The Mandelbaum Gate (43 page)

While
she listened to Ruth she drank endless grape juice, orange juice, all prepared
carefully by hand; by Ruth’s kindly hand. ‘Rupert and I are fed up with
Britain. It’s finished. It’s become a bloody debating society. Europe is
finished. The Jews have finished us off. There’s a Jews’ world-network, my
dear. The American Jews are just plotting to demolish the rest of the world.
Even the Kremlin knows that. I met a chap at the Russian Economic Mission the
other day, he’d just arrived in Israel. He said he’d yet to find a Jew who was
a docker in the Soviet Union. I said, “By God, you’d have to look hard for one
who was a docker in the west.”‘

‘What
about in Israel?’ Suddenly Barbara remembered the party where she had first met
Ruth Gardnor with her husband. The night of the dinner party. And the cello: it
had been an indifferent performance. Ruth had sat listening. The cello,’ Ruth
had said afterwards, ‘is my favourite instrument. It speaks to me. ‘She said to
Barbara, ‘You know what I mean?’ Barbara had said, ‘No, I don’t.’ Now Ruth was
speaking again: ‘Israel? In Israel they’d have the whole Arab world doing
manual labour for them if they could get them. Israel will burn itself out and
just become another Levantine state.’

At the
time this talk confused Barbara on the point of Ruth’s political allegiance.
She was accustomed to regard anti-semitism as a note of fascism, not communism.
Anyway, it went on day after day, and Ruth assumed that Barbara was
like-minded, as apparently was everyone else connected with the headquarters in
Cairo.

In her
absence, Barbara fumed and imagined a fight with Ruth, how she would hit and
kick her. She jumped from her bed frequently and went into the adjoining
wash-room, a small closet with only a shower, no bath. There she would take
cold showers and hot showers, many and many times a day, regardless of her
weakness.

On no
account was she to leave the room. On no account. Freddy had said so. Suzi had
said, on no account. Ruth kept saying so. Ruth prepared food of an extremely
rare and elaborate order to tempt Barbara. She must have spent all the hours that
she did not spend with Barbara on planning, preparing and cooking these meals —
chilled exotic soups, veal, chicken or lamb with herb-laden sauces. All for
Barbara. They were served on a tray with lace-edged white cloths, for brave
Barbara, who, like Ruth, thought Nasser was so marvellous and the nationalist
cause so good and so essentially exploitable. The Party in Latin America is
well aware that the big struggle to come, the final world-struggle, is with the
Jews,’ said Ruth. Barbara could not eat, her cheeks were sunk when she saw
herself in the glass. She wondered if she was going mad, and at times this long
thought was indistinguishable from madness.

‘How
long have you known Freddy Hamilton?’ said Ruth.

‘Well,
I don’t really know him at all.’

‘He was
here, you know.’

‘Yes. I
got a lift from Suzi with him.’

‘What
was he doing here?’

‘Only
touring.’

‘Are
you sure?’

‘Yes,
quite sure. He’s harmless.’

‘Don’t
you think,’ said Ruth, ‘that Suzi’s a bit irresponsible? I mean, bringing him
here. It’s awfully dangerous.’

‘No, I
think it’s the sort of thing that would put them off the scent if they were at
all on the scent.’

‘Of
course, you realize, we pay those Ramdez people for the use of this house. They’re
well paid. They ought to protect us.’

Suzi at
last returned. Barbara later placed this day as the Saturday of that first
week.

‘I can’t
go on like this,’ she said to Suzi.

‘Only
one more week. I’m here for the week-end and Alexandros is here also with me.
Sunday night, we return to Jerusalem. But next Saturday, Sunday, I come back to
fetch you. Better you should get well and stay in bed the full period that the
doctor said. Then the police forget to find you. They already have said you
must have left the country.’

Suzi
had brought a pile of travel pamphlets, so that Barbara could choose the places
she wanted to visit when, a week hence, she would start off with Suzi on the
pilgrimage. ‘Because,’ said Suzi, ‘we must have the pilgrimage. This time there
is no trouble to anticipate, except you must be dressed still like an Arab
woman to prevent trouble.’

‘Where
are my own clothes?’ Barbara said.

