The Gabriel Hounds (8 page)

‘I think so,’ I said. ‘She couldn’t detach herself any more, so she simply went with it.’

‘That’s it. Nor did she want to detach herself. She’d lived out here for so long, and in a way she’d made it her country, and in a curious way I believe she feels she
has a kind of right to the legend.’ He smiled, the first smile of genuine amusement. ‘If you want the truth I think she has a fair amount in common with her original. Well, she simply settled down to enjoy it, and took a great deal of pleasure from the more picturesque details – riding out with the hounds and hawks, for instance, letting Dar Ibrahim be used again as a halt for caravans on their way from High Lebanon and Antilebanon to the sea, and receiving the occasional “distinguished traveller” – mostly archaeologists, I believe, who’d known her husband and his work. She even meddled a bit with politics, and for some time now she’s been threatening – though I think it’s only window-dressing myself – to turn Muslim.’ He paused. ‘And then of course when I turned up out of the blue she was delighted. I was to be the “resident physician” who has such a large part in the Stanhope story … you know that Lady Hester Stanhope kept her own doctor with her at Djoun? Well, when our “Lady Harriet” took me in, and found I’d been halfway to a medical degree, it suited her down to the ground. So I get a courtesy title which impresses the Arab servants, and what I actually do is provide your great-aunt with company and conversation. I need hardly add that if she did need medical attention I’d get it from Beirut.’

‘Who does she have now that Dr Grafton’s gone?’

‘Dr Grafton?’ He sounded quite blank, and I looked at him in surprise.

‘Yes, don’t you know him? Surely, if he attended her six months ago you must have been here.’

‘Oh, yes, I was, I was only wondering how you knew the name.’

‘Someone at the hotel who told me about Dar Ibrahim said my aunt had been ill last autumn, so I got them to find out who her doctor was, and rang him up to ask about her. I was told then that he’d left Beirut. Who does she have now?’

‘She hasn’t needed anyone since then, I’m glad to say. She’s got a bit of a thing now about the Beirut doctors, but I’ve no doubt that if it’s necessary I’ll make her see the light.’ He smiled. ‘Don’t worry … I really do look after her quite well, you know, and I run the place for her as far as one can. And if you’re thinking about the general four-star-hotel atmosphere you’ve seen up to now, let me tell you that there are five courtyards, two gardens, three Turkish baths, a mosque, stabling for fifty horses and twelve camels, several miles of corridors including a secret passage or two, and as for mere rooms, I’ve never managed to count them. I use radar to get from the Prince’s Court to the Seraglio.’

I laughed: ‘I’m sorry, was I looking at the dust on the floor? Don’t you have slaves to go with the décor?’

‘Only myself and three others – Jassim the porter, a girl called Halide, and Halide’s brother Nasirulla, who lives in the village and comes over during the day. Actually we manage quite well, because the old lady herself lives very simply now. I may tell you that her part of the palace is a bit better kept than this. Halide’s a good girl, and looks after your aunt pretty well. You really have no need to worry about her.’

‘Did I say I was worrying? I didn’t mean to throw you on the defensive like this, what have I said? I’m sure Aunt Harriet’s having a whale of a time being Lady of the Lebanon, and I’m glad you’re here to look after her. All I want is to see her for five minutes so’s I can tell my people all about it.’

Another of those pauses. Here we were, I thought; back to Square One.

He shifted on the hard seat, and glanced sideways at me.

‘Yes, well, that’s rather it, don’t you see? The point is, we’ve standing orders to stall everybody off, and’ – his gaze dropped again to his hands – ‘anything she’s ever told me about her family didn’t lead me to think she’d make an exception there.’

I grinned. ‘Fair enough, I’m not blaming you, or her either. But can’t we let her decide for herself? I take it she doesn’t know I’m here yet? Or will Jassim have got that across to her?’

‘He hasn’t seen her yet, he came straight to me. As a matter of fact, he gets more across than you’d think, but he didn’t get your name. I wasn’t sure who you were myself, till I spoke to you. I admit he isn’t so hot as a messenger – you might call him one of your aunt’s charities, like me – but he’s pretty useful as a staller-off at the gate, and we can’t get anyone much to stay here nowadays. There isn’t much money, you know.’

