The Glass Kingdom: A Novel by Lawrence Osborne

Author:Lawrence Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hogarth
Published: 2020-08-17T23:00:00+00:00

TEN

At the end of that same week, Ximena sent her an invitation to meet for dinner at a nearby restaurant. The invitation was offered casually in a note slipped under Sarah’s door with an old-fashioned touch of subterfuge, handwritten, but there was no indication that it had been extended to Mali. It was to be at a Japanese place called Ten Sui, which Sarah had never heard of. To Sarah’s eye the note seemed offhand and this implied that the other two had no inkling of what had happened between Mali and Sarah. If this was so, it was important that she show up at Ten Sui and pretend that she expected Mali to be there as well. If Mali didn’t show up, she would have to affect an effortless surprise. Aside from this she was pleased to be able to go out again. She had spent that week completely alone, seeing no one and not leaving the Kingdom. The burden of that solitude had begun to crush her hour by hour. On the Tuesday night, therefore, she dressed up as haughtily as she could. She wanted the men in their peaked caps at the gate to notice her self-flaunting.

Natalie and Ximena were already there when Sarah found Ten Sui on Soi 16, only a few hundred yards from Sukhumvit Road, and stepped across the stones of a rustic path that led through a raked Zen garden lit by lines of red paper lanterns. These moved in a temperamental wind as shadows were flung around the stone lanterns. They had a table by the outer windows that looked over this same garden, where the rocks and pools were lit at ground level. It was a place for Toyota executives and their visiting mothers from Tokyo, for men entertaining formidable superiors. Ximena was dressed in extravagant black evening wear, merry and already a little tipsy—self-pushed over the edge, Sarah thought. There was no sign of Mali.

Ximena asked her about it immediately: “I sent her a message like I did with you, but she didn’t reply. I just assumed she’d come.”

But after half an hour she was still not there. As a result, a slight awkwardness descended upon them until they ordered and the plates began to come one by one. Nabe soup in paper cups heated from beneath by burners and natto in black lacquer dishes. The three of them raised a sake toast and Natalie asked Sarah at once if their maid, Goi, had come to see her yet.

“She came, yes.”

“Finally! She forgets sometimes. Do you like her?”

“I do.”

“We’ve had her for three years. You’re in good hands,” Natalie went on, to make the conversation flow. “And Roland says she’s the best maid we’ve ever had.”

“I second that,” Ximena said. “She’s discreet too.”

About what? Sarah thought.

“Roland says she’s the most trustworthy person in the country.”

Sarah asked if Goi had a passkey for all the units. She hadn’t wanted to ask her. The answer was that she did, all the maids did.

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.