“Are you really wearing that to a child’s birthday party?”Ellie nodded at the blade with a note of exasperated indulgence.
“What?”Adam pushed back.“Some of her uncle’s guys here are wearing swords.”
“Those are ceremonial,” Constance pointed out.
Adam gave the hilt of his knife a possessive pat.“Who says this one isn’t ceremonial?”
Constance shrugged.She was hardly going to call him out for carrying a weapon around.She had two knives in her garters as they spoke.“What areyourthoughts on dancing?”she asked instead.
“Love it,” Adam replied.
Constance shot Ellie a challenging look.“You have to dance if Adam’s going to.”
“Why?”Ellie retorted.
“Well, I can’t dance with him,” Constance countered.“I have to partner with my… er…”
Her gaze shifted to her fake fiancé.
Neil had cleaned up.His shoes were polished and his jaw clean-shaven—not that it made a great difference.He wore the saffron dupatta that Constance had bought for him at the Jagannath festival over his dinner jacket and white waistcoat.
He was pinned to one of the settees by a pile of Arjuna’s elegantly dressed younger siblings.A six-year-old boy sat beside him with an enormous book, pointing at it and peppering Neil with questions that held an air of royal command.Neil adjusted his spectacles as he held the tome up for a better look.
A two-year-old crawled up his shoulder to pluck at his glasses.She started to slip, and he caught her automatically with his free arm.
She succeeded in snatching the gold wire frames from his face, which she promptly put into her mouth.
Neil handed the book back to the boy.He plucked his eyewear from the toddler’s grip, substituting it for a spoon, which she happily accepted as an alternative object to gnaw.
A five-year-old girl with a jeweled nose ring pressed a treat at him with a sticky hand.Neil accepted it distractedly, gave it a cursory examination, and popped it into his mouth.
Constance’s stomach felt a bit fluttery.
It must have been the champagne.
Adam’s voice called her back to herself.“Princess, you can’t read at a party.”
Constance drew her attention back and saw that Ellie had stuck her nose in the book.
“I most certainly can,” Ellie retorted.
Constance checked the writing on the spine.“Mystical Powers of the Hindus?”
Ellie snapped the book shut and shielded it against her bosom.“It’s a very interesting subject.”
“Does that mean you finally found Uncle Vijay’s library?”
Ellie’s reply was clipped with frustration.“Not yet.Someone was using this one as a paperweight.”
“Hope they weren’t important papers,” Adam quipped.
Constance couldn’t blame Ellie for wanting to learn more about the world of supernatural wonders they had all recently plunged into.Her friend was a scholar, after all.Even Constance, who had always had a fairly open mind about such things, had been surprised by the wondrous discoveries of the last few weeks… including those that related to people rather close to her.
She looked back at Neil.
He was trying to stand up.The children responded by clinging to him like monkeys.She saw the moment when he gave up and allowed them to use him as a climbing gym.
Her view was cut off by her royal uncle as he walked past with Mr.Chowdhury.Vijay was gorgeously decked out in a sherwani richly embroidered with purple and gold.For once, Mr.Chowdhury also wore Indian dress, though his kurta and trousers were a more soberly elegant dark blue silk.
