The Soldier's Curse (18 page)

Monsarrat longed to see that document again, with a fresh date on it. He tortured himself with its image. For a moment he wondered whether Major Shelborne, out of relief at his wife's recovery, might distribute a few extra tickets of leave or conditional pardons. But the thought made him suddenly a little sick with himself. Mrs Shelborne's life should not be used as a bargaining chip for Monsarrat's freedom.

Still, he walked to the hospital with more lightness than he had managed in quite some months. But once he entered the long narrow room his step slowed and faltered.

Edward Donald, the orderly, was moving slowly and methodically around the room, washing bandages and cleaning equipment. He looked up, gave an almost imperceptible nod as Monsarrat came in.

Dory was still there. At least, Monsarrat assumed it was Dory. The shape that was now entirely concealed under a white sheet looked to be the lad's height and breadth. And blood, now browning and congealing, made a large part of the sheet adhere to whatever was underneath it.

The poor boy spent his last days on his stomach, thought Monsarrat. He was looking down from the moment he was tied to the frame. Monsarrat found that thought profoundly depressing – to be laid down facing the earth, never to face the sky again.

Perhaps it's a balancing of the ledger, he told himself. The strange earth would devour Dory, and spare Honora. He chided
himself for thinking like a superstitious Irish peasant, before remembering that the best thinker he knew was an Irish peasant who, while claiming not to be superstitious, still threw spilled salt over her left shoulder to thwart the demon who habitually sat there, urging her to wickedness.

Gonville had heard Monsarrat enter, and came around the partition to see who it was. He saw Monsarrat looking at the figure underneath the sheet.

‘Very unfortunate,' he said. ‘But an infection entered through the wound on his back, and took hold of his system quite quickly. I have my own views as to the source, as I'm sure do you. He went shortly after I returned from examining Mrs Shelborne. I noticed that he was breathing very rapidly, and went over. I mopped his head, which was boiling hot. He took a few more quick breaths, then he seemed to settle down. I went back to my desk, and when I returned to check on him half an hour later he had gone. You know, when you first start as a doctor, Monsarrat, you expect death to announce itself somehow. You almost expect a small tremor of the earth, or the dimming of the candle, to signal someone's departure. But most of the time people just slip off. No fanfare, no farewells – they just go. That's what this fellow did. At some point I'll send for Father Hanley. He should be told.'

Monsarrat was for a moment disabled by a spasm of grief for such a barbarously inflicted death. He feared, too, that the news would put an edge on Slattery's darkness. But expressions of sadness from a convict were almost as dangerous as expressions of anger.

‘I can organise that for you in due course, doctor,' he said. ‘At least when Lieutenant Carleton gives me leave.'

‘Your third master in a month,' Gonville observed dryly.

‘Naturally I try to serve all masters to the best of my ability, doctor. But it's on a far more promising errand that I've come to you. Mrs Mulrooney reports Mrs Shelborne's eyes are open, that she is uttering words, and taking water. It is a most unlooked for and most welcome development, and she begs you to come at your earliest convenience, so that the lady's recovery can be safeguarded.'

‘Truly? This is wonderful.' The doctor looked thoughtful. ‘I must confess, I don't know what could have improved the lady's condition, as I didn't know what was causing it in the first place. It may become apparent, with time and study, that it's a new disease which is limited to this place, so that we've not seen it before. You know, of course, that many of the natives were felled by a cold which to us would be a minor inconvenience, because their systems had not encountered it before. That may yet prove to be the case with Mrs Shelborne – an unheard-of disease, encountered by a person with no resistance … But now perhaps she is building up that resistance, and beginning to prevail.'

He smiled. ‘Donald!' he called. ‘Please have some fresh paper and writing things on my desk by the time I return.'

Turning to Monsarrat, he said, ‘Gonville's arsenosis, I believe I'll call it. After its mimicry of arsenic poisoning. Let's be on our way now, Monsarrat – quickly, man. The more we understand of the defences Mrs Shelborne is developing, the more we can help her shore them up.'

