Page 132 of The Secrets of the Tea Garden

CHAPTER 26

Calcutta

Both Johnny and Helena came to pick them up from Sealdah railway station. Libby was aghast at the number of families camped out on the platforms under makeshift awnings.

‘Terrible business,’ sighed her uncle.

‘They really should move them on,’ said Helena.

‘Nowhere for them to go,’ said Johnny.

Then it hit Libby. ‘Are they all refugees?’

‘Yes, from East Bengal,’ he answered. ‘They’ve been arriving in Calcutta for weeks now.’

‘We at the Girl Guides have been trying to feed and clothe some of them,’ said Helena, ‘but it’s an impossible task. Come quickly, or you’ll have dozens pestering you, I’m afraid.’

Libby looked on in anguish at the pathetic sight of scores of people sitting listlessly around a few possessions – cooking pots and bed rolls – looking utterly exhausted. Were these some of the people that Ghulam and Fatima had rescued from further east? Minutes later they were in the safety of the Watsons’ car, being driven away to Alipore.

‘James, I really think Libby should be getting out before Partition becomes a reality,’ said Helena. ‘Couldn’t you get her on your flight?’

They were sitting on the veranda having a nightcap with their hosts; Colonel Swinson was fast asleep in his chair.

‘I don’t want to go yet,’ said Libby. ‘I want to see in the new India.’

‘I can understand that,’ said Johnny.

‘I can’t,’ Helena protested. ‘Calcutta is not a safe place to be. They’re preparing for more trouble. God forbid it’s as bad as last summer – the slaughter—’

‘That’s enough, dearest,’ Johnny said with a warning look.

‘Libby is old enough to make her own decisions,’ said James, surprising Libby. She gave him a grateful look. ‘I shall miss her but I hope she will follow me shortly.’

Her eyes prickled at his sudden tenderness and she nodded in agreement.

‘Now we’ve made the decision to go,’ said Helena, ‘I can’t wait to get on that boat from Bombay. With the house half packed up, it doesn’t feel like home any more. And I’m looking forward to seeing StAbbs. Johnny’s talked about it so much – I’m expecting nothing less than Shangri-La.’

‘Well, Shangri-La in a cold climate,’ said Libby, exchanging amused looks with her uncle.

‘It’ll be good to have you living close by,’ said James. ‘And Tilly will be over the moon.’

Helena put a hand on his arm. ‘I’m so pleased to hear you are going back to dear Tilly.’

James, looking embarrassed, swigged the remains of his whisky and stood up. ‘Long day’s travel tomorrow. Bed beckons. Thank you for having us both to stay, Helena.’

Libby watched her father go. He had been preoccupied since leaving Belgooree, as if his thoughts had already turned to home and his family back in Britain. She stayed sitting on the veranda after the othershad retired to bed and listened to the night creatures in the garden and the restless sounds of the city beyond. She felt a kick of excitement to think that Ghulam was living close by and that soon she would have the chance to see him again. She had written to say she was coming to Calcutta but he hadn’t had time to reply before she’d left Assam. Breathing in the scent of lilies, Libby gave thanks that it wasn’t she who was flying away from India in a few hours’ time.

‘Don’t come to the airport,’ James told Libby the next morning. ‘We’ll be seeing each other again soon, won’t we?’ It was more a plea than a question.

‘Yes, we will,’ Libby agreed, kissing her father on the cheek, gripped by a sudden sadness that they were being parted again so soon. They were standing in the garden listening to a cacophony of birds as the dawn light filtered through the trees.

Since the news of Partition and her father’s decision to go home, Libby had felt a new closeness growing between them. Only they had shared the sorrowful farewell to Cheviot View and together they had experienced the heightened emotion of the past few days at Belgooree. It made her think of the kiss her dad had given Clarrie; she couldn’t get the image out of her mind. Would he be greeting Tilly with the same tenderness in three days’ time? She felt a pang of anxiety for him. As an adult, she was just beginning to know her father and he struck her as a much more complex and vulnerable man than the one she had remembered.

She slipped her arm through his and laid her head against his shoulder.

‘Give Mother and the boys my love, won’t you?’ she added.

James nodded and kissed the top of her head – a gesture Libby recalled from childhood. He said almost to himself, ‘This is the wayI will always remember India – at daybreak with all the promise of a new day.’