“Send this one a basket of fruit,” Padma ordered, handing another missive to Mr.Mahjoud.She continued in the same tone without looking up from her correspondence.“There has been a change of plans.”
“How can there be a change of plans, Aai?”Constance demanded.“We’ve all been on a train for the last eight hours.”
“Do you think it is impossible to receive a message on a train, Kondi?”Padma retorted dryly, using her pet name for her granddaughter.Kondiwas a local tribal term for a little pot—an affectionate dig at Constance’s diminutive size.“There was a wire waiting for us at Samalkot.We are now stopping at Puri.”
“Why Puri?”Ellie pressed.
“I suppose we will find out,” Padma returned blithely, handing Mr.Mahjoud another letter.“Won’t we?”
?
Two
Less than halfan hour later, the private carriage jerked to a halt at another station.The platform was remarkably busy.
Padma handed the last of her correspondence to Mr.Mahjoud as she rose and headed for the door.One of the purple-and-gold-liveried servants opened it for her from the outside.
Constance snatched up her fashionable blue hat, throwing it on over the elegantly pinned waves of her ebony hair.She hurried after her grandmother, eager to set her kid boots down on yet another part of India.
Ellie put on her straw boater, then hesitated by the stairs, glancing at Adam and the lanky gold dog panting by his feet.“Might it not be a good idea to put Kalb on a lead?”she tactfully suggested, her mind filled with visions of the animal attempting to chase down another train.
“Naw,” Adam returned easily.“I’ve been training him.”
He gave the dog’s head a vigorous rub.Kalb absorbed the gesture with obvious relish.
“If you’re sure…” Ellie trailed off with a skeptical look at the animal.
“He’ll be fine,” Adam assured her.
Kalb skipped the stairs entirely in favor of leaping from the carriage to the platform, where he shook himself with alacrity.
Warm, humid summer embraced Ellie as she stepped outside.The scent of well-spiced food cooking somewhere nearby mingled with the honeyed sweetness of the flowering bushes that lined the tracks.The air buzzed thickly with the sound of myriad distant voices, punctuated by the pulse of dull drumbeats.
Kalb stiffened at the sight of a lizard perched on the platform wall, sunning itself with a lazy blink of its yellow eyes.
“Drat,” Ellie burst out—and the dog bolted after the reptile, which moved from napping to a frantic scurry with remarkable aplomb.
“He’s just stretching his legs.”Adam set a hand to her waist, steering her over to join Constance, Neil, and Padma.
A gentleman strode forward to greet them with bright, quick energy.He was followed by a quartet of men dressed in the same purple and gold tunics that distinguished the servants in their private carriage.As he reached them, the stranger pushed back the brim of his white hat to reveal the features of a man of roughly forty with burnished amber skin and an elegantly shaped mustache that accented his gleaming white smile.His eyes were a lighter brown that danced with sparks of gold, and he was dressed in an exquisitely tailored suit of white linen with a dashing purple cravat.
The gentleman’s English was Eton polished with just a touch of Indian warmth.“There you are!And not a moment too soon.Who knows how long I could have hung about while remaining incognito?”
A tall, lean man with a hawkish nose followed him at a more sedate pace, dressed in sober charcoal.“You cannot be incognito if you are dragging a liveried retinue about with you,” he pointed out dryly.
“They aren’t all in uniform.”The dashing gentleman jabbed a finger across the platform at a young man who leaned against the wall in a white shirt and wrapped Indian trousers known as dhotis.“Just look at Dharmendra.”
“I suppose everyone will be,” his companion sighed with a note of affectionate exasperation, “now you’ve been so kind as to point him out.”
Padma pressed her hands together and gave the purple-scarfed gentleman a graceful bow.“Good morning, nephew.”
With a jolt of surprise, Ellie realized it was the first time she had seen Constance’s grandmother make a gesture indicating that she was in the presence of someone who outranked her.
Which meant that the grinning gentleman in the dashing white suit was the Maharaja of Nandapur.
“Uncle Vijay?!”Constance burst out.
“And you must be Constance!”the maharaja exclaimed with obvious delight.“The last time I saw you, you were in nappies—and just look at you now, you splendid thing!Come here!”
