‘To hell with Freddy,’ said Harry.
‘Oh no, Freddy’s nice. He got me out of the convent. I thought highly of him for that.’
‘You thought he was a good sport.’
‘Well, yes, that’s about it. A jolly good one.’
‘He was off his nut, though.’
‘Well, I wasn’t to know that. And really, he wasn’t all that mad. You would like Freddy if you knew him.’
‘I know. He sounds all right. Tell me — suppose you’d been killed — what’s the technical Catholic difference between a martyr and a jolly good sport?’
Joe Ramdez was standing patriarchally by the well in the forecourt talking to Suzi in Arabic when Freddy came out into the sunny morning air.
He turned to Freddy with affable arms. ‘Welcome to my home. Have you slept well?’
‘Delightfully, thank you.’
Suzi had a haunted look. She said, ‘I drive Mr Hamilton out for a day to see the general view of Jericho, Elisha’s Fountain, the Mount of the Temptation in the Wilderness and the beautiful Greek convent there, also the River Jordan, the Allemby Bridge, and —’
‘Allen-by,’ said Ramdez. ‘You always say “Allemby” like a Cockney corporal of the General’s army. It is Allenby, may he rest in the Bosom of God.’
The Allenby Bridge and through the hills of Judaea to the Dead Sea. We go also to Bethany, the Tomb of Lazarus that was raised from the dead, and the Inn of the Good Samaritan. Then we —’
‘She does not stop talking once she has started. Suzi is the worst of all my women in my household for talking,’ Ramdez said to Freddy. ‘Only on the first times of meeting a new person she keeps quiet, but that is her trick, she’s a clever one. When she meets a nice gentleman, he thinks she’s a quiet good woman, but soon she is talking.’
‘Your daughter’s a splendid guide,’ Freddy said.
Ramdez said, ‘She is splendid also, for an insurance agent. Suzi —did you explain Mr Hamilton the proposal forms and the opportunities?’
‘Yes, Father, and Mr Hamilton will get the medical test all right.’
Freddy said, ‘As I told Abdul, I must wait till I have a reply from my lawyers in London. They look after all that side of things.’
‘Lawyers are no good,’ Ramdez said. ‘Listen to me, lawyers are robbers.’
‘Oh, I know that. I quite agree.’
‘We have in this insurance scheme many diplomats from Britain and also from America. Mr Scriven is one, Mr Pole is two, Mr Carson is three, Mr Macintyre, who is gone from here and now in West Indies, is four, Mr Gardnor is five, Mr Redding, six —naturally, I do not remember all the names on the record, but these diplomats are all investors in Middle East Visitors’ with great benefits.’
‘Really? A very impressive list,’ Freddy said. Scriven was a filing-clerk in the office at Tel Aviv; Pole was secretary in the Post Office in Amman; Carson he didn’t know — probably someone in the American Embassy; Macintyre he remembered as the name of a chap who had been recalled from Israel two years ago for some misdemeanour with a girl; Gardnor, yes, Gardnor; Redding, he couldn’t place. So much for the diplomats.
‘You’ve got Gardnor?’
‘Yes, Freddy, it’s all right. He’s coming across with it nicely today. Not that he was much trouble yesterday, but he probably thought it over during the night, and today we’re getting the lot. He says he feels liberated, in a way, now that it’s all out.’
‘Well, you might take a look into Scriven at Tel Aviv and a chap called Pole in Amman.’
‘Yes, I believe we’re working on Scriven and Pole, and a few others on Ramdez’s list.’
‘You’ve got hold of his list?’
‘Yes, it cost us an absolute fortune. And I don’t believe it’s worth a penny to us. No big security risks except Gardnor; only chaps who’ve made fools of themselves with girls and so on.’
Scriven … Pole … Macintyre … In the forecourt at Jericho Freddy looked out at the Judaean wilderness and said to Ramdez, ‘An impressive list.’
‘So you must join also.’
‘One’s salary doesn’t amount to much in the Foreign Service,’ Freddy said. ‘One has to make ends meet, you know. I’m afraid we’d better be on our way if we’re to see all those delightful scenes that your daughter described.’
