Slowly, she lowered their painted lids then raised her long lashes to boldly meet Jahngir’s glittering gaze. He took the tray from her and laid it aside.
At once, Julia reached for the cord holding his robe, loosened it and, holding one end between her palms, looped its length around both of her wrists and held them out to him.
“Master,” she breathed, making the word a sensuous whisper that sent a tingling excitement down her spine and all the way to the core of her femininity. Desperately, she hoped it would have the same effect on him. He looked at the symbol of her willing bondage entwined around her wrists, then at the tapering jut of her out-thrust breasts and the fleshy swells between her thighs. A sudden twitch of his manhood freed it from the robe and revealed it in all its rearing splendour. Very deliberately, Julia ran the tip of her tongue over her upper lip. “Master,” she sighed again, hope and longing swelling in her breast.
Strong arms seized her and she found herself on the Pathan’s lap with his rigid flesh pressing against her. Her belly flipped and her sex wriggled as his lips crushed hers and his tongue thrust greedily into her mouth. A hand closing on one breast and the pressure of its palm on Julia’s hard nipple made her moan against his lips. They pulled free and she felt his breath hot on her cheek.
“You’re beautiful.” His mouth closed on hers again. Julia curled one hand around his straining manhood. It too was hot and seemed to pulse beneath her fingers as she stroked its length. His hand left her breast and delved into the slickness at the apex of her thighs. As it sparkled under his probing fingers, she squirmed in his lap and moved her hand faster on his upright flesh.
“Temptress,” he whispered against her mouth, and kissed her long and hard.
Lips bruised and tingling almost as much as her intimate place by the time he released them, Julia laid her blonde head against his chest.
His fingers stroked her deliciously. She shivered in delight, took a deep breath and summoned all of her determination.
“Master, I love you. Let me be yours.”
Julia’s bottom thudded painfully onto the floor at Jahngir’s feet.
Dizzily, she looked up and saw he had risen and was glaring down at her.
“You little schemer,” he accused. “You clearly paid attention to some of your training. You’ve learned the art of seduction quickly enough. But you had better not try it on me again or you’ll find yourself punished. Now pick up the tray.”
“Please don’t send me away,” Julia begged, her hope turning to despair. “Please. You can tie me up as much as you like. Punish me every day if it pleases you, but let me stay and serve you the way the others do.” She clutched wretchedly at his bare feet. “Please. Do anything you like but let me stay. I love you.”
“After a few days? Nonsense! You’re being fanciful, in your foolish, English way. I’ve spent the last four years doing everything I could to show my loyalty to my brother. I’m not going to throw that away by letting a slave girl come between us. You and the other white girl will be my gift to him. That’s how it is and that’s how it will remain.”
“But you could give him another gift,” Julia argued, growing ever more exasperated by his stubborn refusal to see sense. “I’m sure he’s not even aware of my existence. What harm could it do? He need never know.”
“I would know,” Jahngir Khan said. “It would not be honourable and it would be disloyal. Now do as you’re told before I lose my temper.”
“Your temper?” The rarest of events happened. Julia lost her own temper. Grabbing the tray she jumped up and clashed it down at Jahngir’s feet. The cup flew off and shattered into fragments. To hell with it, she thought. She had done her best to please him and it had not worked. Now she was going to displease him, and damn the consequences. The fire of anger filled her belly. “Damn your temper,”
she yelled, “and damn your training. And damn you too.”
Her gut twisted in sudden alarm, but her fury kept her head up and her eyes glaring into his as the thunderstruck expression on his face turned to rage. He seized her wrist, and with Julia fighting every step of the way dragged her to the far end of the zenana until they stood before the throne-like chair. He pointed to the three canes and the whip that rested on their pegs on the wall above it, and his eyes flashed threateningly as he bared his teeth.
“I remember the first time we met, girl, and I’m sure you do too.
