Secret for a Nightingale Read Online Free PDF Page A

little else but the perfections of her fiance. I did nc mind. I had my own obsession.
    What an impressive sight Bombay harbour is with its moufi tai nous island fringed with palm trees rising to the magnificea peaks of the Western Ghats.
    My father was waiting for me. We embraced. Then he het me at arm’s length, looking at me. ;
    “I wouldn’t have known you.” j “It’s been a long time. You look the same, Father.”
    “Old men don’t change. It is only little girls who grow int beautiful ladies.”
    “Are you in the same house?”
     
    “Strangely enough, yes. We’ve had some troublous time since you’ve been away, and I have moved round a bit, as you know. But here I am now … just as you left me.”
    My father thanked the Emerys when I introduced them. The fiance was waiting for them and he took them off after we had promised to see each other soon.
    “You were happy at Humberston?” my father asked me.
    “Oh yes. They were good to me. But it isn’t home.”
    He nodded.
    “And the Emerys, they were good too?”
    “Very good.”
    “We shall have to see more of them. I shall have to thank them properly.”
    “And what of everyone here? Ayah?”
    “Oh, she is with the Freelings now. There are two children quite young. Mrs. Freeling is a rather frivolous young woman … attractive, they say.”
    “I’m longing to see my ayah.”
    “You will.”
    “And the Khansamah?”
    “A family man. He has two boys. He is very proud of himself. But come along. We must get home.”
    And there I was, feeling as though I had never left.
    But of course there were changes. I was no longer a child. I had my duties, and as the first days passed, I discovered that these could be demanding. I had come back, ‘finished’ as they say a young English lady fitted to sit at the Colonel’s table and fulfill the duties expected of me.
    In a very short time I was caught up in the army life. It was like living in a little world of its own, surrounded by the strangeness of a foreign country. It was not quite the same as it had been, or perhaps I had lived in the imagination too long. I was more bothered by unsavoury detail than I had been in my childhood. I was more conscious of the poverty and disease;
    I was less enchanted; and there were times when I thought rather longingly of cool breezes which used to blow across the ancient church and the peace of the garden with the lavender and buddleia, tall sunflowers and hollyhocks; then I began to feel a nostalgia for the gentle rain, for the Easter and Harvest
     
    festivals. Of course my father was here; but I think that if I could have taken him with me I would have preferred to go to that place which had now become Home to me, as it was apparently to so many of those about me.
    I took the first opportunity to go and see my ayah. Mrs. Freeling was delighted that I wished to call. I had quickly realized that my father’s position made everyone want to please him, and that meant pleasing his daughter also, and some of the wives were almost sycophantic, believing no doubt that to curry favour with the Colonel helped their husbands on the long road to higher rank.
    The Freelings had a pleasant bungalow, surrounded by beautiful flowering shrubs whose names I did not know. Phyllis Freeling was young, very pretty, rather coquettish I thought, and I was sure I should not find her the most interesting of the wives. She fluttered round me as though I did her a great honour by visiting her. She gave me tea.
    “We do try to keep up the English customs,” she told me.
    “One must, mustn’t one. One doesn’t want to go native.”
    I listened to her chatter, all the time wondering when I was going to see my ayah, which was the sole reason for my coming. She talked about the dance they were having soon.
    “I dare say you will be on the committee. There are such preparations to be made. If you want a really good dressmaker, I can put you on to the very best.” She folded her hands and