The cars were parked across the forecourt and Suzi started to move. Ramdez said, ‘Wait, I have a favour to ask of Mr Hamilton.’
Suzi looked miserable and embarrassed, as she had on that first day that Freddy had seen her, in the Cartwrights’ garden. ‘You ask so many favours, Father, and Mr Hamilton has paid in advance for the pilgrimage-tour inclusive,’ she said.
He had not in fact paid anything in advance, but was to settle the bill with Alexandros. Three weeks later, when the events came back to him, he did so, and meantime Alexandros had held his peace, not believing for one moment the rumour that Freddy was suffering from a lapse of memory, but rather assuming that Freddy had some good private reason, perhaps connected with his career or his social reputation, for choosing to regard the episode as non-existent.
‘This is one small favour,’ said Ramdez, ‘which I am sure you will oblige with, Mr Hamilton, since it concerns a lady of your country. I have brought with me a very nice tourist who is on a pilgrimage and also has paid in advance. But I have now business to attend to in Amman today. So you take this nice woman along with you in the car today, returning with you this evening, and Suzi will adjust the small difference for one day’s private tour for one, and one day’s private tour for two; it makes a bit cheaper. But this would be a favour as this lady is so greatly distressed. She has followed from England to look for a lady-friend and maybe you will find the friend on your route.’
“Well, that should be all right,’ Freddy said. ‘Quite all right. Is she ready to come?’
‘I’ll go and summon her now from her room. By the way, do you know Miss Barbara Vaughan?’
‘Oh yes, she’s saying at my hotel in Israel. But surely she isn’t the lady who’s going to accompany us? She—’
‘Oh no, she is the lady that my client, Miss Rickward, is looking for. Do you know where she might be?’
‘So far as I know she’s still in Israel —’ Joe Ramdez clapped his hands over his ears at the repeated word ‘Israel’; he smiled, but not very sweetly.
‘— Occupied Palestine,’ Freddy said with deference ‘… I know she was thinking of coming here but I believe she changed her mind. Anyway, she’s either still in Occupied Palestine or on her way to Rome to join her fiancé, who is there at the moment. A very nice person, Miss Vaughan.’
‘Ah, thank you. I will tell Miss Rickward what you say. Wait, excuse me, half a moment.’
Freddy said, then, to Suzi. That settles that. And I’ll see that a notice goes into the Israeli paper tomorrow morning.’
‘In Amman,’ she said, ‘it is possible they have a list of every name that has passed through the Mandelbaum Gate from Israel. And my father will find it.’
‘Then we must make sure they understand she’s left the country — gone to Rome. Let’s wait and see how much your father discovers.’
Ricky bustled out with him, very voluble on the subject of Freddy’s niece, who was a pupil at her school, and through whose mother Ricky had met Freddy’s mother at Harrogate one day. ‘It was only when your mother told me of the bits in your letter concerning Barbara Vaughan that I knew she was engaged to the man. Then she—’
‘Let us go,’ said Suzi, ‘and you talk about the friend in the car. But I tell you this, that if you look for an English visitor in our country, you have to look well, since they are under every olive-tree and in every cave of the hills, and there is no stopping their curiosity for adventure everywhere.’
‘My friend is on a pilgrimage. A Roman Catholic pilgrimage. That narrows it down, my dear,’ Ricky said. She looked yearningly at Joe, who kissed her hand and placed her carefully in the back of the car. He evidently expected F
reddy to go in beside her, but Freddy got in the front at the wheel, leaning to open the door beside him for Suzi.
‘My daughter should drive,’ said Joe, as Suzi got in beside Freddy. ‘It is her job, and you should come back here to be comfortable with Miss Rickward.’
Freddy beamed at him. ‘Mr Ramdez,’ he said, ‘a businessman like you should know that when one pays in advance one never gets full value.’ He started up the car while Joe Ramdez leaned over the back window to say softly to Miss Rickward that he would be back from Amman, promptly, that evening. As Freddy drove off, Joe went over to his own car, then seemed to change his mind and returned to the house.
