Borthwick stalked off in the opposite direction, and Constance was torn by a moment of indecision, her heart still pounding with the thrill of the chase.Which way should she go—after the spy chief or the horses?
She was just coming to a decision when Ellie and Adam burst through the close-packed bodies, their dog scrambling along at their heels.
Ellie caught her brother’s arm.“Did you find him?”
“Puri Beach Club,” Neil blurted out automatically.“That’s where he sent the manuscript.Wherever that is.”
“Probably on the beach,” Adam returned with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
?
Four
Two hours later
Ellie fanned herselfagainst the heat as the tonga rattled along a quiet residential street.The open-air carriage was shielded by a canvas canopy and drawn by a single horse.It encountered little traffic as they rolled along, the business of the festival now concentrated around the Gundicha Temple, where Lord Jagannath would arrive later that evening.Ellie could hear only a distant rumble of noise from the celebration, the sound merging with the rattle of the tonga’s wheels against the pavement.
Their party had been split, as the vehicles were too small to seat four.Ellie shared hers with Constance.Neil and Adam followed behind.
The Puri Beach Club, where Borthwick had sent the stolen manuscript, was a private membership establishment that catered to Puri’s British population.It hadn’t taken very long back at the hotel for Mr.Chowdhury to acknowledge that a group of English people stood a far better chance of getting access than any of his local agents.The solicitor had pulled a few strings to arrange for a temporary membership under Neil’s name, deeming him the most respectable of the bunch.
Mr.Chowdhury had tried to convince Constance to stay back with her royal relatives—a suggestion she had flatly refused.
I’m the only one here who knows how to pick locks or throw a knife.
Adam had countered this, at which point Constance had quite reasonably noted that he could hardly get into the club with a machete strapped to his waist under his dinner jacket.
At least Mr.Chowdhury had accepted custody of the dog.Ellie could only imagine what sort of trouble Kalb might get up to in a private club.
Not that the solicitor had looked very happy about it—but then again, neither had Kalb.The dog had watched Adam leave with an expression of heartrending mourning potent enough that even Ellie had felt a bit bad about it.
Their mission—spelled out in no uncertain terms—had been to ascertain where on the property Borthwick was staying.
“And nothing more,” Mr.Chowdhury had ordered.“Borthwick is inordinately dangerous.His Highness and I have resources that can take care of the rest.”
Constance had looked perfectly content with this restriction—which left Ellie feeling suspicious.
Her friend sat beside her on the bench of the tonga, decked out in a dinner gown of gold silk with black lace accents and fashionably puffed sleeves.The color perfectly set off her complexion.
Ellie’s gown was green with a wrapped bodice and narrow sleeves cropped at her elbows.She was lucky to have it, as she hadn’t packed a dinner dress when she had left London several weeks earlier.Constance had arranged for this one with a seamstress in Cairo.
“They do dress for dinner on ships, you know,” Constance had pointed out with a note of resigned exasperation.
“Not the one I took to British Honduras,” Ellie had countered.
“That was a glorified freighter.You’ll find Aai travels in a slightly more refined style.”
Ellie had wanted the dress to have pockets.
It did not.
“I hope this place isn’t dreadfully uptight.”Constance flipped open her fan and cooled herself with it.
The sun was lowering to gold on the horizon, the light filtering over the rooftops beneath a thick layer of dark clouds.Odisha was rolling into its annual monsoon season, and the thick air was tense with the promise of rain.
“Of course, it will be uptight,” Ellie retorted.“It’s a private club.”
“Not all clubs are dull.Some can be downright wild.”
