By the time Anna had finished talking, Ruby had sunk down upon the sofa, her forehead resting in her hands. Her eyes were wide.
“And so you chucked the vase at ’im. I didn’t know you ’ad it in you, love.”
Anna, scarlet, muttered something incomprehensible. But Ruby’s thoughts had gone off on a tangent of their own.
“We’ll just ’ave to get Raja Singha to shoot ’im,” Ruby said.
“What?” Anna stared at her friend, unable to believe her ears.
“You ’eard me. If you’ve got any better ideas, you let me know.”
“But that’s murder!”
“So? What ’e’s tryin’ to do is as bad.”
“I don’t care. I can’t just have him killed!” Although the idea was tempting, Anna thought.
“Then you’ll just ’ave to make up your mind to do whatever ’e wants for the rest of your life. You’ll never be rid of ’im, and never be rid of the fear that ’e’ll be telling what ’e knows.”
Anna paled as she considered that. Put so bluntly, the situation was even worse than she had thought.
“But maybe he’ll realize that selling Srinagar isn’t as easy as it sounds. There’s not a big market for tea estates, as he’s sure to find out. Maybe—maybe he’ll just give up and go away.”
“And maybe pigs can fly,” Ruby said gloomily. “I still think the simplest solution would be to ’ave ’im shot.”
“And what about his friend?”
“ ’Im, too.”
“No!” Anna put temptation firmly behind her. “Ruby, don’t you dare even put such an idea in Raja Singha’s head. That would be murder. I know I’ve done thieving, and that’s a sin. But murder … ! Even if he does deserve it, we can’t do that.”
“You’re too soft. I’ve said it before.” Ruby shook her head.
“I don’t care! Murder is where I draw the line! Ruby, you listen to me: this man—Julian Chase, his name is—is going to be introduced around as my brother-in-law. Until we can think of some non-violent way to get rid of him, you’re to act as if he really is my brother-in-law, even in the house. If Raja Singha were to get any notion as to what the real situation is, he probably would do something like slip poison in the blackguard’s tea! To say nothing of the scandal if anyone else found out that he’s no relation of mine at all, never mind the rest!”
“Poison,” Ruby said thoughtfully. “Now that’s an idea.”
“Ruby!”
“Oh, all right. For now. But what about Chelsea?”
“Oh, dear Lord, I hadn’t thought that far.” Anna closed her eyes for a minute, then opened them again. “I suppose we’ll just have to tell her that he really is her uncle. I hate to do that, but I don’t see what else to do.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant she’s ’appier, lately. Are you going to let ’im overset ’er again with this talk of selling?”
Anna sucked in her breath. “No. No, I can’t do that. But …”
“We’re going to ’ave to come up with a solution,” Ruby warned starkly. “So you’d best be making up your mind to that.” She stood up, shaking out her skirt. “I suppose there’s no ’elp for them stayin’ the night. I’d best go see to gettin’ rooms ready. In the east wing, mind.”
The east wing was a long, one-story wooden addition that some misguided previous owner had tacked on behind the neat rectangle of the original structure. Originally it had been intended as servants’ quarters, but her own servants, except for Kirti, who slept in the room next to Chelsea’s, preferred the airy mud-thatch huts beyond the garden. The wood siding had begun to rot long since, as wood inevitably did in the heat and damp of the island climate. The floors—also of wood, on a wooden foundation—had warped; in places ripples undulated across the floor like waves in the sea, making walking treacherous for the unwary. The furniture, cast off from the rest of the house, was in uniformly bad shape. The mattresses and upholstery had over the years acquired a musty smell that no amount of beating or airing could eradicate. All in all, Anna decided, a fitting lodging for this unwelcome guest and his companion. A reluctant smile curved Anna’s mouth.
“Ruby, what would I do without you?” she asked affectionately.
“Now that’s something I ’ope we’ll never ’ave to find out,” Ruby replied, and with a militant swing to her skirt she took herself from the room.
