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compliment. As we talked and drank, and exchanged some childhood memories, the strain that had been obvious on his face when he arrived would begin to drain away. Gradually he relaxed enough to talk about what was worrying him. I suppose he had to talk to somebody, and the men from the Company who’d been brought over to give evidence to the committee were Calcutta men. They were senior to him, older – and enemies.
    â€˜You have to have been out there to understand it, Libby, but there’s a coarseness about the Calcutta men. It’s the capital of the country, where the Governor-General lives, and all very grand; palaces on every corner and some of the streets you’d think you were in Bath. And it’s the centre of our trade to the east, with Burma and China, so it’s where the money men are. The Calcutta men pretty well look down on us in Bombay.’
    I said I could see that Mr Griffiths wouldn’t fit in there. It sparked an outburst from Tom.
    â€˜They hate him, Libby. Only now, I’m seeing how much they hate him. Back in India, it was more like contempt: “Mad Griffiths” or “Old Griffiths has gone completely native”. The Calcutta men didn’t want to be dragged back to give evidence to this committee, but now they’re here, they’re using it as a chance to discredit him.’
    â€˜Just as he’s hoping to use it to make the case against compensating them for their opium.’
    â€˜That’s partly why they want to destroy him. Though it’s more personal than that. And I have to listen to them dripping their poison every day.’
    â€˜Couldn’t you move out of Company lodgings? Come and stay here, if you like.’
    â€˜Too far away from the City. I’m still a servant of the Company. In theory, they’ve found me some temporary work in the accounts section in East India House, but it’s so that the Calcutta faction have me under their eye. And their influence – they think.’
    â€˜Influence?’
    â€˜Going over and over my evidence to this confounded committee. Suggesting things about Griffiths’s behaviour that might have slipped my memory and that I might care to include. Sheer bunkum.’
    â€˜But once you get in front of the committee, they can’t influence what you say.’
    â€˜Of course not, and they shan’t. I shall say exactly what I saw and heard, nothing else. But even that’s bad enough.’
    No denying it. What with the comments made about McPherson and the discovery of the hawk jewel, my poor brother was one of the main witnesses for the prosecution.
    â€˜But it’s not like a court case,’ I said, clutching at straws.
    â€˜No, it’s worse. In a court case, there are rules. The judge won’t allow hearsay evidence, for instance. A parliamentary committee can do what it damned well likes – sorry, Mrs Martley – just what it likes.’
    â€˜I’ve been thinking about your finding that hawk on his desk,’ I said.
    â€˜I wish to goodness I’d thrown it straight in the waste-paper basket.’
    â€˜Did Mr Griffiths often ask you to fetch things from his desk.’
    â€˜Almost never – that’s the ill luck of it.’
    â€˜Why not? I should think an assistant would be always fetching papers.’
    Tom laughed, though not cheerfully.
    â€˜We discovered early on that it was a waste of time to ask me.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Because of what we called his poppadom filing system.’
    He saw my puzzled look and explained.
    â€˜Poppadoms are a sort of flat bread the natives make, crisp and thin as parchment. They serve them in stacks, twenty or so at a time. That’s how Griffiths kept his papers, in a lot of different stacks, all the papers on top of each other. He could plunge his hand in at any time and draw out just what he wanted, but nobody else could find anything.’
    â€˜And yet he sent