The Levant Trilogy (38 page)

Winter enlivened not only the human occupants of
Garden City but the cockroaches that scuttled, as big as rats, round the
skirting. A green praying mantis, four inches high, was found clinging to a
curtain. Bats, delighting in their new vitality, began to visit the flat. One
night three of them flew together through the open balcony door and out through
the window at the other end of the room. Before anyone had recovered from his
surprise, they were back through the window and out at the door, giving a
playful skip in mid-flight as though they were playing a game.

Dobson thought they must be attracted by the
light but Angela and Harriet said bats avoided light. No one expected to see
them again but next evening, while the sky still held the glow of sunset, the
bats returned. This time five came in a close line and at one point each did a
little caracole that seemed a salute to the humans in the room.

For the next two nights there were no bats then
three -perhaps the original three - darted in and out again. Bats came at
intervals for nearly a fortnight. Harriet, who used to fear them, began to see
them as guardian spirits and feel affection for them. Then, just when it seemed
they had adopted the place, the visits ceased. Harriet could not believe they
had gone for good and waited in to see them When they did not come, she said to
Angela,' We are bereft.'

'We can go bat watching at the Union.'

That meant they would have to go in early
evening when the bats were most active and people could sit out for a little in
the moist, mild air under the towering trees. In the officers' club opposite,
the Egyptian officers also sat out at sunset, wearing their winter uniforms,
but as soon as the evening star showed in the copper green after-glow, they
gathered themselves together and went indoors. As the cold came down, Angela
said, 'We should go in, too.'

Harriet, who had been watching the short,
darting flight of the bats among the trees, sadly agreed: 'We might as well.
They're not our bats. They don't know us.'

Angela laughed at her and stood up, eager to go
in search of Castlebar.

Although the two women were not expected at that
hour, Castlebar and Jackman reached the table almost as soon as the whisky
bottle. Angela, laughing, pushed it towards them, pretending that that alone
was the attraction.

Having set up his cigarette pack and lit a
cigarette, Castlebar put his hand in his pocket and brought out the heart of
rose-diamonds. He smiled at Angela, saying, 'Pin it on for me.'

Angela gave a little scream of shocked delight:
'You wouldn't dare!'

'Oh, wouldn't I?' Castlebar, his eye-tooth out
to meet the challenge, glanced round to see who was watching him, and pinned
the heart to his lapel then slid his hand under the table in search of Angela's
hand, and so they sat with the heart between them

Several people were watching them but Jackman
looked the other way. Harriet thought he was showing disapproval but, following
the direction of his gaze, she saw a short, heavy, square-built woman looking
for someone among the tables. Her light clothing marked her as a newcomer,
whose blood had not been conditioned by the Egyptian summer. Jackman made no
sign but his expression, a slightly malicious expression, suggested to Harriet
that he knew who she was.

Catching sight of Castlebar, she came straight
to him, watching him with a purposeful and sardonic smile. She called out, '
Hello, Wolfie!'

At the sound of her strong, carrying voice,
Castlebar's eyes opened. Seeing who had spoken, his startled stare changed to
alarm. He grew pale. Dropping Angela's hand as though he could not imagine what
he was doing with it, he half lifted himself from the chair and tried to speak.
His stammer increasing so he was barely intelligible, he began, 'M-m-m-Mona ...
L-L-L-Lambkin!' then too shocked to support himself, he fell back and tried
again: 'H-h-h-how...'

'How did I get here?' Mona Castlebar's eyebrows
rose in triumph. She placed a chair firmly at the table and sat upon it: 'By
air, of course. Didn't you get my cable?'

'N-n-n-no.'

The company was silent, looking at this weighty
woman who had once been Castlebar's Lambkin: then they saw the horror her
arrival had roused in him. Of course there had been no cable. She had come
without warning, intending to catch him in some misdeed, and she had caught
him. With her sardonic smile fixed, she looked first at Harriet then at Angela,
not sure which had been the lure. Returning to Castlebar, she said: 'What a
splendid decoration! Is it meant for me?'