Monsarrat delivered the doctor into the hands of Mrs Mulrooney, and then made his way to the workroom. Thomas Carleton was standing at the major's window. He had not had the presumption, unlike Diamond, to settle himself behind the major's desk. But like Diamond, he was shuffling through papers as though about to sit down to a game of cards with Slattery.

He looked up when Monsarrat entered. The clerk feared for a moment that he would be chastised for his tardiness, but Carleton gave him a smile – a distracted smile, to be sure, for Carleton was known to be a distracted man – and looked back down at the papers.

‘Monsarrat, can I speak freely and in confidence?'

‘Of course, sir. Without discretion I would be on a road gang.'

‘Well, to be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Is there anything that I need to drive forward? Anything I need to tidy up? Or am I just here to make sure the place doesn't burn down in the absence of the major and the captain?'

‘More the latter, sir, if you don't mind my saying. And to make sure that there is no breach of the peace, no riots. I shouldn't imagine they'll be away long – perhaps a week? Hard to know for certain,
but in any case no significant works can be progressed without the major's signature. I will assist you in any way I can. For example, reports to the Colonial Secretary – should we even need to make one in the absence of the major – you needn't write those, I can draft them and you can look them over.'

‘Stout fellow, Monsarrat. Very good, then. If you could provide me with a list of all works currently underway, I'll ride around and have a look today. And I'll keep up the parades for the rabble who like to call themselves soldiers.'

The lieutenant left, earning Monsarrat's undying gratitude by closing the door behind him. Monsarrat sat down at his desk and began to sketch out a report on Mrs Shelborne's recovery – he imagined he would be asked to do so by Dr Gonville anyway, and he had by now long finished the transcribing the major had left for him.

He noted what he knew of Mrs Shelborne's case to this point. He put the document aside for the moment, under his own desk – until he was officially asked to compile a report; it wouldn't do to be seen to be taking an unhealthy interest – particularly if word got back to he whose own interest had reached unnatural levels.

He went into the major's study and scanned the shelves for his old friend Catullus. Diamond had clearly decided to rearrange them so the distracting frivolities of poetry were further out of reach from the desk. As he was taking down the book, he heard something he had never expected to hear from the direction of Government House – a full-throated female roar, anguished, only part-human, and stretched out longer than he would have believed breath would allow.

He raced to the door and listened. It started up again, a little shorter this time, as though the breath behind it was running out. It was coming, he realised, from the direction of the bedroom where Honora lay, on the side of the house which abutted his office and barely ten feet distant.

He sat down at the desk, his head in his hands. He wasn't sure what the noise meant, but its animal nature left him with the kind of foreboding not even Catullus could dispel. He debated
whether to go to the kitchen, in case Mrs Mulrooney had need of him there. But he reasoned that this office was where they would expect to find him, and should he be wanted, this was where they would come.

And come they did, in the form of Dr Gonville. His face was immobile, as though he was putting a significant amount of effort into ensuring it didn't betray his feelings. But his eyes had a sheen to them which Monsarrat had never seen on the man. ‘Monsarrat, you'd best come to the kitchen. Mrs Mulrooney requires assistance. As, I must say, do I.'

Monsarrat didn't remember the journey across the courtyard, but he must've bounded, as he was in the kitchen in a moment.

Mrs Mulrooney was sitting at the table, her forehead on its scrubbed surface, taking in huge gulps of air with each breath. Her white cloth cap lay on the floor beside her – the first time in their friendship that Monsarrat had ever seen her without it. He fancied that, underneath the fabric, the hair was usually groomed with precision, but now it stuck out at odd angles, and she made no attempt to bring it under control. The tray, her long-term companion on the walk to Mrs Shelborne's bedroom, lay askew on the table, the pot on its side, its lid off, surrounded by liquid.

Monsarrat looked at Mrs Mulrooney and then back at the doctor, raising his eyebrows to indicate concern at her state.

Dr Gonville nodded. He sat down next to the housekeeper, placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘I'll leave you here in Monsarrat's care while I return to the hospital to mix you a sleeping draught. You've had a shock which would fell stronger constitutions than yours, and I believe a period of rest is essential.'

