Monsoon Mists (18 page)

Hell, he really was going soft.

‘I shall be going away for a while within the next few weeks, but you’ll have the servants to protect you, so you should be all right.’

William was speaking casually, but Zar could tell he was tense as his hand shook slightly when he lifted his cup. They were having supper together for once, as they were going to the English Factory afterwards for another social evening.

‘I see. Where are you going?’

‘None of your concern. A short journey, that’s all. Well, depending on favourable winds, of course.’

‘You’re going somewhere by sea?’ Zar was surprised since he’d never done so before, at least not while she’d known him.

‘Yes. Now stop plaguing me with questions and finish your meal so we can go to this infernal gathering.’

‘I thought you enjoyed going to the English Factory. You always say you find good customers there.’ Zar couldn’t help teasing him a little. ‘And friends,’ she added, her mood darkening at the sort of friends William kept, Richardson among them. She’d caught the man staring at her on several occasions, but so far he’d heeded Jamie’s warning and not come close. Still, she’d make sure she didn’t go anywhere on her own, especially not to the roof terrace.

‘I suppose, but I’m not in the mood. Things to think about. Lots to do.’

Zar didn’t press him further, but resolved to tell Ali to be particularly watchful. She felt bad about having to spy on her stepson in this way, but she simply didn’t trust him. She’d tried her best to get along with him and work with him since Francis died, but he refused to meet her halfway. In a way, she could understand his continuing resentment. As an only child, and a son at that, he had expected to inherit everything. To suddenly have his father turn all his attention on his new wife and then give her half his business must have seemed extremely unfair. She’d tried to tell her late husband, but he’d shrugged it off and now she had to live with the consequences.

Poor William – neglected while his father was alive and slighted afterwards. Still, Zar had had her own crosses to bear and she knew one had to make the best of what fate handed out. It was time William grew up.

At the English Factory, she found herself once again staring at Jamie across the room, but her feelings had undergone a transformation since that first time. She no longer felt like glaring at him, quite the opposite. And she didn’t dread speaking to him, the way she had only a couple of weeks before. Was it really less than two weeks ago that they’d met? It felt like longer.

He waited a while, then made his way through the other guests and arrived at her side, where he stood patiently as she finished speaking to an elderly man who’d been friends with Francis. She breathed a sigh of relief when the man took himself off and stopped looking at her as if she were a prize ewe.

‘Another suitor?’ Jamie asked, amusement lurking in his eyes as always.

‘I hope not. At least he’s never asked outright, although there’s still time I suppose.’ She knew she sounded bitter, but she couldn’t help it. Why should someone like that feel she ought to marry them just so they could live in comfort for the rest of their life? What about
her
comfort?

‘Come, let us take a turn on the roof terrace,’ Jamie suggested and put a hand on her elbow to steer her towards the stairs.

She frowned. ‘Not you as well?’

He chuckled. ‘Stop bristling. I merely wish to speak to you. There’s something we need to discuss, remember?’

‘Oh, yes, of course.’ She felt foolish now.

Once up on the roof, he took her hand and towed her to an empty corner. She tried to extricate her fingers, afraid that someone would see them, but the roof garden was empty for once and they were alone. His hand was warm, but dry, and having her own smaller one engulfed by his felt wonderfully safe, just like it had when he rescued her from Richardson. When he let go of her fingers, she had to stop herself from trying to grab his back.

Jamie dug a hand into his pocket and then held it out to her, palm up, showing a small item. ‘Here, I brought something for you.’ The something sparked with red fire in the faint light from the nearby lanterns and Zar picked up his offering with reverence, knowing immediately what it was.

‘A Burma ruby?’ she breathed. ‘Goodness, it’s breathtakingly beautiful!’

About the size of her thumbnail, the stone wasn’t huge, but she saw at once that it was very special. Not just of the so called pigeon’s blood colour; even in such poor lighting there was clearly a star shimmer on its surface – the coveted asterism effect. Despite being used to handling lovely gemstones, Zar was mesmerised by this one.

‘So you like it?’ Zar heard amusement in Jamie’s voice, as if he was teasing her again.