As she put out her hand to take the brooch,
Angela, roused from her first dismay, spoke with spirit: 'No, it's not meant
for you. It was a present for my friend Harriet here. Bill put it on for a
joke.'

'Y-y-yes ... just a l-l-l-little joke.'
Castlebar's fingers shook as he undid the brooch and handed it to Angela.
Angela passed it to Harriet who put it into her handbag, then they all looked
again at Mona Castlebar.

'Well, well!' she said and the rest were silent.
She observed each in turn as though summing them up. She did not like them and
she knew they did not like her. She met their antagonism with a bellicose
smile.

Harriet wondered how any woman, newly arrived
after a long journey, could seem so confidently in control of a situation. Did
her appearance, perhaps, mask her diffidence? Harriet thought not. But, of
course, she was not in a strange place. She had lived in Cairo before the war
and had known exactly where to come to find her husband.

Her dress was cut to display her only
attraction: fine shoulders and bosom. She was older than the others at the
table, even older than Castlebar. Her square face with its short nose, small
eyes and heavy chin, was already falling into lines. Newly arrived from a
temperate climate, her pallor seemed ghastly to the others and it was
accentuated by the unreal red of her hair.

Castlebar put out a hand for another cigarette
and could scarcely lift it from the box. He poured himself the last of the
whisky and his wife said, 'You've had about enough,' then added as one
demanding her due: 'If anyone's buying another round, mine's a strong ale.'

'Now, Lambkin, you won't get strong ale here-you
know that. Have this,' Castlebar pushed his glass across to her: 'Come on. Tell
us how you got here.' His wheedling tone suggested a hope that somehow an
explanation would send her back where she came from.

'You do want to know, don't you, Wolfie?'

He nodded and Harriet realized that 'Wolfie' was
a reference to the tooth that overhung his lip when he was angry or when, as
now, he was hopelessly at a loss.

Provokingly, she went on, 'Hmmm,' as though
about to tell but taking her time and then, apparently revealing something too
precious to be lightly given away, she said: '
ensa
.
They sent me out with a party.'

Neither Angela nor Castlebar had ever thought of
ensa.
Angela glanced at him but
he was careful not to glance at her.

Harriet asked, 'You sing, do you?'

'Of course. I'm a pro. Hasn't Bill told you
about me?'

Evading the question, Harriet turned to Angela:
'Mrs Castlebar ought to meet Edwina as they're both singers. Perhaps we could
arrange an evening?'

Angela did not reply. Castlebar nervously asked:
'Where are you staying, Lambkin?'

'With you, I hope.'

'Yes. Oh, yes. I just thought
ensa
might be putting you up in style.'

'They probably would if I wanted it, but I don't
intend having much truck with them.'

'Surely, if they brought you out...'

'Don't be soft, Wolfie. Now I'm here, they can't
do anything. They can't send me back. I've got the laugh on them. Anyway, you
know I've a sensitive larynx. Anything can upset it, so if I can't sing, I
can't,' Mona emptied the glass as though to say, 'That's final,' then, fixing
her yellow-brown eyes upon him, gave an order: 'Better get a move on, Wolfie. I
left my bags at the
ensa
office.
We must pick them up, and I want to buy a few things. So come along.'

Castlebar rose, promptly but shakily, holding to
the edge of the table. Instinctively, Angela rose with him and made to steady
him, then drew her hand away, realizing she had been displaced. Observing this
movement, Mona stared at Angela with narrowed eyes. Angela had betrayed
herself.

As the Castlebars went ahead, the others
followed, having nothing else to do. Jackman, who had not spoken since Mona's
appearance, stared at her back view and gave a snigger of contempt. Her short
dress was made shorter by being stretched over her massive backside.

'Look at that woman's legs,' he said.
"They're solid wood. Not even a slit between them.'

