The Rose of Sebastopol by McMahon Katharine

Author:McMahon, Katharine [McMahon, Katharine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2009-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Five

As the Royal Albert was not due to sail back to Constantinople for a week or so, we were to use her as lodgings. The intention was that we would find Rosa quickly and leave with our ship.

I dressed in my third-best gown, hung my reticule over one arm, and with my other hand held an open parasol to protect myself from the blistering sunshine. Even Nora, who wore a shapeless bonnet with a deep brim, approved of this arrangement. She said that we were so unused to the conditions that it was likely we’d get sunstroke if we weren’t careful.

My first thought on stepping onto Russian soil was of Henry, who had stood on these same paving stones and set sail from this same cramped harbor with shiploads of wounded men. But it was hard to equate this bustling place with the muddy pest-hole described in his letters, and the very thought of Henry, which led inevitably to the memory of that dreadful episode in the Narni bedroom, made me wretched.

In any case, I realized that I was attracting a great deal of unwanted attention. Nobody else held a parasol or wore cream muslin, flounced and beribboned over half a dozen petticoats; in fact, as far as I could tell, nobody else except Nora was female. Fortunately the captain had supplied us with an escort, who was to take us to someone in authority, but though men fell back on either side as we passed, nobody worried about gawping at me, particularly foreigners whose filthy feet and knees were visible to me from beneath the fringed shelter of my parasol.

Eventually we came to a building which might once have been the house of a wealthier townsperson but had been allowed to fall into a state of near ruin and then roughly rebuilt. Shutters were missing, stucco had flaked away, and the roof was patched. Soldiers were hanging about in the hall and when an officer came running down the stairs he gaped and then sent us to a waiting room in which papers flooded every surface and burst from files and boxes. After a while it grew so hot that I leant against a heap and twirled the handle of my parasol. Nora went to the window but there was no view except of a yard filled with filth and rubble. Footsteps clumped up and down the stairs, men’s voices called, mostly jocular and well-spoken, some harassed or rough, and the business of the harbor rattled and clanged outside.

At last we were shown into a little office with a crooked desk and notice boards covered in maps scribbled over with notes, lists, and information about ships, masters, regiments, and purveyors. The smell of blocked drains was very bad but otherwise it was a reassuring enough place, because it reminded me of Father’s study. The official behind the desk was tall and thin with a long face and mournful eyes, like a well-intentioned mongrel, though his skin had an unhealthy gray tinge and his moustache drooped sadly at either end.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.