The Damascened Blade(45)

‘They are damned odd,’ said Eddy. ‘Just watching them you’d say – natural cricketers. They’ve been doing this for all of ten minutes and they’re showing more skill than your average county side!’

‘Politically,’ said Joe, ‘it wouldn’t be a bad idea if they carried this back to Kabul but I’m not sure that Afghans would qualify either by birth or residence to play for All India.’

‘Oh, I expect we could fiddle our way round that. Fiddle your way round anything if you want to.’ And Eddy shouted encouragement in Pushtu to the perspiring Afghan batsmen as they stood queuing to play. ‘Of course, the game could have been invented for these chaps. Brilliant hand and eye co-ordination but something else as well – patience and planning. They’ll wait for days, months, years even to get something right. Clever tacticians. I wonder what we’ve started?’

‘There’s Iskander lining up at the wicket. Obviously, he’s played the game before,’ said Joe as a mighty sweep of the bat sent the ball winging over the boundary to deafening applause from his men.

They went down together to welcome in the players. Lily, Joe noticed, went straight to Iskander to congratulate him on his men’s showing and his own sparkling performance.

‘Good Lord! The girl thinks she’s at some awful American shindig! Handing out the rosettes and the silver cup.’ The disapproving drawl came from Edwin Burroughs. ‘Can’t you keep that filly on a tighter rein, Sandilands? She’s doing her kind no credit, you know. She’s doing us no credit.’

Joe felt it would have taken up an hour of his time to challenge Burroughs’ views. Instead he hurried forward to add his own warm comments on the game. Though Iskander and Lily were standing a good four feet away from each other Joe had, and not for the first time, the uncomfortable feeling that if he walked between them he would trip on some unseen connecting thread. Perhaps he ought to ask her to take her suspect surveillance a little less seriously? Iskander, Joe thought, was for the moment treating her interest as sympathetic concern and natural high spirits but if she were not more careful he might become suspicious.

‘Hey! Why don’t you all stay another day?’ she was saying. ‘Then your men could take on the Scouts and have a proper game. That would be good, Joe, wouldn’t it?’

‘Lily, I really don’t think it’s up to us to rearrange the Amir’s timetable for him,’ Joe started to say but to his surprise he was interrupted by Iskander.

‘That is a very tempting suggestion, Miss Coblenz! Nothing would please my men more than to give a thrashing to the Scouts. If Major Lindsay were willing to extend his already generous hospitality for a further day it would delight us all. Our schedule is not so tight that we would be unable to stay for one more day. I will speak to Commander Lindsay.’

The blossoming of Iskander, as Joe thought of the change that had come over the young man since the loss of his commanding officer, continued through the day. Over the dinner table he entertained everyone with stories of the frontier and answered questions, however silly, on the Pathan way of life with patience and humour. Joe was intrigued to find that he had been educated not in England as had Zeman Khan but at the college in Peshawar. An orphan from an early age, he belonged to the same clan as Zeman and the two boys had been childhood friends. Joe could only begin to guess at the raw sorrow that he must be feeling at the loss of his friend. Unless, of course, he was himself responsible for Zeman’s death. The thought would not go away. If James had died Joe wondered if he would have been able to face a dinner party and do more than hold his own in a foreign language. He found his respect for Iskander continued to grow.

But, equally, his concern for Lily, with her obvious interest in the man, grew. At the end of the meal when all got up to leave the table Joe saw Lord Rathmore hurry to position himself by the door. As Lily passed in front of him he bent his head and whispered something to her which was evidently not to her liking. Before Lily had a chance to reply, Iskander had stepped between them and engaged Rathmore in conversation, allowing Lily to go on her way, evading Rathmore’s detaining arm. Protective? Proprietorial? Or something more sinister? The gesture disturbed Joe.

As Joe caught up with his charge he asked, ‘All well, Lily?’

She turned to him with shining eyes. ‘All’s very well, Joe. Apart from the appalling Rathmore. Did you see him just now? Some men just don’t know when to give up!’

‘What do you mean? What was he saying to you?’

‘Some nonsense about meeting me later this evening. I couldn’t make sense of what he was saying. Trying for another date, I suppose! Man’s loco!’