Page 23 of The Girl from the Tea Garden
‘Oh, we all want to adopt that one.’ Tilly smiled.
Her mother beckoned her over. ‘Come here, Adela, and let’s talk about your future before the men come back. Your aunties and I have been putting our heads together.’
Adela gave a dramatic sigh as she perched on Clarrie’s chair arm. But secretly she was pleased to be the focus of their attention.
Clarrie was firm. ‘You’re too young to leave school yet, so you’re going to have to finish your education somewhere. Auntie Tilly and Auntie Sophie think you should have a choice.’
Adela eyed them with interest.
Tilly spoke first. ‘If you wanted to go to school in England– Newcastle, for example– you could live with your aunt Olive. I know you’re very friendly with your cousin Jane, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, we’re penfriends,’ Adela said, her excitement igniting.
‘Then you’d have a ready-made friend,’ said Tilly, beaming, ‘and you could go to my sister in Dunbar for holidays– meet up with my Jamie and Libby too. It would be lovely to think of you all getting together.’
‘Are there theatres in Newcastle?’
‘Of course.’ Tilly laughed.
Adela looked at Clarrie. ‘What do you think, Mother?’
‘It would be a very different life for you there,’ Clarrie said, her eyes glistening, ‘but if you wanted to go, your father and I would try and arrange it. I made a mistake over StNinian’s. So wherever it is, I want you to be happy.’
‘And you, Auntie Sophie?’ Adela asked.
‘I have a different suggestion– well, it’s Rafi’s really.’ Sophie shook back her wavy blonde hair. ‘We think you should go and look at StMary’s College in Simla– they are very keen on drama and the arts. It’s a daughter school of the main college in Lahore, where Rafi’s sister Fatima went. They take girls from all backgrounds.’
‘Simla?’ Adela gasped. ‘I’d love that.’
‘Your mother has certain reservations,’ said Sophie.
‘Is it too expensive?’ Adela’s face fell. From her mother’s startled look, she knew she had guessed correctly.
‘Rafi and I would be only too happy to help with fees,’ Sophie offered.
Clarrie held up her hands. ‘Wesley wouldn’t hear of it.’ She saw Adela’s disappointment. ‘But if you set your heart on going there, we would manage somehow. Perhaps you could live in the town more cheaply as a paying guest. I wish we knew people in Simla.’
‘You do,’ said Sophie. ‘MrsHogg– that colonel’s wife– is retired there.’
‘Is she?’ Clarrie remarked. ‘I thought she was in Dalhousie.’
‘She moved to Simla three years ago to be near friends after the Colonel died. We still exchange Christmas cards.’
‘Oh, I didn’t know she’d been widowed, poor woman.’
‘Do you mean Fluffy Hogg, who sailed to India with us in ’22?’ Tilly exclaimed. ‘I was terrified of her.’
Sophie laughed. ‘It’s true she won’t stand for any nonsense, but she’s not the least bit stuffy. She was very kind to me when I first came back to India– in fact, she was the only person in Dalhousie who would speak to me when things got difficult between me and Tam.’
Adela noticed glances pass between the women, but no one elaborated; they obviously didn’t want to talk about Sophie’s past in front of her.
Sophie smiled. ‘Anyway, she’d be an excellent chaperone.’
‘Yes, she would.’ Clarrie brightened. ‘And that would stop Wesley fretting about Adela too much.’
‘She sounds like a bit of a battleaxe.’ Adela was unsure.
‘Forthright, yes,’ her mother conceded, ‘but she’s one of those rare army wives who really loves and understands India. I liked her a lot when I met her on the ship over.’
