Free India Dark by Kirsty Murray

people to come and see us so we won’t have to worry about the audiences.’
    â€˜Don’t they let the coloured people come?’
    â€˜Oh, I can’t remember. Perhaps there are Chinamen up in the gallery, but the stalls and balconies are full of the nicest people and they give you presents and ask you for afternoon tea.’
    â€˜Tilly says they only ask the prettiest girls. She said I shouldn’t expect too much. She said she might let me come along with her because she usually gets a lot of invitations, doesn’t she?’
    Lizzie laughed. ‘Tilly? Do you really think Tilly is one of the prettiest? Prettier than you?’
    She stood up and leaned in close to my pillow. She put one finger on the tip of my nose and put her face next to mine, so close that I could smell the minty sweetness of her breath. ‘You are far prettier than Matilda Sweeney or Sweetrick or whatever she may call herself now. That girl can’t hold a candle to you, dear one.’ She kissed me on the cheek. ‘Don’t let Tilly or anyone else make you doubt yourself, Poesy Swift. You’re pretty and clever and a wonderful little actress.’
    I wanted to fling my arms around her and hug her. I wanted to bury myself in her lovely soft embrace but she had thrown herself down on her bed again and was flicking through the pages of a magazine. I hung over the side of my bunk and my hair fell like a pale waterfall about my face.
    â€˜Can we be friends forever, Lizzie?’
    She raised one hand and gently touched my cascading hair.
    â€˜Yes, my little pixie. We shall be friends forever and we shall both live happily ever after.’
    And I believed her.

17
    HEADS AND TAILS
    Poesy Swift
    The next day, I sat alone in the forecastle, watching the coast as the steamer churned its way north. Tilly and Valentine found me there.
    â€˜ This air, it’s so sticky, don’t you think?’ said Tilly. She lifted her petticoats and flapped them into the wind.
    â€˜Tilly!’ I cried. ‘You’ve got no knickers on!’
    â€˜It’s delicious,’ she said. But Valentine shook her head. ‘You won’t like it when we’re ashore. Your thighs will stick together when you walk.’
    I covered my ears. Those two could talk about the rudest things.
    As we steamed towards the town of Batavia we passed hundreds of small islands. Some were no more than a single palm tree standing up out of the sea quite by itself. When we passed through the entrance to the harbour, Batavia came into view. Dark green hills dotted with elegant mansions rose on either side of the town. A rickety boat pulled alongside the steamer and we all squealed when we discovered we were going to take the journey ashore in a sampan.
    Batavia was nicer than Surabaya had been but people still stared at us as we travelled through the town in open carriages. As we rode into the central square, Freddie Kreutz pointed at an odd tower set into a well in the ground.
    â€˜That’s where the Dutch execute prisoners,’ he said with spiteful glee. ‘They take them underground from the court house and then . . .’ He made a slitting motion with his fingers across his throat and a horrible gargling noise.
    Max laughed and put his hands around Freddie’s neck. ‘Now, you are my prisoner . . .’ Then the two of them were wrestling with each other on the floor of the carriage and all the girls had to raise their feet up onto the seat. I pulled my skirts over my knees and shivered at the thought of men having their heads chopped off under the ground while above them people were promenading with their parasols in the tropical heat.
    Outside our hotel, we clustered in the shade of the verandah. For some reason, we weren’t allowed inside. Mr Arthur stood at the counter, arguing with the manager, while we waited. Daisy and Flora kept tiptoeing over to the door, peering into the cool darkness of the foyer and