He expected an airy dismissal, but the nun was staring. She caught the hem of Tet Sang’s underrobe and drew it up, revealing the bandage.
“You’re hurt,” she said. “When…”
“It’s nothing,” said Tet Sang, shaking Guet Imm off.
She dropped her hand, but she’d worked out the answer for herself. “The mata’s gun that went off.”
Tet Sang had barely noticed the bullet at the time.He’d felt the red heat scoring his side, but it had seemed distant, unimportant, given everything else going on.
It had started to hurt worse while they were getting out of Sungai Tombak, but it was still ignorable. His layers of robes meant that the stain wasn’t obvious even as it spread.
It had been the march into the forest that had been the worst trial. He’d managed to change his clothes and dress the wound before they set off into the jungle, but rest had been out of the question. As Tet Sang had stumbled through the undergrowth, dizzy and sick, the journey had taken on a nightmare quality.
Guet Imm’s fists were clenched. So much for peace and quiet.
“You didn’t say anything!” she said accusingly.
“It’s just a graze,” said Tet Sang.
Without quite knowing how it happened, he found himself sitting down. Guet Imm got his makeshift bandage off, her deft hands light against his skin. Her forehead smoothed out as she inspected the wound, but she still looked annoyed.
“No wonder you looked so bad,” she murmured. “I thought you were angry.”
“I washed the wound,” said Tet Sang. “There’s nothing more to do.”
He might as well have stayed silent for all the notice Guet Imm took of him.
“I can make herbal soup for you. It’ll help the healing,”she said. “I’ll call Ah Boon to dress the wound. He has some medicine.”
She got up, but Tet Sang grabbed her. “No!”
Guet Imm paused, looking down at him. Her face was in shadow, so he couldn’t see her expression. She said, with uncharacteristic hesitancy, “You don’t want him to know?”
“Fuss, fuss, fuss,” said Tet Sang irritably. “Ah Lau is like an old woman about this kind of thing. He’ll act like I’m halfway dead. What’s the point of making a big hoo-ha? It’s stopped bleeding already.”
It was only when Guet Imm did not answer that he realised she had not been talking about the injury.
She dropped into a squat, looking into his eyes as though she could see through to the back of his head.
Panic bubbled inside him. She knew. Perhaps she’d known all along. He’d taken pains to hide it, but he should’ve tried harder. And if she hadn’t already known, she would’ve realised when he talked about Permatang Timbul. Idiot that he was…
“Brother,” said Guet Imm. “Does everyone know you’re a woman?”
Tet Sang blinked.
“Ah Lau, yes,” he said. “The rest, maybe. We haven’t talked about it. Why?”
“I didn’t realise at first,” said Guet Imm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask also.” Hope flickered to life within TetSang. If this was all it was…! He said cautiously, “What made you realise?”
“When you knew about kacip fatimah, I should have wondered,” said Guet Imm. “But it was when you tied my sarong. You really knew how to do it. The ikat didn’t budge. If I did it myself, I would have lost the sarong by the time we were on the main street.”
She rose.
“If you don’t want Ah Boon to see it,” she said, “let me put the dressing, then.”
Tet Sang reached out to detain her. “There’s no need…”
