Dark Ocean by Nick Elliott

Author:Nick Elliott [Elliott, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780992902841
Publisher: Seaward Publishing
Published: 2017-08-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Susanna Buchan hadn’t spoken much while we were with Jim Brodie. ‘Can we talk?’ she asked now as we left the nursing home.

‘Sure. What about Ronnie here?’

‘No just you and me, if that’s okay?’ she added turning to Ronnie.

Ronnie didn’t look too concerned and I said I’d be in touch.

‘You know you can kip down at my place, any time,’ he said and with that he rattled off down the road in his Land Rover as we climbed into the back of a large black Mercedes and glided off, cocooned in leather and soft Oriental music.

‘Do you recognise this music?’ she asked. ‘It’s from Vietnam, where I come from.’

‘Oh.’

‘I’ll tell you over dinner, if you’re free?’

‘I’m free.’

We went to the Beas River Country Club, set amongst rolling hills in the northern part of the New Territories. Susanna was greeted at the door in much the same way I’d seen her and her stepfather welcomed at the Hong Kong Club.

‘Drinks first,’ she said leading the way to the bar. She ordered a Margarita for herself and a Martini for me. I sensed an over-eagerness from the barman. He wasn’t being obsequious, he was just entranced by her. It wasn’t so much her beauty as much as her easy-going manner: cool but friendly. There were a dozen or so others in there, a mix of Chinese, Europeans and Americans and she greeted those she knew without stopping to talk.

‘I thought I’d better tell you a little bit about myself,’ she began. ‘It will help explain things, to do with the Lady Monteith I mean.’ We’d sat in a quiet corner waiting for our drinks to be brought over. When they were she took a sip of her Margarita before starting.

‘I was rescued from the South China Sea when I was two. Of course I only know what I’ve been told. I was on a boat full of people fleeing Vietnam for a better life. Apparently the boat was overcrowded – over eighty of us on board. The food and water had run out. Conditions were dreadful, no sanitation. And that night when the ship found us, it was stormy and the boat was taking in water.

‘I was passed to one of the ship’s crew who was standing at the bottom of the gangway. Our boat was slamming against the ship’s side. It sank within minutes before anyone else could be taken off. I lost my family that night: my parents and two brothers.’ She spoke without emotion.

‘The ship that rescued me, and a few others who’d managed to get off, was the Lady Maree, one of Sinclair Buchan’s. When we arrived in Hong Kong Monty came aboard. I was the only child who had been rescued. The others were adults and were taken to a resettlement camp, at Sham Shi Po, on the site of the Japanese POW camp ironically. They were resettled in England eventually.’

‘And you?’

‘You can guess. I was adopted by Monty and his wife. She was Chinese, my stepmother.

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