The Elephant Keeper's Daughter Read online

  “What is it?” she asked, immediately worried.

  He stood, pulling her up with him. “Let’s go into the village and talk with Mahinda and your mother.”

  In half an hour they were sitting with Anshu on the bench outside her hut, together with Samitha and the monk. Before they had set off, Phera had tied up her hair and put on her men’s clothing.

  Henry opened the meeting. “What Mahinda suspected has been confirmed. There is no order for military action against the village.”

  “That is good news,” said the monk.

  “Not necessarily,” Samitha remarked and looked at Henry. “If your brother wants to attack us, he will, order or no order.”

  “You’re right. I’m afraid my brother decided a long time ago to drive you out by any means necessary.”

  “So,” asked Anshu, “if the paper isn’t a military order, what is it?”

  “It’s a title deed for a plot of land. If Charles manages to have the road to Colombo ready within five years, the governor will gift him the land.”

  “He’s trying to drive us out so he can steal the land,” commented Samitha. “Just like the British nation steals our kingdom.”

  Mahinda was watching Henry, solemnity in his eyes. “At the moment your brother is short of workers, which delays progress and puts his plan at risk. But that won’t stop him having his soldiers clear the village.”

  Henry gave a dejected nod of the head. “That’s why I am here. To warn you.”

  “Your warning won’t save us,” Samitha said bitterly. “Where is this plot of land that’s to be your brother’s?”

  “Kadugannawa Pass,” replied Henry. “It’s the stretch of road my brother claimed was impossible to work on.”

  “And now he wants it for himself?” Phera asked. “What can that possibly mean?”

  “Nothing good. That monster has never done anything good.” Samitha’s voice was full of loathing.

  “I’m asking myself the same thing,” said Henry. “The land’s no good for crops because the topsoil was removed during the excavation. So there must be some other reason for him wanting the land.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t want it at all, but the governor offered and he had to accept?” suggested Anshu.

  Henry shook his head. “I don’t think so. He wouldn’t make a secret out of that. No, I’m convinced this is why he went to Colombo—because he wanted this piece of land.”

  “Ask him, Henry,” Mahinda advised. “And ask him why he lied about the order.”

  “Because he wants to frighten us,” said Anshu.

  “Because he enjoys the suffering of others.” Samitha sounded wretched.

  Anshu turned to her eldest daughter and stroked her cheek, as if Samitha were still her baby girl. When Henry saw this gesture, he was reminded yet again of the brutality his brother had shown this family and swore to keep them safe from any further cruelty.

  “You must write to your governor.” Anshu’s voice broke into his thoughts. “If he really wants to live in peace with us, he’ll listen to you.”

  Henry looked doubtful. “Paget doesn’t want trouble, it’s true. But what’s even more important to him is that the road is ready as soon as possible. I doubt whether he’d bother with the concerns of a tiny village. No, we must help ourselves by gathering as much information as we can. This brings me to the second reason for my visit today.”

  Reaching inside his jacket, he took out a handkerchief and, unfolding it, revealed a small, round stone, which he held up for the others to see. He turned it this way and that, and the others gasped as light refracted on the polished surface and the stone glowed deep blue.

  “I found this on Eranga’s body.”

  Phera was confused. The stone bore no resemblance to the insignificant fragment they’d found on the dead mahout.

  Henry carried on. “I had it examined and polished in Colombo. It’s a sapphire. Yesterday I found a very similar one in my brother’s tent. It’s even bigger and more beautiful than this one, and definitely worth a lot of money. I suspect a connection between the two stones. They’re like two pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.”

  “What’s a ‘jigsaw puzzle’?” Phera asked.

  “It’s an English game where you put together small pieces to make a big picture,” Mahinda explained.

  “So if we find out more about the two sapphires, that’ll help us see the whole thing.”

  “That’s it,” said Henry. “So now we have to find the missing pieces.” Henry gave her an affectionate look. Phera returned it with a gentle smile.

