The Sapphire Child (The Raj Hotel #2) - Janet MacLeod Trotter Page 0,132

nothing. Andrew cursed himself for offending his kind host. He shouldn’t have spoken his thoughts aloud, but he had been disarmed by this ancient father-confessor on his tranquil darkened veranda.

When Bannerman spoke, it was without the reproach that Andrew expected. ‘You’ve been here twice before. The first time was as a baby with your mother.’

Andrew was startled. ‘Really? So, you’ve met my mother too?’

‘Indeed. I was utterly charmed by her. She spent quite a bit of her stay keeping an old man company. She was delightful, though a little distracted, as it turned out.’

‘Were my parents visiting the Guthries?’

‘Your father wasn’t with you – he stayed in Pindi. Your parents weren’t getting on well by then. But nobody realised how unhappy Lydia was.’

Andrew tensed as the truth dawned on him. ‘Was this when my mother was kidnapped?’

Bannerman gave him a sharp look. ‘Ah, you know about that?’

‘Yes. My mother told me she was mistaken for Esmie and snatched by Pathans in revenge for some slight that Esmie had done to them. Mother still has nightmares about it all.’

The padre put down his glass and leaned forward, clasping his knees. ‘I’m not surprised she has nightmares. What else did Lydia tell you?’

‘That she was taken into tribal territory and kept in a filthy fortress – terrorised by her kidnappers – and then finally rescued by the British police after my father led an expedition to find her.’

‘So, she never mentioned that it was Esmie who rescued her?’ he asked.

‘Esmie?’ Andrew was confused. ‘No, of course not. No woman would have been allowed on such a rescue attempt.’

Bannerman sighed. ‘I can see that you’ve never been told the whole story – no doubt your father and Esmie kept quiet to save Lydia from embarrassment. But I can’t let you carry on believing a half-truth.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Andrew, feeling a mixture of excitement but also dread at what the padre was saying.

‘Your mother may have been snatched because the kidnappers thought she was Esmie,’ he answered, ‘but she put her life in danger in the first place by deliberately driving off on her own into the hills.’

‘She wouldn’t do such a thing!’

‘I’m afraid she did. She took my car – and one of my maps.’ He nodded towards the table. ‘Strangely enough it was the one you’ve been looking at today.’

‘The one of Razmak and the frontier? Why on earth would she try and go there?’

‘Esmie believed your mother was attempting to reach a friend – a man she knew who was stationed there – a Major Mason. But she never got further than a few miles outside of Taha.’

‘Uncle Dickie?’ Andrew cried in disbelief.

‘Then you know Dickie Mason?’

Andrew flushed. ‘Yes, he’s a friend of Mamma’s at home.’

Bannerman nodded. ‘I knew him too when he was first posted to the frontier – a very charming young man. The Guthries were very kind to him and his fellow officers. That’s how your parents met him in the first place, through Esmie.’

Andrew was indignant. ‘If you’re saying my mother was having an affair, I don’t believe it. It’s just Esmie trying to justify going off with my father.’

Bannerman’s voice hardened. ‘Esmie was the best friend your mother ever had. She was the one most concerned about Lydia’s mental state. And what’s more, your mother went off without you. It was Esmie who looked after you – your mother was in no fit state to do so. She was prepared to leave you behind to go after Dickie Mason and that’s the sad truth of it.’

Andrew was winded by his words; his mother wouldn’t have abandoned him.

‘I don’t believe you,’ he said quietly, but his heart no longer felt in it.

‘Andrew, I wouldn’t lie to you. When your mother was kidnapped for ransom, she unknowingly put a lot of people’s lives at risk. There had been uprisings the year before and the army didn’t want to go in heavy-handed to Otmanzai country looking for her. That would have led to your mother’s abduction further beyond British jurisdiction – or worse.’ Bannerman’s faded blue eyes held his look. ‘The brigadier here asked Esmie to lead a small band of men to go beyond the border and bargain for Lydia’s release. Not only was she a trained nurse, but she was a woman – and the brigadier and the chief of police were banking on her being given more leniency than military men by the Otmanzai. A brave young mullah also agreed to go as her