The Tiger Prince

by Iris Johansen

  “Aye, it’s that all right. You must just sort out the confusion and make it your own. So you never went back to London?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “There was the railroad to build.”

  “Apparently there’s always a railroad to build.”

  “Yes,” she said simply. “Always.”

  “Some people would say it’s no task for a woman.”

  She bristled. “Then some people would be fools. Why not? Because I don’t have huge, bulging muscles? It takes more than physical strength. It takes care and measuring and knowing when to blow through a mountain and when to go around. It takes making sure every tie and rail is laid safely and well. I can do that as well as a man. Better.”

  “Easy. I’m not arguing with you.” He paused. “And who taught you to do it better?”

  “I taught myself. When we got to Salisbury I followed Patrick everywhere and listened and learned.”

  “And where did you live before you came to Salisbury?”

  “Utah.” She quickly changed the subject. “The gorge is just around the bend.” She reined in and gestured to the bluff ahead. “We’ll have to dismount and walk across the ties from here.”

  “If you can walk without falling down on your face. You’re still paler than a tombstone.”

  “I won’t fall down. I told you I was quite well this morning.” She got down from the mare. “If you don’t think about discomfort, it goes away.” She could feel his gaze on her as she unsaddled Bedelia and tied her to a banyan tree in a grove a few yards from the track.

  “No, you won’t fall down.” An odd note in his voice made her glance over her shoulder at him, but his expression was as mocking as ever. “Tell me, does Reilly appreciate what he has in you?”

  “Of course.”

  “But not enough to let you keep a dog you care about in the bungalow?”

  “Patrick thinks animals are good only if they perform a function.” She rushed defensively on. “Lots of people feel that way about keeping pets. I bet you’ve never had a pet yourself.”

  “You’d lose. I did have a pet once.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “A dog?”

  “A fox.”

  “What a peculiar pet.”

  He shrugged. “I was a peculiar lad.”

  “What was his name?”

  “I never gave him one.”

  “Why not?”

  “He was my friend. It would have been an imposition. Besides, I had only him. There was no question of getting confused.”

  “Strange …” She started down the track crossing the gorge. “I have an entire crew to protect me a half mile from here. You don’t have to come any farther with me.”

  “Stop trying to get rid of me.” He dismounted, unsaddled his horse, and tied him to a tree a short distance away. “There are other threats than Abdar. What if you fell off the bridge?” He glanced down at the narrow yellow-brown ribbon of water trickling through the gorge as he followed over the railway ties. “Well, maybe you wouldn’t drown, but the fall could hurt you. Besides, why should I leave? Now that I’m here, I might as well learn a new skill.”

  “There’s no skill needed in laying track,” she said dryly. “You only have to have a strong back.”

  “Oh, I’ve got a strong back.”

  A sudden memory of Ruel lying naked on the bed, all sleek tendons and power, came back to her. “I don’t doubt it,” she muttered.

  “Then I assume I’m hired?”

  “What about your wound? You have no business working with a hurt shoulder.”

  “That’s what I tried to tell you,” he murmured. “The pot calling the kettle? My shoulder’s almost healed. I keep the bandage on only because Ian insists.”

  She met his gaze. “Why are you doing this?”

  “You don’t believe I want only to keep a benevolent eye on you?”

  She frowned, trying to puzzle out his motives. “You’re not like your brother.”

  “I’m cut to the marrow. I must get Ian to have a talk with you. He believes I have a noble soul.”

  “I don’t know anything about souls, but I know you’re not what you seem.”

  “Very perceptive. But then, few of us are what we appear to be. Actually, I’m more honest than most when it doesn’t hurt me too grievously.” He added softly, “And I do pay my debts, Jane.”

  “But that’s not the only reason you’re here, is it?”

  For an instant the mockery disappeared from his expression. “No, that’s not the only reason, but I have no intention of sharing the others with you. You’ll have to take me as you find me.”