  Anshu watched this exchange and pursed her lips. The Englishman was clearly not fooled by Phera’s masculine clothes. What’s more, the pair seemed to be harboring some special feeling.

  Anshu was not pleased. Of course, she wanted her children to fall in love and lead happy lives, particularly after experiencing so much horror. But could Phera truly find happiness with the brother of a mass murderer?

  Meanwhile, the little sapphire was being passed from hand to hand.

  “Does anyone know anything about this stone?” asked Henry. “Did Eranga ever say anything about it, or about whether there are mines around here?”

  But the others only shook their heads, bewildered.

  “This explains Eranga’s death!” declared Phera. “He was murdered because of the sapphire.”

  “By your brother!” added Samitha, looking straight at Henry.

  Henry flushed with shame. “If my brother is guilty of a crime, then he should be punished for it.”

  But this was not well received by Samitha. “Do you really mean that?” she asked angrily. “So your brother’s been punished for his crimes against our people, has he? It’s been quite the opposite! He is rewarded for his atrocities, while we have to live every day of our lives with the memory of what he did!” She sobbed in frustration.

  Her mother placed a soothing hand on her arm. “Don’t look back at your suffering. It’s behind you now. Only look ahead.”

  It almost broke Henry’s heart to see their distress, and he made a decision there and then. He would do whatever it took to help Anshu, Samitha, Phera, and Thambo, as well as every other resident of Mapitigama, even if it meant risking his own life.

  “I’ll have a look at my brother’s plot of land,” he said. “And by God, I hope I find something to help us forward.” He wrapped the sapphire in the handkerchief again and placed the little bundle in his inside pocket.

  A solemn look on her face, Phera got to her feet. “I’ll come with you. To rely on your English god is not enough.”

  “Major?” The orderly was shaking Charles by the shoulder. “Would you please wake up now, sir? I’ve brought you some tea.”

  Charles grunted and tried to shrug off the young man’s hand. “What time’s it?” He opened his eyes, blinked a few times, and then quickly shut them against the harsh sun shining through the tarpaulin doorway. His head was pounding. His mouth was parched.

  “It’s after midday, Major.”

  “What?” He sat up in shock. The sudden movement made him dizzy. He supported himself for a moment, his elbows on the desk. “Why are you only waking me now?”

  “I just couldn’t wake you any earlier, Major, whatever I did. If you’ve worked all night, it’s no wonder you fell asleep at your desk.”

  Charles stared at him in confusion. He couldn’t remember anything about the previous night, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t been working. And yet he had not gone to bed. For some reason, he had fallen asleep at his desk, still fully dressed, his head next to his lockbox.

  When he tried to remember why, he felt only a stabbing pain in his head and moaned in discomfort. But at least a flicker of the previous evening came back to him—Henry had visited.

  The orderly placed a steaming cup of tea on the desk, in front of Charles. “I thought I’d let you sleep, Major. Anyhow, there isn’t much going on at the construction site without the coolies. Last night seven more disappeared. Now we
’ve got—”

  With an impatient gesture, Charles cut him off. “Where’s my brother?”

  “Not here, Major. Saw him this morning when I was feeding your horse. He was just leaving camp.”

  Charles was uneasy. “He hasn’t come back?”

  “No, Major. I don’t think so.”

  Charles’s stomach turned. Somehow, he had lost control over his foolish younger brother. He waved away the orderly. “Leave me alone now.”

  “Yes, sir! Do you need anything further?”

  “No. Thank you.”

  The moment the lad had left, Charles pulled the key out of his pocket and opened the box. The title deed and the leather pouch were still exactly as he had left them the previous evening. At least he thought so.

  He picked up the cup, drank a mouthful of tea, and thought about his visit to the governor. Of course, he had never troubled Paget about a deployment against the handful of natives. His visit had been to pursue another objective, and he had been successful. Paget had awarded him precisely the plot he wanted. Now he just had to build the road. But he needed workers for that, and the bastards had taken off.