XV
It was late that afternoon by the time the men returned from the fields. The necessary preparations had been made to the east wing, and Chelsea, to Anna’s amazement, was positively excited about the prospect of an unknown uncle—not Uncle Graham, whom she feared, but a new uncle—come to stay with them. Raja Singha, imperturbable as usual, seemed to accept the advent of a previously unheard of relative without question, although with Raja Singha one could never be sure. Whatever he suspected or didn’t suspect, his face gave nothing away.
Exhausted by the emotional strains of the day, Anna was too on edge to partake of afternoon tea. Finally, at Ruby’s urging, she sank into a corner of the sofa and forced herself to swallow a few sips of the heartening brew. The pieces of the vase she had broken over Julian Chase’s head had disappeared, and she could only suppose that Raja Singha, with his usual efficiency, had seen to the cleaning up. For a moment she wondered what the servant had thought, but she had too much else to worry about to dwell long on that. At the sound of booted feet tramping across the front veranda, her heart lurched. She had just lifted her cup to her mouth, and her hand shook as she registered the men’s return. Half the contents of her cup sloshed out, spilling onto her lap.
Anna jumped to her feet with an annoyed exclamation, swiping with a napkin at the hot liquid, which was spreading painfully through her skirt and petticoat.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Julian Chase’s all-too-familiar voice inquired with false sympathy. To her mingled fury and dismay Anna found the napkin taken from her hand and her skirt being thoroughly wiped. Under her dress she wore only a single petticoat, and both layers of cloth were wet. She could feel his hand boldly stroking her thighs under the guise of mopping up the mess. Anna, gritting her teeth, unable to stop from blushing scarlet at the hideous memories this action evoked, stepped quickly away from his touch. When he grinned at her, maliciously, she rewarded him with a glinting look of dislike and, for the sake of their guests, a forced smile.
“I’m fine,” she said, just managing to keep her tone marginally pleasant as she smiled at the rest of the company in turn and shook out her skirt. “Just a little damp. Charles, Mr. Hillmore, would you care for some tea?”
“Thank you, I believe I would. Hillmore?”
“It’s very kind of you, Mrs. Traverne. Yes, of course.”
“J-Julian?” As much as it went against her inclinations to speak to him at all, much less with such loathsome familiarity, she did not dare leave the smirking rogue out. If she did not wish to arouse suspicion amongst her friends and neighbors until she could manage to rid herself of him, she would have to treat the viper with all the consideration she would show to a near relative.
“Thank you, Anna. My, what a charming hostess you’ve grown into. When I remember what a shy little thing you were when you married Paul, I marvel.”
Anna, under the guise of another false smile, sent him a look that should have killed him. His bold blue-black eyes laughed at her, Charles, glancing from one to the other, shook his head.
“It’s difficult to imagine Anna being shy,” he said, frowning slightly.
“Oh, she was, take my word for it. Why, at her wedding she couldn’t bring herself to say so much as a single word to me.”
“Julian, you’re embarrassing me,” Anna said through clenched teeth. “And we’ve left Ruby to her own devices for quite long enough. You do remember Ruby Fisher, don’t you? Or has your dreadful memory betrayed you again?”
“Touché.” Julian acknowledged the hit with a whisper meant for her ears alone, then turned his impenetrable gaze on Ruby. “O
f course I remember you. How do you do?”
Ruby, her eyes plainly admiring as they ran over him from head to toe, merely nodded in reply. Anna felt her stomach tense again. All she needed was for Ruby to develop a yen for her unwelcome guest! Really, when problems came they came in spades!
With a gesture indicating that the gentlemen should be seated, Anna settled back on the sofa and proceeded with remarkably steady hands to pour out.
“And how did you find things, Mr. Hillmore?” she asked the overseer as she passed him his cup.
“In decent shape. Of course, considering that Major Dumesne has been keeping an eye on things for you, that’s not surprising. But I do have a suggestion, which I’ve also presented to Mr. Chase. If you are serious about making Srinagar one of the best tea producers on the island, I would start now nurturing some really fine plants, plants capable of producing orange pekoe. I’d clear about a quarter of your fields for this, and in about three years you’ll have the finest crop anywhere. After that crop is mature, we can gradually repeat the process until Srinagar produces nothing but orange pekoe. By then you’ll be known as having the best tea and within reason should be able to name your own price. Of course, should you decide to sell …” His voice trailed off.
