Unmarriageable(36)

‘Right, Hammy,’ Sammy said. ‘In the olden days they’d get pregnant. These days they sprain their ankles.’

‘Everyone must have seen him carry her,’ Hammy said.

‘So?’ Jaans said.

‘So,’ Sammy said, ‘they’ll think something is going on.’

‘Something is going on,’ Jaans said.

‘Nothing,’ Hammy said, ‘had better be going on unless Sammy and I approve. And, in this case, we disapprove. There’s the cheapster mother’s family reputation to consider and the family itself. A loser father. A fundamentalist sister. A fat sister. A spitting sister. A decorum-less sister. I thought I was going to die when Alys appeared looking like a swamp creature. Can’t they afford private gym memberships?’

‘Lots of people exercise in public parks,’ Darsee said. ‘The Race Course Park was one of my mother’s favourite places to walk.’

‘Of course,’ Hammy said. ‘It’s a very respectable park, and I’d surely love to walk here too. But I’d wear a dupatta, and I’m quite sure, Val, your mother did too. Being modern does not mean being inappropriate.’

‘Jaans,’ Sammy said, ‘would you let your sister gallivant half undressed in a public place?’

‘My sister,’ Jaans said, scowling, ‘has a treadmill in her bedroom. No need to even leave the house.’

‘And you, Valentine?’ Hammy said. ‘Would you want Jujeena going around like that?’

‘Up to Juju,’ Darsee said.

‘Juju would never do that,’ Hammy said. ‘I bet Alys Binat’s eyes weren’t so great today in that sweaty, blotchy face.’

‘Actually,’ Darsee said, ‘I think the fresh air made them even more luminous.’

Hammy pouted and headed outside the clubhouse, where a million amused voices rushed to inform them that Bungles had left with his damsel in distress and her dishevelled sister and that they were instructed to follow. Darsee, bothered by exactly how radiant he’d found Alys’s eyes, had planned to go home. Instead, Hammy, Sammy, and Jaans climbed into his Mercedes and he headed towards the clinic.





CHAPTER NINE





The clinic was an excellent facility, as all facilities that cater to excellent people tend to be, because excellent people demand excellence, unlike those who are grateful for what they receive. A nurse flipped Jena into a wheelchair and took her for an X-ray. The verdict: a mild ankle sprain. Even though the nurse said that an overnight stay was unnecessary and Jena agreed, Bungles immediately booked her into a VIP suite. Alys wondered how much the room was going to cost as Jena was lifted into a plush bed, where she lay elegant in her jeans and turtleneck, fiddling with the controls to elevate her foot. She’d been given a nice painkiller and was beginning to look relaxed.

Hammy and Sammy arrived. Their faces grew pinched at Bungles’s insistence that an overnight stay was vital, no matter who said what.

‘I’m not budging till Jena is discharged,’ he said, gazing at her with overwhelming concern.

‘You have to budge,’ Hammy and Sammy said simultaneously.

Alys was enjoying the show that was the sisters trying to separate their brother from Jena, until she realised that Bungles intended to spend the night. Did he mean to completely obliterate Jena’s reputation? As it was, there were already going to be vicious rumours over Jena allowing herself to be carried by him.

‘Only I’ll be staying with Jena,’ Alys said firmly. She went to the reception to call home and give her mother the news that Jena had been admitted for the night.

‘Good girls!’ Mrs Binat said. ‘Jena immobile in bed. Bungles by her side. If this isn’t a recipe for a proposal, I don’t know what is.’

‘Jena is in no state of mind to receive a proposal,’ Alys whispered furiously into the phone. ‘And if Bungles proposes while she’s drugged up, I’ll doubt his state of mind. Now, please ask Qitty and Mari to prepare an overnight bag with a change of clothes for me and also pack the books on my nightstand.’

A little later, Mrs Binat breezed into the clinic with a bag for Alys and pillows galore, as if Jena had been admitted for the next month. Mari, Qitty, and Lady were right behind her. Lady was declaring it most unfair that nothing fun ever happened to her. Mrs Binat kissed Jena, all the while exclaiming what a first-class champion Bungles was to be ‘taking such wonderful care of my terribly injured daughter’.

‘It’s a mild sprain,’ Alys said, drowning out her mother. ‘We wouldn’t even be here if Bungles had not insisted Jena be kept for observation.’

‘Chup ker, be quiet,’ Mrs Binat said. ‘Oh, Bungles, look at my poor daughter, how frail, how helpless—’ She stopped abruptly. Perhaps Jena as Invalid Supreme might turn Bungles off. ‘But my Jena is a fighter. When my daughters were little they got malaria, vomit everywhere, though Jena’s vomit was of a very dignified hue, and within days she was up and back to normal. Haan, jee! Yes, sir! My womb has produced those rare creatures: girls who are dainty but also tough. And their wombs will produce just as well. Not to worry! Even Qitty’s womb is in tip-top shape; all she needs is a bit of dieting.’

Alys braved a peek at the company. Bungles was smiling awkwardly. Hammy-Sammy and Jaans snickered behind their hands. Darsee was simply staring with terrible fascination.