You were running away from a beating in such a blind panic that you were wetting yourself. Those canes haven’t left their places on that wall since I became Master here, but that can change.” He lowered his head to look into her eyes. “And it will. No girl has ever dared speak to me as you just did. I have never heard such insolence from a slave, nor do I intend to ever again. Unless you want a beating, you will get on your knees and humbly apologise for your outrageous behaviour. And you will promise to obey my will in all things, including stopping this nonsense about my brother.” Jahngir let go of her and pointed to the floor in front of him.
Julia took a step back. Fear was a hollow chill in her gut and her heart was racing. She knew he was angry enough to mean every word, but she was angry too, and enough to care nothing about what became of her now that her efforts to win him had failed. Yet, behind her anger she felt a calmness that bordered on serenity and a clarity of thought that was as new to her as her growing courage. He thought her weak and had called her foolish. He thought the threat of beating her was enough to bring her to heel. Julia took a firm grip on her fear and used it to reinforce the sudden resolve that rose up inside her. She stared back defiantly.
“I’m not sorry and I won’t say I am,” she said levelly, and then her temper really got the better of her. “Do your worst and see if I care. Why don’t you go the whole way and use the whip?”
Jahngir’s lips twisted into a snarl. “Very well. I will.”
*
As Penny reached for the handle on the parlour door her hand began to shake. It was another symptom of the nervous tension that was overflowing her and not just setting her whole body quivering but making her heart pound and her belly flutter wildly. Of all the encounters she had experienced recently this, she knew, was the most important. This one would decide her whole future. How she spent the rest of her life depended on her ensuring it had a successful outcome.
It would have happened sooner if she had had her way, but the moment she had limped painfully back to the Residency her body had betrayed her. Exhausted, pain-racked and shocked by her ordeal at Raham Dil’s hands, Penny had taken her ravaged, burning and throbbing bottom and breasts off to bed.
Only after a night of fitful sleep and half a morning spent trying to soothe her pain with some of the patent medications she always carried, had she found time to reflect on her amazement at discovering who was behind the abduction of her girls. Her attempt to find him had proved fruitless. It was the day the khillat was being handed over. The town was filled with celebrating crowds and he had disappeared amongst them to make his final arrangements for the upcoming slave auction. Cursing him, her own weakness and her frustration at having to wait, Penny had retreated to the fragile sanctuary of her room and become increasingly ill-tempered and anxious.
Her anxiety worsened as she opened the door, paused for a second to brace herself and stepped into the parlour.
“Hello, Penny.”
“Hello, George,” she said, dry-mouthed. Jefferson was standing in front of the empty hearth smoking a cigarette. The smile he gave her looked distinctly predatory as he gestured towards the hide sofa.
“Have a seat. That’s the one you prefer, I believe.”
Penny felt a rush of heat to her cheeks. He had obviously been speaking to Courtney. Her belly shrank. He probably knew everything all the way back to her meeting with Macdonald. The thought rattled her, especially the knowledge that he had witnessed her enduring the awful assaults of the Prince. It was very clear he felt no sympathy whatever for her and that any attempt to employ her femi
nine wiles would not only be pointless but potentially dangerous Summoning the little pride and dignity left to her, Penny moved closer but did not sit down and was careful to keep the sofa between herself and Jefferson. She was determined her meeting with George would not end up as a repeat of her recent experiences.
He laughed briefly. “Don’t worry, Penny. I’ve seen your tits already, and had your body too, remember? I don’t want it now, so relax.”
“Where are the girls? I want to see them,” she demanded, ignoring his embarrassing reminder of their affair.
He grinned. “Believe me, not after what you’ve just been through.
They’re a two-day horseback ride away in the mountains. Your backside wouldn’t like it.”
Biting back an angry retort, she forced herself to speak calmly. “I want them back, George. You had no right to take them. I must say I’m surprised an honourable man like you has taken up such a… profession.
I’m sure you could have found a respectable position after you finished with the army.”
