“O doctor lady, I am not frightened. Go on, O girl.”
But when the chloroform had taken effect, and Rahah moved aside a little to enable Georgia to reach the patient more easily, Khadija caught a glimpse of her charge and sprang up.
“Thou hast killed her, O doctor lady! Alas, my Rose of the World, that thy Khadija should have given thee into the hands of the infidel!” and she was about to shake the child violently, in the hope of restoring her to consciousness; but Georgia’s patience was at an end.
“Take her out,” she said sharply to Rahah, to the intense delight of the handmaiden; and before Khadija realised what was happening to her, she was outside the door, and the door was bolted on the inside, while Rahah assured her emphatically through the crack that the child was alive, and would remain so if she would only keep quiet, but that if she made any noise or disturbance the worst results might confidently be expected to ensue. Terrified by the realisation of the fact that her darling was now absolutely in the power of the strangers, Khadija crouched silently at the door and made no sign, while in the respite afforded by her exclusion from the room, Georgia, with Rahah’s assistance, performed her task speedily and successfully. The splinter was extracted and the broken bone set, after which the wound was carefully dressed, with the aid of appliances such as had never been seen in Ethiopia before, and Rahah contemplated the result with pride.
“Regular hospital treatment!” she said, adopting the words she had once heard Dr Headlam use to Georgia with reference to a case of his own, and then turned her attention to making as comfortable a bed as possible out of the coverlets and cushions scattered about, that the patient might not return to consciousness on the wretched bedstead she had occupied hitherto. When everything was finished the door was opened and Khadija again admitted. She came in suspiciously, and looked askance at all she saw; but, on finding that Zeynab was sleeping quietly, sat down beside her without uttering a word.
The operation once successfully completed, Georgia and Rahah settled down to an extremely monotonous mode of life for several days. Their sole interest and excitement was caused by the improvement or relapses of the patient, and by the necessity of keeping an eye on Khadija. Not only was it extremely likely that the old woman would try to poison them, but she also cherished a lively distrust of Georgia’s dressings, and there was a constant risk that in a frenzy of rage she might tear them off, and even interfere with the wound itself, in which case poor Zeynab would have been worse off than before. But as the days passed on and Zeynab continued to make progress, the old woman began to believe once more in the possibility of her charge’s regaining perfect health. The little face which had been so pinched and pain-lined began to recover its bloom, and Georgia found it possible to believe in the loveliness the report of which had spread even to Kubbet-ul-Haj, and which had earned for Zeynab her pet-name of Rose of the World. Warm water and the gift of a piece of the doctor lady’s soap were powerful inducements to the child to keep her face clean, and the consequent improvement in her appearance surprised no one more than Khadija. Her wild outbreaks of wrath ceased gradually as Zeynab’s eyes grew brighter and her cheeks less thin, and her manner to Georgia became markedly gracious. But this did not lead to any slackening of the precautions observed by the visitors, for they knew that their danger was considerably increased by the fact that they had performed their part of the bargain, whereas Khadija had not as yet discharged hers. Every day Rahah cooked their food over a spirit-lamp and drew from the well the water they needed, while Ibrahim also was provided for out of the stores they had brought with them. For the hours of darkness, moreover, Rahah patented a scheme of defence of which the idea was entirely her own. Before leaving Bir-ul-Malik, she had begged from Ismail Bakhsh a box of tin-tacks, and every night she strewed these upon the floor, with the points upwards. Georgia remarked that if the house should catch fire, and Rahah and she found it necessary to escape hurriedly, they themselves would be the first to suffer; but Rahah was not deterred from adopting her plan by this consideration. She had also possessed herself of a whistle, with which it was her intention to summon Ibrahim from his slumbers to the rescue, in case of an attack in force; and she explained this to him very clearly, only to discover that the idea of entering the harem, even on an errand of such urgency, appalled him almost more than the prospect that murder would be done if he stayed outside.
“But I have found out something else from Ibrahim, O my lady,” said Rahah, when describing the result of the interview to her mistress. “I know why it is that Khadija hates the name of Sinjāj Kīlin, your father. He it was who attacked her village, and whose soldiers killed her husband and son, and she has been thirsting for vengeance ever since. That is why I think we are not safe here for a moment, for in revenging herself upon you she would obtain her heart’s desire.”
But Georgia turned a deaf ear to the suggestion that she should leave her patient before her recovery was assured, although it was repeated in Fitz’s first heliographic message on the morning after her arrival. He appeared to be in a conversational mood.
“Stratford was like a dozen wild cats last night when he found you were not coming back just yet. He is afraid North will skin him alive when he turns up again. Lady Haigh is awfully unhappy about you. She says she is certain you are in great danger, and begs you to come back at once, and not to mind about the medicine.”
In answer to this, Georgia flashed back by slow degrees: