Before the Rains

by Dinah Jefferies

  She tried to imagine the terrible scene and felt sick at the loss of so many lives.

  ‘All this in retaliation for the murder of three Europeans and one British woman who had been molested. They ordered Indians to crawl on the ground in the street where the English woman had been attacked.’

  She looked up at him and saw how fired up he had become.

  ‘Humiliation never goes down well.’ He gave a bitter laugh. ‘Above all else the British hate the thought of our dark lascivious hands touching the flesh of a white woman. To them it is an abomination.’

  ‘I understand how angry you are, I really do,’ she said, but thought of Jay kissing her.

  ‘How could you possibly understand?’

  She hadn’t known what to say and knew it had been a weak response. But she didn’t want to be seen as a representative of British domination and had felt compelled to say something.

  ‘Back in the day the Brits would choose the prettiest girls from the villages to use as their whores. Then later the girls were thrown out. The families couldn’t take them back after they had been so defiled. What do you think that did to people? So yes, people are resentful.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘You think that helps?’

  Eliza shook her head.

  ‘I think Indira’s mother might have been one of those women taken by the Brits and then thrown out when she became pregnant.’

  ‘You think Indi’s father was a British man? Is that what everyone thinks?’

  He shrugged. ‘She’s paler and we know nothing about her. Indi’s grandmother has never spoken about her granddaughter’s origins. Shame would do that.’

  They started to walk along the edge of the pit again and Eliza was glad. She wanted to see Jay but at the same time she didn’t want to hear the truth about his engagement. So far there had been no sign of him, but her head was still ringing with Laxmi’s words.

  ‘Her mother might have been one of the used and abused. I’d marry Indi myself, but my mother would have a dozen fits at the thought.’

  ‘And your father?’

  ‘Long gone.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  He stared at her and a shadow passed over his face. ‘Me too. The Indian relationship with the British has gone through many phases. But now it’s time for us to claim our birthright.’

  ‘You believe that?’

  ‘I do, and many of the British do too. Even back in 1920 Montagu said that you couldn’t remain in a country where you were not wanted.’

  ‘And what are you personally doing to speed our withdrawal?’

  ‘I’m not active these days. I tried to get Anish to give permission for a protest march but he wasn’t keen. Anyway, didn’t Jay tell you? I’m all talk.’

  ‘That’s not what I heard.’

  ‘And your meaning?’

  ‘Just rumour. You know.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the British have pulled out of this –’ he grimaced as he waved in the direction of the lake – ‘by design.’

  ‘Why would they?’

  ‘Has Jay already incurred debts?’

  She bit her lip but didn’t reply.

  ‘That could discredit Jay and cause trouble at the palace. It’s no secret they want to get rid of Anish, and if Jay is discredited there’d be good reason for him not to take the throne either.’

  Eliza thought about what Clifford had said. The British did want to depose Anish, so it was conceivable that financial trouble for Jay and ensuing trouble at the castle could work in their favour.

  ‘So what now?’ she said, lifting her upturned palms.

  ‘You tell me.’

  Jay had not been at his palace after all, and once they had returned to the main castle of Juraipore Eliza decided to slip down to the listening tube on the lowest corridor. She knew Jay had taken to listening in from time to time, but it was awkward for him to be seen down in the bowels of the palace. She’d gone on her own a few times but the room had always remained in silence. Until today, and today something was going on. She heard a deep sigh and then heavy breathing. Then she heard a man’s voice. Perhaps Jay had come home, wherever he had been?

  ‘You don’t seem happy today. Have you grown bored with me?’

  There was the murmur of a woman’s voice and then it sounded as if something crashed to the ground. The man was cursing and the woman was laughing. Eliza recognized that laugh.

  ‘The door is locked and I have left the key in the lock. Nobody will know.’

  ‘Not in here. I told you, not in here.’

  ‘Don’t you want to imagine I’m your adored Prince Jay? I thought it would excite you to be in here.’

  Eliza realized the man was Chatur, and she was certain he was in there with Indira.