“The army finished with me, Penny, as I’m sure you remember very well. There aren’t too many opportunities open to a cashiered and disgraced officer, and very few friends left to help him.” His face twisted for a second. “And I must say I’m surprised you have the impertinence to criticise me considering your own circumstances.”
She met his stare levelly, eyes narrowed. “I have no idea what you mean.”
He smiled, showing the edges of his teeth. “Of course you don’t.
But you see, Penny, I still have my honour in spite of what the army says.
I’m a man of my word and that’s good for business. And I’m good at my job. People trust me, and they like what I produce from my modest training establishment in the mountains. They’re prepared to pay very well for my slaves. You see? I have no qualms about calling them what they are. I deal in slave girls, specifically the kind that provide pleasure -
beautiful, obedient, always willing and very, very skilled at what they do.
You’re acquainted with some of them, I think. Intimately acquainted, Courtney says.”
A shiver ran through Penny as she recalled Courtney’s girls teasing her repeatedly to the verge of climax with their hands and tongues. She quashed the feeling before it could go any further and cleared her throat.
“Perhaps you’re unaware that the Prince of Dhokat has a particular interest in Kate and Julia,” she said. “Along with myself, they are to attend him at his celebration for the anniversary of him ascending the throne. That is in three days time, George. I understand your ‘modest establishment’ is not so very far from the border with Dhokat. Do you think it would be good for business if he learned you were responsible for preventing their appearance?” Penny held her breath. It was her only trump card. Had she played it at the right moment? To her intense disappointment and annoyance, Jefferson laughed.
“Excuse me, Penny. There is a certain irony in the situation you could only appreciate if you were in possession of the full facts.”
“Then please enlighten me,” she replied with mounting anger.
“Oh, I couldn’t do that. It would spoil it for you. Much better for you to find out for yourself. What if I offer a compromise?”
Penny reached into her handbag.
“I wouldn’t try to use the gun,” George said. “Courtney knew all about it. He took the precaution of removing all the bullets from the magazine.”
A small glow of satisfaction brought a smile to her lips for the first time since their conversation had begun. “I know, George. And I reloaded it. Didn’t you think I’d have the sense to check, or to bring spare ammunition?” As Penny spoke, she removed her cigarette case from her handbag and took out one of her Turkish cigarettes.
“Well, you did learn something from Tom after all,” Jefferson said with a wry smile. “All those years together weren’t entirely wasted.”
“As far as I’m concerned, none of them were,” Penny responded acidly. “Despite what you and everyone else seem to think, I loved and respected my husband, and when it really mattered I did not betray him.”
Jefferson’s smile faded. “Excuse me. I shouldn’t have brought the subject up.”
“Your compromise?” Penny asked impatiently.
“Ah, yes. Well, since the Prince of Dhokat seems to be involved in the matter anyway, why don’t we let him settle it? I am also invited for his anniversary. We can both turn up on the day and ask him to decide which of us gets the girls. I’ll ask Courtney to drive you. It’s a longer way round, but quicker and more comfortable than riding over the mountains.”
Penny saw the pitfalls at once. “And what’s to stop you bringing the girls here instead and selling them at the auction the next day? I couldn’t possibly get back from Dhokat in time to stop you.”
“Do you really think you could stop me if that’s what I decided to do? No, you’ll have to trust me, Penny. I can give you my word if you still think it has any value. Unless, of course, you have a better idea?”
Penny did not. Yet it seemed almost too good to be true. George had no reason to compromise when, as he had rightly pointed out, she had no power to stop him doing whatever he wanted with Julia and Kate.
Clearly he had been untroubled by her threat that the Prince could make life difficult for him, and he knew as well as she did that she would never use the gun except to protect her own life. But George was not aware of the true nature of her arrangement with the Prince, Penny realized, or that because of it he was bound to find in her favour. Of course, that was it!
A thrill of excitement ran through her, which she carefully concealed as she gave him her apparently grudging acceptance.
