Love's Odyssey by Toombs Jane

Author:Toombs, Jane [Toombs, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Books We Love Ltd.
Published: 2013-06-26T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Romell immediately liked the Dutch family who were to be her hosts. Christoffel Reijts was a jolly, fat VOC merchant nearing forty. His wife, Elysabet, was younger, but also plump and good-natured. Their ten-year-old son, Johan, was in Holland with his grandparents, since "the air here doesn't agree with him," but the baby, Sara, toddled happily about, her pink cheeks glowing with health.

Romell’s own health improved rapidly--she'd never seen so much food served just for one family. The rijst tafel, rice table, covered an entire table with serving dishes. Besides the rice, there were tiny, inch-long fish in red sauce, shrimp, blue beans, unfamiliar brightly colored fruits, a fish delicacy wrapped in pastry, and whatever else the cook happened to buy from the food peddlars.

"Ah, it's good to see you eat," Elysabet told Romell, giggling as she spoke. "You soon will be a proper Dutch bride for Hendrik."

The Reijts' large frame house had an imposing verandah in front, tile floors, and a huge living room with high ceilings. The two-story building was L-shaped, with a garden and fruit trees in the back enclosed by the house wing and a covered walk leading from the back porch to the kampong, a long, low building set at right angles to the house.

"Do the servants live there?" Romell asked Elysabet when she was first shown about the grounds.

"The servants' quarters, yes, but the storeroom, too, and the kitchen and bath." Elysabet opened a door marked bath and Romell saw a stone-walled cistern in the middle of the room with a small bucket next to it.

She smiled, thinking of the early days in Virginia, before her father had built the brick house. The arrangements for bathing had been much the same except for a water barrel in place of the cistern.

"I admit it's not Amsterdam." Elysabet sighed. "But one must adapt to the country where one lives."

"I think your home is lovely," Romell assured her. "I like Batavia."

It was the truth. Although, in Romell's eyes, the Dutch had done their best to turn Batavia into a miniature Amsterdam, complete with canals, she found Java exciting. The Reijts, like the other Dutch, lived inside the walls of the VOC compound, but the houses all swarmed with Javanese servants in batik sarongs, the men wearing turbans on their heads.

In the gardens, purple passion flowers and orange flame vines splashed color over walls and porches. Doves cooed and parakeets chattered from cages hanging among a wild profusion of orchids growing under the eaves.

Romell immediately began to learn to speak Javanese since none of the servants seemed to know more than a few Dutch words.

"Oh, they understand better than they let on," Elysabet insisted. "They could speak a Christian language if they wished." She shook her head, looking at her Jongens Sato, her Number One Boy, as she talked to Romell.

Romell wasn't accustomed to talking about servants where they could hear what was said. Sir Thomas had never done so and neither had her father.

"I'd like to learn their language though," she said politely.

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