  And she found him a disturbing, glittering enigma. “I don’t have to take you at all.”

  “But you will, won’t you,” he said, looking steadily into her eyes.

  She should reject him. He didn’t belong here and she didn’t need the distraction of his presence. Yet she was curiously reluctant to say the words that would banish him. In some mysterious fashion he had lent a shimmer and color to the last hours that she had never known before. Perhaps it would do no harm to let him linger for a little longer. “Working in this heat is no pleasure. One day should be enough to make you give it up.”

  “Oh, no.” He smiled. “I never give up a job until something more interesting presents itself.”

  e didn’t give up.

  The only reason her gaze was drawn to him so constantly during the day, Jane assured herself, was her concern for his hurt shoulder. But the wound didn’t seem to hamper him, for with every blow of the hammer the muscles of his back and abdomen slid as smoothly as the gears of a locomotive. The rhythmic force with which he struck each wedge-shaped spike sank it deep and true. At the end of the day he was still swinging the huge hammer with the same strength and determination he exhibited when he had started ten hours before.

  “You can stop now.” She walked over to him. “Didn’t you hear Robinson call a halt? The others left five minutes ago.”

  “I heard him.” He swung the hammer and the spike plunged deeper. “But I’m not like the others. I had to prove myself, didn’t I?” He tossed the hammer aside. “Do I come back tomorrow?

  She gazed at him, baffled. “I can’t understand why you’d want to.”

  “Sometimes I like this kind of work. You don’t have to think, you just feel.”

  He had shed his shirt only minutes after he had accepted the hammer from Robinson. His golden skin now gleamed with a patina of sweat and dust, and his chest was moving harshly with his labored breathing. She felt a tingling in the palms of her hands, and she realized with astonishment that she wanted to reach out and touch him to see if the ridged muscles were as hard as they looked. She quickly clenched her hands into fists and stepped back.

  He picked up his shirt from the ground beside the track and slipped it on. “Invite me to your bungalow for dinner.”

  “What for?”

  “I want to meet your Patrick Reilly.” He started up the track across Sikor Gorge. “I want to see you together.”

  She started to put another question to him, but his expression had taken on the shuttered look she was beginning to recognize. “You wouldn’t get along. You’re not at all alike.”

  “Invite me.”

  She hesitated and then said formally, “Will you be so kind as to join us for dinner?”

  “Delighted. I’ll go to the hotel first and wash off this sweat and be at your bungalow at eight.” He shot her a shrewd look. “And don’t worry, you won’t have to be protective of your friend Reilly. I’m no threat to him.”

  She had a sudden memory of the bulging eyes of the man lying dead in the alley. Ruel MacClaren might not be a threat to her or Patrick, but there was no doubt he could be extremely dangerous when aroused.

  “He deserved it.” Ruel’s gaze was fixed on her face and she had the uncanny impression he had read her thoughts. “I always return what’s given to me, Jane.”

 
“Well, then I have nothing to worry about.” She smiled with an effort. “Once you’re convinced I’m quite well again, you’ll be about your own business.” She turned to look at him. “By the way, what is your business?”

  “At the moment I’m involved in investing.” He laughed at her incredulous expression. “Do I look too rough to be a man of commerce? It’s true I’m not comfortable with the business world, but I learned a long time ago everything is forgiven royalty.”

  “Royalty?”

  “With enough money a man can make himself a king.”

  “Is that what you want to be?”

  His eyes twinkled. “Well, perhaps I’d be satisfied with being crown prince as long as I had prospects. Isn’t that what everyone wants? It’s a hell of a lot better than being crushed under someone else’s heels.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think I’d be comfortable in a life like that. It would be … strange.”

  “You’d rather slave on your railroad?”

  “It’s not always like this. It’s been bad here, but sometimes the work is easier.”

  “And worthwhile?”

  She nodded eagerly. “Oh, yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t explain.” She thought for a moment. “A train is … freedom. You step on a train and it takes you away and lets you leave all the bad things behind.”

