The Plantation - Di Morrissey [15]
Margaret was escorted to the captain’s table by Roland, while a stiffly attired ship’s officer escorted Adelaide. The men at the table rose while the ladies were seated. Having met the captain already at his cocktail reception, both ladies were at ease as they were introduced to the other guests at the table. After a few pleasantries, the men quickly dominated the conversation.
When Margaret was finally asked by the man on her right about where she’d been and what her future plans were, she answered quietly, ‘Miss Monkton and I have been touring Europe, which has been most interesting. My trip was a twenty-first birthday present from my parents. I’m returning home to Brisbane now. I haven’t made any specific plans, but I would like to travel some more.’
Adelaide blinked at this. It was the first time she’d heard Margaret’s wish for further travel.
‘Jolly good idea to travel before settling down,’ agreed another woman at the table.
Margaret added politely, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing Port Said and especially Colombo. Mr Elliott has offered to show me some of the sights there.’
‘Keep away from those thieving markets,’ advised the captain. ‘And be careful about buying precious stones. Many can be fakes, you understand.’
Roland smiled at Margaret. ‘Perhaps there will be time to take a trip to Kandy, the old Sinhalese capital. See some of the exotic Buddhist temples.’
‘How exotic?’ asked Adelaide with a faint frown. ‘I hear some of those places, well, the carvings, can be somewhat explicit. Maybe they are not suitable for a young lady.’
‘There’s always the Cinnamon Gardens,’ suggested one of the women at the table.
‘Yes, good idea,’ agreed Roland and turned to Adelaide. ‘Have you seen much of the Far East, Miss Monkton?’
‘No, I prefer the culture of Europe,’ replied Adelaide.
‘You should go out to Malaya. You’ll find it frightfully interesting,’ said the captain cheerfully. ‘Isn’t that so, Mr Elliott?’
‘Is that where you live?’ asked Adelaide.
The captain gave a hearty laugh. ‘By Jove, yes. These young chaps are making their fortune in rubber, isn’t that so?’ he boomed.
‘Some do,’ said Roland, modestly.
‘Which rubber estate are you on?’ asked one of the men, a retired colonel travelling to Australia to visit his aged sister.
‘The plantation’s called Utopia and it’s in Perak state, which I must admit can still be a bit wild,’ said Roland before he changed the subject, asking the captain about his sea-going adventures.
Adelaide glanced at Margaret as she finished her dessert and thought to herself, ‘Well, Mr Elliott will be out of the running now.’ She couldn’t see Margaret anywhere near a jungle.
But Margaret’s interest in the charming Roland Elliott didn’t wane at all. In fact most afternoons while Adelaide took her afternoon rest, the pair could be found sitting on the upper deck verandah, Margaret drinking American-style ice cream sodas while Roland contented himself with tea.
She asked him many questions about his life in Malaya, trying to understand exactly what he did and how a plantation worked. She found all of his answers interesting, even when he talked about the daily muster, the need to keep a close eye on the native workers, the problems with up-country estates, the communist troublemakers, the drop in tin prices, the idea of turning some of the rubber estate over to oil palms, and the renewed interest in rubber as the effects of the Depression eased. However, what Margaret really wanted to know about was his social life. Did he have a special lady friend?
In the ship’s library she’d found an autobiography of a British planter who’d been in Malaya in the early 1900s and he had not been shy in writing about the charms of the local women in the brothels. Margaret wondered if Roland knew about this side of life in Malaya. But while she asked a lot of pleasant and superficial