There was something about the way he said this, looking at me steadily with those curiously unfocused eyes. I noticed that the whites were bloodshot, and he looked as if he didn’t get enough sleep, but he seemed
relaxed enough now, his long spare frame slack on the marble seat as if this were thick with silk cushions and Persian rugs. He was dressed in grey lightweight trousers and a blue beach shirt, neither of them expensive, but he wore on his wrist a really magnificent gold watch, bought no doubt in Beirut. I found myself remembering what Charles had said about Great-Aunt Harriet’s penchant for young men, and some other corner of my mind came up with the phrase ‘undue influence’. But this I ignored; it was after all irrelevant. If Aunt H. could get a young man to run her ramshackle palace for her and give her the kind of company she liked, so much the better. Especially if it was true that there was very little money left. I wondered just how true this was, and if Mr Lethman looked on the sudden interruption of a relative as a threat to his own position
vis-à-vis
the ‘Lady Harriet’. In which case my good-looking cousin Charles might be even less welcome than I. I decided not to mention Charles till I saw Aunt H. herself.

John Lethman was saying ‘Jassim wouldn’t have been able to see your aunt yet, in any case. She usually sleeps a good deal during the day. She’s a nightbird, you know, like her original. So if you could wait a little longer, then I can go and ask her about it? Halide usually goes in to wake her at about six.’

‘Of course I’ll wait,’ I said. ‘That is, if you don’t mind, Hamid?’

‘Not at all,’ said Hamid without moving.

There was a slight pause. Lethman glanced from Hamid to me and back, then consulted his watch.
‘Well, that’s fine, it won’t be long now, and we’ll see.’ Another pause. He cleared his throat. ‘I suppose I ought to warn you … Of course I’ll do all I can, but I can’t guarantee anything. She’s old, and sometimes forgetful, and – well, let’s call it “difficult”. And some days are worse than others.’

‘And today’s been a bad one?’

He made a rueful mouth. ‘Not too good.’

‘Well, if she really doesn’t feel up to seeing me, then that’s that, isn’t it? But tell her I’ll come back any time she says, when she’s feeling better. I’m in Beirut till at least mid-week, and I could stay on. I was going to ring up soon to tell my people what I was planning, and it’d be rather nice if I could give them news of her. In fact, Daddy might just be ringing up himself this evening.’

‘“This evening”? Hadn’t you understood? I meant it literally when I said she was a nightbird. She usually seems to wake up and be at her best at something between ten and midnight, and after that she’s quite often up all night. If she receives anyone at all, that’s when she sees them.’

‘Good heavens, she does play it for real, doesn’t she? Do you mean that if I’m to see her, I’ve got to my stay here all night?’

‘Until pretty late, at all events. Could you?’

‘I could, but I can hardly keep my driver here until the early hours of the morning. Could you put me up? Have you a room?’ I meant ‘a room that’s fit to sleep in’, so the question wasn’t as absurd as it might have sounded. Mr Lethman seemed to be considering the
question on its merits. There was a short pause, then he said, agreeably enough:

‘We could certainly find you one.’

I looked across at Hamid. ‘Do you mind? We can see what my great-aunt has to say, and if I do have to wait and see her later on, would you go back without me? You could call at the hotel and tell them I’m having to stay up here for the night, and – are you free tomorrow?’

‘For you, yes.’

‘You’re very good,’ I said gratefully, ‘thank you. In that case, could you come for me again in the morning? Wait in the village, don’t bother to come right across as far as the gate.’

‘I will certainly come to the gate,’ said Hamid. ‘Don’t you worry about that. But I don’t much like going away now and leaving you here.’

‘I’ll be all right. And I simply must see my great-aunt.’

‘Of course you must, this I understand. I am sorry, I know it’s none of my affair, but surely it could be arranged that she could see you for a few minutes now, and then I could take you back to your hotel.’

Beside me, Mr Lethman straightened suddenly. His voice held a weariness and exasperation that was quite obviously genuine. ‘Look, I’m sorry about all this. I’m not making this difficult just for fun, you know, in fact I’m hating the position I seem to have got myself into, having to stall you off when you must think I’ve no standing in the matter at all—’

‘I wasn’t exactly thinking that,’ I said, ‘and you have
got standing, haven’t you? I mean, this is her home, and if she’s asked you to live here, there it is, and no arguments. Even if you’re not officially her doctor, I suppose you could call yourself her steward or something.’