Freddy drew up a few yards from the house. ‘I’m so very sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ll have to go back for my sun-glasses.’ He manoeuvred the car to a turn. His sun-glasses, which he wore only when absolutely necessary, were actually in his pocket, but he wanted to see what Ramdez was up to. He was uneasy about Barbara’s being left without friends with that man on the premises. ‘Stupid of me,’ Freddy said.
Ricky had moved from her position behind Freddy to the position behind Suzi. Now, when they had turned round, she moved to the middle of the seat. ‘While you are indoors,’ she said, ‘I would be so very grateful if you find me a cushion.’
‘Are you not comfortable, Miss Rickward?’ Suzi said. ‘Would you like to change with me?’ The car was a well-sprung, fairly new Chevrolet. The back seat,’ Suzi said, ‘is usually the more comfortable place.’
‘No, no, a cushion will do. Yes, it is more comfortable at the back, I’m sure. It’s only that I have a slight touch of cramp. It’s probably due to the strain of travel. A cushion would be very satisfactory.’
The phrase ‘very satisfactory’ gave Suzi immediately to think of her father, who used it a lot when speaking to the British. And the live wires of her mind gave instantaneous connexion from her father to Ricky’s fidgeting in her seat. As Freddy drove up to the door, Suzi, attacked by the complete answer, put her hand to her mouth to suppress the burst of laughter which more or less spluttered forth. She jumped from the car and said, ‘I get a cushion. Excuse me that I laugh at Freddy for forgetting his sunglasses, he is so like all the Englishmen, they never get away from a place but have to return.’
‘Stay here, I’ll get the cushion,’ said Freddy, as he got out. ‘Just tell me where —’
‘No, I must find a soft one.’
Joe appeared at the door just as they were entering. He looked extremely fierce-eyed at this return, although he smiled and nodded at Freddy’s self-deprecating explanation.
‘I was just about to depart,’ said Ramdez in the tone of a man very distracted by other business. He raised his arm in salute to Miss Rickward, called that he would see her later, went straight to his car and drove off at speed. From this busy display, even before Freddy got to his room and found that his zipper-bag had been left unzipped, although not by himself, he had the sense of their having interrupted Ramdez at some leisurely snooping. There was nothing for Ramdez to find, anyway. He took his sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. Suzi then appeared, carrying two large cushions, and collapsed into his arms, cushions and all, while she told him of her absolute conviction that her father had ‘unflowered and nearly killed’ poor Miss Rickward in the course of the previous night. ‘A matter of fact,’ Suzi said, ‘I heard a noise. I thought it was cats. But it wasn’t cats, it was Miss Ricky.’
They came soberly to the car and Suzi arranged the cushions for Ricky. ‘You must have had a hard time on your travels,’ said Suzi.
‘I don’t usually complain,’ Ricky said, ‘it’s only —’
Then you must have been tough, all your travels,’ said Suzi, ‘but you’ll be O.K. now.’
‘Ready?’ said Freddy. ‘Right. We’re off! Let’s try to get back early, and not give Miss Rickward too much travelling.’
It was late on Tuesday morning that Freddy and Suzi finally departed for Jerusalem. Barbara was very conscious now of being left in the house without anyone she knew, although, when she had said good-bye to Freddy and Suzi, she had been almost relieved at their departure, for their continual anxious popping in and out of her room with warnings about this and that had exhausted her. They had given instructions about what she might say or not say to Latifa and the woman who was coming to nurse her; while all Barbara really wanted to do was sleep and, on waking, drink water. Thirst and exhaustion were now the only lingering discomforts of the disease.
Freddy had said, ‘I’ll be back at the week-end. As soon as I get back to Israel this afternoon I’ll see about getting that notice in the paper to put the people here off the scent. And I’ll get hold of Dr Clegg in Rome and tell him what’s happened. You’ve nothing to worry about. Only, Barbara, this woman who’s going to look after you — be very careful what you say to her, won’t you?’
‘Yes, Suzi has told me. I’m not to talk and not to ask any questions of Miss White.’
‘Miss White isn’t her real name, of course. But —’
‘Isn’t it? What a bloody peculiar set-up this all is.’
‘Yes, but you’re in a bloody peculiar position. Of course, it’s my fault, in a way, for not insisting on your going to the Embassy. If you want —’
‘No — oh no. I’m going through with it.’
