“Mrs. Eldred, listen to me. Everything is in hand, everyone has been informed. We have telegraphed to London—Father Alfred has done it, that man is not such a fool as he sometimes appears. The High Commissioner is sending someone from Cape Town. Everyone is praying, Mrs. Eldred. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, yes, I understand—Lucy, have you seen my husband? Is there any news?”
“Father Alfred has seen him. He is well and in good spirits and saying not to worry. At the mission we are all well, we are all in good spirits, the monthly accounts are done, the wages are paid, you must have no fear, everything is in good order.”
“Five minutes,” the wardress said. Her face was set into a grimace of distaste. She held out her arm, showing her watch, as if Lucy might not understand.
Lucy looked at her hard. “Are you a Christian woman?” she asked. She let Anna go. She fell against the table, limp as a rag doll. Lucy opened her handbag. “They said one book, no more. I have brought you this. I know this book is dear to you because you have brought it from your home in England, and as you once told me, given to you by your mother.” Lucy put into Anna’s hand her copy of
Back in her cell Anna sat with the book on her knees. She heard her mother’s voice: “One of the
Lucy’s visit seemed to Anna to indicate that release might be at hand. Don’t raise your hopes, she said to herself; but she hardly slept.
In the morning she made no attempt to eat. She had developed a disgust for the tepid water in its metal jug, and had to make an effort of will—tip her head back, hold her throat open—to pour it into herself. She was thirsty all the time, and once again shaky and cold, her nerves taut.
She wanted peace from her own thoughts, from their relentless, spinning nature. She realized that not once since she had been in prison had she prayed. It had not crossed her mind to do it. She looked into her heart, on this sixth morning of her imprisonment, and found a void where the faith should be.
At ten o’clock the cell door was unlocked and the colonel came in. “How are you today, Mrs. Eldred?”
“I want a bath,” she said instantly. “I want news of my husband. I want you to let me go.”
The colonel held up his hand: peace, peace. “Mrs. Eldred, your husband is here. I have come to escort you to my office, where you will find both Mr. Eldred and a representative of the High Commissioner. Will that do for you, for now?”
Ralph rose from his chair when he saw her, his face dismayed. “Anna! Good God, what has happened?”
For a moment she thought she might faint. She saw that Ralph’s face was puffy and bruised, his lip was cut. Her stomach tightened and churned; a spasm of physical and moral disgust shook her, and she felt suddenly raw, as if her skin had been peeled; I can’t bear it, she thought. She loved him, he was her child, and it made her lightheaded with rage to think that he had suffered a moment’s pain, and from these swine … The room swam and shivered, the ceiling fan churned the air, the colonel put his hand under her elbow, and a stranger wedged into the corner of the office bobbed up from his chair and said, “Cooper from Cape Town.”
She found herself sitting. She grasped Cooper’s damp, extended hand, not seeming to realize what it was for. “She’s been a silly girl,” the colonel said. “Refusing food.”
“And you let her?” Ralph said.
“What would you have preferred, Mr. Eldred, did you want me to force-feed her?”
“It would be better if you sat down, Mr. Eldred,” Cooper from Cape Town said, “so that we can conduct our business in a seemly and civilized manner.”
“We’re in the wrong country for that,” Ralph said.
But he did sit; took Anna’s hand and touched her dry lips with his.
“May I begin?” Cooper said. Too young a man, ill at ease, sweating inside his businessman’s suit. He cleared his throat. “To be frank, this is turning into something of an embarrassment.”
Ralph leapt from his chair again. “Embarrassment? We are taken away in the middle of the night and detained without charge, I am threatened with violence and my wife is starved, the mission staff are terrorized, and you call it an embarrassment?”
“Mr. Eldred, you are not helping your case,” Cooper said. “Of course you are aggrieved, but as Her Majesty’s representative my duty is to extract you from the unfortunate situation in which you have placed yourself, and to do this without damage to the relations of our two governments.”
“What do you mean?” Anna swooped forward to the edge of her chair. “What do you mean, the situation in which we have placed ourselves?”
“Please, Mrs. Eldred,” the colonel said mildly. “Listen to the man. He’s come a long way to talk to you.”
“Thank you, Colonel,” Cooper said. “Now, the situation roughly speaking is this; you can as I understand it be released almost immediately, but there are certain conditions with which you must comply.” Cooper took out his handkerchief and swabbed his forehead. His no-color eyes traveled from side to side.
“I think it would be easier for you,” the colonel said, “if I left you alone with your nationals.”
“Properly speaking,” Cooper said, “that is what should occur.”
The colonel smiled slightly. “You are not afraid of Mr. Eldred?” Cooper didn’t reply. “If I hear the sound of your skull being pounded on the floor, Mr. Cooper, I shall come right away to your relief. Depend upon it.”
The colonel went out, closing the door on them. There was a moment’s silence. “It will be easiest if you resign,” Cooper said.
“Never,” Ralph said. “Let them throw me out, if that’s what they want. I’m not going to do anything to make their lives easier.”
