When they finished, it was time to go home, but the door of the refectory would not open for Salma. Iman tried the window and it would not budge. They were stuck without the Hoopoe to ask for advice. They had come this far and now here was another obstacle. They were locked in.
They conferred and even shouted for help. Moni rattled the door, Salma banged on the window. It was no use. But suddenly when Iman turned the handle of the door, it opened. They rushed to get out, but it closed again. Only Iman could open it, only Iman was allowed to pass through.
‘I will not leave you,’ she said to the other two. ‘We came together, we leave together.’
‘No,’ said Salma. ‘Go and our turn will come.’
Moni hugged Iman goodbye. She could do that now, the tenderness in her, the spontaneous gestures of affection coming out.
The door closed behind Iman and the others paced the room in silence. When Moni tried the window, it opened for her. She understood straight away that she would have to leave alone. She would not be able to take Salma through with her. It was futile to protest. All she could do was hug her friend and then climb out with a joke, ‘I would never have imagined being able to do this.’
Salma was alone. She tried the door, she tried the window, but neither were to be her exits. Was she the one destined to stay here on her own?
Unless there was another way out. A way that was not a window or a door. She paced the room and found it – a hatch at the bottom of the wall panel. Small but not too small. She squeezed her body through it and found herself in a tunnel with damp soil around her. The air was dank and all lay in darkness, but she crawled along the earth, crawled slowly and crawled more. It took a long time, dragging herself through the damp soil, inching forward, waiting for a glimpse of light. Trusting that it would be there, the darkness could not go on for ever. A chink, and the sun was there ahead, at last, there it was ahead. Salma increased her speed, no longer feeling the effort now she was nearly there. When she finally emerged and stood up, she found herself staring straight at her car.
Moni and Iman were waiting for her. They had packed up all their things, including hers, and left the cottage.
‘It’s Monday,’ explained Iman, handing Salma the car key.
Salma kicked the car wheel in frustration. ‘We were meant to go visit Lady Evelyn’s grave yesterday. Sunday is the only day. Now I can’t drive the car into the estate!’
‘We can still go,’ said Moni. ‘I don’t mind walking. I can walk now. We’ll leave the car at the forest and cross the railway line by foot.’
‘It will be twelve miles, Moni. Can you do this?’ Iman’s voice was gentle.
‘I’ll try my best.’
‘We can’t not go,’ said Salma. ‘It’s why we came in the first place. We have to.’
Chapter Seventeen
They heard the clap of gunshot and the stags bellowing in the distance. Around them, the hills and crags were in shades of rust and copper, stretching out for miles, and the more the three of them climbed, the more they felt that there was nothing else except them and the glen they were walking through. The path was muddy and often there were rocks that were sharp to step on. The gradient was not steep but gradual. Often, they forgot they were climbing, until a dip downwards afforded them a larger view of clouds touching the brown mountains, the vast moorland spread out with hills dotted in white rocks and yellow heather. Slopes of hills with ancient, unpronounceable names, rocky valleys and rough grass. A waterfall just like that, appearing out of nowhere, the gushing sound of it, then a smaller one and another. A river ran parallel to the path, sometimes twisting narrow and becoming shallow as a stream with islands of pebbles and greenery. Sometimes, as they were walking, the water was just there, within reach, and sometimes instead there was a steep precipice leading to the river. The gurgle came from every side and above them. It filled their ears and they sensed the flow underneath them, clean and cool, running under the grass, coming down from the heights of the deer forests and peaks.
Salma was following the map in Lady Evelyn’s book. They were walking the dotted line that paralleled the river and curved around the mountain. Moni felt a pressure in her bladder and the continuous sounds of flowing water didn’t help. She tried her best to ignore her body and keep walking. The path was wide enough for one large car, more than ample for the three of them, and they walked at the same pace, not speaking
