“Tin,” he retorted shortly.“There’s no silver in Chhattisgarh.”
Adam didn’t know if that was true—but he had plenty of experience calling a bluff.
“Indeed.”A note of approval flashed behind Borthwick’s expression before his tone shifted to one of impatient command.“Jacobs!”
Adam startled.He had never heard anyone use Jacobs’ name like that before—the way you would summon a servant.It seemed like a risky way to call a man who oozed competence and menace.
Jacobs had returned to the clearing a moment before, steering Dawson with him.At Borthwick’s call, the professor skittered away like a beetle from an overturned rock.
A flicker of irritation briefly tightened Jacobs’ jaw.“Colonel?”
“Clear one of the mules for Mrs.Bates,” Borthwick ordered, frowning down at his pocket watch.“Take on whatever you can of the displaced gear.Sort out the rest among the other men.”
“Certainly,” Jacobs replied with unimpeachable smoothness.
He turned to go.
Borthwick snapped shut the watch.“Mind your place.”
The words were sharpened by an unmistakable thread of steel.Jacobs’ back stiffened as though someone had just struck him.
Adam found himself distantly wondering if Borthwick was about to get a knife thrown into his throat.
He knew firsthand that Jacobs had an immense degree of self-control.The fact that Adam was sitting here and not lying on top of a cliff in Egypt riddled with bullets was ample evidence of that—but Adam was also damned certain that Jacobs was not a man who tolerated being disrespected.
Rage flickered through Jacobs’ eyes like a passing ghost, but his hand didn’t go to his pocket, or his sleeve… or the myriad other places where he probably had some weapons stashed.
“Certainly,sir,” Jacobs corrected instead, coldly emphasizing the word.
Borthwick dismissed him with a wave of his hand, turning to Adam with a note of weary endurance.“One does have to stay on top of these things with the lower orders.”
Adam’s temper flared.He recognized the irony of feeling compelled to defend Jacobs, of all people.
Not that he could do it.
Borthwick’s remark required a response… but it wasn’t Adam who had to give it.It was someone else—someone he had given up everythingnotto become.
Feeling as though he took a step over the edge of a brutal precipice, Adam gave Borthwick the answer he was waiting for.
“Tell me about it.”
He felt Ellie still with surprise as he wrapped a bandage around her leg.Kalb lifted his head as though confused.
“Join me at the front of the line,” Borthwick said.
The words were phrased like an invitation—but Adam knew better.Panic pushed a response from his lips before he could think better of it.
“I should stay close to my wife.”
Borthwick frowned with an air of mild disapproval.“Nonsense.My subedar will see that she has everything she requires.Singh Rao!”
The officer from the bridge stepped away from the other men at Borthwick’s summons.“Sir.”
“Assign Mrs.Bates an escort, would you?”
“Yes, sir,” Singh Rao replied with clipped professionalism.
Adam reached down for Ellie’s hand, gently levering her upright.He held her for a moment longer than he should, achingly conscious that Borthwick was still measuring him.
