Veils of Silk

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About India
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue

PASSION'S PROMISE

Her touch was all the spark required to make desire flare like tinder. Under her fingertips, she felt Ian's heart accelerate. Roughly he pulled her to him and raised her chin. Then his mouth came down on hers, ravenous and commanding. She responded with matching hunger, wanting to devour him, to absorb him into herself.

His embrace locked hard around her ribs and he lifted her off her feet. She clung, breathless, as he swept her to the nearby bed. He came down beside her and resumed the kiss, his tongue thrusting deep with a rhythm she recognized as the promise of another, more profound, possession…

Praise for the first two books of Mary Jo Putney's Silk Trilogy:

"
Silk and Secrets
is a stunning reading experience, one you will remember and cherish forever."

—
Romantic Times

"
Silk and Shadows
is a terrific romance… a page turning plot… I couldn't put it down. Mary Jo Putney is a gifted writer with an intuitive understanding of what makes romance work."

—Jayne Ann Krentz, a.k.a. Amanda Quick

"
Silk and Shadows
is mesmerizing… Ms. Putney proves herself a dreamspinner of the highest order."

—
Romantic Times

VEILS

OF

SILK

_______

Mary Jo Putney

AN ONYX BOOK

ONYX

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane,

London W8 5TZ, England

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,

Victoria, Australia

Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,

Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,

Auckland 10, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

First published by Onyx, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

First Printing, December, 1992

Copyright © Mary Jo Putney, 1992

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK-MARCA REGISTRADA

Printed in the United States of America

To Mary Shea, with thanks for her unique contributions to my writing career.

And also, of course, for being a friend.

India is one of the most complex and ancient societies in the world, and I was alarmed at the thought of the research that would be required to use it as the setting of
Veils of Silk
. However, since my hero, Ian Cameron, was an officer in the Indian Army, I crossed my fingers and plunged in.

Most Americans tend to think of colonial India as it was in the first half of the twentieth century. Yet that is only a small part of the story, for Britain's long involvement with the subcontinent went through many phases. It began on New Year's Eve in the year 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter that gave the Honorable East India Company exclusive trading rights with the East Indies.

The Company was founded for purely commercial purposes, yet by the time of its demise two hundred and fifty years later, it had become the largest corporation the world has ever known. Not only did "John Company" have its own army and navy; it was responsible for almost one-fifth of the world's population.

After 1833, the Company no longer engaged in trade. Instead, it became a corporation that administered India on behalf of Great Britain. The Company and Her Majesty's government were so intertwined that royal troops served side by side with units of the much larger Indian Army. Incidentally, at this time British authority was referred to as the Sirkar; the term "Raj" did not come into use until much later.