‘I have
them in Jerusalem.’

Barbara
was eating quite a lot of cucumber sandwiches. She said, ‘I can’t eat anything
that Ruth Gardnor brings me. I try, but I can’t.’

‘That
woman is crazy. She is now all at once my enemy because I don’t join with the
nationalist party or this, that, party. We give her the house where she
operates, and if they catch her we take the risk for this crime of plot, so
what more does she ask of us? She is like a fierce animal to me since I brought
here Freddy. Before, she was my friend of the very best. Now she says it’s
wrong that I bring Alexandros here, and she dislikes that we keep here the
girls for the night-clubs. All these things she’s afraid of for her secrets
which are nothing so very much, according to my father.’

Alexandros
paid Barbara a visit, so noisy with greetings and celebration of the long-lost,
that various whispers, titters and tripping footsteps at the end of the
corridor occurred, whereupon Suzi could be heard chiding in Arabic and French.
These were the night-club girls, who were habitually kept out of this side of
the house.

Alexandros
closed Barbara’s door and at Suzi’s request kept quieter. He said, ‘Mr Hamilton
is not so very well’

‘What’s
the matter?’

This I
can’t tell you. But I have heard he is not very well, and perhaps it is
sunstroke.’

‘Isn’t
he coming here to Jericho this week-end? He promised to come and see me.’

‘No,
but I am here with Suzi instead.’

Barbara
let herself float on the waves of what was to be. She began to feel stronger on
that second Sunday of her illness. She wanted to walk in the cool evening, but
Suzi and Alexandros insisted this was dangerous.

‘Oh, I
don’t care about the danger any longer. What have I done? I’m not an Israeli
spy.’

‘It’s
dangerous for your health,’ said Alexandros. ‘For anyone to rise from a bed to
walk in the evening is dangerous.’

He
seemed to have turned melancholy after talking about Freddy. Later, Suzi came
and said to Barbara, ‘Freddy is now with his friends the Cartwrights, but he
has not sent me a message or nothing. I’m too proud to go there to ask for him.
How could I make excuse to call there unless he asks for me?’

‘Did he
get that piece put in the Israeli newspaper as he promised?’

‘Piece?’

‘To say
I’d changed my mind about coming to Jordan.’

‘I
haven’t heard of it. No, I don’t think so.’

‘It
doesn’t matter, of course.’ Barbara discerned that Suzi was personally troubled
about Freddy’s ignoring her since his return to Jordan.

Suzi
said, ‘I left him at the Via Dolorosa last Tuesday and he walked the rest of
the way. He was O.K. then, you know. Alexandros says he’s sick, also occupied
with affairs; but he could remember to write a note. He can get a letter
through the diplomatic courier, easy. He hasn’t got the scarlet fever,
Alexandros says. Now I don’t want Alexandros to see so much why I’m sad about
Freddy. Maybe Freddy will leave a message for me at my home in Jerusalem when I
return tonight.’

Barbara
thought, he’s taken fright. Freddy must have decided to withdraw from the
tangle, But, she thought, he wouldn’t do it this way. He wouldn’t do just
nothing. Something must be wrong, that’s all.

But
Suzi, to cheer up the atmosphere, was already recommending the route of their
pilgrimage the following week.

They did get away the
following week, but not before Barbara amazed herself by throwing at Ruth
Gardnor a clock and a vase. Ruth was even more amazed. She was carrying a
wireless set with large earphones of the early vintage, which she had managed
very cleverly to piece together from two separate sets, one old and one new;
this was for Barbara’s benefit, for Suzi had not wanted her to draw undue
attention to her presence by the sound of a wireless in her room. Barbara threw
these objects at Ruth, then in a frenzy leapt upon the woman and battered her
head with the disconnected earphones of the wireless. Ruth kept saying, ‘My
God, please Barbara, quiet! Quiet, Barbara, please — quiet!’ Barbara scratched.
Every obscene word that she had ever heard and (what was so strange) never
heard, Barbara pelted forth at Ruth Gardnor. Ruth took Barbara’s head in her
hands and wrenched it. It took them seven minutes to wear themselves out. Ruth
was wounded with a cut on the forehead and a deep scratch on her chin. Barbara
had some bruises that came up later, and her neck ached for weeks. It was
something like the rehearsal that had been going on in her mind for ten days.
Over and over again, when Ruth in her kindness had brought her some tempting
thing and tried to wheedle and coax, very sweetly — over and over again — tried
to coax, then sat to talk confidentially about the ideals that she served and
those that she felt by instinct only. then Barbara had listened and not argued.
Over and over again Barbara had rehearsed the fight, and it had amazingly
taken place. Ruth was frightened. She sobbed softly and said, ‘How ill you are!
Oh, God, and I’ve no one here to help me.’