  She replaced the picture on the wall and ran to Jay’s quarters, hoping that he had actually come home. But the castle was huge, and even using the secret passage it was easy to take a wrong turn. It took nearly ten minutes, and when she did arrive there was no one there. She dashed to his study without stopping to consider if her haste was strictly necessary. It hadn’t sounded as if Indi was actually in danger, but Eliza couldn’t imagine any woman choosing to be alone with a ruthless man like Chatur. The study door was locked, so she thumped hard, hurting her hand in the process.

  ‘Who is in there?’ she called out.

  No reply. She waited for five minutes, and when she spotted Jay coming along the corridor she blinked rapidly and a lump developed in her throat.

  ‘I thought you were leaving,’ he said.

  She shook her head. ‘I’m not going.’ Then she put a finger to her lips and moved a few paces from the door.

  ‘I overheard Indira with Chatur,’ she whispered. ‘He was in there trying to have sex with her, I think. Certainly trying to do something.’

  ‘Against her will?’

  ‘It didn’t sound like she was trying to stop him. I think she just wanted to go somewhere else.’

  ‘She wouldn’t want to be overheard in there.’

  Jay walked up to the door and turned his key in the lock. He opened the door but they could both see that the room was empty. He went in, followed by Eliza, who was now beginning to wonder if she’d imagined the entire episode. Jay glanced around.

  When he spoke he kept his voice low. ‘Everything seems to be in place.’

  After taking a few steps behind the desk he bent down, then held up a shard of broken glass.

  ‘My clock had a glass face.’ He glanced at his desk. ‘It’s missing.’

  Eliza also spoke in a whisper. ‘I thought I heard something crash.’

  ‘Dear God, what has she got herself into now? Better come into the corridor,’ he said and opened the door.

  Once out in the corridor he looked around and continued to speak in hushed tones.

  ‘What will you do?’ she asked.

  ‘Inform Chatur that I know what’s been going on. That should put a stop to it.’

  ‘Can’t you get rid of Chatur?’

  ‘I wish. Only Anish can do that.’

  ‘So tell him?’

  ‘He won’t take my word for it, and it might only make trouble for Indi. I’ll think of something.’

  ‘You are very protective of her.’

  ‘Apart from her ageing grandmother, she is alone in the world.’

  ‘That’s all?’

  ‘I’m very fond of Indira, though not in the way you once thought. I blame myself for that. I’d become accustomed to thinking of her as a sister. I’ve been trying to distance myself a little, but I don’t want to hurt her.’

  Aware that her face was reddening, she turned away. ‘Especially now that you’re about to be engaged,’ she managed to say, despite being blown about by confused emotions: fear, disappointment, embarrassment, but, worst of all, longing.

  He threw back his head and laughed. ‘You, my dear friend, have been listening to my mother. Let’s get away from here.’

 
; They went to her rooms, where he sat on the small sofa.

  ‘Sit with me, Eliza. I promise I am not engaged, nor do I wish to be. Now tell me that you’re really not leaving us? Leaving me?’

  Her heart somersaulted with relief and she smiled. ‘I’m staying.’

  Even though she knew there could be nothing permanent with Jay, at least he cared that she might be leaving and, as she sat down next to him, she took a very deep breath. He picked up her hand and turned it over, then traced the lines on her palm.

  ‘Can you see my future?’ she said.

  ‘Not yet,’ he said, ‘but maybe soon.’

  She felt a strange humming in her head and lifted her other hand to smooth the hair from his temples. Watching his beautiful amber eyes, she marvelled at the intensity she saw boring into her. He let her palm go and took hold of her other hand, then he lifted it to his lips and gently kissed her fingertips. She loved it when he touched her, though he had never touched her like this before. The closer he was to her the more alive she felt, the love, the hope and the heat chewing up her mind until she felt empty of fear.

  22

  Later that day Eliza was summoned to Anish’s outer sitting room, a place so ornate it was hard to know where to rest her gaze. He sat on a huge cushion, legs spread wide to accommodate his ever-increasing paunch, and Jay sat in a chair opposite. The floor was piled with more satin cushions, placed around a large low table. Eliza glanced at the slim punkawallah who was pulling a heavy rope that operated a large fan made of cloth stretched over a wooden frame. Back and forth it floated, as it hung from the ceiling directly above Anish. And little gusts of air reached as far as where Eliza stood, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

  ‘Do not hover, girl! Sit.’

