objective will be the passes here at Atbara gorge and Minkti. His purpose will be to prevent the Emperor coming down from the plateau with his main forces to intervene. I have been sent here by Atalan, may he rot in hell, to scout the terrain over which he will attack.”
“My God!” Ryder looked aghast. “The Emperor has no inkling of this.”
“Do you have access to him?” Penrod demanded.
“I do, yes. I know him well. I shall be seeing him immediately on my return to Entoto in three or four months’ time.”
“Then give him this warning.”
“I will depend on it. He will be grateful. I am sure he will offer his assistance in the rescue of Rebecca and Amber,” Ryder assured him. “But tell me, Ballantyne, why do you offer him this warning? What is it to you if the Dervish invade this country?”
“Need you ask? Your enemy is my enemy. The evil that is abroad can only be appreciated by those who have witnessed the sack of a city by the Dervish. You were at Khartoum?” Ryder nodded. “Emperor John is a Christian monarch. Abdullahi and his bloodthirsty maniacs must be stopped. Perhaps he will be able to put an end to these horrors.” Penrod turned to Saffron. “What message can I take back to Omdurman for your sisters?” he asked.
Her eyes glistened with tears in the lamplight as she struggled with her reply. “Tell them that I love them both with all my heart, and always shall. Tell them to be brave. We will help them. We shall all be together again soon. But whatever happens I still love them.”
“I will give them that message,” Penrod promised. “I am certain it will be of great comfort to them.” He turned back to Ryder, and held out his hand. “I think we would be wise to forget our personal differences and work together towards our common goal.”
“I agree with all my heart,” said Ryder, and shook the proffered hand.
Penrod stooped over the lamp and blew out the flame, then disappeared out into the night.
It was almost Christmas before Ryder Courtney returned to Entoto, the capital of Abyssinia and the city where he had his main trading compound.
“This must be the bleakest place in the world,” said Saffron, as they rode in through the city gates at the head of the caravan of mules, ‘even worse than Khartoum. Why can’t we live in Gondar, Ryder?”
“Because, Miss Saffron Benbrook, in the near future you will be living in the village of Bishop’s Sutton in Hampshire with your uncle Thomas and aunt Jane.”
“You are being tiresome again, Ryder,” she warned him. “I don’t want to live in England. I want to stay here with you.”
“I am flattered.” He touched the brim of his hat. “But, most unfortunately for all concerned, you cannot spend the rest of your life traipsing through the African bush like a gypsy. You have to go back to civilization and learn to be a lady. Besides, people are beginning to talk. You are a child no longer indeed, you are a big girl now.”
Ah, so you have noticed! Saffron thought complacently. I was beginning to think you, Ryder Courtney, were blind. Then, aloud, she reiterated the promise that was usually enough to satisfy him: “I will go back to England without any fuss when Rebecca and Amber have been rescued,” she spoke with a straight face and total insincerity, ‘and when my uncle Thomas promises to take care of us. He has not replied to your letters yet, and it’s over a year since you first wrote,” she reminded him smugly. “Now, let us speak of more interesting matters. How long will we stay in Entoto, and where will we travel to next?”
“I have business here that will take some time.”
“It’s so cold and windy in the mountains after the warmth of the lowlands, and there is no firewood for miles. All the trees have been cut down.”
“You must have been talking to Empress Miriam. She shares your opinion of Entoto. That’s why the Emperor is moving the capital to the hot springs at Addis Ababa. She is a nag, just like somebody else I know.”
“I am not a nag, but sometimes I know best,” said Saffron sweetly. “Even though you treat me like a baby.”
Despite her protests, the Courtney compound at Entoto was really very comfortable and welcoming, and she had managed, with the help of Bacheet, to make it even more so. She had even prevailed on Ryder to convert one of the old disused storerooms into a bedroom and studio for her exclusive use. It had not been easy. Ryder was reluctant to do anything that might give her reason to believe that her stay with him was permanent.
In order to procure a studio Saffron had enlisted the help of Lady Alice Packer, wife of the British ambassador to the court of the Emperor, who had taken her under her wing. Of course, her husband had known David Benbrook when they had both worked under Sir Evelyn Baring in the diplomatic agency in Cairo so she felt some responsibility for his orphaned daughter.
Alice was an amateur artist, and when she recognized Saffron’s natural talent in the same field she had assumed the role of teacher. She provided Saffron with paints, brushes and art paper brought in from Cairo in the diplomatic pouch, and taught her how to make her own canvas stretchers and charcoal sticks.
Within the time that they had known each other Saffron had almost outstripped her teacher. Her portfolio contained at least fifty lovingly wrought portraits of Ryder Courtney, most of which had been drawn without the subject’s knowledge, and she had completed numerous African landscapes and animal sketches, which astonished both Alice and Ryder with their maturity and virtuosity. Recently she had commenced a series of drawings and paintings from her memories of Khartoum and the horrors of the siege. They were beautiful but harrowing. Ryder realized that they were a form of catharsis for her, so he encouraged her to continue with them.
Two days after their return to Entoto, Saffron made her way up to the embassy to take tea with Alice. She showed her tutor all the Khartoum sketches, which they discussed at some length. Alice wept as she looked at them. “These are magnificent, my dear. I stand in awe of your skill.”
Saffron stopped repacking them and turned to Alice, her eyes full of tears.
“What is it, Saffron?” Alice asked kindly. Although she had been sworn to secrecy by Ryder, Saffron blurted out a full account of the nocturnal meeting with Penrod Ballantyne in the Atbara gorge. Alice promised her husband would inform Sir Evelyn Baring at once of the predicament of her sisters and also of Captain Ballantyne. Saffron was much cheered by this. Then, as she was leaving, she asked innocently, “If any mail for Mr. Courtney has arrived, I would be pleased to deliver it to him, and perhaps save one of your staff the trouble.”
Alice sent down to the chancery and a secretary returned with a stack of envelopes addressed to “Ryder Courtney Esq,” care of the British ambassador at Entoto, Abyssinia.
Saffron examined them as she walked through the town to the market. She recognized the handwriting on the first envelope. It was from Ryder’s nephew, Sean Courtney, at the newly discovered gold fields in the Transvaal Republic of South Africa. Saffron knew that Sean was importuning his uncle to invest several thousand pounds in a new mine. The next was a bill for goods supplied by the Army and Navy stores in London. The third envelope bore the seal of “The Office of the Government Assayer of the Cape of Good Hope’, and the fourth was the one that Saffron had been dreading. On the reverse was the inscription:
Sender:
The Reverend Thomas Benbrook
The Vicarage
Bishop’s Sutton
Hampshire. England
She placed the other letters in her pocket, but this one she hid down the front of her bodice. Saffron spent less time than usual in the market. She bought a large bunch of wild mountain gladioli from her favourite flower- seller. Then she came across a handsome silver hip-flask, which she decided might do for Ryder’s birthday. The price was beyond her meagre resources and she was in too much of a hurry to bargain with the merchant, so she promised to return the following day.
She hurried back to the compound and placed the flowers in the tub beside the kitchen door. Then she retired to the earth closet, which was discreetly tucked away in a corner behind the living quarters. She bolted the door, perched on the high seat and carefully split the seal on the fourth envelope. The single sheet was covered with writing on both sides, and dated seven months earlier. She read it avidly;
Dear Mr. Courtney,
My wife and I were saddened to receive your letter and to hear of the tragic murder of my brother David in Khartoum, and of the plight of his daughters. I understand your predicament and agree that it is beyond common decency for poor little Saffron to continue in your care, as you are a bachelor and there is no woman with you to see
