Revolutionary Hearts

by Pema Donyo

  Revolutionary Hearts

  Pema Donyo

  Avon, Massachusetts

  Copyright © 2015 by Pema Donyo.

  All rights reserved.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

  Published by

  Crimson Romance

  an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.

  10151 Carver Road, Suite 200

  Blue Ash, OH 45242. U.S.A.

  www.crimsonromance.com

  ISBN 10: 1-4405-9087-7

  ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-9087-0

  eISBN 10: 1-4405-9088-5

  eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-9088-7

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art © iStockphoto.com/Armina-Udovenko

  To my mother and father, for allowing me to grow up on a steady diet of historical romance novels.

  Acknowledgments

  Huge thanks to Tara Gelsomino for taking a chance and supporting my offbeat idea, and a colossal thanks to Julie Sturgeon for her keen editorial eye. Your endless support and offered help during the entire editing and publishing process is much appreciated. I extend my heartfelt admiration to the Crimson Romance artists as well, who never to fail to create some of the most eye-catching covers!

  Thanks to you too, Kelsang, who I know would rather read a dystopian sci-fi thriller than a historical romance novel. When you said you liked this one, that was one of the best compliments ever.

  And thank you to all my readers—this one’s for you.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  More from This Author

  Also Available

  Chapter One

  Village of Hathras, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British Raj, India

  1924

  What in the blazes was he supposed to do?

  Warren read the wrinkled letter again for the thirtieth time that afternoon. The paper had faded yellow from its long journey across the Atlantic and had become creased in too many places to count. The shorthand method was familiar to him, but the contents of the letter were not.

  He cursed beneath his breath. His previous years spent in the National Bureau of Criminal Identification investigating domestic anarchists hadn’t been this difficult. At least he would be able to dash away on a moment’s notice, unseen and unheard. The U.S. government had placed him as a blasted British general! He couldn’t just slip away anymore.

  Where was the nearest other U.S. operative, anyway? Lucknow, most likely. But that was more than 300 kilometers away. He couldn’t steal one of the cars without the other soldiers running after him. And Lucknow was hardly a short motorcycle ride.

  Warren pressed the letter against the oak table, his fingers running along the folded creases of the missive. He interpreted the shorthand as he read it aloud to himself, if only to confirm the message was true. Perhaps he had misread. “Agent, we regret to inform you that we have reason to suspect your identity has been compromised. The NBCI has folded into the FBI. Find a way to return home.”

  He crumpled up the letter and shoved it into the roaring flames stoking in the marble fireplace. Home. Back to America. How on earth did they expect him to do that?

  Warren rubbed his jaw with his hand, placing one elbow over the mantel. He had no time for this, not when he didn’t even have information to report back to the NBCI yet. They’d sent him to ferret out rumors that one of the Indian revolutionaries was an anarchist with the potential to influence rebels back in the States. What was his mission now that the bureau had become absorbed into the Federal Bureau of Investigation? He’d heard whispers of what the organization did, of course, and he assumed it was more than catching anarchists. But without any direct contact with the bureau, only the devil knew what the FBI would want him for. Did he still have a job? The Indians had only started to voice civil unrest, and there was so much knowledge yet to be discovered.

  His eyes wandered to the open window. Wispy, white curtains framed the view outside his mansion, where he could see the tops of houses from the nearest village. There. That was where he needed to be. That was where all the real action was happening, not shut inside the safety of marble walls.

  “Sahib?”

  He looked up at the sound of his butler’s voice. The Indian bowed before him, his turban shaking a bit as he stood back up. The man kept his eyelids hooded, avoiding direct eye contact with his employer.

  Warren winced. As much as he’d tried to acclimate himself to the British colonial culture, he never understood the servant system here. It was no better than the old slavery back in the States.

  “What is it?”

  “The gardener has brought a new maid for you.”

  He raised a brow. “When did I request a new maid?”

  “He says you will not turn her away, sahib. She is to replace one of the older maids who works here.”

  In the passing seconds, the orange flames hissed and crackled in the fireplace as they eroded the logs. The contents of the letter were stored away as nothing more than dust and ash, and his message from home had faded into smoke.

  So had his hard-won position undercover.

  “Send them in.” What did it matter, a new servant or an old servant? Neither was going to help him maintain his position. How could anyone have suspected him? It certainly wasn’t the way he portrayed himself. His British accent had become nearly second nature. He barely remembered what he sounded like without it.

  His fists clenched, straining his upper arms in the starched general’s uniform he wore. How on earth could the NBCI not send him any instruction on how to return home?

