion to, say, Ian Caine, and for the same reasons; his protection from importunities Muslim men feel free to visit upon unattached women, and my gift for languages to assist him. The difference is that I would not also have spent so much time in his company. You have no reason to consider yourself guilty for permitting my presence, and I have had quite enough of it. Have I made myself perfectly clear, Mr. Addam? Now, I believe we have travel plans to make. Then I will remove myself from your presence, until you are done with breast-beating. I find it irritating.”
She takes a deep breath. “How were you planning to get from Mangalore to Madras? By rail?”
“Yes. The rail system in India is quite reliable, I am told.”
“Excellent. Then I had better go find Esperanza, and see how she’s doing with her new skirts.”
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