  Perhaps the only option now was to ask the governor for fresh workers from India, but he did not know how he was supposed to explain to Paget that his had gotten away. In frustration, he slammed his hand on the desk and let the pain sharpen his mind. He decided to start with the simplest job and clear Mapitigama. That way, the village would be done and dusted by the time the construction work got going. What a nuisance that Henry had taken sides with the natives. Henry . . .

  Henry had brought whisky with him, Charles recalled. They’d had a drink together, and it had been fun. But what had they discussed? He racked his brains. For him and his brother to have any fun together was unusual. As it was for his brother to visit him of his own accord.

  Charles, his head in his hands, struggled to remember more, but he couldn’t focus with such a preposterous hangover. Had they really drunk so much last night? And if so, how could Henry possibly have held his liquor so well, getting up early like that, going off into the jungle, while Charles was barely able to get out of his chair?

  When he really thought about it, this hangover did not actually feel like the result of several glasses of whisky. He felt strangely befuddled, as if numbed. He had only ever felt like this when his brother had prescribed him laudanum for the malaria attacks.

  He ran his index finger first over the leather pouch with the sapphire, then over the document that made him owner of a handsome piece of land by the Kadugannawa Pass. His gnawing doubt grew to serious suspicion.

  He locked the box and hid it in his locker, under a pile of shirts. Then Charles finished his tea and forced himself to hold up his throbbing head. It was high time he found out what his brother was up to.

  “Is this where the road was meant to go?”

  Phera was standing next to Henry on the abandoned section. At its upper end, it was easy to see the work that had gone on. Soil had been shifted and leveled off. Posts marked both sides of the road. These were missing from the middle section, and small rocks still protruded there. There was a mass of holes, too, where larger boulders had been dug out and removed. At the lower end, Phera saw a broad, open strip. Felled trees, some still with roots bared, lay piled up at its edge. But this section was already home to tender green shoots as the primeval forest closed the wounds so crudely opened by man.

  “Wherever you British go, you leave the place like a battleground,” Phera said. “What’s that huge crater there for?”

  Henry looked where she was pointing. “There was an especially large boulder there. It was blasted.”

  They looked together at the almost-circular pit that could have comfortably accommodated Siddhi and another elephant besides. Rubble was littered all around. The huge boulder still loomed above the edge of the crater.

  “The hole should have been filled in with soil,” Henry explained. “But Charles called a halt to the work and then changed the course of the road.”

  “I’d love to see this pit close-up,” said Phera.

  They walked to the crater edge and peered down. The hole was bigger than Henry remembered. Rainfall had eroded its edges, and it had filled up a good two-thirds of the way with water. Flies and dragonflies danced on its smooth, silvery surface.

  Phera kicked bits of earth into the water. “What the hell does your brother want with this land? Does he want to live here?”

  “Oh no,” said Henry. “Charles has no interest in settling here. He hates Ceylon and would get back to England at the first opportunity.”

  “Yet this land is why he diverted the road and wants to destroy our village,” Phera said, grim-faced.

  “He’s hiding something, but could it really be what we imagine?” asked Henry, prodding the boulder with his boot. He startled a lizard from its sunny position on the warm stone, and it flashed from sight.

  Phera watched the little reptile go. “Was this boulder supposed to be taken out of the crater?”

  Henry shrugged. “I imagine so.”

  She took hold of the rope that ran the length of the boulder. Her hand slid along it to the boulder’s front edge, where it joined two cords. Phera picked them up and examined them hard.

  “These cords were probably used as a harness for an elephant to pull the boulder. But they were cut before the elephant finished the job.” She let go of the cords and turned to Henry. “What if that elephant was Siddhi? For her to move the boulder, Eranga had to run a rope under the whole rock. That’s why he climbed down into the crater. I bet that’s when he found the sapphire, and your brother was spying on him.”

  “Or it could have been the reverse. Maybe Eranga was watching Charles when he found the sapphire. As a road engineer, he knows how to spot a precious stone even in its unprocessed state. But I was at the field hospital when they were working out here. I don’t actually know whether it was Eranga and Siddhi trying to heave the boulder out.”

