Ellie stepped out to intercept them.“Your Highness, have you any more books like this one?”
She held outThe Mystical Powers of the Hindus.
Vijay held Mr.Chowdhury’s arm, his eyes merry.“That one’s not even mine.”
Ellie seemed thrown.“It isn’t?”
“That mad Scotsman left it here four years ago.”Vijay looked to his companion.“You remember him.Don’t you, Nawaz?”
“Your pet hermit?”Mr.Chowdhury returned dryly.
“He made a very charming addition to the eastern gardens,” Vijay explained.
Mr.Chowdhury’s voice held a note of affectionate exasperation.“He only meant to be here for a month.”
“I’m sure I would have convinced him to stay on if he hadn’t wandered off in the middle of the night,” Vijay complained.
“What else did you expect a pet hermit to do?”his companion retorted.
“Who are you two going on about?”Constance demanded.
Mr.Chowdhury answered.“The gentleman in question was a traveler interested in studying the region’s ascetics.”
“Looking for swamis who could float,” Vijay elaborated helpfully.“How did he put it?‘A study of individuals possessed of exceptional mythic abilities,’ or some such thing.I gather he’d made it his beat.He’d been over half the world digging up dusty manuscripts and hunting for monks holed up in caves living on a single grain of rice.”
Ellie’s arms tightened around her book.
Adam glanced down at her thoughtfully.“This guy still in India?”
Vijay sighed.“Alas, no.He rejected my hermitage after he had interrogated all the half-naked gurus of the hills and moved on to someplace else.”
“He was in Korea, last I heard,” Mr.Chowdhury filled in.
Adam went still.
Ellie didn’t seem to notice.Constance wondered if she had even heard the rest of the conversation.Her expression had grown fiercely thoughtful as soon as Uncle Vijay had mentioned that the traveling scholar had been looking for strangely powerful gurus.
Vijay cocked his head at his companion.“How do you know where my uncooperative hermit is?”
“Because he keeps writing to ask you to forward him his books,” Mr.Chowdhury smoothly retorted.
The maharaja cast a slightly guilty look at the volume in Ellie’s arms.
“We’ll get around to it,” he concluded lightly.
“But who was he?”Ellie demanded urgently.
Vijay frowned.“The hermit?I can’t say I recall.It was something dreadfully Scottish.”
“Cairncross,” Mr.Chowdhury filled in.
Cairncross.The name sent a tickle up the back of Constance’s neck.
What an odd fellow he must be.
“Whatever would I do without you?”Vijay gave his companion a wink.
The stoic solicitor’s lip quirked with affection as he set a gentle hand to the maharaja’s back, steering him toward a cheerful greeting from across the room.