  “And what if the track leads you somewhere that’s worse than what you left behind?”

  “Then you get off before you get to that somewhere. It gives you a choice.”

  “And escape.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “What are you trying to escape from, Jane?”

  “I’ve already escaped and I’m never going back,” she said quietly.

  “And your Patrick helped you make your escape?” She smiled. “Yes, Patrick helped me.”

  “Another whiskey, Mr. MacClaren?” Patrick asked.

  “I don’t believe so, thank you.”

  “I believe I’ll have a dollop.” Patrick poured the last of the whiskey in the bottle into his glass. “I know they’re putting less in these bottles. I think that servant at the club is shortchanging me. You know you can’t trust these Indians, MacClaren.”

  “Has that been your experience?” Ruel asked politely.

  “Sula!” Patrick called. “Where is that woman? Jane, run to the kitchen and tell her we need another bottle.”

  “I took the last one from the kitchen cabinet last night,” Jane said.

  Patrick scowled. “She’s probably been selling the liquor to someone in the bazaar. It was never like this when Li Sung was handling my whiskey. I want you to get him back here where he belongs, Jane.”

  Jane looked quickly down at her plate. “I told you I needed Li Sung in Narinth.”

  “This is the Li Sung you mentioned to me?” Ruel asked.

  She glanced up to see his gaze narrowed on her face and anger flared through her. It wasn’t enough that Patrick was under that merciless scrutiny all evening. Now it seemed it was her turn. “Yes, Li Sung works for us.”

  “Good man for a chink. Not like these cheating Indians.” Patrick rose to his feet and weaved toward the door leading to the veranda. “Be right back, MacClaren. I think I left a full bottle on the table on the veranda.”

  “Pleasant fellow,” Ruel commented as Patrick disappeared from view.

  Jane whirled fiercely on him. “Why don’t you leave?”

  Ruel’s brows rose. “Have I done something to offend you?”

  “You sat there all through dinner and watched him, taking him apart with—” She stopped and drew a deep breath. “You watched both of us. I didn’t like it.”

  “I like watching you.” He smiled slightly. “I thought I knew everything about you, but I’m finding out new things all the time.”

  “You don’t know me at all and you have no business judging Patrick when you know nothing about him,”

  “You wound me.” His blue eyes gleamed in the lamplight. “And I thought I was being both charming and informative. I’m sure Reilly thought so. Providing he could think at all through that haze of spirits surrounding him. Is he always drunk by the time you come home from laboring on his behalf?”

  “It’s the heat.”

  “Indeed?” He rose to his feet and placed his napkin on the table. “Since I seem to have overstayed my welcome, I will take my leave.” He bowed slightly. “Thank you for dinner. I trust the presence of this Sula assures you don’t have to act as a kitchen skivvy as well as day laborer?”

  Her hands clenched into fists beneath the table. “Good night.”

  Abruptly the mockery vanished from his expression. “For God’s sake, go to bed,” he said roughly. “You’re dead tired and he won’t miss you. I’ll see you tomorrow on the site.”

  “You’re coming back?”

  “Oh, yes, I found it a most interesting experience.” He moved toward the door. “It’s always intriguing learning new things. That’s why I had such an enjoyable dinner.”

  “And what new things did you learn here tonight?” she asked warily.

  He slanted her a glance over his shoulder. “That you’re incredibly loyal and genuinely willing to work yourself to exhaustion for that likable sot.”

  “He’s not a sot. I told you—”

  “It’s the heat,” he finished. “I’ve met any number of men out here who blame their self-indulgence on the weather. The heat makes them thirsty, the monsoons make them depressed, and the sandstorms give them headaches. But I’m not really interested in Patrick Reilly now that I’ve found out what I want to know about him.”

  “And what,” she asked scathingly, “would that be?” He met her gaze. “That whatever lies between you, the rumors are wrong. He doesn’t share your bed.”