  She glanced around and chose a hardback chair, where she sat stiffly and with her hands folded in her lap. ‘Are you well now?’ she asked. ‘I remember you were ill soon after Holi.’

  He inclined his head. ‘It started some while before, in fact. But at Holi, Chatur came to me with a bottle of some kind of chemical he had discovered hidden away somewhere. You are the only person with access to such things.’

  ‘Which chemical was it?’

  ‘Pyrogallol, I think. Something like that was on the label. I wondered if it was poisonous.’

  Eliza could feel the blood draining from her face. The silver pyro crystals were terribly dangerous and could have long-term degenerative effects on the nervous system. It was a poison that could be ingested or could get into the system via the skin, which was why she kept the bottles under lock and key in her darkroom. Although Indi had also worked in there, she had always been supervised and didn’t have a key of her own, so it couldn’t have been her. Then, with a feeling of horror, Eliza recalled the day she’d come back and found her darkroom door unlocked. She had thought she’d accidentally left the padlock open, but perhaps she hadn’t after all, and if she hadn’t left it unlocked herself, then somebody else must have a key.

  After she had told the two brothers about it, Jay got to his feet and swung his arms. ‘So there you are, problem solved. Anish only wanted to know how the pyro had got out of your darkroom and whether you’d given it to anybody.’

  ‘No. Of course I didn’t. But why would anyone steal it?’

  ‘Need you ask?’

  ‘But surely nobody would hurt the Maharajah?’

  Anish laughed, but it was a short, sharp, mirthless sound. ‘I constantly fear for my life. This may be the twentieth century, but old habits die hard. I have a stream of poisoned ancestors stretching back in time. If I didn’t know my brother has no designs on the throne I would be suspecting him.’

  Jay rolled his eyes.

  ‘Where is the bottle now?’

  ‘I had it disposed of.’

  ‘And was it full?’

  ‘To the brim.’

  She let out a sigh of relief. ‘Well, I hope you are feeling better now, sir?’

  ‘Better, though something still is not quite right. This is just between us, you understand, but I shall ask Mr Salter to recommend a good chest doctor. I don’t want the castle unduly concerned.’

  She got to her feet. ‘There’s a doctor living right next door to Clifford Salter. He will know.’

  ‘Indeed. Now, just in case somebody else does have a key,’ Anish added, ‘count the bottles and make sure you change the padlock on your door. Do it today. Jay will help you.’

  As she and Jay left Anish’s chambers and walked down the corridor, Jay paused and looked into her eyes.

  She smiled up at him. ‘Did you know I went to see the project with Dev?’

  ‘Yes.’ He took hold of her hand. ‘I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re staying.’

  How this man touched her soul. He made her feel more real, as if she had a place where she fitted in. She thought but didn’t say that she had grown tired of running away: from school, from her mother – by marrying Oliver at just seventeen – and, if she was honest, from her mother again by coming to Rajputana. Her mother’s pale pinched features came to mind.

  ‘Penny for them,’ Jay said.

  She shook her head. ‘It’s nothing.’

  ‘So,’ he said, ‘tell me more about this poison. Are you safe using it?’

  ‘Pyro can cause convulsions and terrible gastro-intestinal effects over the long term. It can even kill.’

  ‘In the short term?’

  ‘Irritating to the skin and eyes. I always use gloves or it turns my fingers black. And I use a face mask too. I dread to think of what might have happened.’

  ‘Show me your fingers.’

  She held up her hands and wiggled her fingers.

  He smiled. ‘I don’t know who might have taken it, but let’s get a new padlock from the castle stores.’

  ‘Have you had any success?’ she said, in an effort to dismiss the lingering worry about pyro, and smiled at him.

  ‘Searching for backers? Not yet.’

  ‘I could speak to Clifford again, though much good it may do.’

  ‘I don’t want you to have to go begging to him.’

