Her gaze traced the length of Neil’s arm where he gripped the sword, following it up to the firm, straight line of his shoulders.Stubble lightly dusted the sharp angle of his jaw, and the arch of his cheekbone was scraped under the curve of his spectacles from their tumble into the carved room.
“It’s just a little…experimentI’ve been considering.”
Neil perked up.“What sort of experiment?Is it geological?Perhaps something related to hydrology?”
Constance stood up and held out a hand.Neil took it, and she levered him to his feet.He brought the sword with him, its dancing light bringing the carvings on the walls to life.
The maneuver put them in quite intimate proximity.Neil loomed over her.His shirt and waistcoat were scuffed with dust, one of his buttons lost at the collar.
She stood right at the level of his Adam’s apple.“It’s not related to hydrology.”
Neil swallowed thickly.Electricity singed through Constance at the subtle movement in his throat.“Then what is the—er—subject matter?”
Beyond the gold frames of his spectacles, his eyes were touched with green and brown like a forest in riot.
Yes,she thought distantly.Her idea was really a stroke of genius—an eminently sensible solution to their problem.
“Kissing,” she reasonably replied.
?
Thirty-Two
Ellie marched towardthe waiting soldiers, her heart pounding in her chest.Jacobs’ presence was a cold threat at her back.
Borthwick had gathered his forces around the small building that served as a gatehouse for the stepwell.Ellie quickly picked out Adam’s figure among them.He wasn’t bound and still had his machete, but two men stood at his back with rifles in their hands—leaving her with no illusions as to whether or not he had gone from a curiosity to a prisoner.
The colonel faced another captive, one whose hands had been lashed behind his back.
“Subhas Konja,” Borthwick said smoothly.“I’ve had my eye on you for a while now.Always suspected you were something more than just a law student.Leading an armed band of revolutionaries against an official military expedition is certainly evidence enough to brand you a criminal—along with the rest of your village.”
At his final words, Subhas’s air of mutinous calm burst into fury.He pulled against the men who held him as Borthwick circled him like a newly caged tiger.
“These hill villages are like wasp nests, you see.”Borthwick spoke as though for an audience, but Ellie wasn’t sure who was meant to be listening.The milling sepoys, who didn’t speak English?Singh Rao, who watched the proceedings with stoic silence?
Perhaps it was Adam, whose expression tightened with barely concealed disgust.
He had never been much of an actor.Ellie rather liked that about him.
Borthwick faced Subhas with distant contempt.“There’s always violence seething under the surface.”
Ellie recalled what a declaration of criminal status would mean for a community like the Adrija—forced relocation and controlled movement as everyone’s livelihoods and homes were stripped away from them.
Helpless fury washed through her.
Borthwick waved a dismissive hand.“Put him with the others.”
The soldiers hauled Subhas away.He didn’t struggle any longer, but his gaze found Ellie as he was taken, hard with determination and rebellion.
She read the promise in that look.Subhas wasn’t done yet—and they were still in this together.
Ellie let herself be reassured by that, even if the odds were still increasingly overwhelming.
Everything had happened too fast.
The events in the stepwell had only taken minutes to unfold.Ellie had barely had time to realize that Neil and Constance were there before Dawson was tumbling into the well and the place started falling apart.
She knew that her brother and her best friend must be relatively safe.Adam wouldn’t have casually reported them crushed if it had been true.He wouldn’t have been capable of it.