  “Well?” Ian asked as Ruel walked into his hotel room an hour later. “Was your day productive?”

  “Productive enough.” Ruel stripped off his coat and shirt and strode across the room toward the washstand. “I met Patrick Reilly.”

  “And?”

  “He’s not involved with Kartauk. I’d judge he isn’t involved with anything but his bottle.” “Poor lass.”

  “She wouldn’t appreciate your sympathy.” He poured water into the bowl and began splashing his face. “And anyone who can take on Abdar is too strong to deserve it.”

  “I still feel sorry for her. She reminds me a little of Margaret.”

  “Our pure and proper Maggie would not be pleased at the comparison with a woman who frequents brothels and struts around wearing men’s clothes.” He grabbed a towel and dried his face. “Believe me, they’re nothing alike.”

  “You never really knew Margaret.” Ian smiled. “And I don’t believe you know that child.”

  “I’ll know her soon.” He cast him a glance over his shoulder. “And Kartauk.” He began unbuckling his belt. “This Li Sung she mentioned is supposedly in Narinth. Why don’t you take a ride tomorrow and see if he’s really there?”

  “You think he has something to do with Kartauk?”

  “Maybe. I know she lied about where he is.” He threw his belt on the chair and began unbuttoning his trousers. “She doesn’t lie well.”

  “Which means she’s an honest lass.”

  “Suppose you get out of here so I can get some sleep?”

  “You’re going to work on the track tomorrow too?”

  “As long as it takes.” He began to strip off his trousers. “Good night, Ian.”

  “I get the feeling I’m being dismissed.” Ian rose leisurely to his feet and moved toward the door. “If I can help with anything else, let me know.”

  “You’d help me deceive that ‘poor child’?” Ruel asked mockingly.

  “You won’t deceive her. You’re a decent man and you’re already softening toward the lass,” Ian said tranquilly. “But the sooner we get this Kartauk business out of your system, the sooner we can go home.”

  “I’m not soft—” Ruel stopped in midsentence
as Ian closed the door behind him.

  Five minutes later Ruel blew out the oil lamp on the nightstand beside the bed and lay back, staring into the darkness. He should be tired but he was too tense to sleep, and Ian’s words hadn’t put him in any more gentle mood.

  He was not softening toward Jane Barnaby, dammit. The fact that he had a debt to pay complicated matters, but he still had every intention of using her to find Kartauk. After he had accomplished his aim, he would make the decision whether to turn Kartauk over to Abdar or kill the bastard himself and—

  Kill Kartauk? The violence of the thought had come out of nowhere. He didn’t even know John Kartauk and certainly had no reason to kill him.

  But he knew Jane Barnaby cared enough about the son of a bitch to risk her life for him.

  And he knew enough to know she had probably taken him for her lover.

  The fury the thought brought sent a shock through him.

  Lust. Not casual lust but obsessive, overwhelming desire for possession. He had allowed himself to fall into the trap of becoming intrigued and admiring even before his body had responded to her at Zabrie’s. Now it was all tied together in some twisted, painful fashion.

  He had to rid himself of emotion and think coldly and clearly. There was no reason to let this feeling he had for Jane interfere with his pursuit of Cinnidar. He must keep the two goals entirely separate and find a way to accomplish both of them. She had shown a response to him at Zabrie’s, and he would play on that response. He was not unskilled, and if he could show her more pleasure in bed than Kartauk, perhaps—

  Jane in bed with Kartauk, writhing beneath him as he plunged in and out of her body …

  Rage tore through him. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. God, what was happening to him? He had never felt jealousy over any woman. Passion had always been a pleasant game to be indulged and then forgotten. Yet now he was in a fever over the thought of a faceless stranger plundering the body of a woman he had never even possessed.

  Perhaps he would kill the bastard.

  “Colonel Pickering told Ian the maharajah’s private railway car is supposed to be quite something to see,” Ruel said casually as he helped Jane onto Bedelia. “Will you show it to me?”