Page 140 of The Girl from the Tea Garden
‘Well, you’ll just have to come right out and ask him. In true forthright Adela style.’
The following day a message came through that Wavell’s party would like to attend an ENSA performance that evening, which threw the small troupe into a panic.
‘I can’t play ukulele to the Viceroy!’ Betsie shrieked. One of the dancers started throwing up.
Tommy came up with a compromise and made arrangements for an army concert band to play with them.
Prue had an uncharacteristic fit of nerves as darkness fell and word came through that Wavell’s party had arrived back in Imphal. ‘I don’t think we can wear our leotards in front of all those VIPs, can we? Won’t they be shocked?’
‘Who cares about them?’ said Tommy. ‘You’ll send the lads off in high spirits, and that’s what counts.’
Just before they were due to start, they learned that the Viceroy had left for Calcutta, pressure of work not allowing him to stay another night. Adela tried to hide how upset she was. Prue gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze as they took to the stage. Adela paused to take three deep breaths and then smiled into the lights, determined to give a good show no matter how disappointed she was.
The Toodle Pips received a rapturous reception from the audience of NCOs and privates; the stuffy tent was crammed with men, their sweating faces shining in the lamplight.
When they came off and the army band came on, Tommy took her by the arm and said, ‘Take a peek. You’ve just been filmed.’
Adela peered from backstage. Halfway down the room, there was Sam crouching behind his camera. Her heart leapt. He had stayed behind to film. Would he have to go straight off afterwards, or would she get to see him for more than a snatched moment? As the band played popular tunes, she felt a confusion of excitement and anxiety. She changed quickly into her evening dress of green silk that she’d had made in Bombay on their arrival back in India.
Then it was her turn to go on and sing, with Tommy on piano. The instrument sounded tinny from heat damage, but her friend attacked the keys with gusto. Adela sang ‘A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening’ and ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’. Her third song was supposed to be a light-hearted one from the musicalOklahoma!On the spur of the moment she touched Tommy on the shoulder and murmured, ‘Play “You’ll Never Know”.’
He gave her a pitying look. ‘No guesses who this is for.’ But he played the opening bars.
Adela announced, ‘I’m going to sing a special song that Alice Faye made popular in last year’s filmHello, Frisco, Hello. This song is for all your sweethearts at home who are missing you– may you soon be reunited.’
She began to sing the tender song of yearning, of a woman declaring her love for a man who doesn’t seem to notice how much she loves him. He will never know how much she misses him; he has taken her heart with him, and if he doesn’t realise how deeply she loves him now, then he will never know. Adela sang straight to the camera, her heart swelling with the bittersweet words. If she never got another chance to speak properly to Sam, then she hoped fervently that these words would say all there was to say.
As she finished, there was a moment of complete silence, and then the room erupted in applause and cheers. Adela smiled, took Tommy’s hand and they bowed together. Betsie came on with her ukulele and gave them two jaunty numbers, and then The Toodle Pips returned for their final signature song, ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree’.
Afterwards they were swept into the sergeant’s mess for drinks and almost mobbed by the high-spirited men. There seemed to be a feverishness in the air, as if everyone knew that their respite in Imphal was coming to end and they would soon be back in action.
Adela began to worry that her chance of seeing Sam was slipping away. Suddenly she spotted him in the crush of people– a head taller than most– and moving towards her. With just a smile and no words, he reached for her hand and hung on to her as he pulled her back through the crowds. Some ribald comments were shouted after them and grumbles about officers always getting the ENSA girls. But Sam ignored them as he steered Adela out of the hall, leaving Tommy playing away on the mess piano.
He led her to a row of officers’ bungalows that had remained intact through the siege, round the side of one to a small garden with a bench and a view of the eastern hills, bathed in moonlight. The noise of crickets pulsed in the undergrowth, and the trees were restless with night birds.
‘I hope you’ve taken your Mepacrine,’ Sam joked. ‘I’d hate to be responsible for you catching malaria on my account.’
‘I have,’ said Adela, ‘but we could share a cigarette and keep the moskies at bay.’ Silently she hoped it might steady her nerves at being suddenly so close to Sam in the dark. After six long years apart, would they still have anything to say to each other? Would he still be the same man with a zest for life who had made her feel so alive and special when they had worked together in Narkanda?
He lit two cigarettes and gave her one. ‘You start first,’ he ordered, ‘and tell me about the last six years.’
Perhaps he was wondering the same about her. Adela gave the same sanitised story that she had trotted out for Flowers Dunlop, making him laugh with stories about her Brewis relations and the characters at the theatre in Newcastle. They finished their cigarettes. He took her hand gently, firmly between his two.
‘I’m so very sorry about your father’s death, Adela. I came to see you at Belgooree, but you’d already gone to England.’
‘Yes, I know. Mother wrote and told me. It was kind of you.’
‘Not kind– I wanted to see you and to explain about the Sipi Fair.’
Adela’s heart banged with excitement at his touch, but also fear at what he might be about to say. Abruptly she said, ‘Don’t say anything yet.’
‘But it’s important that you know. I think we cared for each other then—’
‘Kiss me, Sam,’ Adela interrupted. ‘Kiss me first before you say anything else.’
They looked deep into each other’s eyes, and then Sam was pulling her towards him and lowering his mouth to hers. He kissed her long and hard, as if he had hungered for this moment for years; she knew that she had. His hands held her body; her heart drummed under his touch. His kisses consumed her, stirring her longing for him. She ran her hands over his face and hair, wanting to feel his skin under her fingers. She had felt passion before, but this was more than physical lust: she wanted every part of his being.
They paused for breath. Sam murmured, ‘I’ve loved you for so long.’
