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'Who was that?' Janet said.
"The old girl's daughter, Famia.' He took the figurine gently from her hands. 'You Hkr
.Yes, is it very old?' she replied automatically.
'Greco-Buddhist. Probably second century. You'll find things like this all over Balpur. As I said before, Buddhism used to be very strong up here, real Buddhism, I mean. Monasteries all over the place.'
'Are there any left?'
'One or two.' He glanced at his watch. We'd better get moving. It's almost eleven o'clock and Father Kerrigan holds his daily surgery at half-past. We'll try and catch him before it starts.'
They went out to the jeep and he handed her in and drove away as if nothing had happened. But things were not the same and there was a constraint between them that had not been present before.
Janet remembered the girl, her shapely body, the pale beauty of her skin against the scarlet sari, and a burning anger took possession of her that she found impossible to analyse.
The mission was on a hill above the river. It was a long, low, flat-roofed building, walled in by grey stone, as seemed to be the custom with all houses in this stark country, and the tiny belfry of a small chapel reared above it
Flocks of goats, sheep and a few small horses grazed on the sparse grass at the entrance, and thirty or forty people waited patiently, squatting on the ground or leaning against the wail
As Drummond slowed the jeep to drive through, Janet leaned out, her trained eye quickly taking in the evidence of disease. Rickets and ringworm in the children, old people with faces eaten away by yaws, eyes encrusted with dried pus and, here and there, a broken limb held awkwardly in a crude bandage.
.He doesn't handle all this on his own? she demanded, turning to Drummond as they drove in through the entrance and braked at the bottom of a flight of stone steps.
He switched off the engine and nodded. Don't ask me how, but he does. Has an old woman to do the cooking, but that's all. Here she comes now..
The woman who opened the front door and came out into the porch had the same ageless Mongolian face as the people in the market place, but wore a long cotton skirt and an Indian Army issue khaki sweater with cloth epaulets. The red scarf around her head and gold ear-rings made her look like a gypsy.
Drummond went up the steps with Janet's two cases, put them down and spoke to her in slow, careful English. He came back down the steps and took Janet's arm.
'He's in the chapel.
They crossed the courtyard to the tiny, grey-stone building, he opened the heavy wooden door and they went inside. The lights were very dim, and down by the altar the candles flickered and the statue of the Holy Mother seemed to float out of the darkness.
Father Terence Kerrigan knelt in prayer, his rugged, stubborn old Irish face momentarily relaxed, almost childlike in its purity, his white hair gleaming like silver. When he crossed himself and got to his feet, she saw that he was a big man, built like a tree with shoulders as wide as Hamld's.
He turned, narrowing his eyes short-sightedly when he saw them there la the shadows and came forward' with a ready smile.
'Jack, is it yourself, and this will be Miss Tate?' He took her hands in his, holding them tightly. 'It's good to see you here, my dear. I got word from Colonel Dil that you were coming in today. He bad a message last night from AH Hamid over the radio.'
1 feel like a fraud, Father/ she said. 'I believe you were expecting a doctor.'
'Nonsense, my dear, a qualified nursing sister with two years' experience in Vietnam fefugee camps will do for me any day of the week.' He chuckled at her astonishment, 'Major Hamid is always most thorough.'
They crossed the courtyard, mounted the steps and went inside. The entrance hall had been turned into a dispensary, the stone walls
'Who was that?' Janet said.
"The old girl's daughter, Famia.' He took the figurine gently from her hands. 'You Hkr
.Yes, is it very old?' she replied automatically.
'Greco-Buddhist. Probably second century. You'll find things like this all over Balpur. As I said before, Buddhism used to be very strong up here, real Buddhism, I mean. Monasteries all over the place.'
'Are there any left?'
'One or two.' He glanced at his watch. We'd better get moving. It's almost eleven o'clock and Father Kerrigan holds his daily surgery at half-past. We'll try and catch him before it starts.'
They went out to the jeep and he handed her in and drove away as if nothing had happened. But things were not the same and there was a constraint between them that had not been present before.
Janet remembered the girl, her shapely body, the pale beauty of her skin against the scarlet sari, and a burning anger took possession of her that she found impossible to analyse.
The mission was on a hill above the river. It was a long, low, flat-roofed building, walled in by grey stone, as seemed to be the custom with all houses in this stark country, and the tiny belfry of a small chapel reared above it
Flocks of goats, sheep and a few small horses grazed on the sparse grass at the entrance, and thirty or forty people waited patiently, squatting on the ground or leaning against the wail
As Drummond slowed the jeep to drive through, Janet leaned out, her trained eye quickly taking in the evidence of disease. Rickets and ringworm in the children, old people with faces eaten away by yaws, eyes encrusted with dried pus and, here and there, a broken limb held awkwardly in a crude bandage.
.He doesn't handle all this on his own? she demanded, turning to Drummond as they drove in through the entrance and braked at the bottom of a flight of stone steps.
He switched off the engine and nodded. Don't ask me how, but he does. Has an old woman to do the cooking, but that's all. Here she comes now..
The woman who opened the front door and came out into the porch had the same ageless Mongolian face as the people in the market place, but wore a long cotton skirt and an Indian Army issue khaki sweater with cloth epaulets. The red scarf around her head and gold ear-rings made her look like a gypsy.
Drummond went up the steps with Janet's two cases, put them down and spoke to her in slow, careful English. He came back down the steps and took Janet's arm.
'He's in the chapel.
They crossed the courtyard to the tiny, grey-stone building, he opened the heavy wooden door and they went inside. The lights were very dim, and down by the altar the candles flickered and the statue of the Holy Mother seemed to float out of the darkness.
Father Terence Kerrigan knelt in prayer, his rugged, stubborn old Irish face momentarily relaxed, almost childlike in its purity, his white hair gleaming like silver. When he crossed himself and got to his feet, she saw that he was a big man, built like a tree with shoulders as wide as Hamld's.
He turned, narrowing his eyes short-sightedly when he saw them there la the shadows and came forward' with a ready smile.
'Jack, is it yourself, and this will be Miss Tate?' He took her hands in his, holding them tightly. 'It's good to see you here, my dear. I got word from Colonel Dil that you were coming in today. He bad a message last night from AH Hamid over the radio.'
1 feel like a fraud, Father/ she said. 'I believe you were expecting a doctor.'
'Nonsense, my dear, a qualified nursing sister with two years' experience in Vietnam fefugee camps will do for me any day of the week.' He chuckled at her astonishment, 'Major Hamid is always most thorough.'
They crossed the courtyard, mounted the steps and went inside. The entrance hall had been turned into a dispensary, the stone walls
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