The Far Pavilions - Mary Margaret Kaye [651]
The servant murmured an acknowledgement and left, and as his footsteps retreated Ash said angrily: ‘Who gave you leave to speak for me? You will now go down yourself to the Sirdar-Sahib and make my apologies to him, because I will see no one tonight: no one, do you hear?’
‘I hear,’ said Gul Baz quietly. ‘But you will have to see him, for what he has to say is of great import, so -’
‘He can say it tomorrow,’ interrupted Ash brusquely. ‘Let there be no more talk. You may go.’
‘We must all go,’ said Gul Baz grimly. ‘You and the Memsahib, and my-elf also. And we must go tonight.’
‘We…? What talk is this? I do not understand. Who says so?’
‘The whole household,’ said Gul Baz, ‘the women-folk more loudly than the rest. And because they will put great pressure upon him, the Sirdar-Bahadur may have no remedy but to warn you of it when he sees you tonight. Of that I was sure even before you returned here, for I spoke with certain servants of the Sirdar's friend, Wali Mohammed Khan, with whom he took refuge today when they brought him back to this house. Since then I have listened to much more talk, and learned many things that you as yet do not know. Will you hear them?’
Ash stared at him for a long moment, and then, motioning him to sit, sat down himself on Anjuli's rush stool to listen, while Gul Baz hunkered down on the floor and began to speak. According to Gul Baz, Wali Mohammed Khan had thought along the same lines as the spy Sohbat, and decided that his friend's best chance of leaving the Bala Hissar and reaching his own house in safety lay in going while the mob were engaged in looting the Residency. He had lost no time in arranging it and had, apparently, been only too anxious to get rid of his guest…
‘Being greatly afraid,’ said Gul Baz, ‘that once the killing and looting is done, many who took part in that will turn to searching for fugitives, since it is already being said that two sepoys who were caught up in the fighting and unable to get back to their fellows were saved from death by friends among the mob, and are now in hiding in the city – or perchance in the Bala Hissar itself. There is also another sepoy who is known to have gone into the Great Bazaar to buy atta before the fight began, and could not return, as well as the three sowars who rode out with the grass-cutters. This the servants of Wali Mohammed Khan told us when they brought our Sirdar back in disguise after the fighting at the Residency Koti was over. And hearing it, the folk in this house also became afraid. They fear that tomorrow the mob will turn to searching for these fugitives and attacking anyone whom they suspect of harbouring them or of being a “Cavagnari-ite”. And that the Sirdar-Bahadur's life may be endangered, because he once served with the Guides. Wherefore they have urged him to leave at once for his house in Aoshar, and remain there until this trouble is past. This he has agreed to do, for he was recognized and sorely mishandled this morning.’
‘I know. I saw him,’ said Ash; ‘and I think he does right to go. But why us?’
‘His household insist that he must send you and your Memsahib away now – tonight. For they say that if men should come here asking questions and demanding to search the house, they will become suspicious when they find strangers who cannot give a good account of themselves – such as a man who is not of Kabul and who may well be a spy, and a woman who claims to be Turkish. Foreigners…’
‘Dear God,’ whispered