“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 devastating 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.
“Chelsea!” Anna gasped and flew around the end of the bed to gather Chelsea into her arms. “Shh, chicken, it’s all right, Mama’s here.”
The child’s small arms fastened frantically around Anna’s neck while she buried her face in her mother’s shoulder. As she lifted Chelsea, Anna could feel the child trembling, and she turned furious eyes on Julian Chase.
“What in the name of God did you do to her?” Anna demanded fiercely, her arms tight around her daughter. His eyes narrowed at the accusation, and he too got to his feet. The very height and breadth of him in such close quarters should have been disconcerting, but Anna was too ardent in defense of her daughter to be intimidated. She faced him like a bristling bantam hen, ready to fight.
“Jim, leave off. It’s either dead or gone by now.” This aside was addressed by Julian to his cohort before he shifted his eyes back to Anna. They glinted unpleasantly.
“And just what do you imagine I did to her, pray?”
Jim obediently ceased both cursing and pounding the mattress. Instead he looked accusingly from Anna to Ruby, who had hurried to Anna’s side and was attempting, by means of pats and whispers, to console the little girl.
“Mama, it almost got me!” Chelsea’s voice, muffled by Anna’s shoulder, was scarcely audible.
“What did, chicken?”
“There was a snake—a cobra, I believe. It didn’t touch her.” Julian’s voice was even enough, although that glint still lurked in his eyes. He gestured toward one of the room’s twin windows.
“And a damned great rat!” Jim interjected, shuddering.
“A rat?” Ruby gasped, while Anna’s gaze moved in the direction Julian had indicated. On the floor just inside the nearer of the windows lay the curving black body of a cobra. It was headless. Remembering the shot she had heard, and the smoking pistol that Julian had been holding when she had burst into the room—he had since thrust it into his waistband—it was clear how the snake had met its demise. The curious thing was how the creature had gotten in in the first place. The windows were closed, and it was mind-boggling to imagine the snake slithering into the room from somewhere else in the house. Besides, cobras eschewed people most of the time and generally stayed well away from the house.
“I was scared, Mama,” Chelsea whimpered.
“It’s all right, chicken,” Anna soothed, smoothing her daughter’s silky hair. She turned back to Julian. “I suppose I have to thank you,” she said reluctantly.
His eyes took on a sardonic gleam as they met hers. He opened his mouth to say something in reply, but before he could speak Jim let out a hoarse shriek. Anna jumped, and Chelsea clutched her mother, her legs wrapping around Anna’s waist as she tightened her stranglehold on Anna’s neck.
“There ’tis!” Jim yelled as a slender brown creature darted from under the bed toward the door. Snatching up his stick, Jim bounded over the bed in pursuit, while Julian reached for his pistol.
“No, sahib!” came a sharp voice from just beyond the door. Raja Singha appeared, and to everyone but Anna’s amazement the creature swarmed up his sarong to disappear beneath the tails of his shirt. Moments later a twitching black nose followed by two black eyes peeped out of Raja Singha’s shirt collar. Then the creature, which looked rather like a cross between a rat and a snake, slithered out to crouch on the servant’s shoulder.
“What the hell… ?” Julian, hand still resting on his pistol, stared.
“It’s Moti,” Anna explained, feeling the beginnings of a reluctant smile twitch at the corners of her mouth. Really, to see two grown men so nervous of a small, furry creature … ! It was a little thing, of course, but it made Julian Chase seem vulnerable, and thus more human.
“And just what,” inquired Julian with an edge to his voice, “is Moti?”
“Moti is a mongoose, sahib,” Raja Singha explained with unassailable dignity. “He is in the house to kill snakes. Doubtless he would have dispatched the one that threatened the little missy if the sahib had not intervened.”
“Good God,” said Ruby faintly. “I had no idea.”
Jim and Julian looked as taken aback as Ruby sounded. With a sheepish look Jim lowered his stick, while Julian allowed the hand that had been fingering his pistol to drop.
“I will take him away and feed him, if you have no need of me, memsahib. Undoubtedly he has been badly frightened.”
At Anna’s nod of dismissal Raja Singha disappeared with Moti still riding on his shoulder.
“You never told me there was a rat in the ’ouse, much less snakes!” Ruby said accusingly before anyone else could speak.
“Moti is a mongoose, not a rat, and as for snakes, there usually aren’t any because he keeps them away. They know he is in the house and don’t come in.”
“Then why,” asked Julian with pointed logic, “was that snake in the room that bloody servant said you had prepared for me?”
Anna returned him cold look for cold look. It was clear that he was almost, but not quite, ready to accuse her of orchestrating the cobra’s presence.
“I have no idea,” she said.
“Do you mean that rat—” Ruby began.
“Mongoose,” Anna corrected.