‘What woman wouldn’t?’ she retorted, somewhat waspishly. She knew she should give it back to him immediately, but she couldn’t stop looking at it, turning it over to admire the lustre and deep red flashes of brilliance.

‘I should think you appreciate it even more than the average woman, being a connoisseuse of such things.’

Zar looked up to see if he was mocking, but his expression was serious. She nodded. ‘Indeed I do, although I have to say I feel its beauty purely as a woman too,’ she admitted. With some reluctance, she held it out to him. ‘Thank you for showing me.’

He shook his head. ‘Keep it, I have several more and I acquired them for a pittance.’

‘But I couldn’t possibly …’ As always, fear rose within her at the thought that he might require something from her in return, but he put her mind at rest with his next words.

‘Look on it as a gift from me in gratitude for your promise to take on Roshani when I leave. I really am indebted to you for that. Please, I insist.’

He put both hands over hers, as he had done once before when he gave her the two diamonds, and closed her fist around the exquisite ruby. She tried not to notice how his touch sent a shiver of awareness up her arms.

‘If you’re sure?’

He smiled. ‘I am.’

‘Very well, thank you very much. I shall treasure it.’

‘Good.’ Then he sighed. ‘And now we’d better speak of other matters. We don’t have much time. I had a meeting with your stepson yesterday. He let slip who the talisman belongs to – the Rajah of Nadhur.’

‘Oh, no! I’ve heard of him and that particular jewel is said to be powerful. It gives good luck, but only to its rightful owner. To anyone else, it’s dangerous.’

‘I thought there might be some superstition attached to it. There always is with that type of object. Anyway, I think William’s going to try and sell the talisman himself. And I believe he’s hired one of Mansukh’s ships to take him wherever it is he’s going. Although it seems to me the merchant might know exactly what is happening because he sent someone to spy on us.’

‘That tallies with what William told me at dinner tonight. He said he’s going on a journey by sea. You think he involved Mansukh? Honestly, what a lackwit he is!’

‘Indeed. Or the original thieves arranged it all with Mansukh and for some reason he hired William to be the carrier.’

‘I don’t quite understand it though.’

‘What? William’s involvement or the merchant’s?’

‘Mansukh. Why would a man like that allow William to be the go-between when he could so easily have taken the talisman himself? He’ll have to give William a part of the profit. Unless he means to murder him … oh no!’ Much as she disagreed with her stepson, she wouldn’t wish such a fate on him.

Jamie looked thoughtful. ‘You’re right and actually, I think you already provided the answer – didn’t you say that the talisman was cursed?’ Zar nodded. ‘Well, then, Mansukh must be using William to physically carry it to its new owner so that if there is any retribution, it won’t fall on him. None of the other local jewellers would take on something like that, I should think. Most Indian people would shy away from handling an item that was thought to bring bad luck to anyone but its rightful owner. Whereas a foreigner like William would consider it superstitious nonsense.’

‘Yes, that must be it. So where will they go, do you think? Persia?’ she asked.

‘Probably. I know there is a rich market for gemstones and jewellery there and some of the buyers don’t care about provenance, or so I’ve heard.’

Zar bit her lip. ‘What are we going to do? We must stop him.’

‘Don’t do that, it’s very distracting.’

‘Huh?’ Zar looked up at him and frowned, her lower lip still caught between her teeth.

‘Oh, hell,’ he muttered. She saw him glance round swiftly as if checking that they were still alone, then he put an arm around her and pulled her close, covering her mouth with his. She felt his tongue trace the part she’d been biting, and Zar opened up in surprise, giving him a chance to delve deeper.

There was a bench right next to them and he sat down, tugging at her so that she ended up sideways on his lap. He didn’t stop kissing her, however, just continued as if nothing had interfered, and Zar soon forgot where she was. At least until his hands started roaming.

‘No, please!’ His fingers had skimmed the underside of her breast and she flinched, the old fears rising to the surface so fast she felt as if she’d been doused with ice. Her response was instantaneous, unthinking. Pure reflex.