  The turbaned servant bowed once more. His slippers padded softly against the marble flooring as he exited the room. The floor was nearly as elegant as the rest of the ballroom, complete with a crystal chandelier, gold-leafed accents, and colorful murals that would rival the works found in St. Peter’s Basilica. He had to admit that when he’d stolen the real general’s identity, he hadn’t expected a house quite so opulent. It would be difficult leaving such a lavish place. Maybe the NBCI had it wrong. Maybe his identity wasn’t compromised … yet.

  “General Carton, sahib, this is my sister.”

  Warren turned his attention away from the comfortable palace he’d learned to call home and toward the gardener. He recognized Raj … the one whom his chain in command had told him to keep an eye on. Raj Singh had risen to fame in the record books of the National Bureau of Criminal Identification as an anarchist determined to overthrow the British government. He’d started to gather quite the following, the bureau had been alarmed to find out. Their brilliant idea had been to dispatch Warren as a British general. He found the idea laughable in retrospect. Yes, of course, the British general would be informed of all the revolutionaries’ secrets.

  “Raj.” He nodded to his gardener and then turned his attention to the woman standing next to him. She was several inches shorter than Raj and slighter in build. A long veil covered her head, and a faded red sari draped over her slim shoulders. “Lower your veil.”

 
The girl dropped her veil. He studied her with the quick precision of an operative scanning a target.

  Her Eurasian skin was tan, not quite as dark as the other Indian maids in his house but not light enough to be British. Half-Indian, he guessed. He’d heard during his training that they were rare, but his time in India had proved quite the opposite. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties. Her dark, wavy hair fell to her shoulders. Her thick eyebrows were high and arched, her lips full and plump. Though her veil had been covering her face moments before, she stood with her chin tilted upward. Pride shone in her eyes as she met his gaze with a challenging look.

  “Parineeta Singh. She will serve as the new maid in place of our grandmother.”

  “Hello, Miss Singh,” Warren began in Hindi. “Why do you wish to take your grandmother’s place here?”

  Her eyes flashed with an emotion he was surprised to decipher as anger. Before he could apologize, she responded in British-clipped English, with nearly no trace of an accent. “She has served enough of her time in this prison. It is my turn to take her place.” She bit her lip immediately after her response, as if afraid of what she’d say if she continued speaking.

  Raj elbowed his sister.

  Warren held up his hand. “It is quite all right.” A corner of his mouth twisted upward. She was not simply any maid after all. “What makes you so convinced this is a prison, Miss Singh?”

  She remained silent.

  “Go on,” he encouraged. Now this was the information he needed to report back to the National Bureau … FBI, he corrected. Damn, he needed to find out what this new FBI wanted him for. No more battle plans or details of rebellions; he’d had enough of those. He needed real accounts from Indians about the effects of this anarchist’s leadership.

  “The way you treat us as racially inferior.”

  “I should hope not. And how do you know such flawless English?”

  “My mother taught it to me.” Learned it from her British soldier, Warren presumed. The girl looked away from him and toward the marble floor. The challenging expression was still set by the fierce look in her eyes, but she seemed to be trying to displace it somewhere else.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. Her hands were clasped behind her back, and her head was turned slightly downward now. There would be no more information from her today. But she was spirited. She was willing to share the details he needed. And she was, he noted, Raj’s sister. If he could not gain information from Raj himself, she would be the next best source. Perhaps I will return home with useful information after all.

  “Miss Singh, I do not think I want you as a household maid.” Warren smiled. This would work out very well. “You will assist me, and me alone, in my study.”

  The girl looked up; her large, brown eyes widened in surprise and her lips parted slightly, but she said nothing.

  “My study is in that direction.” He pointed down the hall. “That is all. Thank you,” he added in Hindi to Raj.

  Warren couldn’t resist one last peek at the fireplace. Miniature marble columns flanked the collection of ashes and flame on both sides. No traces of the letter. For now, his identity was safe.

  His footsteps echoed on his walk to the study. The framed portraits of British generals before him lined the walls. Their images looked the same, one after another: brown uniform, handlebar mustache, judgmental gaze at Warren’s disguise.

  The Anglo-Indian girl’s pretty face as she dismissed him on her way out of the room flashed through his mind. He furrowed his brow. When had he ever cared for women’s looks when on a mission? Her appearance didn’t matter; her words did.

  Judge me now, he wished to say to the paintings. For however long his mission would last, he would not return to the States empty-handed. He hadn’t just found a maid—he’d found a source of information.

  • • •

  “What was it? What did he say?” Raj grabbed Parineeta’s shoulders and whirled her around to face him.

  “I...” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I am to help him in his study?”

  “Perfect!” Raj grabbed both of his sister’s hands. His weathered palms squeezed her smooth ones. “I want you to remember everything he says, all right? Anything he says about our independence movement … I want you to remember it all.”

