Flashman Papers 3-Book Collection 2: Flashman and the Mountain of Light, Flash For Freedom!, Flashman and the Redskins. George Fraser MacDonald

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      “Well, sir? You passed that word, as Broadfoot instructed you should, in an emergency. When, you ask? Dammit, to the little Maharaja, and again to old Ram Singh! It reached me – no matter how – and I came directly to help you, and not a hair of you in sight! Next I hear, you’re with the Maharani, playing the Devil and Jenny Golightly! Was that intelligent conduct, sir, when you knew Jawaheer Singh was out to cut your throat?” He emptied his glass, clashed his iron clamp on the table, and glared. “How the dooce did you know he was after you, anyway?”

      This tirade had me all adrift. “I didn’t know any such thing! Mr Gardner, I’m at a loss –”

      “Colonel Gardner! Then why the blue blazes did you sound the alarm? Hollering Wisconsin to everyone you met, concern it!”

      “Did I? I may have said it inadvertently –”

      “Inadvertently? Upon my soul, Mr Flashman!”

      “But I don’t understand … it’s all mad! Why should Jawaheer want to kill me? He don’t even know me – barely met the fellow, and he was tight as Dick’s hatband!” An appalling thought struck me. “Why, they weren’t his people – they were the Maharani’s! Her slave-girls! They lured me to that bloody bathroom – they knew what was to happen! She must have ordered them –”

      “How dare you, sir!” So help me, it’s what he said, with his whiskers crackling. “To suggest that she would … What, after the … the kindness she had shown you? A fine thing that would be! I tell you those Kashmiris were bribed and coerced by Jawaheer and by Jawaheer alone – those were his villains down there, sent to silence the girls once you’d been disposed of! D’you think I don’t know ’em? The Maharani, indeed!” He was in a fine indignation, right enough. “I’m not saying,” he went on, “that she’s the sort of young woman I’d take home to meet mother … but you mind this, sir!” He rounded on me. “With all her weaknesses – of which you’ve taken full advantage – Mai Jeendan is a charming and gracious lady and the best hope this god-abandoned territory has seen since Runjeet Singh! You’ll remember that, by thunder, if you and I are to remain friends!”

      I wasn’t alone in my enthusiasm for the lady, it seemed, although I guessed his was of a more spiritual variety. But I was as much in the dark as ever.

      “Very well, you say it was Jawaheer – why the devil should he want to murder me?”

      “Because he wants a war with the British! That’s why! And the surest way to start one is to have a British emissary kiboshed right here in Lahore! Why, man, Gough would be over the Sutlej with fifty thousand bayonets before you could say Jack Robinson – John Company and the Khalsa would be at grips … that’s what Jawaheer wants, don’t you see?”

      I didn’t, and said so. “If he wants a war – why doesn’t he just order the Khalsa to march on India? They’re spoiling for a fight with us, ain’t they?”

      “Sure they are – but not with Jawaheer leading them! They’ve never had any use for him, so the only way he can get ’em to fight is if the British strike first. But dammit, you won’t oblige him, however much he provokes you along the border – and Jawaheer has gotten desperate. He’s bankrupt, the Khalsa hates and distrusts him and is ready to skin him alive for Peshora’s death, they hold him prisoner in his own palace, his balls are in the mangle!” He took a deep breath. “Don’t you know anything, Mr Flashman? Jawaheer needs a war, now, to keep the Khalsa occupied and save his own skin. That’s why he tried to put you out with the bath water tonight, confound it, don’t you see?”

      Well, put that way, it made sense. Everyone seemed to want a bloody war except Hardinge and yours truly – but I could see why Jawaheer’s need was more urgent than most. I’d heard the Khalsa’s opinion of him that afternoon, and seen the almighty funk he was in. That’s what he’d meant, by God, when he’d pointed at me and yelled that the British would have cause to come – the evil, vicious bastard! He’d been lying in wait for my arrival … and suddenly a dreadful, incredible suspicion rushed in on me.

      “My God! Did Broadfoot know that Jawaheer would try to kill me? Did he send me here to –”

      He gave a barking laugh. “Say, you have a high opinion of your betters, don’t you? First Mai Jeendan, now Major Broadfoot! No, sir – that is not his style! Why, if he had foreseen such a thing …” He broke off, frowning, then shook his head. “No, Jawaheer hatched his plot in the last few hours, I reckon – your arrival must have seemed to him a heaven-sent opportunity. He’d have taken it, too, if I hadn’t been on your tail from the moment you arrived in the durbar room.” He blew out his cheeks in disbelief. “I still can’t get over that damned bath! You won’t linger among the soap-suds again, I reckon.”

      That was enough to bring me to my feet, reaching for his decanter without even a by-your-leave. God, what a tarantula’s nest Broadfoot had plunged me into! I still couldn’t put it straight in my mind, numb with the whirlwind of the last few hours. Had I fallen asleep over Crotchet Castle and dreamed it all – my balcony acrobatics, Mangla and Jawaheer and the dazzling spectacle of the durbar room, the drunken ecstatic coupling with Jeendan, the horror of the descending stone, the furious bloody scramble in which five lives were snuffed out in a bare minute, this incredible tartan Nemesis with his Khyber knife and Yankee twang,²² eyeing me bleakly as I punished his malt? Belatedly, I mumbled my thanks, adding that Broadfoot was lucky to have such an agent in Lahore. He snapped my head off.

      “I’m not his confounded agent! I’m his friend – and so far as my duty to the Maharaja allows, I’m sympathetic to British interest. Broadfoot knows I’ll help, which is why he gave you my watchword.” He restrained himself with difficulty. “Inadvertently, by jiminy! But that’s all, Mr Flashman. You and I will now go our separate ways, you won’t address or even recognise me henceforth except as Gurdana Khan –”

      “Henceforth? But I’ll be going back – man alive, I can’t stay here now, with Jawaheer –”

      “The devil you can’t! It’s your duty, isn’t it? Just because the war isn’t going to start tomorrow doesn’t mean it won’t happen eventually. Oh, it will – and that’s when Broadfoot needs you here.” For someone who wasn’t Broadfoot’s man, he seemed to know a deal about my duty. “Besides, after tonight you’re in clear water. That bath-house will tell its own story: everyone will know Jawaheer tried to rub you out – and why. But no one will breathe a word about it – including yourself.” Seeing me about to protest, he cut in: “Not a word! It would cause a scandal that might start Jawaheer’s war for him – so mum, Mr Flashman. And don’t fret yourself – now that you’re under Mai Jeendan’s protection, the worst Jawaheer’ll dare give you is a black look.”

      I’d heard this kind of assurance before. “Why the blazes should she protect me?”

“Now, don’t come the delicate with me, sir!” He stabbed a lean finger at me, Uncle Sam with a Kandahar haircut. “You know right well why, and so does every tattle-tale in this blasted royal bordello! Oh, sure, she has her political reasons, too. Well, just keep your mouth shut and be thankful.” He nodded grimly. “And now, if you’re recovered, we’ll return you to your quarters. And don’t say Wisconsin again unless you mean it. Jemadar, idderao!”^a

      An under-officer appeared like magic, and Gardner told him I was to have a couple of discreet shadows henceforth. He asked if anyone had been seeking me, and the jemadar said only my orderly.

      Gardner СКАЧАТЬ