“Good, that’s settled then. No more need for any argument. Let’s have a drink.”
His obvious confidence that he was fully in control of the situation still made her a little uneasy, but then again, it always had. And this time he was in for a disappointment. The gin he handed her had the merest dash of tonic and ice she was sure came from another of Macdonald’s refrigerators. Penny would never be able to look at one of the contraptions again without shuddering. Because she remained standing, George did the same and lit her cigarette when she raised it to her lips.
He had not entirely lost the gentlemanly courtesies of the British officer he had once been, she thought, nor perhaps the sense of honour he had mentioned earlier. Neither had Penny. She had to tell him the truth about Tom.
“I… I have to say something. It… it’s only fair,” she began hesitantly. It’s about the… incident.” She faltered. It was going to be as difficult as she had always imagined it would be, not that she had ever really expected to have the chance to tell him face to face. Jefferson continued to look evenly at her, a brief flicker of his eyebrows the only evidence her words had had any effect.
Penny straightened her back. “Some time ago, Tom wrote a letter and locked it away to be opened only in the event of… of….” She drew on her cigarette. “It explains everything that happened that day and the reasons why.”
“Then it would have been very useful to have had it at my court martial,” Jefferson said dryly, lighting a cigarette of his own.
“Please, just listen and try to understand. Tom always had some doubts. About his… his courage, I mean. He wanted to test it, to be sure he was the man he thought he was. That’s why he transferred to the frontier. Only… only….”
“He wasn’t the man he thought he was,” George finished. “I’ve already worked it out for myself, Penny. God knows I’ve spent enough years thinking about it. There only ever could have been one reason why he didn’t bring his men up to support us – he was too afraid. So he left us there, pinned down in the defile while the Afghans picked us off one by one. Two thirds of my men were killed or wounded, Penny, while Tom sat with the mortars and machine guns that would have saved us and did nothing.” The ice cubes in his glass rattled suddenly, and he set it on the mantelpiece with an uns
teady hand and paced the floor before turning to her. “At least I can understand that, if not forgive it. What I can’t understand is him lying at the court martial. What I can’t stomach is him sacrificing my honour and reputation to salvage his own. I thought he was a better man than that, and a better friend too.” He went back to his drink and gulped it. “I could never have lived with myself after such a betrayal, Penny.”
“Neither could Tom,” she said. It was all in the letter: the sniping in the defile on the mountain road, how Tom had ordered George forward with his men and the sniping had turned into an ambush. And how Tom had been unable to find the courage to lead his own men forward under fire to rescue those trapped. Only the arrival of a troop of armoured cars had finally extricated the survivors. In the confusion, George had lost his map case containing Tom’s written order to advance and Tom had destroyed his own copy. Without any other witnesses to the order ever having been given there was no one to refute Tom’s evidence at the court martial. Captain George Jefferson had been cashiered from the regiment in disgrace for attacking without orders. The trial had split the other regimental officers, some believing one version of events and some the other. Already tormented by his cowardice and what he had done to conceal it, Captain Thomas Winter had resigned and returned to England.
“Tom never left a note,” Penny said. “He just drove off like he did most nights, but that time he never came back. I don’t know if he deliberately took his own life. Perhaps he hadn’t the courage to do that either but his recklessness finally led to the outcome he wanted.” His letter had shown the torture he had gone through over his lies and betrayal, the shame and misery that had eventually destroyed him. Penny felt the sting of tears, and shook off the memory. “I’m sorry, George. I wish things could have been different.”
His laugh was bitter. “So do I, Penny. Believe me, so do I.”
A thought struck her. “I hope you don’t bear me any ill will over what happened.”
“Good Lord, no. You had no hand in it. But I will admit to being disappointed when you ended our little liaison so abruptly.” He smiled without warmth. “Though I understand why.”
Kate and Julia: Slave Girls of the Raj Page 13
