A Tiger's Wedding by Isla Blair

Author:Isla Blair
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781906790943
Publisher: Creative Content Ltd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

NINE

Two Leaves and a Bud

I thought of the endless cups of tea I’d drunk at school, a thick, brackish brew, almost orange in colour, that left your teeth with a film over them and in need of a good brush. Betty Henderson liked tea that was very pale yellow and tasted of jasmine blossoms. The tea at Newtonmore was just tea, not too strong not too weak and on special occasions Molly put a spoonful of Earl Grey in it so that it tasted of bergamot and lemon peel. Jack said it was a sin to adulterate tea in this way, but I liked it and still do. Granny Paterson had tea that she left to stew and she kept heating it up so it was thick and bitter.

Tea was drunk by all sorts of people on all sorts of occasions and was especially enjoyed in Britain, it seemed. It warmed and comforted you when you were cold and it was thirst quenching when you were hot. Tea was a sort of miracle drink and Daddy wanted to teach us all about it – not because it would be useful, but because it was an interesting process and so, indeed, it turned out to be.

It started with the tea pluckers, who were always women. They looked amazing in their colourful saris of vibrant greens and purples and oranges. They wore a light blanket or cumbli over their heads and the rope of their tea basket went on top of this; they plucked their “two leaves and a bud” with dazzling speed.

Their baskets would be weighed at the end of each shift and they would be paid according to weight. I was impressed by how they could stand unperturbed by the leeches in the monsoon months; they just let them bite and then waited for the great, black, blood filled creatures to drop off. Sometimes the bites became infected and had to be treated. Snakes were taken more seriously, but the women only occasionally got bitten and there was usually serum to treat them back at the factory. However, I admired their calm.

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