Page 97 of The Secrets of the Tea Garden
Startling news reached them a few days later. At the weekend, Manzur arrived unexpectedly from the Oxford bearingThe Statesmannewspaper.
Harry, with Breckon at his heels, went dashing out to meet him. Manzur’s handsome face lit up with pleasure as he caught sight of Libby on the veranda steps.
As he approached, he said, ‘I didn’t think you’d still be here.’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘The pull of the city ...?’ He gave her an amused, quizzical look.
Libby smiled. ‘I’m a country girl at heart, remember.’
‘How is Robson sahib?’
‘Snoozing inside. Come up and have a drink. I’ll play hostess as Cousin Clarrie is at the factory.’
Libby led him out of the sultry heat into the deep shade of the veranda. Harry followed like his shadow. As Manzur sat down, he handed Libby the newspaper. Her heart lurched.
‘Is this a recent edition? Does it tell about Mountbatten’s announcement?’
Manzur nodded. ‘And the press conference. I thought I’d come over and tell your father in case he hadn’t heard.’
‘Heard what?’
‘The date for the hand-over.’ His brown eyes shone with suppressed excitement.
‘The day for Independence?’ Harry queried.
Manzur nodded.
‘When?’ Libby’s heart began to pound.
‘August the fifteenth.’
She stared at him. ‘Augustthisyear?’
He nodded. ‘It seems to have caught everyone by surprise.’
‘So soon?’ Libby gasped. ‘But I thought there were to be votes on partition and all sorts of arrangements to be made ...?’
Manzur said, ‘It will all have to be done in the next few weeks – many Hindu astrologers are saying the date is inauspicious and terrible things will happen if it falls on the fifteenth. It’s thrown a cat at the pigeons.’
Despite the gravity of his news, Libby couldn’t suppress a smile.
‘What is funny?’ he asked.
‘The expression is to “put a cat among the pigeons”,’ she said. ‘Not throw one at them.’
Manzur gave her a bashful smile. ‘Well, it has the same effect.’
‘So is this good or bad news?’ Harry asked, unsure.
Libby and Manzur exchanged glances. He shrugged.
‘It’s hard to say,’ said Libby.
‘Time will tell,’ said Manzur, with an expressive gesture of the hands.
Manzur could not linger as the Oxford plantation factory was at full production for the ‘second flush’ of tea. It surprised Libby that her father showed scant interest in Manzur’s updates on the plantation. It was as if he had shut his mind off to the Oxford Estates and didn’t want to think about them. When she tried to talk to him about it he grew agitated.