Mrs Mulrooney looked up, eyeing the doctor. Her face was blotched red, and if Monsarrat didn't know she had been crying he might have thought that she too was the victim of an unknown malady. ‘I'll not be taking any sleeping draught, doctor, so you can save yourself the trouble of the trip. There're still things to be done for the poor darling, and I won't rest until all of them have been attended to.' She drew her shoulders back, challenging him to contradict her.

The doctor knew better than to do so. ‘As you wish,' he said, ‘but do send Monsarrat or somebody else to me, at any hour, should you require assistance.'

He turned to Monsarrat. ‘I know I don't need to exhort you to provide Mrs Mulrooney with any assistance she requires. I will leave her to describe to you what has transpired, if she feels able for it.'

Mrs Mulrooney gave him another glare, for suggesting that any force would prevent her from doing so.

‘I'll locate Lieutenant Carleton, and let him know what has occurred,' Gonville continued. ‘I'll also ask him to release you to me for the next day. I am going to want a clerk with a fast hand. Donald does his best, but he's not up to your standard.'

On another day Monsarrat would have taken great delight in the compliment, would have repeated it to himself over and over. Under the circumstances – or what he suspected were the circumstances – he could take no pleasure in anything.

Before leaving, the doctor took a teacup from the tray, and checked it to make sure there was liquid inside. Monsarrat noticed he held it within a cloth he had borrowed, rather than with his bare hands.

Monsarrat went over to Mrs Mulrooney, awkwardly putting his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged him off with a vehemence which surprised him. ‘I'm sorry, Mr Monsarrat,' she said. ‘I'm undone just at the moment.' She groped around on the floor for her cloth cap and, finding it and replacing it, she jammed her hair into its folds with some violence.

Monsarrat moved to sit down opposite her. ‘The doctor beseeches me to look after you, and I need no such urging, because I would consider myself a poor excuse for a friend if I didn't. But sometimes the best way to look after someone is to leave them alone. I have a great fear of what you are about to tell me, and I suspect I know already, but the details can wait if you would like some time to yourself. I'm at your disposal; I'll go or stay at your word.'

‘Stay, please,' Mrs Mulrooney whispered. She took a deep breath, and in a stronger voice said, ‘You look at the sky every day,
and you know you'll see the same thing, more or less. The sun will be there, the moon will be there at night, and you might be lucky enough to see a shooting star. Now the sun has winked off, and my young star has shot away into the bush. I've only the moon now. Don't leave me in complete darkness.'

So Monsarrat sat, while Mrs Mulrooney gradually reconstructed herself. She regained enough composure to realise that some strands of hair were still peeking out from beneath her cap, and dealt ruthlessly with them. Thinking to help, Monsarrat went to take the tray, sop up the spilled tea and set the teapot to rights, but Mrs Mulrooney shot out her hand and grabbed his wrist with a strength he would have more likely expected from Captain Diamond.

‘I wouldn't be touching that, Mr Monsarrat. Look at it sitting there, all innocence. But it's the devil's work, there on that tray, spilling out of that pot. I'm going to leave it where it sits until Dr Gonville advises me what best to do with it.'

Monsarrat looked at the liquid, trying to discern any diabolical intent within it. It looked to him like spilled tea, and nothing more. But he knew better than to defy Mrs Mulrooney, particularly in her domain, the place from which she drew strength. So he sat, and waited for her to speak.

Eventually, she did. ‘She's gone, you know. God rest her.'

‘But she was improving. Bad enough if she were to go when she was on death's door anyway, but for it to happen when she'd been showing signs of improvement is too cruel.'

‘You're right, Mr Monsarrat. It is cruel. And the cruellest part of it is, I killed her.'

‘Now, don't be ridiculous. You've often told me that for an intelligent man I can be an idiot. Well, for an intelligent woman, you're heading down the same path. Of course you didn't kill her. You probably kept her alive longer than she would have survived otherwise, truth be known.'

