Singapore Sapphire by A. M. Stuart

Author:A. M. Stuart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

Sunday was the servants’ day off and Harriet was on kitchen duty, making scones to go with the chicken soup Lokman had left for their supper. In a corner of the kitchen, a small domestic altar had been sent up by Huo Jin, presided over by the faded photographs of an elderly Chinese couple in stiff robes and an even stiffer pose. The burnt-down stubs of the incense sticks placed on the altar before the ancestors left a lingering sweetness that mingled with the kitchen smells. The honored ancestors scowled at Harriet, while at her feet, Shashti chased a scrap of paper around the tiles. Aziz sat in a corner, polishing boots and humming to himself, even though he too should have been enjoying some free time.

“Have you no family to visit?” Harriet inquired.

Aziz looked up, his eyes wide with surprise. “No, mem. No family. You give me time to go to the mosque on Friday. That is all I need.”

Beyond the kitchen door, the heavy leaves of the tropical foliage that fringed the school dripped with moisture from an evening rainstorm, and hidden in the canopy the ulu resonated with the shrill cries of the macaques, birds and the chirrup of myriad insects. When she had first gone to India it had surprised her to find that the jungle was such a noisy place.

“Mrs. Gordon?”

At the sound of a boy’s voice, she poked her head out of the kitchen. “In here, Will.”

Will Lawson hesitated, looking around the unfamiliar room. “Can I come in?”

“Of course. It’s only a kitchen.”

The boy entered the room, his nose twitching at the pleasant baking smells. Aziz looked up from his task and, seeing Will, grinned broadly.

Will raised a hand to acknowledge the other boy. “Hello, Aziz.”

Aziz ducked his head and returned to his task.

“Good evening, Mrs. Gordon.” Will stood very straight, his hands behind his back. He seemed a very well-brought-up young man. Annie Lawson had done a good job.

“Good evening, Will. Did you come to visit Shashti?”

Harriet placed a second batch of scones on a tray and thrust it into the oven.

Shashti appeared from under a kitchen cabinet and Will’s face lit up. He picked up the kitten and sat down on a kitchen stool.

“She’s getting fat, Mrs. Gordon.”

Harriet looked at the little round kitten tummy and smiled. “She’s doing just fine, Will. How’s school?”

“It’s all right,” the boy said but his shoulders slumped and he turned all his concentration to the cat in his lap.

“Something wrong?”

“Papa says I have to go to school in England.”

Many of the children of planters and officials got sent to school in England from the age of eight so Will had been fortunate he had been spared for at least a couple of years. She wondered how John Lawson could afford the school fees for a school in England when he struggled to pay St. Thomas.

“I don’t want to go to England. Papa says it means I will have to stay there and live with my aunt and uncle during school holidays.

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