Angela tried to smile but her misery was
apparent. She walked with head hanging and Harriet took hold of her hand. They
left the Union and went across the bridge to the taxi rank outside the Extase.
Mona was already seated inside a taxi when they arrived and Castlebar,
peremptory in his agitation and guilt, said to Angela, 'Got to call it a day.
Have to collect the luggage... s-s-s-see her to the flat. She looks all in.'

'Does she?' Angela's tone was sullen but in
spite of herself, she put a hand on Castlebar's arm and looked appealingly at
him.

From inside the taxi came a warning
call:'Wolfie!'

'M-m-m-must go.' Castlebar sped from the
company, fearing to be detained, and struggled into the taxi. Angela watched
after it as it drove away.

Jackman, tittering, said to her: 'Think of it!
There's only one bed at his place. He'll have to sleep with her.' When Angela
did not reply, he asked: 'Where are we going now?'

She turned abruptly from him and put out her
hand to Harriet: 'Nowhere. I'm tired. I want an early night,'

Abandoning Jackman, the two women walked slowly
under the riverside trees towards Garden City.

'He won't stay with her long,' Harriet aid.

'Perhaps not, but they've been married for
twenty years. If he can't bear her (as he says) why didn't he leave her long
ago?'

'He had no incentive. It's different now.'
Harriet took the rose-diamond heart from her bag: 'Here's the brooch. At least,
she didn't get that.'

'I gave it to you.'

'But you didn't mean me to keep it.'

'Yes. Why not? You like those stones. What good
is it to me?'

'Thank you.' Harriet paused and holding the
brooch cupped in her hand looked at the diamonds catching the embankment lights:
'Thank you, Angela. I love it,'

A week passed without news of Castlebar. He may
have gone to the Union but Angela would not go in search of him. She said to
Harriet, 'He knows where I am. If he wants to see me, he can ring me,' but he
did not ring.

Harriet, aware of Angela's disquiet, suggested
they invite the Castlebars in: 'We said she should meet Edwina. So let's fix an
evening!'

Angela, sprawled on the sofa, shrugged, as
though indifferent, but, looking up, her expression brightened and she at once
gave Harriet Castlebar's telephone number. 'If you want to ask them, it's all
right with me.'

Harriet rang Castlebar's flat but there was no
reply. She decided to settle the matter by going to the Union.

'Why not come with me? You've no reason to stay
away.'

'No. I couldn't bear seeing him there with her.'

Harriet disliked appearing alone in public
places, but, feeling that any action was better than the dejection that kept
Angela inactive, she sent Hassan out for a gharry. It was early in the evening
and she expected to find Castlebar at the snooker table with Jackman, but there
was no sign of Jackman. Castlebar was seated at a table with Mona beside him.

So there they were: Wolfie and Lambkin: the lamb
and the wolf! Harriet went straight to them.

At the sight of her, Castlebar grinned and his
grin was both feeble and defiant. He knew she condemned him for his neglect of
Angela, but what could he do? His wife had whistled him back and now held him
helpless in their old relationship. He looked trapped and ashamed of himself
but prepared to bluster it out. Mona, in possession, was smugly conscious of
the legality of her own position.

They seemed to expect Harriet to accuse them but
Harriet was not there to make accusations. Uninvolved and apparently friendly, she
offered them the invitation.

Mona, not expecting it, bridled slightly as
though unsure how to deal with it, then answered in a lofty tone: 'I'm not
sure. What are we doing that night, Wolfie? I think we're engaged.'

'Oh, Lambkin, of course we're not. Why shouldn't
we go?'

'Very well, if you're so keen.'

Harriet said, 'Then you accept?'

Mona nodded a graceless, 'All right.'

Harriet, having come only for Angela's sake,
refused the offer of a drink and left at once. Although she knew Angela would
be on edge until she heard the result of her approach to the Castlebars, she
walked back to Garden City. Having seen him in the grasp of his wife, she felt
she had been unwise to foster Angela's infatuation with anyone so futile.