Anna cast a quick, venomous glance at Julian Chase. He returned her look blandly.
“I have no plans to sell,” she said. “That idea is solely my brother-in-law’s.”
“Well, it’s only natural that he should want to do what he feels is best for you,” Charles said diplomatically. “Although we hope you won’t be leaving us, of course.”
“It’s something Anna and I will have to thrash out. In the meantime, Hillmore, you may consider the position yours.” Julian spoke with as much authority as if he had a right to make decisions for Srinagar. Anna regarded him with barely veiled fury. He met her eyes with a mocking smile and took a sip of tea. For a big man, he handled the delicate china cup with surprising grace, she had to admit. In fact, he seemed quite at home settled in one of the dainty French chairs that flanked the sofa. The cut she had opened up on his temple had stopped bleeding long since, of course, but still just looking at it pleased her. If she had to do it over again, she would have hit him twice as hard!
Charles finished his tea and stood up. “Thank you for the tea, but I must get home. Laura grows absurdly anxious if I am away after dark.”
Anna put down her cup and stood up as well. “I quite understand, of course. Poor child. She must fear losing you, too.”
“Yes.” He sighed and turned to the rest of the company, all of whom had risen to their feet.
“It’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance, Mr. Chase. We’ve all worried about Anna, but now of course with you to protect and guide her we may put our minds at rest. The entire community will rejoice in your arrival.”
“How fortunate Anna is to have such concerned friends,” Julian murmured, shaking the hand Charles extended to him. Anna hoped she was the only one to catch the satirical note underlying his words.
“Yes. Well, Hillmore, shall we be off?”
“Certainly, Major. I shall return and settle in within the fortnight, Mr. Chase, if that is satisfactory with you.”
“Quite satisfactory,” Julian answered, while Anna, ignored, fumed.
Smiling until her cheeks ached with the effort, Anna escorted her guests to the door. With much waving, she saw them off, continuing to smile until the carriage rocked down the drive. Then she turned wrathfully to the man beside her.
“I would like a word with you, if you please,” she said stiffly, mindful that she could not quarrel with him in the hall. Too many ears to hear, too many eyes to see. It was a Sinhalese proverb, and for the first time Anna truly realized what it meant.
“Certainly, my dear sister-in-law. As many words as you like. But first, I need to wash up. Perhaps you could have someone show me to my room?” His eyes swept her face, then down her body before returning to meet her eyes.
“Or you could take me there yourself. Then we could … talk … in complete privacy. I quite see that that element was somewhat lacking earlier.” There was no mistaking the lewd meaning beneath his words.
Anna’s cheeks reddened painfully. Her teeth snapped together, and her eyes darted fearfully hither and yon to see if his words had been overheard. Fortunately, no one else stood near enough to hear.
“You are despicable,” she whispered through her teeth.
“No, just caigy,” he answered with a wicked glint.
Anna gasped. Caigy was a gutter word, but she knew from Ruby what it meant: concupiscent, turgid, hungry for sex.
“And so, my dear, are you,” he continued, leaning forward confidentially.
Anna stepped back as if the heat from his body burned her. Her eyes, huge and horrified, flew to his. It was all she could do not to clap her hands to her burning cheeks.
His blue-black gaze glittered down at her as he clearly enjoyed her discomfiture. But there was something there—something hot in the backs of his eyes—that told her there was more to his words than a desire to humiliate her: he meant what he’d said.
“Memsahib?” Raja Singha, as always, seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
“This is my—my brother-in-law, of whom I told you. He—please snow him to the rooms that have been prepared.”
Raja Singha inclined his head. “If you will follow me, sahib.”
As solemn-faced as though his obscene comments had not just seconds ago seared Anna’s ears, Julian did as Raja Singha asked. But before he disappeared around the corner that led to the rear galleries, he flashed Anna a single laughing look over his shoulder.
Then it hit her: the impudent swine had been making sport of her all along!
Anna gnashed her teeth in impotent rage.
XVI
“Cor, that is one fine-lookin’ man!”