  “If your brother stumbled on a sapphire deposit, that would be reason enough for him to steal this land,” declared Phera. “And it would certainly explain killing Eranga and covering it up. Do you remember the day when I collected Eranga’s body from the construction site? Siddhi went berserk when she saw your brother.”

  Henry did not reply. He felt for Eranga’s sapphire inside his jacket and thought about the larger one he had seen in Charles’s lockbox. Henry swallowed hard. Despair stirred somewhere deep inside him, and a soft voice whispered, Just a little opium, and all your worries will float away.

  He reached out for Phera and was so relieved when he felt her fingers entwine with his. “What are you going to do?” she asked him, her voice soft and gentle.

  He sighed. “I’ll find Charles and confront him with our suspicions.”

  “But isn’t that dangerous?”

  “I’ll be careful,” promised Henry.

  He knew better, but some part of him still hoped his once-loved big brother had an innocent explanation for the sapphire and the land he had been so secretive about.

  Phera squeezed his hand. “And I’ll ask around amongst the men who were working on the road here. Maybe someone saw Eranga and Siddhi at the crater.”

  “Good idea,” said Henry. “Let’s meet again at sunset, by the waterfall, and see what we’ve both found out.”

  Hand in hand, they crossed the abandoned stretch of road, went into the forest, and turned again onto the narrow path they had come by.

  Phera stopped for a moment and gently stroked Henry’s chest. “You look so sad.”

  He forced a smile. “I’m all right; don’t worry.” He took her hands and kissed first her fingertips, then her lips.

  Something stirred in the undergrowth. They both gave a start, then laughed as a pair of small green parrots fluttered up, almost brushing against their heads, wings flapping noisily. Then Phera and Henry were back in one another’s arms, Phera nestling her body close to his. His hands slid d
own her back and over her bottom.

  “When we’ve gotten all this behind us, I want us to bathe together under the waterfall as often as we can,” Phera whispered.

  “So do I,” murmured Henry, as he kissed her again.

  But just a few yards away, Charles was squatting in the foliage. After rushing to the abandoned section of road, he’d spotted them by the crater and hidden himself in the trees.

  While he stood there, wondering whether the two of them had discovered his secret, they came closer—hand in hand. Charles rubbed his eyes and blinked in amazement to see his brother and the elephant boy holding hands. Incredulous, he shook his head. He already knew his brother was an obstinate philanthropist with an ill-fated love for opium. But sexual perversion, well, he had never expected that.

  Henry took the young Sinhalese mahout in his arms and kissed him passionately. The mahout put his arms round Henry’s neck and cuddled up close.

  For heaven’s sake, surely he doesn’t actually intend to lie with this boy, thought Charles, full of revulsion.

  As Henry stroked the mahout’s backside, Charles squeezed his eyes shut. But after a few seconds, curiosity got the better of him, and he took a surreptitious look. Henry and the boy were still locked in an embrace. Henry’s hands worked their way upward to loosen the mahout’s hair. Long, beautifully shiny, it tumbled down the boy’s back.

  They’re actually going to mate!

  Just then the boy laughed, a girlish giggle. Now Charles heard Henry saying, “You are the most enchanting woman I’ve ever met.”

  Charles nearly let slip a gasp of astonishment, clapping his hand to his mouth in the nick of time. He took a good look at the soft facial features of this young mahout, the graceful neck and narrow shoulders. He scrutinized the curves beneath the loose shirt.

  He could have burst out laughing. So the elephant boy was really a woman. An attractive one at that. While his brother had obviously seen through the disguise, he had let himself be taken in and, not to mention, scared off by her ghastly elephant.

  He stared at Henry and Phera, who had now finished their long embrace. When he saw the happiness on their faces, he seethed with resentment. His brother and the little slut would regret getting in his way. He would teach them both a lesson they would never forget.