  A sense of unease gathered in her gut. She knew her brother had always wanted an inside perspective of how the British assessed the growing noncooperation movement. “But he did not ask me to be his maid. I have no training to assist in office work.”

  Her brother rattled on. “Aye Bhagwan, this has worked out better than I’d hoped.”

  She scratched the back of her ankle with her other foot, shifting her weight. It didn’t make any sense. She nibbled her lower lip. “Why would he ask me, though?”

  Raj shrugged. He leaned against the doorway of their grandmother’s house, one hand resting on the wooden frame. “Why does it matter? The gods have chosen you to help us win our freedom! Don’t you want that?”

  She stepped inside the house, passing through the cramped kitchen. “Of course I do, I just…” She could have sworn the sparkling crackles of a flame had singed the air when she spoke to General Carton. She’d half-expected him to strike her for disobedience. The same punishment happened to countless other girls when they spoke out against a British master or made a mistake. Why had he looked amused when she spoke instead?

  “This is your purpose in life, Nita. Never forget that. This is how we avenge the death of our mother, the abandonment of your father…”

  She bristled at the sudden mention. The deceptive scum of a British soldier who’d abandoned her mother when he found out she was pregnant? She’d heard the story only too many times from their mother before her passing.

  “I know, Raj.”

  Her brother stayed in the doorway, surveying her. Ambition gleamed in his brown eyes. “Remember when you used to follow me to revolutionary meetings?”

  She’d been but a child at the time. Her gaze shifted in the direction of the other small houses in the village, covered in dust and still exactly the same as fifteen years ago. “Whatever happened to those meetings?”

  “The previous general who lived here suspected us. We meet in a neighboring village now.” He lifted his chin. “Would you like to join us at the next meeting? Not as an observer but as an active participant?”

  The heady rush of Raj’s invitation washed over her. Her bare feet stood still in the swirling dirt as the scorching rays of the sun beat against the back of her neck. “Why?”

  “You are a woman now. You will help us win this fight. You will help us defeat this foreign ruler and all the other men like him who seek to deny us independence.”

  The general’s blue-green eyes hadn’t conveyed an angry man who would command troops on the palace grounds or one who barked orders to his Indian servants. His eyes seemed … kind. Parineeta shook her head. She couldn’t let herself be distracted. Kind or not, this man was capable of dangerous things.

  She hadn’t found a job; she’d found a way to help free her country.

  Chapter Two

  “Please sit down, Miss Singh.” Warren gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk.

  Her movements were hesitant. The large, beautiful eyes scanned the room with expert precision and quick speed, as if she were documenting and memorizing every object in his study.

  “Sit down. I insist.”

  Parineeta finally settled into the wooden chair upon his second request. She lifted up the edges of her sari to set the cloth over the end of the seat. The skin between the end of her choli sleeve and her wrist soon disappeared as the drape of the cloth covered it. Her glossy, dark hair was covered once more as she gathered the veil back over her head.

  A beat of silence. Warren drummed his fingers against the top of his desk. Interrogations were a part of his training, but usually the suspected anarchists questioned were already under custody. Never did he take a course in how to interrogate a
female servant while in disguise.

  “Well, Miss Singh, what is your impression of me?” He winced in regret at his choice of words the moment they left his mouth. While the accent sounded convincing, the words did not. Other British generals never seemed as bold as he was.

  Her eyes flashed. With surprise or with amusement, he wished he knew. “What do you mean, sir?”

  “The British. What do you think of the British?” Warren folded his arms and placed his elbows over the top of the table. There, that was better. Assert his authority, settle back into the disguise and gain her trust. Nearly a year in India and he had yet to hear reliable information about the extent of Raj’s anarchist influence. This fiery girl was his one chance at a glimpse into her brother’s activities.

  “I believe they all think very highly of themselves.”

  “And you do not, I assume?” The brass buttons from his regiment uniform pressed against the oak desk as he leaned forward.

  The girl’s eyelids were hooded as she spoke. “I do not believe any race is better than another or that one race is entitled to freedom while another is not.”

  “We bring civilization, Miss Singh.”

  “What civilization—the railroads? The business that takes money from us and sends it back to England?”

  “We bring needed modernization to your society.”

  “Your people act as lords over us, demanding our crops and taxes. Our society was just fine without your people before, and it will exist just fine when your people leave!” Parineeta looked up; the fierce lightning in her eyes could have struck him down cold. Then she glanced away, training her gaze back on the wooden floorboards. The outburst was replaced by a calm temperament. “Sorry, sir. I do not know what came over me.”

  He suppressed the urge to laugh. She would never have fit in as a housemaid, not with that fire.

  “Miss Singh.” Warren pulled his fountain pen closer to him. He began scrawling on a nearby piece of paper, writing out her name. “Parineeta, is it?”