Barbara
got back to bed, spent out. She said nothing, only listening still in memory to
the pounding waves of Ruth’s chatter, day after day. Nasser is marvellous.
Really, let’s face it, Hitler had the right idea. Ten days of Ruth’s chatter.
It’s a network on a world scale. The Jews. They’ve got us in a net. If you knew
how the banking system worked, you’d realize…. Would you like to sleep now?
Would you like to sit up? I’ve got to go out for a while, do you mind? But now
Ruth was only sobbing in the chair, with blood on her face. Barbara lay and
watched her through slit eyes and heard her murmur, ‘Oh, I wish I’d someone to
help me!’ Then Ruth said, ‘Have you been told to do this to me?’ Barbara said
nothing. Ruth said, ‘Oh God! Don’t they trust me? What have I done? Rupert will
have to come over — I can’t wait on and on.’

Barbara
said, ‘Yes, you’ll let them down, all right.’ She said this out of the dark,
but meant it decidedly for a thrust, which it turned out to be. Ruth looked
cornered. She said, ‘I see.’

Barbara
had no idea how they would go on for the rest of the week. This was eight o’clock
on Thursday morning. Ruth picked up all the fragments of clock, wireless sets,
and vase. Suzi was to come on Saturday or Sunday. Ruth went away after a while,
and Barbara fell into a moaning exhaustion, and finally a deep sleep such as
she had not enjoyed since her arrival.

She
woke in the afternoon when she heard a whistling scrape on the front door of
the house, and a car drew up. Shortly afterwards, Ruth came in with tea.
Barbara was horrified: Ruth was haggard and patched with small pieces of
plaster; she was frantic with worry.

She
said to Barbara, ‘Listen — don’t please, please, make any more fuss, more
noise. Joe Ramdez has come again with his tourist woman. If you’re caught, I’ll
be in trouble. H.Q. will blame me. How do you feel?’

Barbara
felt like an animal. She wanted to ask, honestly, ‘Who are H.Q.?’ But she kept
silent. Suzi had said on her last visit, ‘It’s lucky you have none of your own
clothes, she has noticed only the garment of Kyra hung up in the press, and this
makes her sure that you are a spy with her organization…. She was foolish to
let you know of her activities for this organization. But she has told, not I.’

‘Which
organization?’

‘I don’t
know, I don’t ask. To tell every Arab organization would take a day, if I
should tell you the list. But you must keep quiet about this to your friends,
or you make trouble for me. She is only a mad woman.’

‘You
make trouble for me,’ said every face in Barbara’s crowded dreams. Later, when
the Foreign Office man came to visit her in Israel, there was no point in
keeping quiet. Not only had they seen Freddy the day before, but she had seen
Abdul that morning. He had come straight up to her room, and she found him at
the door, beaming with some extra pleasure.

He took
a telegram from his pocket. ‘Suzi’s safe,’ he said. ‘Suzi is in Athens.’

‘In
Athens? I didn’t know she was in danger.’

‘The
police put her under arrest when they broke into the house at Jericho to find
Mrs Gardnor. They had to take someone in custody, so they took Suzi.’

‘How
did she getaway? Did they let her go?’

‘Suzi
is a rich woman.’

‘Of
course, Miss Vaughan,’ said the young man from the Foreign Office, who was her
next caller that day, ‘we’ve got Gardnor. But his wife has got away. She’s
probably in Cairo. Have you any idea—?’

‘I’m
afraid I can’t help you much,’ Barbara said in a weak-minded way. ‘It was
rather a nightmare until, of course, we got off on our pilgrimage at last. The
pilgrimage was all right.’