“He’s rude, crude, and arrogant, and that’s just for starters!” Anna, still glaring down the hall, turned her snapping eyes on Ruby, who stood just a few paces away. Ruby blinked at Anna’s vehemence, and she gave an apologetic shrug. But her eyes, looking in the direction in which Julian Chase had disappeared, remained suspiciously bright.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Anna, I’m sure. I know what a weasel ’e is, but that doesn’t mean my eyes can’t see. Just lookin’ at ’im makes my mouth water.”
“Ruby!” Taking a quick look around to check for possible eavesdroppers—fortunately, except for herself and Ruby, the hall was deserted—Anna hustled the other woman back inside the parlor before continuing. “How can you even think like that?” she hissed.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice!”
“I didn’t!”
“You must be blind, then! So tall, and all those muscles, and those eyes.…” Ruby shivered theatrically. “I’ll just bet ’e’s got black ’air all over ’is chest. Lots of black ’air. Oh, I could just eat ’im up, I could!”
“Ruby!” Anna practically yelped the rebuke. Unable to stop it, her mind conjured up the pictures that Ruby invoked, and she felt her cheeks flush bright scarlet again.
“Oh, stop sounding so ’orrified! We’re both grown women, ain’t we? When a gent like that comes within a female’s ken, she’d ’ave to be dead not to notice. Or so dried up that she’s the next thing to it,” Ruby added after a second’s pause, with a meaningful glance at Anna.
“I am not all dried up,” Anna retorted, stung. “I just don’t go around slavering over everything in breeches. You’re incorrigible, Ruby!”
“I am not,” Ruby said with dignity. “Whatever that means, I am not. You can’t tell me you didn’t wonder, just once when you first saw ’im—before you knew what a weasel ’e was, of course—what ’e’d be like between the sheets?”
“No, of course I didn’t!” Despite her best efforts, Anna was willing to bet that she was redder than Ruby’s hair. Lying did not come easily to her, but there was absolutely no way she was going to reveal the devastat
ing effect that Julian Chase had on her, to say nothing of what had passed between them at Gordon Hall—and here in the parlor earlier. Those shameful moments were dark secrets she would carry to her grave.
“Then you might as well be dead,” Ruby said flatly, and shook her head at Anna in disapproval.
“Memsahib.”
Anna whirled around, feeling idiotically guilty, as Raja Singha spoke behind her.
“Yes?”
“The sahib—he wishes you to come to him. Most urgently, he says. He is in the east wing, memsahib.”
“Thank you, Raja Singha.”
Raja Singha bowed and took himself off.
“I’ll come with you,” Ruby said enthusiastically.
“Just a couple of hours ago you were all for having him shot,” Anna reminded her tartly.
“That was before I saw ’im. Now I think ’aving a man around might be kind of interesting. I wonder ’ow old ’e is—not that it matters. Old enough to know what ’e’s doing, I guess, and young enough to do it.”
“Ruby!”
“Oh, quit squawkin’ at me and let’s go see what ’e wants.”
They hadn’t made it more than halfway down the corridor when Chelsea screamed. The shrill cry echoed off the walls, and was closely followed by a pistol shot.
For a moment both women froze. Then, ears ringing, hearts pounding, they exchanged a single glance and began to run.
Anna, slimmer and fleeter of foot, was the first to burst into the long corridor off of which all the east wing’s chambers opened to one side. The second door was standing wide, and through it came the sound of a child sobbing, accompanied by an ear-splitting litany of curses. Dear God, if that despicable man had harmed her child …
Anna burst into the bedchamber of the suite that Ruby had allotted to Julian Chase. She saw at a glance that it was Julian who held the still-smoking firearm while his henchman cursed and pounded the bed with a stout stick, A cloud of dust rose from the bed to sparkle in the sunlight that slanted through the long windows, and the smell of gunpowder smoldered on the air. At first she didn’t see Chelsea. Then Julian moved behind the bed and dropped to one knee before a tiny form huddled in the corner. Chelsea! The child was curled into a ball, weeping into her skirt. Even as Anna watched, stunned for that single instant into immobility, Julian reached out and laid a gentle hand on the little girl’s bent head.
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