He blinked, looking slightly dazed, and stared at his hand which she was attempting to dislodge. ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘Got carried away …’ Then he scowled. ‘I didn’t hurt you, did I?’

‘I … no, but … argh!’ She stood up, shoving at his chest to get to her feet faster, then turned her back on him, wrapping her arms around herself. She took deep breaths to try and stop the panic which was still threatening to swamp her while her heart refused to settle back to its normal rhythm. She felt it beating against her arms.

Jamie got to his feet behind her. ‘I apologise,’ he said. ‘I only meant to kiss you. The sight of you nibbling your lip just … You’re safe now, I won’t touch you, I swear.’

She managed to control herself and turned round to face him again. ‘It’s all right. I over-reacted.’

He regarded her for a moment, searching her gaze in the moonlight, then he nodded as if he accepted her words. ‘Very well, where were we? We need to stop your stepson, right? Sooner rather than later, otherwise I’ll be forced to give him the fake talisman and I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

‘Yes. I’ve set Ali to watching him more closely and I’ll try to listen in to any conversation he might have with people at the house.’

‘Good. Let me know if you hear anything more. We had best find a way of returning the talisman to the Rajah as soon as possible once I know my friend’s family are safe.’

There wasn’t much else to be said after that, so they made their way below, although separately, Zar going first leaving Jamie to follow a while later. She was grateful for once that everyone was used to her coming down from the roof garden looking either flustered or annoyed. No one batted so much as an eyelid at this sight tonight either.

Thank the Lord for small mercies.

What the hell was that all about?
Jamie took a turn around the roof garden by himself before descending the stairs. Zarmina had been pliant in his arms while he kissed her, hardly reacting when he pulled her down to sit on his lap. But the moment he tried to touch her in any other way, it was as if she’d sat on a wasp’s nest.

She was terrified. He recognised the signs of panic. He’d seen it before on the face of a man in his father’s employ who’d been afraid of the sea, but who had tried to come on a sailing trip with them once. Pure, abject terror had made him react the same way Zarmina just did. But why was she scared?

Someone must have hurt her. The elderly husband, most likely. Had he taken his young wife by force? Had no one warned her about the marriage bed? It was a common occurrence, but most women seemed to become used to it after a while. This didn’t seem to be the case here.
A pox on the man!

Jamie was fairly sure Zarmina had never been kissed properly before, so that obviously didn’t trigger the panic. Anything else, however, and she recoiled. How was he to help her overcome this? Because he knew now that he wanted her and she wasn’t immune to him either, whether she realised it or not.

He’d have to think about it, but now was not the time. There were more important things to do. Like saving William’s worthless neck.

Jamie sighed. Why was his life never simple?

Chapter Fifteen

‘Forgive the intrusion, Highness, but my servant Tufan has brought me something I thought you might want to see.’

Bijal had carefully chosen his moment and approached the Rajah when he was alone in his chambers. Ostensibly the prince was resting, but from what the vizier could see, he was more like an animal prowling round a cage. His master stopped and turned towards him, his face looking drawn and grey with fatigue.

‘What is it, Bijal? More bad news?’

‘Possibly. I’m not sure but … this was brought back among your half-brother’s belongings. Tufan recognised it as it wasn’t long since you presented it to Dev as a special gift.’ He held out a small wooden box, with an intricately carved lid inlaid with precious stones, gold and silver. The Rajah had given it to his half-brother and filled it with jewels, hoping, as Bijal well knew, that this would re-establish the peace between them. But the jewels had soon been squandered and only the box remained.

Now it contained something else entirely and Bijal couldn’t wait to see how his master would react to the sight of it.

The Rajah opened the box and frowned. ‘What is this? Surely it’s not …?’

‘I’m afraid it might be, Highness.’ Bijal tried to sound as apologetic and pained as possible, since the implication was clearly not lost on his master.

Inside the box was what looked like the uppermost part of a turban ornament, the gold mount with feathers usually placed at the top. And not just any ornament, but the sacred talisman, which was still missing. Bijal had had this copy of the top feathers made to look as though it had been broken off from the two jewels. He knew it was first-rate. No one could possibly tell the difference, he was sure.