The Distant Kingdom by Daphne Wright

Author:Daphne Wright [Wright, Daphne]
Language: eng
Format: epub

They reached cantonments at Caubul late one afternoon in May, very stiff, tired and argumentative. Behind them straggled the long caravan of camels bearing their baggage. The children were fractious and tearful and Perdita had found herself growing more apprehensive with each mile they advanced further into Afghanistan. But even so she was relieved when they finally reached their destination.

Marcus was looking remarkably well, she thought, and he was very solicitous when he saw how pale she was. He made her leave the unpacking and go to lie down, while he attempted to wring some kind of order from the two parties of servants and the mountains of baggage.

She was still asleep when he went into her room dressed for dinner, and so he wrote her a note of explanation and concern for her health, and sallied forth to Alexander Burnes’s house in the city, where he spent a convivial evening with a mixture of political and army officers. One or two of the unmarried men were wondering aloud whether the arrival of the memsahibs would circumscribe their amusements, but Sir Alexander waved their fears aside with a plump hand, and described in exhaustive if louche detail the charms of his latest Afghan inamorata.

Marcus listened in growing disgust and was not surprised when Colonel Robert Warburton took the first opportunity to slip away, but one of the other guests asked what was up. James Thurleigh, as one of Sir William’s peripatetic political officers, knew all the details and said breezily:

‘Haven’t you heard? The old fool is well and truly caught. Unlike our host here, who understands how to treat these women, he is going to marry one.’

‘Good God, an Afghan?’

‘Yes, I cannot imagine why, except that she is said to be a niece of the Dost and perhaps he thinks he’ll reap some political advantage, or perhaps like Beaminster’s esteemed father-in-law, he loves her.’

Marcus winced inwardly at the heavy sarcasm his friend laid on the word and moved away to talk to another officer whose expression of disagreement suggested that he too would prefer to discuss another subject.

James saw the withdrawal, and once again silently cursed the English ladies for the complications they always brought with them, and the divisions they always drove between their husbands and old friends. He went over to Marcus later in the evening to make amends by asking:

‘Do you go to the cockfight tomorrow, old fellow?’

‘I hope so. I expect my wife will wish to rest, but if she does not, I think I shall have to ride with her: show her something of the country.’ He saw James frown, and said, ‘After all, she has crossed India to come here. I can’t carry on now as though I were a bachelor.’

‘I suppose not,’ answered his friend, forbearing to ask as he would have liked: and why the devil did you send for her?

Marcus would have found the question difficult to answer. He did not admit, even to himself, that he had missed her presence in his life.

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