“Mongoose, then. Do you mean that the creature’s been ’ere in this ’ouse ever since we arrived?”
Anna shook her head. “Moti belongs to Raja Singha, just as does Vishnu the elephant. They come when he comes and go when he goes.”
Ruby gave a shiver. “ ’Eathenish bloody island.”
“You said a mouthful there, sister,” Jim muttered, and he shuddered. Julian’s mouth twisted, and he turned to walk over to where the dead snake lay. A moment later he had opened the window, which pushed outward onto the garden.
“Give me your stick, Jim,” Julian directed.
“What for?” Jim still clutched the stout walking stick as though to ward off all comers.
“Just give it to me.”
Jim, clearly reluctant, moved to hand the stick to Julian. Julian used it to pick up the body of the cobra and toss it gingerly out the window.
“I ain’t sleepin’ in this room,” Jim said firmly when the remains of the head had gone the way of the body.
“Now there,” Julian said, shutting the window and turning back to the room, “we are in total agreement. We’ll find our own accommodations, if you don’t mind.”
Whether Anna minded or not was clearly immaterial. Almost before he had finished speaking, Julian had brushed by her on his way out the door. Jim, with a yelp, was right behind him.
“You ain’t leavin’ me, guv!”
Anna, both surprised and affronted, was left with nothing to do but hurry in their wake with Chelsea in her arms and Ruby at her heels.
XVII
“W
here do you sleep, my dear sister?” Julian asked over his shoulder, a pronounced sneer on the last word. He had found the main staircase and was taking the steps two at a time. “Somewhere a little more clean, I fancy.”
“Where I sleep is no concern of yours—and just where do you think you’re going, anyway? This part of the house is private—for the family!”
“I am family, remember?”
He gained the upper landing and hesitated briefly. The staircase was located in the center of the house. A long hallway stretched away to both his left and right. Just as Anna reached the landing, he chose the left side and was off again, throwing open doors as he went.
“No, you mustn’t…” Anna’s protest was in vain as he reached the large room she had once shared with Paul. She winced to see him push open the door just as he had the doors to the small sitting room and the sewing room he had just passed. For a moment he stood in the threshold, surveying the room. Behind him, Anna was prevented from seeing anything by the width of his shoulders. But she could have recited the details of that particular chamber with her eyes shut: four floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sumptuous garden at the front of the house, an Aubusson carpet in soft rose that she and Paul had brought from England, the tall mahogany wardrobe, the huge four-poster bed. The softly whitewashed walls glowed in the sunlight, pristine except for a single spot of mildew that had begun to form in one corner of the ceiling. Someone, Raja Singha probably, had seen that the room was set in proper order and kept that way.
“Who sleeps here?” Julian demanded sharply, looking around at Anna, who with the rest of the entourage had come to a helpless stop in the hallway.
“I—no one, n-now,” she stammered. He nodded once in satisfaction.
“Then this should do very nicely. Jim, go get our things, and see if there isn’t another room along here that you’d like for your own use.”
“No, you can’t,” Anna said faintly, feeling her stomach clench. The idea of him occupying this room that she had shared with Paul, where she had lived with him and loved him and where he had died, made her physically ill. Already he had stamped the room with his despicable presence on those long nights when she had lain sleepless, mourning her husband while Julian Chase’s bold image had so shamefully invaded her dreams. He could not take over this place where Paul’s memory was strongest in reality, too.
Disregarding Anna’s protest, Julian strolled from window to window as he admired the view.
“This is a damned sight more pleasant than the lodgings you intended us to have.” He glanced over his shoulder at Anna, who had followed him inside the room, his eyes glinting a warning. “Your nose is out of joint, I know, so I’m willing to overlook the snake and the moldy rooms, but I warn you: no more tricks. If you try anything else, you’ll force me to respond in a way that I guarantee you won’t like.”
“Tricks!” Anna gasped, indignation partially masking the pain she felt on having him intrude into this room. With a murmur of reassurance, she detached Chelsea’s arms from around her neck and set the little girl on the bed. Coming up behind where he was daring to open the doors to the wardrobe without so much as a by-your-leave, she hissed: “You, sir, apparently have a mistaken notion about how things work here: I am the mistress of Srinagar, and you are a far-from-welcome guest! Don’t touch that! Put it down!”
“That” was a hairbrush, part of a silver dressing set that Paul had given her for their first anniversary, which Julian idly lifted from the small dressing table set between two windows. The sight of the dainty item in his large hand pained Anna almost unbearably. He had no right in this room, no right to touch her things, no right to superimpose himself on her memories of Paul! But the hateful beast desecrating her dressing table paid no attention to her words, continuing to finger her brush and comb and mirror and crystal scent bottle, turning them over to read the initials engraved on the back.