Page 38 of The Girl from the Tea Garden
Best of all, her beloved honorary aunties, Sophie and Tilly, were coming with their husbands for Christmas again. But right from their arrival there was tension and bickering between Tilly and James. James did not linger, but took nine-year-old Mungo home after two days to join in a hunt in the Naga Hills around Kohima.
‘If Tilly won’t take him home to school,’ grunted James to Wesley, ‘I might as well be teaching the lad to shoot.’
Later, Tilly confided to the women, ‘He’s insisting this is Mungo’s last year in Assam. He’s put his foot down. Once the boy’s ten, then it’s off to school in England to join his brother and sister. But he’s not as independent as Jamie and Libby– he’s still such a home boy really.He’ll hate it.’
Clarrie put a hand on her friend’s in sympathy. ‘Wouldn’t James consider somewhere like Bishop Cotton in Simla? We’re hoping Harry might go there in time– Adela’s been so happy in Simla.’
‘Yes,’ Adela agreed, ‘and Uncle Rafi went there, didn’t he?’
Sophie nodded. ‘It’s a very good school.’
Tilly looked uncomfortable. ‘I wouldn’t mind but– well, James is more old-fashioned. Still believes an English education is the best.’
‘Or Scottish,’ Adela added with a wink at Sophie.
But Sophie bristled. ‘You mean as long as Mungo doesn’t have to go to school with Indians.’
Tilly’s plump face reddened. ‘It’s not the way I think.’ She gave an apologetic shrug.
‘Of course it isn’t,’ Clarrie said, intervening. ‘So will you be taking Mungo back this coming summer?’
‘Yes.’ Tilly sighed. ‘We’ll book a passage in July probably– have the summer holidays with Mona in Dunbar and then settle him into school.’
‘Perhaps I could go with you for a visit home,’ Clarrie suggested.
‘Really?’ Tilly brightened.
‘I’ve been putting off going to see Olive for years, but her letters worry me. She sounds full of anxiety about Jack’s business. Things are very tough on Tyneside these days.’
‘But Olive has Herbert’s Café too, doesn’t she?’ Tilly asked.
‘Yes,’ said Clarrie. ‘I handed that over to her when we returned to India in ’22. With Lexy in charge as manageress, I never worried about Olive coping. But that was before the slump. I should have gone back ages ago to make sure she was managing, but then Harry came along unexpectedly.’ Clarrie gave a bashful smile.
‘Well, you’ve had enough on your plate here,’ said Sophie. ‘It’s been hard for the small tea plantations too.’
‘All of the gardens,’ Tilly said. ‘Even the Oxford Estates have had to tighten their belts and cut back production. Doesn’t seem to affect James’s whisky consumption at the club though.’
Adela feared her aunt was going to start one of her long grumbles about Uncle James, which made everyone else uncomfortable. Sophie in particular was fond of the gruff tea planter, as he had been kind to her when she’d been orphaned and had paid for her education in Edinburgh. Adela and her mother also felt a little sorry for James being the constant butt of Tilly’s complaints about life in Assam without her two elder children.
‘I wouldn’t worry about the café, Mother.’ Adela tried to lighten the conversation. ‘Cousin Jane seems to be running it with Lexy these days, and her letters are always cheerful.’
‘Why don’t you come with us too, Adela?’ Tilly enthused. ‘Wouldn’t it be a grand idea, Clarrie?’
‘Yes,’ agreed Clarrie, smiling at her daughter, ‘it would be wonderful– if we can afford the passage for us both, and Harry of course. You have no memories of Newcastle, do you, darling? And you could finally meet your cousin Jane.’
Adela hesitated. Yes, she would love to meet her Newcastle family, but right now she was having so much fun in Simla that she didn’t want to go thousands of miles away.
‘Well, I’d love to visit England– of course I would– but I wouldn’t want to go for too long. It would be right in the middle of the theatre season, and I might lose my job at the Forest Office.’
‘You’re bound to pick something else up when you get back,’ Sophie said. ‘Boz will make sure of that. Take the opportunity to travel when it’s offered I say.’
‘Speaks the woman who’s hardly been out of Gulgat in years.’ Tilly chuckled.
‘Travel’s more fun for the young and fancy-free.’ Sophie grinned.
‘But it’s not really up to Boz,’ Adela persisted. ‘It’s the Chief Conservator who did me a favour in the first place by creating a job in the post room and having me type up the occasional letter for him.’
‘Who is chief now?’ Sophie queried.