‘Malvolio in person, yellow stockings, cross garters, and all.’ A flick of feeling in his voice that I didn’t like, gone as soon as heard. He followed it with another of those disarming smiles. ‘But you see the situation’s hardly normal in any way at all. I suppose I’ve got used to it, and in any case this is a damned queer country where one learns to accept almost anything, but I realise this place must seem pretty weird to anyone like yourself coming into it for the first time. It did to me when she first received me. She uses what were the Emir’s rooms – the Prince’s Court, we call it – and an old State Divan is her bedroom. It’s kept pitch dark most of the time. The Stanhope woman did the same out of vanity. I don’t know what your great-aunt’s motive is, certainly not that, possibly just imitation; but I remember when I was taken along there at midnight the first time I wondered what sort of loony-bin I’d landed into. And lately she’s taken to—’ He stopped, and seemed to be examining the tip of one shoe with great attention. ‘How well do you remember your great-aunt?’

‘Not really at all. My impression is that she was tall and dark and had piercing black eyes and wore black, things that flew round her like the White Queen’s shawl. She did have a shawl, and she used to pin it with a diamond pin. I remember Mummy saying that
her diamonds were filthy. That struck me as funny, I don’t know why.’

‘Diamonds? I’m afraid they must have gone long since. I never saw any.’ He sounded regretful, I thought. ‘Actually she’s not so very tall, though I suppose she’d seem so to a child. And as for her clothes now, they’re part of the legend, too.’

‘Oh, I know, she dresses like an Eastern male. Well, why not?’ I unclasped my hands from my knees and straightened a trousered leg. ‘I dress like a European one, after all.’

‘I wasn’t fooled,’ said Mr Lethman, with the first really human glimmer he had shown. The worried look had lightened a little. He got to his feet. ‘Well, I’ll go and see what the score is. I’ll certainly try to persuade her to see you straight away. It’s possible she may, and welcome you with open arms, but if she won’t, we can make arrangements for you to stay the night. All right?’

‘All right.’

‘That’s fine, then. I’ll let you know the worst.’

He smiled perfunctorily and left us.

I went over to the pool and sat down on the coping beside Hamid.

‘Did you hear all that?’

‘Most of it,’ said Hamid. ‘What you might call a funny setup, eh? Smoke?’

‘Not just now, thanks. I don’t very often, actually.’

‘He does.’

‘How d’you mean?’

‘Hashish.’

I stared. ‘No? Does he? How do you know?’

He lifted his shoulders. ‘His eyes, didn’t you notice? And other signs – one gets to know them. He’d been smoking when we came.’

‘Then that’s why he was so sleepy and otherworldly! He said he’d been asleep, and let me think it was just a siesta. I thought he’d probably been up part of the night with my great-aunt. Smoking! No wonder he resented being interrupted!’

‘I don’t suppose he was resenting you. The smoke can make you relaxed and easy-going, and not know what you’re doing. He was finding it hard to think. I smoke it myself sometimes; everybody does in the Lebanon.’

‘
Do
you?’

He smiled. ‘Not when I’m driving, don’t worry. And not much, me; I’ve too much sense, and it’s dangerous. It affects different people different ways, and by the time you’ve found what it does to you, sometimes it is too late. Did you hear him say he was writing a book? If he stays here and smokes
marjoun
, he will never write it. He will think for years that he has only to start tomorrow, and it will be the best book ever written … but he will never start. This is what the
marjoun
does; it gives you visions and takes away the will to translate them. He will end up like that old man, coughing in the sun and dreaming dreams … What will you do if he comes back to say the old lady won’t see you at all?’

‘I don’t quite know.’

‘I’ll tell you what I should do. If he says she will not see you, tell him that you wish to hear this from the old lady herself. If he will not allow this, then tell him that
you can only accept such an order from a real doctor, and that you wish a doctor from Beirut to see her straight away. Oh, you can do this very pleasantly. Ask him which doctor he recommends, and what time tomorrow will be convenient. Then you tell me, and I bring you.’

There wasn’t much expression in his voice, but I stared at him. ‘What are you suggesting?’

‘Nothing.’ He shrugged again. ‘Seems to me that things must go very much as he orders them here, and we only have his word for it that there is no money left. She was – I repeat was – a very rich old lady.’

‘But the family don’t care about—’ I stopped. It was patently no use explaining to Hamid that nobody wanted Great-Aunt Harriet to do anything with her own money except have a good time on her own terms. Anyway, there were other considerations here than money. I said, slowly: ‘If it’s true that she’s perfectly fit, I’d say she can probably take care of herself, and I’m also pretty sure she wouldn’t thank me for interfering. All I want is to know that she is still “hale and hearty”, and that being so she can dispose of her filthy old diamonds any way she pleases. He’s probably right that she’s done it already.’