A moment later, she turned back with a roll of gauze tucked under her arm, a needle and thread and a small, half-full bottle of clear liquid. Sloshing the liquid onto the gauze, she raised it towards the open cut on Babu’s knee.
‘This is going to sting,’ she whispered. ‘But don’t make a sound.’
Reaching up to his neck, she slipped the string of jade prayer beads over his head and pressed them into his hand.
‘Squeeze on these when it hurts.’
Babu inhaled deeply, his fist tightening round the beads as she carefully stroked the gauze over his knee, cleaning away the blood.
‘Brave boy,’ Shara breathed. ‘I’m going to have to put a couple of stitches in. It will hurt but not for long. Do you think you can keep silent for a while longer?’
Babu nodded, but his brown eyes widened as he saw Shara hold the needle up to the light and thread the cotton through. He gripped the beads in his hands tighter.
With an encouraging squeeze on his shoulder, Shara bent forward, her hair spilling across her face. As the tip of the needle pierced the skin, Babu’s whole leg stiffened and he let out a yell, before quickly clapping his hand across his mouth. Shara shot a nervous glance at the door, before continuing to sew, her mouth pursed in concentration.
The thread was just being tugged through a second time, when there was a rustling from the opposite bed. She turned to see Bill staring straight at her, his face pale with dark lines of bruising running over the bridge of his nose.
‘Shara?’ he said, his voice husky. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘This little boy hurt his leg,’ she said, biting through the last bit of thread. ‘He fell down some stairs and cut himself. It’s nothing. Why don’t you just go back to sleep?’
Bill pulled himself up onto the pillows, grimacing as his legs dragged over the sheets. Thick belts of gauze had been wound around his calves and the lower part of his thighs.
‘Sleep?’ he asked, his expression hardening. ‘What the hell do you mean “sleep”? Why hasn’t anyone come and seen me? There’s just been these two monks, and neither of them speak a word of English. What’s going on?’
Shara sighed and, gently patting Babu’s shoulder, stood up. Her eyes traced over Bill’s face, at the line of swollen black where he had fallen on to the stone step. His right eye was almost entirely closed, blotched yellow and mauve in ugly bruising, whilst across his thickset jaw, a few days’ worth of stubble had developed into a full beard.
‘I’m sorry, Bill. I know you’ve been left in the dark. But I’ve got to get Babu back to the Abbot’s quarters. He really shouldn’t be here at all. I’ll come back and explain everything…’
‘No, Shara,’ Bill said, his voice rising to almost a shout. Shara raised her hands, palms upwards, pleading for him to calm down. The frown on Bill’s face deepened and, as he leant forward to speak, a wave of pain shot up from his injured legs. His jaw clenched and he shut his eyes, fighting back the pain. Eventually he opened his eyes again.
‘We saved your life out there in the storm. The least you could do is give me an explanation.’
Shara remained still for a moment, lost in thought. Then she nodded slowly. ‘OK. You’re right. But I can only tell you a few things — as much as I’m allowed.’
‘You were planning on ditching us all along, weren’t you? Right from the very beginning.’
‘I’m sorry, Bill. Really I am. But you and Luca were my only chance of getting up the cliff-face. With the guide ill in Menkom, I didn’t have any choice.’
She reached across, resting her hand on Bill’s forearm. ‘I am sorry for getting you involved in all this. It was never supposed to happen this way.’
He stared down at her hand for a moment, then moved his arm away.
‘And where the hell is Luca? When can I see him?’
‘Soon, I hope.’
‘Soon? What does that mean?’
Shara looked back towards the door, as if expecting it to open at any moment.
‘It’s… it’s complicated,’ she said finally. ‘That’s all. You’re going to have to trust me on this.’
‘I don’t give a shit how complicated it is,’ Bill snapped, his voice rising again. He blinked slowly, feeling his head spin from the effort. ‘I have a family to get back to, Shara. You understand me? A family. Luca and I are getting out of here the moment I’m on my feet again.’
Bill grabbed her wrist, yanking her body round to face him.
‘Do you understand,’ he said, the temper rising even further. As he spoke, he looked across to the other bed to where Babu was still sitting, his eyes moving between them both. Tears were spilling down his cheeks and he looked terrified by Bill’s sudden anger.
Bill let go of Shara’s wrist and slowly sank back on to his pillow.
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I didn’t mean to shout. I’ve just been going crazy, lying here thinking about it all.’
Shara moved closer to Babu and placing her hand on the back of his neck, gave him a reassuring smile.
‘I know I misled you,’ she said, speaking over her shoulder, ‘but I had important reasons, and I’m asking you to give me the benefit of the doubt. You talk about owing things — well, we’ve taken you in and are tending to your wounds. All I ask is that you now show a little patience.’
She pulled a strand of black hair back from her face. When she turned back to Bill she suddenly looked very tired.
‘You have no idea what it cost me to bring you here. You were never meant to see Geltang and now that you have… it’s something that can’t just be undone.’
Bill was still staring at Babu, his expression softening as he thought back to his own son, Hal.
‘Can you tell him I’m sorry for shouting,’ he said. Then, raising his hand to his face, he let his fingertips run over the top of his broken nose and across his split lip. He gave a ghost of a smile. ‘I’m not surprised I scared him. I probably look terrifying.’
Shara whispered a few sentences in Tibetan, her fingers curling through Babu’s hair.
‘Don’t worry. He may only be a boy,’ she said to Bill, ‘but Babu’s tougher than he looks. We travelled the whole way across Tibet together.’
As she spoke, Bill reached forward and grabbed his small diary off the bedside table. A few of his other possessions were there, including a crumpled picture of Cathy and the kids. Ripping a blank page from the spine, he started folding the page in half.
‘Yeah, well, I shouldn’t have lost my temper. I’m sorry.’
‘You’ve been through a lot,’ Shara answered. ‘We all have.’
Bill leaned forward again, wincing slightly from the effort and opened the palm of his hand to reveal a small paper frog.
‘Ribbit,’ he said softly. As Shara passed the frog across to Babu and he held it aloft, his expression slowly changed from fear to curiosity. He pulled down on the head, marvelling at the way the legs moved. After a moment, Babu’s nose wrinkled as the beginnings of a smile passed across his face.
‘Ribbit,’ he repeated, his smile widening a little more.
Bill went to speak when the door bolts were suddenly shot back. A broad-set monk dipped his head and entered the room. His eyes carefully passed over each of them in turn, before he folded his arms across his chest, the bare muscles flexing in his upper arm. A long, jagged scar ran down from the crown of his head.
‘Drang,’ Shara said, her jaw clenching with frustration. He didn’t respond but stood impassively to one side of the door. As Shara signalled for Babu to remain quiet, a second figure swept into the room. Even before he had thrown back the cowl of his robe, Shara recognised the unmistakable silhouette of Rega.