‘But I did, Mr Monsarrat. I did kill her. I didn't mean to, naturally I didn't. But it was by my hand that she died, and now I feel like cutting it off, were any of the knives in this place sharp enough.'

‘What on earth makes you believe that? And there will be no cutting off of limbs, by the way. I'll physically restrain you even if Diamond flogs me for it. Tell me what happened, please, so I can show you you're not culpable.'

‘Well, when Gonville arrived, we went into her room. Her eyes were open, and she was looking at the sunlight coming through the window. She turned and smiled when she saw us, and it looked as though her lips were a little less cracked, although she did have a nasty rash all over her. That's been there for a while though, and wasn't getting any worse. She even attempted to sit up as we got closer, but Gonville told her to rest where she was. He began to examine her; he took her pulse, felt her forehead, felt her stomach, asked her never-ending questions about how she was feeling.

‘After you'd gone to fetch him, I put her favourite tea back over the fire. I got it just hot enough so she could have it off a spoon without burning her poor lips. So while he was examining her, I fed her some. After the first spoonful she smiled at me again. It was the third smile that day, after a long time without, and I was gladdened by it. I gave her another spoonful, thinking the tea was doing her the power of good, if it was producing such a smile.

‘So I filled a cup and held it to her lips and she drank it down, so quickly I was worried she might make herself vomit. But she seemed all right, so I settled her back on the pillows and sat with her, held her hand, told her stories of the fairies from my own childhood – only the nice ones; some fairies are anything but nice.

‘After a while, though, I began to worry. She stopped focusing on me, she seemed to be looking at the ceiling, at something I couldn't see. Then she opened her mouth and drew in a breath which shuddered her whole body, so strong and ragged was it. She glanced at me then, and I could tell she was afraid. I held her hand and squeezed it, but she didn't squeeze back. She breathed again, and this time she juddered the whole bed while doing it. By now she looked on the verge of panic. And then there was a third breath. It stopped and started as it was going in. Then she released it. It just slowly leaked out of her; she wasn't making any effort to expel it. And after that, she didn't take any more breaths.'

Mrs Mulrooney had already purged the screaming, panicked, wild-eyed aspect of her grief. It had exhausted her in its passing, and now that she had told Monsarrat, she seemed to see no more use for herself. Her shoulders sank, and her head lowered to the table. Not in despondency this time, but in exhaustion.

‘God rest her soul,' said Monsarrat. He felt a loss, probably more than many other losses the small settlement had endured, but he said the words in the same manner that Slattery said ‘God bless all here'.

Mrs Mulrooney had sprawled her arms out across the table. Had he not known it was the gesture of someone who was spent, he would have thought she was trying to claim the table as her own and prevent someone else taking it.

He put one hand over hers, and squeezed her small hand as she had squeezed Honora's smaller one. ‘I still don't see,' he said, ‘how any of this supports the notion that you killed her.'

She put her chin up then, resting it on the table so that only her upper lip was visible above the forearm which screened her mouth. She looked like the elder boy in Monsarrat's classes in Windor during his brief period of freedom: unable to concentrate, knowing it, resenting it, and masking it by pretending not to care.

‘Of course you do, Mr Monsarrat. You're just far too polite to say it. Haven't we been discussing the very same thing between us? Poison. And now what happens? She dies from poisoning. And it was my hand which tipped the poison down her throat.'

‘Surely Dr Gonville can't for one second believe you responsible.'

‘He certainly didn't give any indication of it, no, unless by asking you to look after me, he meant to ask you to detain me. But that would be an odd request to make of someone who is themselves detained, if you don't mind my saying, Mr Monsarrat. What worries me, though, is what others may make of it. Particularly those who may themselves have had a hand in the business, and would be only too happy for the blame to float around and then attach itself to a former convict.'

‘Then we shall ensure that the major's aware of the extremities to which certain individuals have gone in his absence, and of their
interest in his wife. Please, try not to worry. I will make sure that the major knows of the captain's behaviour, before the captain himself can pour lies into his ear.'