  She sighed. ‘He may be our only bet.’

  ‘I have one or two contacts. People I was at school with in England. I’m trying them. Time isn’t on my side, but look, when I’ve had a chance to sort something out, why not come to my palace with me?’ He gave her a warm smile. ‘Stay a few days. Once we get the project going again and the temperature starts rising it’ll be cooler there. Come. Take photographs. And we’ll have a chance to talk properly.’

  ‘I’d love to.’

  ‘And actually I might need a hand with the administration if you wouldn’t mind.’

  ‘Of course, but I’ve been meaning to ask if you’ve spoken to Indi about Chatur?’

  ‘She admitted Chatur asked her to obtain information for him.’

  ‘What about the other thing?’

  ‘She looked affronted and wouldn’t discuss it, but I have spoken to Chatur.’ He paused. ‘Do you know, it strikes me that he might be the one who stole the pyro, or more likely one of his men. I doubt he came across it hidden somewhere.’

  ‘But why then give it to Anish?’

  ‘To undermine you.’

  When Eliza called at Clifford’s residence a few days later, she found him sitting in a shady part of the garden under the veranda. He rose to his feet, but was less welcoming than previously.

  ‘So what can I do for you?’ he said, sipping what looked like a gin and tonic. ‘Would you like one?’ he added when he saw her looking.

  ‘Just a lime soda for me, please.’

  ‘With salt or sugar?’

  ‘Actually I like both together.’ She paused. ‘Clifford, I won’t beat about the bush.’

  ‘It would be nice if you came to see me without wanting something.’

  Eliza thought rapidly. ‘Actually I’ve been trying to help you out with obtaining information about Anish.’

  He perked up a bit.
/>   ‘He’s not well.’

  ‘Well, I knew he’d had a little turn after Holi. Indigestion, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Not just that. He has a problem with his chest. He’s going to ask if you could recommend a good western doctor. He wants to keep the problem he’s having away from castle eyes, I think.’

  ‘How interesting. I’ll ask Julian Hopkins next door for a recommendation. If I can put one of our men in there it will help a great deal. Thank you. Let me know if you hear anything else.’

  Eliza smiled. ‘Look, I am glad to have been of help, but you’re right, there is something.’

  ‘The irrigation funding?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Well, as it happens I have found a new lead. Though its success rather depends on you.’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘I want you to reconsider my proposal of marriage. I am very fond of you, Eliza.’

  Eliza examined her nails, wishing she were somewhere else, but Clifford was looking at her steadily, expecting an answer. She wondered if it might be best to pretend a little interest.

  ‘And if I agree, this potential investor –’

  ‘Will definitely be on the cards. But he not only wants to see detailed evidence of how his investment will be repaid, but also how he will make money.’

  ‘Then I agree to reconsider. But that’s all.’

  Clifford sprang to his feet and held out both hands to her. She got up and let him take her hands, and then he kissed her.

  23

  April

  Shubharambh Bagh

  Jay and Eliza were now staying at his palace. He had been working solidly from the moment he arrived, ensconced behind a huge desk in his office from seven in the morning until late at night. Various files and drafts of letters were spread out around him and he had been sifting through the irrigation plans. The second stage was drawn out now, along with the plans for damming the river, but still no permission had come through to be able to do it. It seemed as if the British were prevaricating.

  People frequently called on him: ragged petitioners from the villages, but stiff-looking Englishmen too, and also wealthy Indian merchants from other states and from British India. He treated them all with the same effortless good manners, and Eliza saw a determination in him she hadn’t witnessed before. It endeared him to her. Not wanting to intrude, she was happy helping with the paperwork, and sometimes caught him gazing at her with burning eyes that said so much, even though no words were exchanged. Then he would see her looking and lower his head. When she passed him papers he would accidentally brush her hand, and a jolt ran through her every time. She longed for him to kiss her again and could have sworn he longed for it too, especially when he caught her staring and gave her one of his slow, beguiling smiles. Each day that passed was a torment, and she felt nervous that he might be regretting what had happened between them. Helpless with desire, she floundered in the near-unbearable pleasure of being near him and waited for something more.