A Black Englishman by Carolyn Slaughter

Author:Carolyn Slaughter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2011-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

TEN

1921

We were in Simla, Joseph and I. He was bringing up a bucket of water from the well, and I was looking down into the darkness. There was a smell of iron, which reminded me of the mineral waters in Bath and Tunbridge Wells. We’d been scrapping. Joseph wanted us to get out of Simla immediately: Mem, for you there is the habit of going beyond not auspicious to brink of downright dangerous. I waved him off: I’m waiting, Joseph. He paused and put his foot down on the rope to steady it. For what is mem waiting? I wanted to come clean with him about Sam, but I couldn’t, so I mumbled: I’m waiting for someone, Joseph. Without looking at me, he muttered: Someone is not coming, mem. How do you know? I wailed. His mouth gave its side shuffle, and precisely because I find his prescience so irritating, I said: I should have told you about this a long time ago, Joseph, but I want you to know that the person I am waiting for is Dr. Singh. His hands moved one over the other until he’d hauled the bucket over the rim of the well. He set it down on the ground, brimming, then turned to look at me, dark eyes shining with anger and pain: Does memsahib think that I do not know what it is to love a woman?

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