‘You’re a good sport, you know.’
‘Well, one wants to do what one wants to do, that’s all.’ She hadn’t the slightest notion what she meant by this, but she meant it and it sounded all right. She was sure that Freddy was relieved by her refusal; for some reason he was reluctant to contact the Embassy himself.
‘Really a sport,’ Freddy was saying. ‘Now, I want to tell you about so-called Miss White. If there’s anything, Barbara, you can get out of her in the meantime — I mean, what she’s actually up to here — without, of course, appearing to be inquisitive, I’d be awfully grateful. I can’t really explain, but maybe you realize there are a few people roaming round this part of the world whom the F.O. likes to know a little about. Don’t take this too seriously, of course, but _’
‘My God!’ said Barbara, ‘Don’t tell me there’s a British Gestapo keeping track of us all when we go abroad.’ She sat up in bed.
‘Barbara dear!’
She lay down again. ‘Well, Freddy, it’s bad enough for me to have to hide here in Jordan, and go about in disguise. But one doesn’t expect that sort of thing amongst ourselves. Why should I be a government snooper? I detest government snooping.’
‘Don’t think any more of it,’ Freddy said. ‘I apologize. I withdraw my request. I beg your pardon. But I trust you to keep your discretion about my request.’
‘Oh, Freddy, now you’re taking up an attitude. Don’t take up attitudes, I can’t bear them. What have you got against Miss White, or whoever she is?’
‘I couldn’t tell you even if I knew. My dear, you’re quite right in all you say. I shouldn’t have mentioned this matter at all. It was only that, when there’s a possibility of the country being damaged in some way —’
‘Which country? This country?’
‘Of course not. Ours. What do you think I’ve been talking about?’
‘I smell an ideology, that’s all.’
Barbara recalled, he had become very amused, he had just about hugged her with joy, and at least he had taken both her hands and looked at her with the affection of one who detested ideologies, too. He said, ‘Yes, that’s the point….’
They were gone, they were gone, now. Yesterday she had slept most of the five hours when Freddy and Suzi had taken their drive to keep up the appearance of touring. But now Freddy was gone for almost a week and Suzi for some days.
Much earlier that morning, a car had left the house and Suzi had come to Barbara’s room to announce the departure of her father with his tourist for Jerusalem. A little later she heard an arrival. Suzi came, with a tray of coffee and biscuits for two, to sit with Barbara and inform her that Miss White had returned and was resti
ng.
Now they were gone. Resting, thought Barbara, and what am I supposed to be doing? She began to think of Freddy and to speculate upon his sex life, whatever it should be. For, plainly, Suzi had greatly taken to him.
But it’s none of my business, she thought. Sex is child’s play. Jesus Christ was very sophisticated on the subject of sex. And didn’t harp on it. Why is it so predominant and serious for us? There are more serious things in the world. And if sex is not child’s play, in any case it is worthless. For she was thinking of her own recent experiences of sex, which were the only experiences she knew that were worth thinking about. It was child’s play, unselfconscious and so full of fun and therefore of peace, that she had not bothered to analyse or define it. And, she thought, we have invented sex guilt to take our minds off the real thing. She thought finally of Freddy, and quite saw, partly through Suzi’s eyes, that he had his attractions, especially here in Jordan.
Suzi, when she had come to say good-bye, promising to be back before the end of the week, was very buoyant. ‘You know,’ she said, ‘I’m a little bit in love with Freddy.’
Jolly good for Freddy.
From being confined with the fever like this, Barbara Vaughan had taken one of her religious turns and was truly given to the love of God, and all things were possible. And, she thought, we must all think in these vague terms: with God, all things are possible; because the only possibilities we ever seem able to envisage in a precise manner are disastrous events; and we fear both vaguely and specifically, and I have myself too long laid plans against eventualities. Against good ones? No, bad ones. It would be interesting, for a change, to prepare and be ready for possibilities of, I don’t know what, since all things are possible with God and nothing is inevitable. And then, it is said in the Scriptures: The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong…. She was trying to remember how it went on when into the room walked Ruth Gardnor. Barbara was sure it was Ruth Gardnor. Then Ruth said, ‘Barbara, goodness, it’s you!’